Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let’s be real: It’s barely food.
A while ago, I was charging at a highway stop, so I decided to quickly get something to drink at McDonald’s. I just asked ordered a drink, nothing more. One lady started preparing the drink and put it somewhere behind the counter. I was right there, but she didn’t hand it to me. I asked if she could give it, as it was the only thing I had ordered. She mentioned she was not allowed to hand over the order to customers, and she was waiting for someone else who was allowed to. It took roughly 10 minutes before I had my drink, it was very frustrating, especially for a “fast” food chain.
I’ll have a double corporate slop with extra gruel please
Sonic Boom predicted it with Meh Burger
I don’t usually eat fast food, but one night I was starving, and there happened to be a drive-thru right next to me. I saw only two cars ahead in line and thought it would be quick. I pulled in and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Then nearly twenty. By that point, a long line had formed behind me, trapping my car.
At the thirty-minute mark, I started asking the cars around me if they could maneuver to let me out. After almost forty minutes, I finally managed to escape.
Frustrated and still hungry, I drove a little further to a local gyro joint. I walked inside, placed my order, and within five minutes, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious lamb platter.
If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But the reality is, experiences like this are all too common. Fast food isn’t fast, and to make matters worse, it’s often not even cheap anymore. Unless you’re scraping the bottom of the so-called “value menu”—which has become scarce and filled with low-quality options—you’re likely paying the same, if not more, than you would at a local spot.
When you stack up the cost, the wait, and the disappointing quality, it’s hard to justify why anyone bothers with fast food at all.
America has too many drive thru’s. Cars waiting all the time because understaffed fast food places are squeezing labour. I’ve started just walking inside to no line up, but even then, drive thru gets priority.
Yeeeess! Gyro is my go to “fast food” too! My favorite gyro place loads plates up enough that I can get a large lamb plate for $15 and split it into two meals. I order on my way there, and it’s always ready within 10 minutes of ordering, without fail.
Same… And the food is so goddamn good.
It’s a real bummer that half of Americans seem to want to get rid of all of the fucking people willing to make all of these delicious varieties of food. What a boring fucking place that would be.
Right!? They have no idea what culture is, or what they’re missing out on. :/
I had that happen at a Taco Bell once.
I really wanted Taco Bell, so I waited 40 minutes in line while the person in front of me was arguing with the employees at the window. I’m not sure if it was someone arguing over expired coupons for 40 minutes, or if it was some annoying shithead trying to do a viral stunt or what the problem was, but I really wanted Taco Bell and I was going to get it.
edit: It was worth the wait, but only just barely.
It’s been a long time since fast food was any good. It’s addictive, maybe comfortable, but definitely not good. Break your addiction, especially now that you could save so much money
It’s comfortable, but also the salt they sprinkle on there must be a narcotic substance of some kind.
That said, McDonald’s vs an OK sit-down restaurant are roughly the same price here. The latter is going to have better food - generally - but Mickey D will be more consistent, have the ability to order without talking to anyone, has a drive-thru, can order home (SOME restaurants don’t do it here for some reason, most do luckily)… Basically, the fast food will win in all factors of convenience, but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
Talk about an understatement… I cannot recall a time where I ate fast food and did not regret it almost immediately.
When I was in high school, we’d split a gram of weed four ways and go to Wendy’s for the $4.20 meal. For less than ten bucks, you got stoned, a junior bacon cheese, four nuggets, small fry, and a small chocolate frosty. This was in the mid oughts so not that long ago!
The mid oughts was a different world, hundreds of years ago.
Y’all oughtta know the mid oughts were a lit time to behold.
In my industry, there’s a saying along the lines of “Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.”
I think the fast food industry version is “Good, fast, cheap? No, no. And believe it or not, also no.”
I don’t eat fast food very often, so this is entirely anecdotal. Of the fast food chains I’ve eaten at in recent history, Taco Bell is by far the worst. Against my better judgment, I even broke down and gave them a second chance at a different location thinking maybe my first terrible experience was a fluke. Didn’t work out. Makes me think it’s bad everywhere. Wendy’s has held up the best of the places I’ve eaten. It’s definitely not cheap anymore, fast depends on the location as well as other factors, and good is relative, but overall it hasn’t gone down hill as bad as the others.
taco bell definitely has one of the widest ranges in quality. one near my house is fucking awful and never gets the substitutions right, but the one 20 minutes away is great
To me it’s McDonalds, how something using the exact same ingredients and prep can taste so different and have vastly different delivery times in everyone you go to boggles the mind
Honestly I don’t think I’ve ate at Mcdonald’s in the last six months now that I think about it. The enshittification of their app deals, price hikes, quality going down, the whole disease outbreak thing, just really turned me off of them. I know they had a bad quarter recently I hope they have another bad one 🤣
Which is wild when you realize the original idea behind McDonalds was to apply engineering and mass production ideas to food to maximize speed and consistency, and now a lot of the time they fail at both.
The Tacos Bell near me are pretty decent… You just have to put it in its own, separate genre of food. I don’t eat at Taco Bell when I’m in the mood for Mexican food. I eat at Taco Bell when I’m in the mood for Taco Bell.
Wendy’s is pretty decent, expensive but better if you use their app. I usually still see a code in there somewhere for $2 off or something, and their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
Taco bell I feel like every restaurant is different. One near my house used to be bomb AF, then they had a changeover of all their staff and now it’s terrible. Even the drive thru is different now they now have an AI taking your order lmao. Another location down the road is better at the food quality, but they fuck up what is supposed to go with your order half the time so at that one I always have to check the bag in the parking lot before I leave.
The older I get the most I just feel like it isn’t worth it as much anymore. If I’m going to have to wait a half hour plus in the drive thru line, pay $15 for a meal now or $20+ if I wanted to get dessert or another side item too, and deal with people and the headaches of it, I’d rather just keep driving home and cook something there in about the same time. Plus I can usually get 3 or 4 meals out of that $20 worth if I make it at home so each leftover is faster to make.
Fast food industry is doing a great job making sure that I stay away as best I can and be inconvenient. The sole exception so far has been Little Ceasars, still $6 for a lunch combo and if you order in the app it’s great, get notified when it’s ready and I literally just park out front walk in grab my order out of the ready bin and off I go. I don’t understand why others haven’t pivoted that way as well.
their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
My local Wendy’s did a promo where you bought a keychain tag for $3 and can get a Jr Frosty with any purchase until the end of 2025. That certainly helps the Frosty thing, at least.
Politics aside, Chik-Fil-A is consistently one of the better quality fast food places I’ve been to.
Man I wish the frosty tag thing was a thing at mine. It is but it basically isn’t. If you order online and order a physical keychain they won’t give you one then try to argue about it when you ask where is my keychain I paid for it. Ask me how I know 😂
They did offer an in-app version too, but then you’re stuck choosing between app coupons so you’re basically either already using the $2 off a combo like I was or getting the frosty that costs about the same. So in my case it didn’t save me any money :/
At least they aren’t five freaking bucks like other fast food places are doing with cold treats.
What is your industry? That saying is awesome.
I’ve heard it in engineering and software both
Pretty common saying in the business world.
Software development. I certainly didn’t coin the phrase, but it’s well-known and I agree, pretty fitting even outside of the IT industry.
This sums up my experience as well. It’s never been healthy, but at least it used to be cheap and tasty. But nowadays mcdonalds is so expensive I almost consider it a luxury, and the plastic-looking sauces and mystery meat are in no way appetizing (tho that might just be me getting older and changing preferences as opposed to the actual food getting worse)
We got 2 kids meals at Culver’s and ate for $15. We are in 60s and it was enough food for us, and on the plus side it included ice cream!
Small McDouble combo is like $5.80 in Canada right now. Shit’s almost cheaper than groceries.
And yet people keep going. And why? Because those companies hire people with psychology and chemistry degrees to ensure they do. They play every psychological trick in the book to keep people coming back. And as much as anyone here (me included) think a burger from McDonald’s is shit, there are people, a lot of people, who feel like they just can’t live happily without their regular dose of Big Mac.
And, of course, McDonald’s has used those psychological tricks to convince such people that McDonald’s cares about them.
The whole thing is sick.
I mean, I can get a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s for under $3. It’s pretty good for that price range and accessibility. I’m not about to claim they give a fuck about me though lol
In my days, you got a week’s worth of calories for $3.50
In my days you could buy 420 chickens for $0.69.
Nice.
$25
What’d he get, a whopper with no drink or side at Burger King?
The point is the same it ever was. You sacrifice money for time and convenience. What’s so hard to understand about that? Some will be more or less expensive than others and no one forced you to choose either option
If you have a Braum’s nearby you can get a bomb-ass burger with two quarter pound patties, crinkle cut fries, and drink or shake for about $9.
But you probably don’t have a Braum’s around unless you are in the US and in one of like two shithole states.
Yeah… I only do fast food using apps and only go if there’s a good enough “discount”(quotes because it’s really what the prices should be anyway, obvs.).
The Jimmy Johns app is atrocious in this regard.
“Buy 16 sandwiches this month for free cookie!”
Fucken nerds.
Screw that. Last month I got free burgers with minimum $1 purchase at burger king. Two cookies =$1 exactly.
Pack soda can and go, lol. I thinkI added cheese for 30¢
And all you have to do is give the corporation complete access to your personal cell phone!
I was waiting for this reply and honestly that ship sails the moment you buy a smart phone. Anyway I always keep “allow tracking” shut off and location data restricted to while using apps for what it’s worth.
🤷🏻
I mean… No. But ok.
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Lmao wtf is a brk bcntr
You don’t know what a brk bcntr is?! What is this world coming to when people can’t figure out the POS POS’ extremely shortened words?!
Breakfast Baconator. 670 calories of greasy bacon sausage and cheese on a bun.
Not even even an egg on it? I kinda want an egg on my breakfast sandwich
Whoops. Yeah it has egg too: from their website: “Grilled sausage, American cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, a fresh-cracked free range egg, (deep breath) more cheese and more bacon all covered in our signature cheese sauce”
Wendy’s’ POS system doesn’t use most vowels. Brk Bcntr is hardly the worst one they have lmao
Penn Gillette wisely said eating is mostly habit, and I agree. There are people who actually like McDonalds, etc, but the ones who still buy it even though they think it sucks are just slaves to habit. I personally know somebody with $200 to their name who had Doordash deliver Wendy’s to their apartment so they didn’t have to go anywhere or figure out how to cook. Ingrained habits and cravings are powerful forces.
Double Whopper with medium fries and drink is now $14 and change where I live.
Looking at you five guys.
Story time. We t to five guys, go up to the country asked for a burger combo. Person behind counter says they don’t have combos so I have to say out loud: lemme get a burger fries and a coke.
Like I get it but a combo is a burger fries and a coke.
Aren’t combos usually discounted over everything getting billed individually? I would understand that as useful information that I’m not saving anything and might as well deviate if I like.
Yeah. I could see someone ordering a combo and then complain when instead of a combo they have to pay for burger, fries and drink. It’s stupid that 5 guys doesn’t have a combo option but the person behind the counter did what they’re supposed to do, take the order and make sure the person ordering also understands what they’re ordering.
One regular fries is $8 at my local five guys. Just fries. $11 if I want a regular drink with that. That’s more than I want to pay for a burger combo and it doesn’t even have a burger with it.
