I get a quarter pounder with cheese, fries and a drink. It costs almost $15. I can go to a cafe where I’m waited on and served decent food for $20.
I buy fast food because I can get it quickly and because it tastes good to me. There’s nothing quite like getting a fresh serving of battered fries covered in sauce when you’re hungry and too tired to cook! 😋
I like fast food. A steakhouse hamburger from Burger King is just as good, if not better than most hamburgers I’ve gotten from restaurants. On top of this I don’t need to wait 30 minutes to get it, I don’t need to deal with waiters and I can just leave when I’m done rather than wait for someone to bring a a check.
I personally have adopted a mantra of if I’m going to eat fast food it’s going to be as frugal as possible so I have all of their shitty mobile apps. I check them when I want fast food, and I generally won’t eat out unless I find a good deal.
Same as they always have. It’s fast. You can grab taco bell in a flash compared to even the best run diner or cafe. And you don’t have to sit around with a bunch of strangers that are essentially walking disease vectors to do it, unless you want to.
The draw of fast food joints has never been primarily about the food quality, or service. Yeah, you’ll likely pick the place that has what you consider better food, and avoid shit service, but that’s a different thing.
Even joints that pretend to not be fast food (like chikfila) only pull a small portion of their consumers on the food primarily. They might draw some customers away from other fast food places, but not from sit-down places like you’re talking about
a bunch of strangers that are essentially walking disease vectors
What came first? Anxiety or this totally healthy attitude?
Covid happened.
I know it sound crazy, but maybe some days use the time you spend on traveling to and from the fast food place and cook home instead multiple portions of food you enjoy for a fraction of cost.
I don’t know, but I can tell you with certainty that I don’t.
It’s in the name. It’s fast. You order at a drive-thru and you’re on your way in a couple of minutes. I agree though that prices are insane now and doesn’t justify the quality. I’d rather go to an asian restaurant for their lunch specials and get more for my buck.
See, I don’t get the fast drive through thing. I pull up to the drive through. They have two lanes. Both are full and there are 10 cars ahead of me. I have to wait 10 minutes or more just to place an order and 10 minutes to get to the window to pay. It’s generally not fast at all.
In a lot of cases it’s not actually fast (not just waiting in line at the drive thru, but also the time driving to and from the place), but people would apparently rather sit in traffic than cook, for some reason.
Cooking takes time, ingredients, and if you want it palatable, ability. Fast food takes driving up to a location and saying “give me something easy”.
It’s not as fast as it used to be, but it’s still relatively quick, especially if it’s on your way home from wherever you are. Any extra time is just spent doomscrolling on your phone or listening to your preferred media pundit.
I don’t drive. At work and at home I have multiple fast food options within a very short walking distance
people would apparently rather sit in traffic than cook, for some reason.
The thing sittinf in drive through always takes time too lol
Its not really about the taste - its about the speed and convenience. If you want good food, you make your own. If you just finished a shift in a back-breaking job, and hate cooking, then its a chance to relax and free up some time.
the speed and convenience.
Is this even true?
Relative to cooking a similar meal, absolutely. Getting McDonalds takes like 5 mins and almost no effort. Less if ordering for delivery or pickup. If I want to cook myself a burger its probably going to take me like 40 minutes to makes and fry the burger, and prepare toppings. Im sure a good chef could do it much faster, but thats not me, and esspecially not after a full work day.
Don’t forget the time and effort to clean too
Plus the grocery shopping!
I left it out because its something that can (theoretically) be left for a more convenient time such as a weekend, so its a less one-to-one comparison. That said, thats still additional work compared to buying food.
My point being that it is never 5 minutes anymore and it costs the same as any fast casual joint which can also be had. maybe no drive through and maybe thats the selling point for mcds but drive through aint fast either, just dont have to get out of the car.
Bro chipotle gets made in real time as I speak. It’s faster.
mcds has never been 5 minutes since ive been alive.
It’s like… shockingly faster for me?
If I have to wait five whole minutes for fast food they’re either slammed or they’re having equipment problems. I can literally count on one hand the amount of times it’s happened in the last few years.
Tbf, though, I don’t eat fast food incredibly often. Maybe once a month.
Me 2001: Mcdonalds is running an anniversary special. Cheeseburgers are $0.10. Fuck yeah! I’mma order 20 them sumbitches!!!
Me today at age 41: I haven’t had Mcdonalds since before the pandemic.
“Hi, I’ll get a double quarter pounder with cheese meal, large, and I’ll wait for new fries.”
“That’ll be $26.69”
“HAHAHAHA, right??? Could you imagine??? what’s you’re name? James? Could you imagine that James? Charging that much for some Mcdonalds? HAHAHAHAHA!!! Ok James. That’s a good one. Now what’s the actual price?”
“$26.69”
“HAAAAAAAA, ok, ok, funs fun, but c’mon. I gotta pay for my food. What is it really?”
“$26.69”
“Wha—are you being serious?”
“Yes.”
“ARE YOU HIGH???”
“Yes.”
“Well…uhhhhh…”
checks the board and does the math
“WHAT THE FUCK??? IS RAY CROC HIGH???”
“He’s dead.”
“WELL I DON’T THINK YOU CAN BE HIGH WHEN YOU’RE DEAD JAMES!!!”
“I know. That’s why we gotta spend the time that we’ve got on this planet doing what we love, with the people that we love. We don’t have a lot of time on this planet, and someday, maybe someday soon, something could happen. Then your best friend is just taken from you. With no warning. Maybe a lightning strike. Maybe hit by a drunk driver. You never know. So you gotta live your life doing what you can while you can to make sure that you have no regrets. Last thing you want is for someone to die before you can tell them you love them.”
“Wow. That was beautiful. I’m sorry about your friend.”
“Oh no. All my friends are still living. I tell them I love them all the time. And they love me too. Not in a romantkc way, but in a pure of heart real human connection kind of way. We love each other like brothers.”
“That is a surprising level of introspection from someone of your age. You have a real sense of emotional maturity.”
“Hey, thanks! That’ll be $26.69”
“FUUUUUUUUUUU-----”
the craving for absolute slop rears its ugly head every once in a while. I blame the ennui
Yep. I love high quality food and spend a lot of time learning to copy from chefs I like. I’m very selective about ingredients (e.g. fish, only so much is flown in daily and accessible to normies), often make my own sauces, and have a pretty large collection of dinnerware and lacquerware for accurate plating.
Yet like clockwork, several times a year I will eat multiple McRib patties in a single sitting. That shit has presumably the worst ingredients, the same sauce as every other year slathered inconsistently, and is presented in a cardboard box that has definitely gotten thinner. It is in no way worth anywhere near the price but I do it anyway.
Sometimes slop hits the spot. Plus I can’t make my own heavily processed slabs of… whatever those things contain.
Because most of the non-fast food restaurants in my rural town are priced highly for the rich yuppies LARPing blue collar living.
I live in southern CA and burritos are cheap ✌️ Once a week it’s nice to not have to cook.
Burritos aren’t fast food unless you’re getting them from Taco Bell.
There’s a lot of reasons people still eat fast food. Others have pointed out though that fast food these days isn’t all that cheap and in some cases isn’t even all that fast/convenient when compared to other alternatives.
I can’t speak to that as it’s been decades since I’ve stepped inside a fast food restaurant save to use the bathroom while traveling, but I can guess that it also has to do with nostalgia. Some people grew up eating that shit and it provides them with a sense of comfort and familiarity. While I’m not going to hold my breath, it is my hope that the predominance of fast food will die alongside cable news when the younger generations come of age.
pfft. sometimes its worth the 5$ to not have to slow down to cafe speed. and i like fast food, its designed to be overtly tasty
Sometimes I need food fast
It aint fat anymore tho
