Yeah this is mostly me. I eat McDonald’s sometimes but can find alternatives. Or make my own.
Hot take: every business that has a happy hour already has surge pricing and nobody minds because they promote it as offering a discount on the “normal” price.
Some parts of Canada had an environmental fee on plastic bags introduced a while ago, and some places phrased it as a 10¢ discount for using a reusable/paper bag.
But Happy Hour is literally the opposite of surge pricing.
It really seems like my grocery store (a Kroger brand) has been doing this for a bit now.
Prices on certain things vary wildly depending on the time of the month or the day of the week. Plus, with their bullshit, incessant push for everyone to use their app and online ordering, it seems like this will be much more common moving forward.
The app feels like a double dip. Can’t just buy their products, they want your data to sell too
I ate at McDonald’s for the first time in a few years. The same meal I used to get on the go now costs over 100% more since before 2020. The only reason I went to McDonald’s was because it was cheap, not because it was good. I don’t think I’ll ever go again.
I literally don’t believe American fast food prices and second every point you’ve made.
It costs more than a sit down meal! My wife got Carl’s Junior a couple days ago and it was $22! So if I had got a meal it would have been $44. For fucking Carl’s Junior? Are you kidding me? Get the fuck outta here!
I was traveling for several years and when I visited the states again I thought it would be fun to go through a Wendy’s. I was charged 4.50 for a plain hamburger, and I was shocked and assumed she entered the order wrong, and asked the fast food worker why the price was so high and if it was that high all the time.
She was so bummed out and told me she couldn’t even eat fast food except for the fries she got on her shift because the prices were so crazy now. That’s about the last time I stopped by any fast food places in the states.
I’ve been traveling again and I’m in Taiwan right now, a stacked buffet plate is about 4 bucks and the vegetarian pay by the plate place I’m at now are 2 bucks a full plate.
I understand what you mean, however it would be a better data to compare fast food prices for the same country. Its normal that the prices in the US dont match yours. Its not the exact same economy… how was fast food in taiwan before vs now? That is more interesting information
My anecdote is about prices in a single country skyrocketing, I think you only find that particular country’s data less interesting because it’s a country you’re familiar with.
I do have more international data points for you, though.
All the American fast food joints keep their prices pretty consistent across countries I’ve been to in any year, within ten percent or so of conversion rates anyway.
As for local fare in Taiwan, inflation is blowing up here. prices in general here seem about 50% higher than 5 years ago.
China’s prices have all doubled since ten years ago, except for housing, which is slightly cheaper(evergrande). Not that they were ever expensive.
Fast food has surge pricing now?
There was a story going around yesterday about Wendy’s supposedly trying it. It sounds like the kind of headline that’s going to turn out to be BS, but I also didn’t really look into it so I don’t know any of the details. Seems like the kind of thing you’d have to be an idiot to actually attempt. Hard to imagine a universe where that goes over well.
Will it go over well?
Of course not!
But will Wendy’s keep bullheadedly pushing on until it somehow eventually sticks?
Definitely. 👍
Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling," he said.
AI-enabled menu changes
suggestive selling
Can’t wait for my neuralink to mine my hungerdata and starve me everywhere I go
I’m pretty sure Tim Hortons has had access to AI menu changes for years now. It would explain a lot.
Would you like to know more?
Yes
A good bug is a dead bug!
Good citizen.
I have had some fast food in the last year, but each time I regret it and it gets longer in between.
For the same price I can order from a real restaurant and have leftovers.
Wait until you learn about cooking at home.
It’s still expensive and you have to have time. I still do it, love to cook. But sometimes I have no choice but frozen or fast food. Saying you don’t eat fast food, to me I just see privilege. Not that you said that, but it’s in this thread.
It is interesting to see the American context where food is so cheap. In my country eating out, even fast food, is the privilege. For me there’s no cheaper option than cooking at home, by a wide margin. It does take some planing. But I would go broke in a week if I ate a whole work week straight of fast food. It would be over half of my monthly income. Just one week of lunch only. So for me there’s no option, I have to cook at home or I would starve.
It’s this way in America too if you cook from scratch. People often think fast food is cheaper because they’re buying pre-made/frozen stuff at the grocery store, or they just don’t know how to plan properly.
I meal plan around sale items and spend an average of $120/week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two adults. That’s less than $3/meal.
I’m in Aus, and I basically never eat a proper home cooked meal. I can get a hotdog for $3.50 and outside of super basic food like just rice, or oats, I can’t match that.
We don’t need to talk about how much I waste on drinks though, thats an entirely different problem.
You went “i need an example for something that is cheaper to buy than to cook” and you picked fucking hot dogs??
I cook almost every meal, and I eat mostly things based on beans and rice.
I also don’t really enjoy cooking, so I streamline. I prep several days at once, and put everything in containers for when I need it. I keep the frying pan on the stove, and toss everything in when the rice cooker is done… It’s very low effort, but endlessly versatile between veggies, spices, and cooking methods.
You have to wait like 20 minutes to let the rice cook, but then it’s less than 5 minutes of effort for most meals, then if you immediately rinse everything down you don’t need to completely wash it every time
It’s also extremely cheap, the only thing I know of that’s cheaper would be bulk top ramen. I use a $20 rice cooker and a frying pan… My food expenses are about $25-35 a week, and I like to pick up fresh veggies and other things to vary it up. That’s like 3 meals, maybe 4 at a fast food place these days.
Cooking isn’t privilege in any way. It’s normal. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it’s just basic preparation of food humans have done since we discovered fire.
If you’re so exhausted you can’t care for your own basic needs, that’s not lack of privilege, that’s exploitation
Haha!
I cook most meals at home, restaurants are for when I don’t have time or leftovers.
those fast food restaurants
Has anyone other than Wendy’s announced plans to do this?
Probably encompasses at least two Wendy’s restaurants
Yes I saw some shit the other day about, “such and such reporting that sales are drastically down since blah blah blah. Where did it all go wrong?”
Or “Gen whatever is choosing to part ways with blah blah blah. Here’s our guesses as to why!”
And it’s just, NOBODY HAS FUCKING MONEY!!! That’s it. That’s all it is. There’s no preference. There’s no secret wokeness. There’s no underlying meaning. We are all just fucking broke!
They took all the money, they refuse to give it back in wages, they jacked up the price, and we are tapping out. HOW THE FUCK IS THIS STILL A GODDAMN MYSTERY?!?!?!
The only way someone can still be confused about what’s going on is if they’re on purpose being ignorant about it because, “mah market indicators!”
We are all broke. That’s it, that’s the answer. Media needs to stop with the bullshit. The headline every day needs to be “The world is on fire by rich asshats and the rest of us are too fucking broke to do anything we are all going to die painfully because of those rich asshats.” And that should be all that’s on the news every hour on the hour. The end.
Media needs to stop with the bullshit. The headline every day needs to be “The world is on fire by rich asshats and the rest of us are too fucking broke to do anything.
Who do you think owns the media?
HOW THE FUCK IS THIS STILL A GODDAMN MYSTERY?!?!?!
You need to understand that the media is not your friend. They aren’t legitimately curious, they aren’t truth seekers. They are the propaganda machine at its finest.
The funniest headline I saw the other day was “millenials ditching the guest bedroom”. No asshole, they just can’t afford it, provided they could even afford a house at all.
The guest bedroom in our millennial home was my room until we got a kid now it’s the couch. Which we found on the side of the road
Also, in a post covid world I imagine a lot of guest bedrooms are home offices now. As in a dedicated office.
Yeah I think I like cooking for myself better anyways.
I’ve already been boycotting those places for over a decade for so many reasons.
I actually really like fast food, but I manage my diet pretty closely, so I only have it once a week anyway, and I’d just as soon buy ten frozen burger patties and make the burger myself than pay surge pricing.
I’m not one of the whale customers they’re looking for.
Do whales go to Wendy’s?
I live in a small town without any stores. There’s a pizza place that makes nice pizza though. We eat pizza from that place ~1-3 times per year.
I dont even remember the last time i was at mcdonalds or similar. its been at least a couple of years…
The part people keep missing with all their “I don’t even eat there so I don’t care” and “fine, I’ll go somewhere else” comments is that every other large chain will be watching this little experiment very, very closely.
People are still going to go to Wendy’s. Any boycott is unlikely to make a dent. If this is profitable, watch this become commonplace. I don’t even live in the states and this concerns me.
Enshitification may well extend itself to the hospitality sector.
Rice cookers.
The part people keep missing with all their “I don’t even eat there so I don’t care” and “fine, I’ll go somewhere else” comments is that every other large chain will be watching this little experiment very, very closely.
So… locally owned businesses about to get a shot in the arm? That’s already what we’ve done. Why pay fifteen bucks for a burger fries and drink from McD when I can get a bigger burger with better beef (cooked FOR ME), better fries, and the same soda carryout from a local pub for about the same or even a little less? I can also go to the local steak sandwich place and get freshly made cheesesteak with fries and a drink for substantially less. And I’ve got many more options than that.
Biggest difference is 5 or 10 min in my car waiting for food or going in to pick it up. The moment fast food stopped being a consistently cheaper option, that stopped mattering.
They will usher in a new renaissance of local food places. Sounds like a win win.
I absolutely do fast food for the fast part. Between my 2 jobs I’m often moving from 4:30am to past 10:00 during the week, and I simply don’t have the extra 5 minutes to go inside.
I’m actually really enjoying that C-stores are getting better hot food options these days because they’re also super fast, and some of them have shockingly good tacos these days.
Crockpot.
Where? In my cubicle or my car?
I sleep at my house and that’s about it unless it’s a weekend that I happen to be in town.
Fair enough but I think many people (such as my family) are going to refuse to buy McD’s or Wendy’s while it remains true that we can get better food for the same or less, giving up nothing more than waiting in the drive thru line.
Yeah, I agree there are some good convenience stores too - I think there the line becomes a little blurrier vs local business because sometimes the quality can be pretty close and the prices fairly competitive depending on what you are getting.
People are still going to go to Wendy’s.
No they won’t. As soon as they are aware the price fluctuates they’ll go somewhere else. Wendy’s competitors will be watching this to see how many more customers they receive during Wendy’s “surge pricing” hours.
Uber “gets away with it” by saying they have a limited number of drivers, and you can always see the price on your phone. Nobody is going to go to a Wendy’s if they don’t know what the prices are going to be.
No one? I’m sorry but I just think that’s unrealistic. People clearly like the food, it’s convenient, likely part of a habit of ritual for many people. If people feel like Wendy’s, that’s where they’ll go.
This is a game a lot of people are not going to play, just on principle. It’s not about the food, anymore.
I don’t know how much profit you think they’re hoping to make from having surge pricing. If they lose 10% of their customers over this that will be a significant loss in overall profit.
It doesn’t need to be “no one” to make it clear the experiment in new forms of corporate greed was a failure.
I’ve been boycotting all fast food chains and almost all big restaurant chains for…12 years now?
