memes

Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let's be real: It's barely food.

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.

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!

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!

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.

In my days, you got a week's worth of calories for $3.50

$25

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.).

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.