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Saw an article recently, can't remember where, that basically said that the sole reason fast food was doing so poorly was pricing. That McDonald's was charging Texas Roadhouse prices, so people were choosing to skip McDonald's and go to Texas Roadhouse.
I believe it. The whole appeal of fast food is that it's fast and cheap.
As a european, fast food is just like a category of food, and more of an occasional treat for me. Normally, I just eat my own homemade food, which is even cheaper. So I guess I see it a little differently, and fast food is allowed to be not cheap if it's "good".
Hell yeah, gimme that cancer patty and those artery clogging fries, baby! But make the obesity water size "for kids".
"Fast and cheap" as in cheaper than buying precooked food somewhere else. Of course stuff you make at home will be cheaper.
Unless you get the promoted deals it's starting to be like that everywhere. Near me if im getting two burgers and two fries, I spend less at five guys than I do at burger king. Why would I ever go to BK?
Even FG is unreasonable.
My wife and 6YO kid went to FG last week and spent $27 on a meal for two and they split the fries.
A few ounces of meat, 50 cents of soda, a couple potatoes and an arguably 2 nice quality rolls. That meal cost them $5. Even with inflated labor it should be more like $15.
Fucksake man, will you PLEASE think of the shareholders
That happens when you just think of a bigger number and forget the customer somewhere down the line.
Also publicly traded companies and shareholder value. Everything could be much cheaper if not for shareholders draining every penny from companies. Edit: and CEOs/ managers of course.
This is exactly what subway is doing.
"A regular deli charges $16 for a sub/hero/grinder/hoagie/pickafuckingnameforalongsandwitch so we're charging $14! It's less they'll still come the econ 101 book says they will! I'll take my multimillion dollar bonus now tyvm."
Yeah, but a regular deli makes a decent fucking sandwich and isn’t using the cheapest institutional ingredients imaginable.
found this, they all outpace the inflation rate so it's just greed as always.
I very rarely eat out but if I am going to end up blowing on 30 on two meals I may as well blow 45 on a local spot with a seat and a hefty tip to the waiter.
they brought the quality down to match the 5$... did they bring it back up to be worth 14?! i kinda doubt it
Not only that, they lowered the quality at the same time. I remember when a subway sandwich was still kinda gross, but at least it was filling and you could have a decently healthy calorie dollar if you ordered right. Now, half the weight of your sandwich is in that super sweetened bread and the meat portions are tiny
super sweetened bread
Fun fact: it's so sweetened that the Supreme Court of Ireland (SCOI is a fun acronym) reclassified it as cake.
Also, Subway chicken is only 50% chicken.
To find out what the other 50% is, listen to the latest episode of my podcast Subway Exposure!
Just kidding, I don't have a podcast. It's soybeans.
The best local sandwich shop in my town sells really good ones for $8-11. If Subway were still $5 they might be competitive. At $14 it sounds like the company no longer understands its product.
The best sandwich shop in my town is the deli at the grocery store. They are less concerned about skimping on ingredients because it's more important to entice you in and get you spending money in the aisles.
For $8 or $9 they will stuff a footlong sub so full they can barely fold it over. And it's generally fresher ingredients than you'd find in a Subway
Fast food is losing the plot. If it isn't cheap, then there is really no point.
Why is it that fast food thinks it can charge for sit-down restaurant prices nowadays?
Quit buying from giant corporations.
I can go to my local family owned Banh Mi joint and get a sandwich made with real meat and fresh bread for $6. For $12, I could add a boba tea and a side of fried dumplings.
Cool, I don't have one of those. I have subway, mcdonalds, burger king, and a bunch of local restaurants that charge just as much for food because they can.
A lot of smaller places only have like two options for going out to eat and one is a subway attached to a gas station
Food deserts are real, and they show you real fast how exploitable you can be.
That and they fucked up the menu so they’re pushing premade sandwiches over the “build your own” model they’ve had for years. I used to go to subway because I knew exactly what I wanted and asked for it, now their menu is unrecognizable.
Which is hilarious, because its not as if they pay enough people to be on shift at the same time so that they could make their menu items efficiently. The last 2 dozen times I've had to pick up someone's order from one of 5 or so local Subway's, they have had 1 single person running the entire joint. I've made it a point to ask every time I go:
1, and about half of them opened alone, and all were closing alone! (Even young women!!!!!)
Always gets met with some form of "Yes, or even busier, with the occasional half hour where nobody comes in"
Nope.
Its at that point I tell them to take all the time they need. And that they are dramatically underpaid and should riot.....
I went to a BBQ joint here in Texas a week ago. Got 3/4 lb of brisket and some potato salad for the missus and me.
To my surprise... It costed the same thing as 2 menu items at McDonald's. Like seriously?....
What's the point of going to subway and McDonald's if I can just get some BBQ at a restaurant.
(Didn't name the restaurant since I'm concerned this will make them realize they can charge more)
IMO, no sandwich on Earth is worth $14. Especially not one from SooubWay.
I disagree, there's a sub place near me with a 16" sandwich with like 5 meats, 3 cheeses, and lots of toppings that costs about $14. The heft is noticable, even when I'm hungry I can only eat about half.
THEY WHAT?
I don't even eat at Subway, but nearly tripling the price in one go? My gawd.
It hasn’t actually been $5 in a long time. It was like $7 last time I went (a few years ago).
I tried to actually go to one about 2 weeks ago. 5 workers, and they said - "oh he'll help you" and pointed to another worker. While the 4 of them stood next to the till gossiping about home life, and the poor dude just kept making Sandwichs for the online orders coming in. Only said hi to me once, after the 5th sandwich, I just told them I'm out of time and I'll go. They thanked me for coming in. They're just awful top to bottom. Bad corporate culture
Do these companies not realize their whole business model is cheap food for broke people? I lived off of $5 footlongs when I was a student. There's no way I could have afforded that with the prices they're charging now. And now that I do have disposable income and could afford their food I wouldn't go there anyway because there are way better options for the same price.
The "$5 footlong" campaign was a terrible idea, because it just makes consumers aware of how overpriced fast food is today.
That, and slapping a fixed price on a staple product the business sells. Even with normal two percent inflation eventually there's going to be disappointment when the price has to be raised.
I'm not gonna look it up, but who recently bought Subway and is now cashing in on tanking it so they can sell the corpse?
If you ever watch CompanyMan on youtube, it's like 90% of all "The Fall of [Company]" involves either going public and then rapidly expanding, or "acquired by private equity firm then died in 5 years"
They thought they could charge the same money as real sandwich places. Lol.
I quit going to Subway when they changed their whole menu. I went and asked for a spicy italian, blank stare from the employee, "uh, that's not on the menu". I said "Okay" and left. The menu wasn't structured to "make your own" thing not on the menu. Subway was never spectacular food but serviceable, quick, and fairly inexpensive. Not the case anymore, and the weird shit they've advertised lately looks awful. FFS, ad are supposed to make things look better than they are, so if these ads look better than the real thing, it must be dreadful irl.
"Why are our sales plummeting?"
Because you didn't spend any part of that price hike on improving the quality of your food.
Why are fast food places charging premium prices for slowed down food with cheaper ingredients? If I'm gonna spend over $10 or over 10 minutes at a place you bet your ass it isn't gonna be a fast food joint. It's gonna be a place with real ingredients and an atmosphere that isn't overflowing toilets.
For those who haven't seen it, John Oliver has a good bit on subway. https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM?si=AMkHeXR5yIpZCu3l
When your local chain restaurant/fast food joint starts going off-menu to entice people to come in, you know a business is struggling. Seeing Churros on the menu in a Mexican establishment is perfectly normal. Seeing Churros on the Subway menu is a bit alarming.
I think it's pretty clear the Subway execs (or the executives of their parent/holding company) foresee a recession and are doing as much profit-taking as possible while there's still time before the big crash hits and everybody tightens up their budgets.
Nah I think it’s far more that they’ve developed a reputation as cheap, everywhere, and mediocre then they raised the prices massively. I don’t know anyone who thinks “you know what I’m craving? Subway”. They used to have other niches but sub shops are common and I can get a better vegetarian option elsewhere and for cheaper.
I don’t think they can pull out of this tailspin unless they slash prices to the bone
There is zero reason to go to Subway sandwiches over Jersey Mike's now that the prices are the same. Subway made sense when it was cheap. A decent sandwich, at a decent price, in a decent amount of time. Now it's an overpriced bad sandwich. Bye!
If I want to spend that much on a sandwich I'll go to Jersey Mike's.
Good to know this is a global thing, Subway's Brazil operation has been on decline since they used the pandemic to raise their prices to absurd levels, all the ones near me closed down that weren't inside a shopping mall. Never ordered there again after they started charging premium burguer prices for their shit.
They changed out their bread too, didn't they? Not in a good way like you'd expect because of the price change, but like, dough mixed with cardboard.
I think their bread always sucked personally. Like they bake their own bread and it always smells like ass in their restaurants. How is that even possible? Freshly baked bread usually smells good.