Whoah I didn't expect it to be that way, because of the wine people who spend way too much on expensive wines and alcoholics usually buy the cheapes lt booze. I guess I was very wrong.
That was me (27 years), until COVID. During that little party, I switched to whiskey. Went so far down the alcoholics road, damn-near lost the house, job, and girl. Luckily (?), an accident intervened, and I'm now 17 months sober.
Dickbags in consulting like to steal the economics term and use it for *everything*, but 80-20 really is an interesting rule of thumb.
80% of the output from 20% of the input.
Playing the devil advocate Byran Sharp research disproved the 80/20 Pareto curve. He reports 20% of customers typically account for 50% of sales (50/20), not 80%. This 50/20 rule and how loyalty is almost impossible to target forms the basis for why Sharp suggests nudging lite buyers to a brand to improve sales.
Is it really tasty? I like the "idea" to go to McDonald's and eat a burger. The first bites are fine but the more I eat, the less it tastes good. Also I am feeling not well for the next few hours, my stomach feels like I ate a brick.
Anyway, a few weeks later I want to have a burger and cycle begins again.
If I want a burger, and thats a rare event.
I either make the patty myself out of mince, egg, and seasoning.
Then usually a Chiappetta or Brioche bun. Total cost is way less than MC D and tastes way better. Especially when I cook the patty on the cast iron.
Usually enough meat for 3 meals, takes less than 15 minutes start to finish.
its not the FOOD, its just the oil not being able to intereact with your water "inside oil-moisture" thats all, :) just dab off the excess oil or try "single items" , im sure you dont NEED the whole meal xD ( not calling you fat, im just sayin cause, i cant really finish a whole meal either )
Oh god. When I’m on a road trip with can only eat it once. Every few days max. I bring food. The fast food literally makes me ill. I feel bloated from the salt, icky bc of the fat, and food coma bc of the sugar.
It literally gives me gastric distress. I don’t see how ppl eat it every day and don’t get sick. I love a good In and Out burger but once a year is good!
It’s also convenient. I’m on the road all the time for my job and usually only have a few minutes to eat. Fast food is my only option for most of my lunches
Yeah you know what you will get and how long it will take. Regardless of where you are or what time it is, for the most part.
If I'm on the road and busy I prob don't wanna try a new place and wait 20 min.
Other countries handle this by having similar street food no matter where you are in the country.
I used to be like that, but then I just realized my job makes intermittent fasting REALLY easy lol. I just don't eat lunch, and skip breakfast as well. I get 18 hours without food if I count my time asleep, every day M-F.
I gained quite a bit of weight during COVID; my healthy weight is 225 pounds. (I'm 6'4" lol) Right after COVID I was at 280. Now I'm at 250. Been slowly losing it.
Yes and no. You can buy ingredients and put yourself together a sandwich, sure, but you'll have leftover bits after - not exactly practical when traveling for work. Or you can go in and see what the supermarket has premade, which bumps the cost right back just as much or more, takes longer, and is a gamble on both availability and flavor. If all I've got is half an hour lunch break, I'd best take the reliable option, even if it's worse than winning that gamble.
Especially when places were shut down during COVID, I knew that I could walk right in to almost any McDonald's - some municipalities barred walk-in fast food entirely, but that was rare where I was working - use their restroom, buy my lunch with cash, and be back out again (lobby was closed for "for here", of course) in plenty of time to eat my lunch before getting back to work.
This. I’m definitely not addicted to fast food itself. What I’m addicted to is the convenience and how it was normally or used to be a cheaper option for food. Over the past few months I’ve been cooking at home a lot more since it’s cheaper and for less or the same amount of money, I can have leftovers to take for lunch.
The few times I get it, I am enraged at the price
It is not a matter of that I eat the food often, it’s a matter that the business category was build on simple, cheap and quick, and it devolved to zero of those things so quickly
…In America and Canada, for sure. Can’t say anything about other western countries. But I’m living in Taiwan now and the price is still right, baby.
Double angus burger? $5.70CAD/$4.20USD.
Big Mac? $3.39CAD/$2.49USD
10 piece nuggets? $4.62CAD/$3.40USD
I’ve only had mcdicks twice since moving here, and that was more out of necessity than anything. But it’s worth the price for real.
Yeah it's almost as though these companies invest millions of dollars of research into making their food as appealing and flavourful as possible to get people addicted to the dopamine rush associated with eating large amounts of fat and salt.
yup. for me it was never about taste it's about price and convenience.
I've not seen anything formal studying this but I feel like in other countries eating out is just comparatively cheaper, or at least where I grew up in Asia.
where I live now in the us unless I go for mass produced fast food, I'd have a hard time getting a casual takeout for under 25$/person. granted I live in a very hcol location, but it is what it is.
Yeah biggest split between my friends struggling and not-struggling cash-wise was cooking vs fast food.
Rice+tofu+pepper+veggies makes 5 solid meals for $8-$12 total, under 1h of work. 1 skillet, 1 saucepan. Thats my work lunches.
Rice+beef+cheese+tomato sauce makes another nutrient-dense slop 5-8 meals for cheap.
>under 1h of work
No the fuck it isn't. It never is :(
Today I made some chicken alfredo style pasta. Pretty easy right? All I have to do is cook the chicken, chop some veggies, boil the pasta, and throw in the sauce ingredients. Somwhow that took like 1hr 20min.
Thats what I did. I had a restricted license only for to and from work basically.
I either ate crap from Lowes check out lines or Menards or prepared home cooked meals. Not a champ of health food by any means, but McDonalds qp w cheese almost didnt seem like actual food to my brain.
Tasted ok, but I only ate half my burger and 100% of my fries. Fries were still amazing. And idk, but the ketchup is better there... somehow. Theory.
Fries are pretty hard to screw up or make nasty, but all the excess grease and whatever else is in the meat just churns my stomach
I quit fast food when my large double quarter pounder meal for work started costing almost $10. Honestly, no regrets. I feel so much healthier without that stuff. The only place I'll still occasionally go is Subway, but that's maybe once a month tops
I was gonna say, I rarely eat fast food but sometimes I do and I enjoy it. It's definitely not something to eat all the time though, that's when it becomes disgusting.
It’s exactly as bad as you describe and then some lol
If you want to know more about the *industrially-produced edible chemicals* companies call “food” I highly recommend the book *Ultra Processed People*.
Are you talking about American fast food? Like, in America? Because holy shit is it garbage… and I don’t mean just “extremely unhealthy”. That’s what I was expecting - some garbage but tasty and addictive food. What I mean is you’re getting what can only be described as moist fat cardboard and piece of yellow plastic between two cardboard buns with some flavorless sauces. Only edible fast food restaurant in States I’ve had was Chick-fil-a, and I still found it a bit meh and vastly overpriced.
I heard different country have different Fast Food quality, Mcdonald in France for exemple is pretty good (By Fast Food standard) while people from outside of the US trying the US one said it was really bad
McDonald in US is hopeless. It tastes terribly, texture is terrible, smell is repulsive. It’s genuinely the worst food I’ve had in my life by quite a margin. By comparison McDonalds in Europe (UK, Poland, France, Germany, Sweden - those at least from personal perspective have similar offerings) should get Michelin star.
They aren't appealing nor flavorful though
Fast food is literally bottom of the barrel garbage, the ONLY thing it has going for it was it was cheep, which it's not anymore
Flavourful?I have never been to US so I don't know if things there are different but in Europe you don't go to fast food because of the flavour of the foodyou go because it's fast and convenient. If you want a flavourful burger /pizza any local burger place or pizza place would be better then a fast food chain.
USA is a huge country. It's the size of all of Europe. Because it's so big, people in different regions have different experiences. One thing that universally ties us all together is fast food.
A northerner might not relate to the price of grits, and a southerner will never understand what 'fried musky' is, but every Every American, no matter how far north, south, east, or west, can relate to a McDonald's cheeseburger. As a result, fast food gets used as a benchmark or universal barometer for food prices.
People liked Fast food, because it was cheap. Now it's not cheap so folks are annoyed. Fast food was NEVER GOOD. It was just ok. What made it worth the buy, was its cost. Now with prices being as high as they are. There is no reason to go there anymore.
I can get a full cooked meal plus tip at Applebee's for 15 bucks. Same with a lot of sit in resturants these days. Fast food prices have gone up so much, that actual resturants are able to compete now. It's actually hilarious, as fast food whole argument was that they were cheaper than the restaurants. Hell they aren't even fast anymore.
Zero value to fast-food now Zero.
Not only are they not fast anymore, but at least in my area they hire people who cannot even make the order right. Takes you 10 minutes to do a happy meal and you forget the fucking toy? Let's not open the can of worms that is order modifications. If you dont want onion in your bigmac might as well order another sandwich.
And no, FF workers in my area aren't paid peanuts, they actually have an okay salary for what their job is (I live in Eastern Europe). So it's not "minimum wage minimum effort".
With this in mind, chinese restaurants have started to do better! There's one in a mall I frequent which does main, side and salad for 6$ equivalent, capping out at around 600g. That's a steal.
Asian food used to be really cheap in my area in the Midwest us but unfortunately after covid I think most of the shops either had to shut down or raise prices significantly because of the 1-2 punch of inflation and people (wrongly) associating Asian people with covid and possible contraction. There is this really good Cantonese place a little ways from me I used to buy two days worth of dinners from for about $15 dollars pre covid, hot and ready any time between 9 am and 10 pm. Pounds of food easily, that same meal now is like 30+ dollars. Which is fine, it's still good food and worth the money but it hurts knowing that the price is over 100% higher in just a few years
I said something similar a few months ago and got so many people saying stuff like “I don’t believe you, I need a receipt from the restaurant!!!” Like bro no you don’t, just go out to eat yourself and you’ll realize a lunch or a decent priced dinner at a sit down restaurant is literally cheaper than a large Big Mac meal at McDonald’s. It’s insane.
Not to be a back in my day kinda guy but damn, I could go get a mcchicken or a McDouble for a dollar….that shit is $3+ now, it’s insane
This. I can eat at an all you can eat buffet at my favourite Chinese restaurant for 8€ (without drinks) and get really good food, while at a fast food restaurant I'll probably leave and still feel hungry for that price. To be fair, that 8€ deal isn't quite the norm, but still. There's never enough difference between restaurant prices and fast food prices. For a full meal at McDonalds that actually makes me feel satisfied I most likely would pay 10-20€, too. Guess what the average I pay at restaurants is. It's pretty much the same and fast food isn't even good.
Why is it that every person who talks about these substances can't actually name a single one and explain concretely why it's bad for you (in the doses used in food). Oh, I know why - it's because they're all clueless.
Preservatives save lives - I bet a couple cases of botulism will take more time off your life than any preservative laden food sold in the west. Chemicals? Well, water's a chemical and there's about 10,000 chemicals that make up beef so that's a completely meaningless point entirely. Additives? What additives? Salt? MSG? There's a million scientific sources out there, how about using one.
People like to feel like they're right and it's a super easy bandwagon to jump on. Generally fast food isn't good for you in the sense that it makes it easy to overeat (low fiber, high salt/fat/etc. lots of msg to make it hard to put down), just eat it in moderation and it's literally completely fine...?
Lots of these anti-fast food people are the same ones to say they won't eat food that has ingredients they can't pronounce, but also don't realize methylcobalamin is vitamin B12. If an apple had a real "ingredients" label (all the smell compounds, flavors, etc.), they wouldn't eat it.
It just galls me that people can be so positive about certain 'artificial' things like medicine, but then also be like 'I'd never put CHEMICALS in my body'. I'm pretty sure it's just the average (and less than average) person's tendency to trust in their intuition and not actually think any further. If a doctor said 'We need to pump you full of methylcobalamin because you're deficient' they'd sign themselves up and say thank you. But if they saw it on a food item, well apparently the western world's food authorities are happy for you to eat poison I guess.
If people can quit smoking, quitting fast-food is child's play. It's a little silly to pretend it's actually chemically addictive and blame that for stuffing your face with junk. All change takes a bit of effort.
Not really an addiction to fast food, more just a stand against prices. I really like fast food, but I can (and do) live without it just fine.
I just think it’s ridiculous that at McDonald’s, meals for two people costs $20-$25 depending what you get. For that price, I might as well go to Chili’s, not to mention I’d wait the same amount of time these days.
Better yet, for $25, I could make a ribeye dinner for two at home with full sides.
I offer you the concept of Food Deserts. Places it’s hard to get “good healthy food” (ie anything not hyper saturated In chemicals like a McDs burger) because of monopolies, limited mobility, and price gouging.
They especially harm the elderly and children.
If I want a burger or something I would go to a real burger place, at least it doesn't leave you feeling like you just consumed plastic and industrial grease.
Hell it's actually cheaper nowadays to go to a proper place and order fast food-esque food than it is to actually get fast food (which isnt even fast anymore either) $14 for a proper item and meanlor $18 for some grey meat slab.
I do miss $5 meals
As an American, I do enjoy certain fast foods. But I try not to eat out much because it makes me feel like shit afterwards. Not to mention I’ll get hungry a few hours after a large fast food meal. It’s garbage.
I feel like a lot of it comes more from just the general hatred for the current inflation. McDonald’s used to have a dollar menu. Now there’s only a 2,3,4 dollar menu, and a microplastic hockey puck cheeseburger isn’t even on it. I know it’s absolute toxic garbage, that’s why I paid $5 for a meal. Now it $11 for 10 carcinogenic pretend meat clumps, stale unsalted fries, and a large soda from the fountain that hasn’t been cleaned since the location opened? Organic, quality foods used to be more expensive than a McChicken for a reason.
It’s not just fast food either. It’s also sit down restaurants AND THE GROCERY STORE. The only affordable way to eat at this point is to take out a life insurance plan and then just starve to death for the sake of your family.
We're doing so more as an indicator for the extreme rise of inflation, but yeah, a lot of Americans especially in poorer areas are addicted to fast food.
You should look up food deserts. Roughly explained they're poorer areas of the country where access to clean healthy foods are limited, but fast food is plentiful rendering the local population dependant on the fast food.
I have almost completely cut out fast food from my diet over the past several years and I find it almost impossible to go back. I was never addicted but I was a poor college kid and had to make do. We cook at home 5-6 nights a week now, and when we do “eat out” it’s at either a proper restaurant or at a place that is nominally more healthy than “fast food”, like a poke place or somewhere that does green bowls.
I literally cannot eat at most of the popular fast food places now. It makes me sick to my stomach almost every time. Even when it doesn’t upset my stomach I don’t even feel full, I just feel like there’s something heavy and solid sitting in my gut. There are exceptions- somehow I don’t mind Taco Bell at all and will occasionally treat myself- but yeah I just can’t do 95% of it anymore. It’s awful.
I’ve actually had a pretty decent diet my whole life aside from like 2-3 years in my early 20s when I was cash poor and had absolutely no time to cook regularly, and I love Taco Bell. It’s not good for you and I for sure limit my intake but yeah I’m not so proud as to deny that a Chalupa Supreme with creamy jalapeño sauce and a Baja Blast fucking rips.
OP does not understand that for a significantly large portion of America, fast food is/was the only food they could afford given their time/money. While obesity and fast food are a huge health concern, most of us aren't complaining because we like the food, most of us are complaining that the only "affordable" food we're aware of is no longer affordable.
There are more people living in poverty in America (11.7m) than there are people living in multiple European countries, say like Denmark and Norway combined). These people are normally living near or in large cities, they are usually not educated, and often, don't know how to cook or have the means to learn (sometimes they don't even have the means to actually cook at all either). For these people, while it is unhealthy, McDonald's and other fast food places were lifelines for them and their families.
How can fast food be cheaper than food you prepare yourselves? Honest question.
Rice, vegetables and legumes should be way way cheaper than any fastfood. Am I wrong?
What if you were simply never taught? Or you don't have the tools? How are you going to cook your rice in a tent by an overpass? How are you going to cook when you work 20 hours a day to barely keep a roof over your kids' heads? And if you were going by the dollar menu, it was indeed cheaper to buy a fully cooked cheeseburger for a dollar than to front the money for enough rice to make the portions you get from a bag of rice economical.
I'm not saying it's right or healthy, but many of the people stuck on fast food are really in these situations where it's a step up from starvation, kind of like a kill me slowly vs kill me now
Also worth considering the up-front costs of buying cooking equipment, filling out a pantry, or buying in bulk. Sometimes, people may simply not be able to do these things *even if* it's cheaper in the long term.
You're making my point actually.
You said earlier that is all a matter of being cheap and I disagree about that.
Is not about being cheap, mainly, but all the other things you rightfully quoted.
By all means, I'm not implying it's somehow people faults if they consume so much fast foods. It's usually not!
I think technically rice and beans would be cheaper, almost without a doubt actually. But you’d be asking a significant amount of people to eat nothing but rice and beans every day because it’s all they can afford, and honestly that sounds less healthy.
Lol it's definitely not less healthy to eat rice and beans
Edit: the disagreement is hilarious... yes this diet would have nutrient gaps. Yes, you'll be lacking in vitamin c. But like... eat an orange every once in a while, using the savings from eating your cheap, nutritious rice and beans. The nutrient gaps are a downside of this diet that's far easier to alleviate than the downsides of a fat food diet.
Look when you work ten hours a day for terrible wages and have an hour drive to work each way it doesn't leave much time to cook at home nor much money to eat anywhere nicer.
I'd say it's moreso that the extreme price increase has people upset because fast food is SUPPOSED to be the cheapest food you can get and even THAT had become too expensive. On one hand the price increase is a nuisance, but it has helped us get groceries and cook more often because for the price of us both getting McDonald's, we could cook a whole meal with leftovers. It's just annoying since sometimes you want convenience but the price just isn't justified at all. However, I could see people who do actually eat fast food often being upset. In high school I traveled a lot for competitions, and most of us would stop by the local McDonald's to get a hot meal before we had to leave. If it had cost this much back then, I probably would've eaten a bunch of chips and snack food and still wouldn't be fully satisfied. I think teens used to get fast food a lot because they got a job or their parents gave them money. Now those teens have grown up and see the price jack and it's just insane.
But it’s never been cheaper than meal prep at home. Literally never. The gap is widening so it’s a lot harder to pretend like it’s less expensive but the talking point of McDonald’s being less than home made food has always been completely incorrect.
I'm an American and I HATE fast food and don't understand why people love it so much. It's literally gas station quality food at real restaurant prices.
They got people hooked on it by making it relatively tasty, convenient, and affordable, all things that make it especially appealing to the working class. When you grew up poor, fast food was just kinda part of the lifestyle. You didn't have that shit every week, at least not if you had good parents, but when money was tight and the pantry was empty, the dollar menu at McDonald's came to the rescue. Now it's like they're trying to turn fast food into an expensive luxury service even though the food quality has actually gone down, not up, and working class people are understandably pissed.
you mean your addicted to something that gives dopamine and is around every corner of your country? how is that possible? its like asking if someone is actually addicted to porn. yes its a thing that gives a good chemical release of course you can get addicted
It's made to be addictive. What's so surprising?
I often make fast-food-type dishes without ten sauces, sugar, and other BS. It's a whole different food where a couple of bites make you full. In a fast food chain, I would eat three times as much and still be hungry.
Addicted for 20 years now. It is a daily struggle to resist the constant nagging, the incessant picking at the back of your brain to go get “just one more”. It’s never just one more.
Scientist spent decades perfecting just the right chemicals and additives to make our fast food as addictive as possible just for some chad in Europe to think it's a joke!
I spend $3 at taco bell once a week. I have to drive a long distance for work once a week, and I like to stop at a certain taco bell along the way for 2 bean and rice burritos. No drink. I bring water with me.
TL;DR: It's not necessarily addiction. Fast food is just a symbol of things getting out of control.
I can't say that people aren't addicted, but the reason they're freaking out is because the hierarchy is out of wack. Fast food companies have forgotten their place. Fast food was supposed to be available, edible, and most of all, affordable.
With that being said, inflation is change. And a ***LOT*** of people were tolerating the change when it was just 2%, but it's bringing things to light. Young people are finding out what we meant when people would say "a bag of chips was 25¢".
Yeah, no. That shit is too rich for my blood. I'm paying too many things to get McDonald's. Honestly. I don't even want fast food burgers. I'll go to the store and get the 25% off beef. I ain't paying someone to cook for me. Got plenty food at home thanks. Healthier than fast food and I got fruit and make the best stew and cornbread.
I can't imagine why anyone would regularly eat fast food. I will occasionally pick up something from Arby's or Chick-Fil-A, but we're talking a few times a year. And yes, the prices have gotten high, so that has even further reduced my stops at those places.
Fast food is literally addicting and you don't know how addicting it is until you finally cut it. I used to eat fast food all the time when I was younger and it tasted so good.
After I completely changed my lifestyle and cut out fast food, it's crazy how disgusting most of it is. But after you eat it once you'll be thinking about eating it again for a couple of days, and the 2nd or 3rd time you've eaten it in a row it starts to not taste that bad
I hate to say it but Americans ( and I’m one) will make a lot of excuses to just not cook. Not talking about you truck drivers. I’m talking about the people who can afford to cook but just don’t. They’re out there and some are in this thread lol
It's funny because people have used the excuse that fast food is cheaper than eating healthy to justify their laziness for years and I'm hoping that these people who are finally learning to shop correctly by looking for ingredients and cooking their meals realize that it is actually far cheaper to make it yourself than buying it from someone else.
The only people I have ever heard say fast food is cheaper are the people who only eat fast food.
We aren’t addicted, most of us anyway, it’s just the cheapest and quickest food, a common supplement in times of financial struggle or time constraints. Now you might as well sit down at a restaurant for the price of a McDonald’s meal. It is changing the way people live their lives.
Source: am not fat
I think this sub has a serious xenophobic problem. Every other post about any other country/race/nation gets locked but when it's making fun of Americans it's ok. How does that make sense?
I'm on the fence with fast food. Maybe it just isn't as good here in Australia? Sometimes, it hits the spot, but most of the time it's just filling a hole.
They pay a lot of money to make sure they get locations in "food deserts" meaning areas where fresh groceries are available within a reasonable distance. Some food deserts are in rich areas away from high-traffic businesses.
Most are in low income areas. When you don't have a car, live on fixed income, or especially if you have a disability, then walking or taking a bus across town for groceries is a huge undertaking. Eventually most people will end up in a time crunch and will choose the ready to eat food once, then twice, then regularly.
We have entire areas in my town that are nothing but fast food, mini-marts, and gas stations for miles.
Try Rallys 1 time and you'll understand lol.
But seriously there's a main street that's by my house that has 20 different chains within a quarter mile drag. And it's easier to hop in the car and go through a drive through than to cook.
The messed up part is how fast food prices were actually competition with a regular trip to the grocery store for the longest time in the states. They're only now "catching up" to your weekly/biweekly grocery store trip and the complaints are coming in.
I don’t eat a lot of it but it’s such a bummer when even fast food isn’t cheap. It definitely makes inflation seem so much worse (even though fast food prices rose faster than inflation).
The US is large space meaning often times a fast food place is much closer than a grocery store. Closest grocery store is over 20 mins drive from my house often in traffic. Fast food? There’s a McDonald’s 5 minutes away… in addition to that buying premade meals and such in the US is asking for preservatives, not much better for you, but certainly not as tasty as fast food. I hate fast food, but sometimes I’m not driving the extra 20 mins from college and then back and also taking the time to cook it. It sucks but it’s a hole I’ve been sucked into
Fast food is often cheaper and easier to obtain than actually nutritious food here in America. We're not "addicted", we're pissed off because there are days now where we and our children simply don't get to eat. Food insecurity is very, VERY real for many of us.
When you get in from working all day the last thing you generally want to do is cook. Those who can afford to will often choose an alternative to cooking
For me, it's not about the fast food itself, it's about the fact that in the span of ten years, the value of my money at certain establishments has halved.
A lot of Americans are lazy and will do anything they can to not have to do anything themselves. “Better pay 35% more for my fast food to be delivered via grub hub! I sure do love a luke warm over priced cheeseburger!” Let’s see what excuses are made in likely angry comments about how hard cooking is and stuff, and acting like every meal is like making a gourmet 4 course meal lol.
But…fast food used to be cheap and not nearly as full as crap as it is now. But too many Americans just remain angry at the current fast food situation and then still buy it. And then see my first paragraph again lol.
As a full time student and full time worker (especially during finals) there is NO way I have time for anything but fast food. Walk into McDonald’s, chipotle, Panda Express etc and I walk out in less than 5 minutes with a tasty hot meal. Even those 5 minutes feel like a luxury but yeah. Need me my ff
Well, as an old dude, I can tell you this much. When I was a kid, it was the coolest thing for your parents to bring you to fast food because it rarely happened. It was maybe once every two months and there might’ve been a special going on for the shake, but it was very not often. The entire system was not set up for adults. It was set up mainly for children because they had a slide there. They had a ball pit. They had everything they would make you scream, mom Dad stop here. So what I think happened is the change in the home family deal. Mothers were going to work more off because that’s exactly what had to happen because you couldn’t make it work the income. So fast food became cheap food and it became a perfect timing with two people working and trying to raise a family now it’s just adults because they don’t have any goddamn time. We’re all fucked. You’re fucked everyone’s fucked get used lol
Most of their profit are from people who eat there pretty much every day. Addiction is financially beneficial to them.
As a rule of thumb in most infustries, 25% of the customers will stand for 75% of the profits.
The numbers aren’t exact but it’s close, but for alcohol I think it’s like 5-8% of the customers (the alcoholics) contribute to 90% of the sales
Whoah I didn't expect it to be that way, because of the wine people who spend way too much on expensive wines and alcoholics usually buy the cheapes lt booze. I guess I was very wrong.
They buy expensive wines, but not nearly as much as the people who buy LOADS of cheap beer
Case a day brother! Gimme that natty light
We joke but my brother drank 12+ Natty Lights a day for like 25 years. Way more on weekends.
That was me (27 years), until COVID. During that little party, I switched to whiskey. Went so far down the alcoholics road, damn-near lost the house, job, and girl. Luckily (?), an accident intervened, and I'm now 17 months sober.
Way to go!
Keep the streak going my man!
Gratz on the 17 months.
Oh yeah, my joke has a kernel of truth to it. I've watched a few people do this.
One of my brothers drink 12+ natty lights and another drinks 12+ Miller highlife. My oldest brother and I (youngest) don't drink or smoke.
$20/day adds up
Quantity > quality in this case
Damn even the 20/80 rule got inflation
It's called "Pareto principle" if somebody wants to read about it. It basically says "20% of actions bring 80% of results"
Dickbags in consulting like to steal the economics term and use it for *everything*, but 80-20 really is an interesting rule of thumb. 80% of the output from 20% of the input.
Playing the devil advocate Byran Sharp research disproved the 80/20 Pareto curve. He reports 20% of customers typically account for 50% of sales (50/20), not 80%. This 50/20 rule and how loyalty is almost impossible to target forms the basis for why Sharp suggests nudging lite buyers to a brand to improve sales.
Addiction is always beneficial to companies
Most of the profit is from real estate that they rent out to franchisees.
Oh those cunning bastards, making their food tasty to lure people back again and again!
Is it really tasty? I like the "idea" to go to McDonald's and eat a burger. The first bites are fine but the more I eat, the less it tastes good. Also I am feeling not well for the next few hours, my stomach feels like I ate a brick. Anyway, a few weeks later I want to have a burger and cycle begins again.
Same here but McDonald's is generally okay with me. KFC does EXACTLY that to me though
If I want a burger, and thats a rare event. I either make the patty myself out of mince, egg, and seasoning. Then usually a Chiappetta or Brioche bun. Total cost is way less than MC D and tastes way better. Especially when I cook the patty on the cast iron. Usually enough meat for 3 meals, takes less than 15 minutes start to finish.
its not the FOOD, its just the oil not being able to intereact with your water "inside oil-moisture" thats all, :) just dab off the excess oil or try "single items" , im sure you dont NEED the whole meal xD ( not calling you fat, im just sayin cause, i cant really finish a whole meal either )
Oh god. When I’m on a road trip with can only eat it once. Every few days max. I bring food. The fast food literally makes me ill. I feel bloated from the salt, icky bc of the fat, and food coma bc of the sugar. It literally gives me gastric distress. I don’t see how ppl eat it every day and don’t get sick. I love a good In and Out burger but once a year is good!
It’s not because we’re addicted necessarily. It’s because it’s extremely widely available, and previously was inexpensive.
It’s also convenient. I’m on the road all the time for my job and usually only have a few minutes to eat. Fast food is my only option for most of my lunches
Yeah you know what you will get and how long it will take. Regardless of where you are or what time it is, for the most part. If I'm on the road and busy I prob don't wanna try a new place and wait 20 min. Other countries handle this by having similar street food no matter where you are in the country.
And, often, by offering more than 30 (or even more than 60) minutes for workers to eat lunch and take a break.
God I miss street food.
Same and I hate it
This is the precise reason why I’m eating fast food instead of cooking my own meals a lot of times, I’m out on the road.
I used to be like that, but then I just realized my job makes intermittent fasting REALLY easy lol. I just don't eat lunch, and skip breakfast as well. I get 18 hours without food if I count my time asleep, every day M-F. I gained quite a bit of weight during COVID; my healthy weight is 225 pounds. (I'm 6'4" lol) Right after COVID I was at 280. Now I'm at 250. Been slowly losing it.
When I finish my shift i often get home around 1 am. No grocery store store is open, but the burger place is.
Aren't there any supermarkets over there? You can just buy some relatively healthy sandwiches or something right?
Yes and no. You can buy ingredients and put yourself together a sandwich, sure, but you'll have leftover bits after - not exactly practical when traveling for work. Or you can go in and see what the supermarket has premade, which bumps the cost right back just as much or more, takes longer, and is a gamble on both availability and flavor. If all I've got is half an hour lunch break, I'd best take the reliable option, even if it's worse than winning that gamble. Especially when places were shut down during COVID, I knew that I could walk right in to almost any McDonald's - some municipalities barred walk-in fast food entirely, but that was rare where I was working - use their restroom, buy my lunch with cash, and be back out again (lobby was closed for "for here", of course) in plenty of time to eat my lunch before getting back to work.
This. I’m definitely not addicted to fast food itself. What I’m addicted to is the convenience and how it was normally or used to be a cheaper option for food. Over the past few months I’ve been cooking at home a lot more since it’s cheaper and for less or the same amount of money, I can have leftovers to take for lunch.
The few times I get it, I am enraged at the price It is not a matter of that I eat the food often, it’s a matter that the business category was build on simple, cheap and quick, and it devolved to zero of those things so quickly
…In America and Canada, for sure. Can’t say anything about other western countries. But I’m living in Taiwan now and the price is still right, baby. Double angus burger? $5.70CAD/$4.20USD. Big Mac? $3.39CAD/$2.49USD 10 piece nuggets? $4.62CAD/$3.40USD I’ve only had mcdicks twice since moving here, and that was more out of necessity than anything. But it’s worth the price for real.
Yeah it's almost as though these companies invest millions of dollars of research into making their food as appealing and flavourful as possible to get people addicted to the dopamine rush associated with eating large amounts of fat and salt.
Nah. It's cuz it's ~~cheap~~, and hot. Oops. I don't eat fast food anymore because of this.
yup. for me it was never about taste it's about price and convenience. I've not seen anything formal studying this but I feel like in other countries eating out is just comparatively cheaper, or at least where I grew up in Asia. where I live now in the us unless I go for mass produced fast food, I'd have a hard time getting a casual takeout for under 25$/person. granted I live in a very hcol location, but it is what it is.
Yeah biggest split between my friends struggling and not-struggling cash-wise was cooking vs fast food. Rice+tofu+pepper+veggies makes 5 solid meals for $8-$12 total, under 1h of work. 1 skillet, 1 saucepan. Thats my work lunches. Rice+beef+cheese+tomato sauce makes another nutrient-dense slop 5-8 meals for cheap.
>under 1h of work No the fuck it isn't. It never is :( Today I made some chicken alfredo style pasta. Pretty easy right? All I have to do is cook the chicken, chop some veggies, boil the pasta, and throw in the sauce ingredients. Somwhow that took like 1hr 20min.
cooking is a skill like any other and you get faster with experience
Man, 1h and 20 min for a pasta? You need some practice, that is def too much time.
If it's taking you an hour+to cook that's on you 99% of the things I cook in done in under 40mins, and I am NOT a fast cook
You're not alone. I can easily double whatever the cook/prep time is on any recipe. I still try but am truly awful at cooking.
Sounds alot like you did only one thing at a time. Try multitasking a little next time, it'll save time
What how… that’s like. 30 min meal.
Not only cheaper, but just better. There's a higher standard for food quality in general. People won't accept awful food just because it's cheap.
I mean… the 80s, 90s, and 00s was proof that *yes people will accept awful food because it’s cheap*
My ex-wife was cheap and hot, and just like McDonald's, over one billion served!
There's a clown joke in there somewhere
they are literally correct though.
Honestly, cut fast food out completely for a year or two and try it again. At least in my experience, it now looks, smells, and tastes disgusting.
Thats what I did. I had a restricted license only for to and from work basically. I either ate crap from Lowes check out lines or Menards or prepared home cooked meals. Not a champ of health food by any means, but McDonalds qp w cheese almost didnt seem like actual food to my brain. Tasted ok, but I only ate half my burger and 100% of my fries. Fries were still amazing. And idk, but the ketchup is better there... somehow. Theory.
Fries are pretty hard to screw up or make nasty, but all the excess grease and whatever else is in the meat just churns my stomach I quit fast food when my large double quarter pounder meal for work started costing almost $10. Honestly, no regrets. I feel so much healthier without that stuff. The only place I'll still occasionally go is Subway, but that's maybe once a month tops
Rarely eat fast food, but I get it for the wife and kids all the time. It never stops smelling good to me...
I was gonna say, I rarely eat fast food but sometimes I do and I enjoy it. It's definitely not something to eat all the time though, that's when it becomes disgusting.
And fucking sugar
Appealing and flavorful? My man, McDonald's tastes like plastic, at best, and they even have the nerve to be more expensive than an actual restaurant
It’s exactly as bad as you describe and then some lol If you want to know more about the *industrially-produced edible chemicals* companies call “food” I highly recommend the book *Ultra Processed People*.
Are you talking about American fast food? Like, in America? Because holy shit is it garbage… and I don’t mean just “extremely unhealthy”. That’s what I was expecting - some garbage but tasty and addictive food. What I mean is you’re getting what can only be described as moist fat cardboard and piece of yellow plastic between two cardboard buns with some flavorless sauces. Only edible fast food restaurant in States I’ve had was Chick-fil-a, and I still found it a bit meh and vastly overpriced.
I heard different country have different Fast Food quality, Mcdonald in France for exemple is pretty good (By Fast Food standard) while people from outside of the US trying the US one said it was really bad
McDonald in US is hopeless. It tastes terribly, texture is terrible, smell is repulsive. It’s genuinely the worst food I’ve had in my life by quite a margin. By comparison McDonalds in Europe (UK, Poland, France, Germany, Sweden - those at least from personal perspective have similar offerings) should get Michelin star.
Am Dutch, almost never eat fast food. I tried McDonalds about a year ago, the big mac, it tasted like nothing and was a huge disappointment.
They aren't appealing nor flavorful though Fast food is literally bottom of the barrel garbage, the ONLY thing it has going for it was it was cheep, which it's not anymore
Also a dopamine rushing when literally *buying* it. The satisfaction of getting a good thing
Flavourful are we talking about the same fast-food
Flavourful?I have never been to US so I don't know if things there are different but in Europe you don't go to fast food because of the flavour of the foodyou go because it's fast and convenient. If you want a flavourful burger /pizza any local burger place or pizza place would be better then a fast food chain.
USA is a huge country. It's the size of all of Europe. Because it's so big, people in different regions have different experiences. One thing that universally ties us all together is fast food. A northerner might not relate to the price of grits, and a southerner will never understand what 'fried musky' is, but every Every American, no matter how far north, south, east, or west, can relate to a McDonald's cheeseburger. As a result, fast food gets used as a benchmark or universal barometer for food prices.
People liked Fast food, because it was cheap. Now it's not cheap so folks are annoyed. Fast food was NEVER GOOD. It was just ok. What made it worth the buy, was its cost. Now with prices being as high as they are. There is no reason to go there anymore. I can get a full cooked meal plus tip at Applebee's for 15 bucks. Same with a lot of sit in resturants these days. Fast food prices have gone up so much, that actual resturants are able to compete now. It's actually hilarious, as fast food whole argument was that they were cheaper than the restaurants. Hell they aren't even fast anymore. Zero value to fast-food now Zero.
Not only are they not fast anymore, but at least in my area they hire people who cannot even make the order right. Takes you 10 minutes to do a happy meal and you forget the fucking toy? Let's not open the can of worms that is order modifications. If you dont want onion in your bigmac might as well order another sandwich. And no, FF workers in my area aren't paid peanuts, they actually have an okay salary for what their job is (I live in Eastern Europe). So it's not "minimum wage minimum effort". With this in mind, chinese restaurants have started to do better! There's one in a mall I frequent which does main, side and salad for 6$ equivalent, capping out at around 600g. That's a steal.
Asian food used to be really cheap in my area in the Midwest us but unfortunately after covid I think most of the shops either had to shut down or raise prices significantly because of the 1-2 punch of inflation and people (wrongly) associating Asian people with covid and possible contraction. There is this really good Cantonese place a little ways from me I used to buy two days worth of dinners from for about $15 dollars pre covid, hot and ready any time between 9 am and 10 pm. Pounds of food easily, that same meal now is like 30+ dollars. Which is fine, it's still good food and worth the money but it hurts knowing that the price is over 100% higher in just a few years
I said something similar a few months ago and got so many people saying stuff like “I don’t believe you, I need a receipt from the restaurant!!!” Like bro no you don’t, just go out to eat yourself and you’ll realize a lunch or a decent priced dinner at a sit down restaurant is literally cheaper than a large Big Mac meal at McDonald’s. It’s insane. Not to be a back in my day kinda guy but damn, I could go get a mcchicken or a McDouble for a dollar….that shit is $3+ now, it’s insane
Yea I remember when a Big Mac cost $2.45 and a meal cost $4.59. I also remember when gas was less than a dollar a gallon. Times have really changed.
This. I can eat at an all you can eat buffet at my favourite Chinese restaurant for 8€ (without drinks) and get really good food, while at a fast food restaurant I'll probably leave and still feel hungry for that price. To be fair, that 8€ deal isn't quite the norm, but still. There's never enough difference between restaurant prices and fast food prices. For a full meal at McDonalds that actually makes me feel satisfied I most likely would pay 10-20€, too. Guess what the average I pay at restaurants is. It's pretty much the same and fast food isn't even good.
Applebee's is slightly slower fast food. Its just as bad.
It's all the additives, preservatives, chemicals, etc. That are added to the food. Its made that way on purpose.
Basically engineered to tickle your frontal lobes clit
r/brandnewsentence
My frontal lobes are doing what?!
Of course, we aren't saying that we like it, it's 100% that... I definitely blame it on that :D
Why is it that every person who talks about these substances can't actually name a single one and explain concretely why it's bad for you (in the doses used in food). Oh, I know why - it's because they're all clueless. Preservatives save lives - I bet a couple cases of botulism will take more time off your life than any preservative laden food sold in the west. Chemicals? Well, water's a chemical and there's about 10,000 chemicals that make up beef so that's a completely meaningless point entirely. Additives? What additives? Salt? MSG? There's a million scientific sources out there, how about using one.
People like to feel like they're right and it's a super easy bandwagon to jump on. Generally fast food isn't good for you in the sense that it makes it easy to overeat (low fiber, high salt/fat/etc. lots of msg to make it hard to put down), just eat it in moderation and it's literally completely fine...? Lots of these anti-fast food people are the same ones to say they won't eat food that has ingredients they can't pronounce, but also don't realize methylcobalamin is vitamin B12. If an apple had a real "ingredients" label (all the smell compounds, flavors, etc.), they wouldn't eat it.
It just galls me that people can be so positive about certain 'artificial' things like medicine, but then also be like 'I'd never put CHEMICALS in my body'. I'm pretty sure it's just the average (and less than average) person's tendency to trust in their intuition and not actually think any further. If a doctor said 'We need to pump you full of methylcobalamin because you're deficient' they'd sign themselves up and say thank you. But if they saw it on a food item, well apparently the western world's food authorities are happy for you to eat poison I guess.
If people can quit smoking, quitting fast-food is child's play. It's a little silly to pretend it's actually chemically addictive and blame that for stuffing your face with junk. All change takes a bit of effort.
>It's a little silly to pretend it's actually chemically addictive Both things can be true at the same time. It's not a dichotomy.
Americans taking some responsibility for their actions challenge : Impossible.
Preservatives dont taste good and arent addictive
Not really an addiction to fast food, more just a stand against prices. I really like fast food, but I can (and do) live without it just fine. I just think it’s ridiculous that at McDonald’s, meals for two people costs $20-$25 depending what you get. For that price, I might as well go to Chili’s, not to mention I’d wait the same amount of time these days. Better yet, for $25, I could make a ribeye dinner for two at home with full sides.
You think talking about how something convenient isn't worth it anymore because the prices are too high means you're addicted to it?
I offer you the concept of Food Deserts. Places it’s hard to get “good healthy food” (ie anything not hyper saturated In chemicals like a McDs burger) because of monopolies, limited mobility, and price gouging. They especially harm the elderly and children.
If I want a burger or something I would go to a real burger place, at least it doesn't leave you feeling like you just consumed plastic and industrial grease. Hell it's actually cheaper nowadays to go to a proper place and order fast food-esque food than it is to actually get fast food (which isnt even fast anymore either) $14 for a proper item and meanlor $18 for some grey meat slab. I do miss $5 meals
even the secret to a good diner burger is a lot of fat and salt.
As an American, I do enjoy certain fast foods. But I try not to eat out much because it makes me feel like shit afterwards. Not to mention I’ll get hungry a few hours after a large fast food meal. It’s garbage.
We can quit any time we want.
I feel like a lot of it comes more from just the general hatred for the current inflation. McDonald’s used to have a dollar menu. Now there’s only a 2,3,4 dollar menu, and a microplastic hockey puck cheeseburger isn’t even on it. I know it’s absolute toxic garbage, that’s why I paid $5 for a meal. Now it $11 for 10 carcinogenic pretend meat clumps, stale unsalted fries, and a large soda from the fountain that hasn’t been cleaned since the location opened? Organic, quality foods used to be more expensive than a McChicken for a reason. It’s not just fast food either. It’s also sit down restaurants AND THE GROCERY STORE. The only affordable way to eat at this point is to take out a life insurance plan and then just starve to death for the sake of your family.
Mfs when they realize that you can cook better food in home
We're doing so more as an indicator for the extreme rise of inflation, but yeah, a lot of Americans especially in poorer areas are addicted to fast food. You should look up food deserts. Roughly explained they're poorer areas of the country where access to clean healthy foods are limited, but fast food is plentiful rendering the local population dependant on the fast food.
Wait till you learn about the french and cigarettes
I have almost completely cut out fast food from my diet over the past several years and I find it almost impossible to go back. I was never addicted but I was a poor college kid and had to make do. We cook at home 5-6 nights a week now, and when we do “eat out” it’s at either a proper restaurant or at a place that is nominally more healthy than “fast food”, like a poke place or somewhere that does green bowls. I literally cannot eat at most of the popular fast food places now. It makes me sick to my stomach almost every time. Even when it doesn’t upset my stomach I don’t even feel full, I just feel like there’s something heavy and solid sitting in my gut. There are exceptions- somehow I don’t mind Taco Bell at all and will occasionally treat myself- but yeah I just can’t do 95% of it anymore. It’s awful.
Taco Bell and KFC are the only outstanding fast food.
Good God what did your parents feed you if you think Taco Bell and KFC are good?
I’ve actually had a pretty decent diet my whole life aside from like 2-3 years in my early 20s when I was cash poor and had absolutely no time to cook regularly, and I love Taco Bell. It’s not good for you and I for sure limit my intake but yeah I’m not so proud as to deny that a Chalupa Supreme with creamy jalapeño sauce and a Baja Blast fucking rips.
KFC has some decent options
OP does not understand that for a significantly large portion of America, fast food is/was the only food they could afford given their time/money. While obesity and fast food are a huge health concern, most of us aren't complaining because we like the food, most of us are complaining that the only "affordable" food we're aware of is no longer affordable. There are more people living in poverty in America (11.7m) than there are people living in multiple European countries, say like Denmark and Norway combined). These people are normally living near or in large cities, they are usually not educated, and often, don't know how to cook or have the means to learn (sometimes they don't even have the means to actually cook at all either). For these people, while it is unhealthy, McDonald's and other fast food places were lifelines for them and their families.
How can fast food be cheaper than food you prepare yourselves? Honest question. Rice, vegetables and legumes should be way way cheaper than any fastfood. Am I wrong?
What if you were simply never taught? Or you don't have the tools? How are you going to cook your rice in a tent by an overpass? How are you going to cook when you work 20 hours a day to barely keep a roof over your kids' heads? And if you were going by the dollar menu, it was indeed cheaper to buy a fully cooked cheeseburger for a dollar than to front the money for enough rice to make the portions you get from a bag of rice economical. I'm not saying it's right or healthy, but many of the people stuck on fast food are really in these situations where it's a step up from starvation, kind of like a kill me slowly vs kill me now
Also worth considering the up-front costs of buying cooking equipment, filling out a pantry, or buying in bulk. Sometimes, people may simply not be able to do these things *even if* it's cheaper in the long term.
You're making my point actually. You said earlier that is all a matter of being cheap and I disagree about that. Is not about being cheap, mainly, but all the other things you rightfully quoted. By all means, I'm not implying it's somehow people faults if they consume so much fast foods. It's usually not!
Buying a kitchen is pretty expensive
I think technically rice and beans would be cheaper, almost without a doubt actually. But you’d be asking a significant amount of people to eat nothing but rice and beans every day because it’s all they can afford, and honestly that sounds less healthy.
Lol it's definitely not less healthy to eat rice and beans Edit: the disagreement is hilarious... yes this diet would have nutrient gaps. Yes, you'll be lacking in vitamin c. But like... eat an orange every once in a while, using the savings from eating your cheap, nutritious rice and beans. The nutrient gaps are a downside of this diet that's far easier to alleviate than the downsides of a fat food diet.
If it was all you ate it definitely would be. You’d be missing countless important nutrients and you would be a very unhealthy person.
Look when you work ten hours a day for terrible wages and have an hour drive to work each way it doesn't leave much time to cook at home nor much money to eat anywhere nicer.
Same, I only eat fast food like 1-3 times a year lol
Redditor discovers that food designed to be addictive is addictive. next week, twitter user discovers outside
I'd say it's moreso that the extreme price increase has people upset because fast food is SUPPOSED to be the cheapest food you can get and even THAT had become too expensive. On one hand the price increase is a nuisance, but it has helped us get groceries and cook more often because for the price of us both getting McDonald's, we could cook a whole meal with leftovers. It's just annoying since sometimes you want convenience but the price just isn't justified at all. However, I could see people who do actually eat fast food often being upset. In high school I traveled a lot for competitions, and most of us would stop by the local McDonald's to get a hot meal before we had to leave. If it had cost this much back then, I probably would've eaten a bunch of chips and snack food and still wouldn't be fully satisfied. I think teens used to get fast food a lot because they got a job or their parents gave them money. Now those teens have grown up and see the price jack and it's just insane.
But it’s never been cheaper than meal prep at home. Literally never. The gap is widening so it’s a lot harder to pretend like it’s less expensive but the talking point of McDonald’s being less than home made food has always been completely incorrect.
Yes because everyone in America is addicted to fast food. Fuk u
I'm an American and I HATE fast food and don't understand why people love it so much. It's literally gas station quality food at real restaurant prices.
They got people hooked on it by making it relatively tasty, convenient, and affordable, all things that make it especially appealing to the working class. When you grew up poor, fast food was just kinda part of the lifestyle. You didn't have that shit every week, at least not if you had good parents, but when money was tight and the pantry was empty, the dollar menu at McDonald's came to the rescue. Now it's like they're trying to turn fast food into an expensive luxury service even though the food quality has actually gone down, not up, and working class people are understandably pissed.
As if independent restaurant prices are affordable now too... Everything is expensive now including groceries.
Leave me alone. I just want my nacho fries without having to take out a second mortgage. If you've ever eaten them, you'd understand.
Or, more like we don't like the thought of what's supposed to be cheap food costing as much as food from a proper sit in restaurant.
you mean your addicted to something that gives dopamine and is around every corner of your country? how is that possible? its like asking if someone is actually addicted to porn. yes its a thing that gives a good chemical release of course you can get addicted
It's made to be addictive. What's so surprising? I often make fast-food-type dishes without ten sauces, sugar, and other BS. It's a whole different food where a couple of bites make you full. In a fast food chain, I would eat three times as much and still be hungry.
Addicted for 20 years now. It is a daily struggle to resist the constant nagging, the incessant picking at the back of your brain to go get “just one more”. It’s never just one more.
No, it's never was a joke though
TIL you have to be addicted to something if you complain about it.
I think it's less about addiction and more about fast food being all they can afford.
Scientist spent decades perfecting just the right chemicals and additives to make our fast food as addictive as possible just for some chad in Europe to think it's a joke!
I spend $3 at taco bell once a week. I have to drive a long distance for work once a week, and I like to stop at a certain taco bell along the way for 2 bean and rice burritos. No drink. I bring water with me.
Less about addiction and more about time. Its the convenience. I work 12 hour days, I don't have much time to cook.
TL;DR: It's not necessarily addiction. Fast food is just a symbol of things getting out of control. I can't say that people aren't addicted, but the reason they're freaking out is because the hierarchy is out of wack. Fast food companies have forgotten their place. Fast food was supposed to be available, edible, and most of all, affordable. With that being said, inflation is change. And a ***LOT*** of people were tolerating the change when it was just 2%, but it's bringing things to light. Young people are finding out what we meant when people would say "a bag of chips was 25¢".
Yeah, no. That shit is too rich for my blood. I'm paying too many things to get McDonald's. Honestly. I don't even want fast food burgers. I'll go to the store and get the 25% off beef. I ain't paying someone to cook for me. Got plenty food at home thanks. Healthier than fast food and I got fruit and make the best stew and cornbread.
I can't imagine why anyone would regularly eat fast food. I will occasionally pick up something from Arby's or Chick-Fil-A, but we're talking a few times a year. And yes, the prices have gotten high, so that has even further reduced my stops at those places.
Redditors when they realize high prices suck regardless of being addicted or not...? I genuinely don’t understand this meme it’s so pointless
you need food to live dude
Fast food is literally addicting and you don't know how addicting it is until you finally cut it. I used to eat fast food all the time when I was younger and it tasted so good. After I completely changed my lifestyle and cut out fast food, it's crazy how disgusting most of it is. But after you eat it once you'll be thinking about eating it again for a couple of days, and the 2nd or 3rd time you've eaten it in a row it starts to not taste that bad
I hate to say it but Americans ( and I’m one) will make a lot of excuses to just not cook. Not talking about you truck drivers. I’m talking about the people who can afford to cook but just don’t. They’re out there and some are in this thread lol
It's funny because people have used the excuse that fast food is cheaper than eating healthy to justify their laziness for years and I'm hoping that these people who are finally learning to shop correctly by looking for ingredients and cooking their meals realize that it is actually far cheaper to make it yourself than buying it from someone else. The only people I have ever heard say fast food is cheaper are the people who only eat fast food.
Our poor and lower class are fat. But, they’re actually starving nutritionally.
We aren’t addicted, most of us anyway, it’s just the cheapest and quickest food, a common supplement in times of financial struggle or time constraints. Now you might as well sit down at a restaurant for the price of a McDonald’s meal. It is changing the way people live their lives. Source: am not fat
Yea as an American, I thought it was a joke too. Bring back fat shamming
I think this sub has a serious xenophobic problem. Every other post about any other country/race/nation gets locked but when it's making fun of Americans it's ok. How does that make sense?
No one's addicted, it's just more convenient, ofcourse people will be upset
MCDONALD'S IS A LIFESTYLE NOT A CHOICE! you gotta be down with the clown.
[удалено]
Ah yes because people complaining about prices on the internet means that everyone in the country is addicted to fast food. Makes sense.
I'm on the fence with fast food. Maybe it just isn't as good here in Australia? Sometimes, it hits the spot, but most of the time it's just filling a hole.
My roommates eat fast food on a daily basis after driving to a place that takes 10 minutes to walk to.
They pay a lot of money to make sure they get locations in "food deserts" meaning areas where fresh groceries are available within a reasonable distance. Some food deserts are in rich areas away from high-traffic businesses. Most are in low income areas. When you don't have a car, live on fixed income, or especially if you have a disability, then walking or taking a bus across town for groceries is a huge undertaking. Eventually most people will end up in a time crunch and will choose the ready to eat food once, then twice, then regularly. We have entire areas in my town that are nothing but fast food, mini-marts, and gas stations for miles.
I'm sorry but what did you THINK we do?
I am a fast food addict
Our fast food hasn't been worth money in a LONG time
I'm a fast food addict. I like eating things that run.
Sadly, yes, but 
I can quit whenever I want. later: "I will suck your dick for a quarter-pounder dude!"
I'm watching France fall head over heels for American fast food brands like ^^^^^^^^^^stop. ^^^^^^^^^^don't. ^^^^^^^^^^comeback
Fast food prices in America are like bread prices in France, the country will burn if something doesn't change for the better.
I need fat. Im underweight
Doordarsh has america by the balls
Try Rallys 1 time and you'll understand lol. But seriously there's a main street that's by my house that has 20 different chains within a quarter mile drag. And it's easier to hop in the car and go through a drive through than to cook.
The messed up part is how fast food prices were actually competition with a regular trip to the grocery store for the longest time in the states. They're only now "catching up" to your weekly/biweekly grocery store trip and the complaints are coming in.
lack of culture for home foods & of culture in of itself to eat fast food. im sticking to my chorizo egg & corn tortilla tacos yall
Damn we in May and i still didnt go to a fast food joint, bout to do it next weekend
There is also the German meltdown over kebap prices.
Crazy how every European is an absolute fucking clown.
I'm just addicted to food in general
Big fast food chain in 3rd world country is expensive AF.
For me ill have fast food like once every 4 months and its like damn that was cheaper before.
I don’t eat a lot of it but it’s such a bummer when even fast food isn’t cheap. It definitely makes inflation seem so much worse (even though fast food prices rose faster than inflation).
The US is large space meaning often times a fast food place is much closer than a grocery store. Closest grocery store is over 20 mins drive from my house often in traffic. Fast food? There’s a McDonald’s 5 minutes away… in addition to that buying premade meals and such in the US is asking for preservatives, not much better for you, but certainly not as tasty as fast food. I hate fast food, but sometimes I’m not driving the extra 20 mins from college and then back and also taking the time to cook it. It sucks but it’s a hole I’ve been sucked into
discovered a local restaurant and for 5€ they made me the best hamburger ever, I'm not coming back to McDonald's
Fast food is often cheaper and easier to obtain than actually nutritious food here in America. We're not "addicted", we're pissed off because there are days now where we and our children simply don't get to eat. Food insecurity is very, VERY real for many of us.
>My face when a yuropoor enjoys slow food near me
I never understood that. I eat Popeyes 3 days in a row and Im sick of it
We’re not addicted to it, it’s because fast food used to be affordable. You used to be able to make $20 last a week. Now it barely buys you a meal.
It’s not even fast anymore
When you get in from working all day the last thing you generally want to do is cook. Those who can afford to will often choose an alternative to cooking
Sad but true
For me, it's not about the fast food itself, it's about the fact that in the span of ten years, the value of my money at certain establishments has halved.
I dunno man, the Burger King next to my work has a huge line at lunch as all the trades(wo)men hit their breaks.
A lot of Americans are lazy and will do anything they can to not have to do anything themselves. “Better pay 35% more for my fast food to be delivered via grub hub! I sure do love a luke warm over priced cheeseburger!” Let’s see what excuses are made in likely angry comments about how hard cooking is and stuff, and acting like every meal is like making a gourmet 4 course meal lol. But…fast food used to be cheap and not nearly as full as crap as it is now. But too many Americans just remain angry at the current fast food situation and then still buy it. And then see my first paragraph again lol.
I think for most of them it's about not having the time to cook at home or the money for better food.
As a full time student and full time worker (especially during finals) there is NO way I have time for anything but fast food. Walk into McDonald’s, chipotle, Panda Express etc and I walk out in less than 5 minutes with a tasty hot meal. Even those 5 minutes feel like a luxury but yeah. Need me my ff
Well, as an old dude, I can tell you this much. When I was a kid, it was the coolest thing for your parents to bring you to fast food because it rarely happened. It was maybe once every two months and there might’ve been a special going on for the shake, but it was very not often. The entire system was not set up for adults. It was set up mainly for children because they had a slide there. They had a ball pit. They had everything they would make you scream, mom Dad stop here. So what I think happened is the change in the home family deal. Mothers were going to work more off because that’s exactly what had to happen because you couldn’t make it work the income. So fast food became cheap food and it became a perfect timing with two people working and trying to raise a family now it’s just adults because they don’t have any goddamn time. We’re all fucked. You’re fucked everyone’s fucked get used lol
Does your stomach not like hate you when you eat fast food? It feels like my stomach is twisting after I eat fast food