• Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    But investors are skeptical that the value meals will drive meaningful sales growth without eroding profits.

    Won’t somebody think of the red line?

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    4 months ago

    im a fast food junkie. i love the shit. covid completely changed the landscape and subsequently my habits. my blacklist is getting longer and longer. quality across the board has plummeted while prices increased.

    before covid i only had one entry; wafflehouse

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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        4 months ago

        i totally did not want to hate waffle house. i eat garbage all the time. i fight the dog for food. i did not see it coming…

        after a few decades of wanting to try it i finally go to waffle house. first of all, no pancakes?! they are fucking strict on that waffle thing. and then what i did order was just barely edible food. just awful.

        i grew up haunting dennys, which is now quite expensive for no reason.

        • Crewman@sopuli.xyz
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          4 months ago

          In your defense, my wife calls them Awful House, because every single time she’s gone there, there’s been something in her food (hair, bugs, bandaid).

          • Jo Miran
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            4 months ago

            It really depends on the establishment. I went to one in the Atlanta area that was just disgusting, but then you hit one in a small town in the Florida panhandle and suddenly you get the best harsh browns you have had in your entire life with some eggs and bacon cooked to perfection. Thankfully the Atlanta suburb experience was my only bad experience. Most of the time it was very good with the occasional amazing.

            IMHO, small town Waffle House tend to be a safe bet.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            BANDAID??? I can see how a stray hair, or an airborn bug might land on your food.

            But a BANDAID??? How does that even happen??? Was it used?

            • Crewman@sopuli.xyz
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              4 months ago

              I just asked, and she presumes yes. I’m assuming someone was touching the food without gloves, and it came off.

        • Alk@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Okay listen. I get where you’re coming from. I can understand having shitty food. But no pancakes? They are called the waffle house for a reason :P

      • Alk@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s been an actual decade since I’ve seen this face in the wild unironically.

      • wia@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        Waffle House, Denny’s, IHOP, aren’t even fast food… They’re just bad food. I still don’t understand why people eat at these places. It’s not like it’s ever the only option, or the cheapest option.

        Also I love this picture.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        4 months ago

        Trust me it is not…

        I ate there at the request of a family friend in the last few years…

        Ew. Oh God ew… the greasiest saltiest overcooked hash brown crisp ever topped with flavourless meat and cheese that chewed like gristle.

        I don’t know how it’s not on there for more people. Not when Diners literally exist.

        • nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          it’s for ratchet drunk people to hang out after everything else closes and get on world star hip hop for 15 minutes of internet fame

          that being said I did enjoy their hash browns. yes it’s been over 15 years since I was a poor student patron of their establishment

          • Jo Miran
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            4 months ago

            "Rosé for dinner. Waffle House for breakfast. " – Rick Ross

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Good. Fuck ‘em.

    Small, privately owned delis and pizzerias need your money more than shareholders, and the food is better too.

  • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Not only did the prices go up but the portions shrank. The whopper is hardly a whopper anymore, its a regular sized patty in a wide bun.

    This is the main reason i dont really eat it anymore.

    • Vinny_93@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Shrinkflation is real.

      In any event, it only works if folks go often enough to not notice small shrinks. If you’d go twice a year or something you’d be amazed at how and why these fuckers get away with it. Vote with your wallets, people!

      • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        burrito i used to get from a local chain used to be busting and i would get annoyed sometimes because it would become unwrapped. Now, it looks like half the old burrito and it looks like they wrapped the burrito twice with how much tortilla is left

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        4 months ago

        That has more meat in one of those patties than the current Big Mac has in the whole burger. The patties are so thin now that they’re going to be transparent soon. Some lady made a video recently where here pickles were thicker than the beef patties on Big Mac.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m not supposed to eat beef much anymore, and with McDonalds shrinking their food so much it’s hardly even tempting.

        But THIS??? I might be a weak man if McDonalds offered THIS Big Mac at a reasonable price.

  • InternetUser2012@midwest.social
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    4 months ago

    After getting ripped off by McDonald’s and then seeing how much they raised prices above inflation compared to the rest of the industrly, I’ll never eat there again. Rip me off, fuck you, your food is shit anyways.

  • mystik@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    They are also using this as an excuse to get customers on their data hoovering apps to get access to any of the best deals.

    • archchan
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      4 months ago

      The McDonalds app explicitly stated they will measure your intelligence. Needless to say, I deleted my account and uninstalled.

        • archchan
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          4 months ago

          Same as every other corp. A combination of every data point they can get their hands on to build a “consumer” profile on you.

          It’s that last point, “Inferences”, that you should focus on.

        • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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          4 months ago

          The captchas to log in are all logic puzzles (I have no idea this is just the first thing that popped into my head)

          • SqueakyBeaver@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 months ago

            A lot of captchas normally help train AI models, but I would not be surprised if Google and other captcha providers have tracked your intelligence using captchas

    • AWittyUsername@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s the same with supermarkets, and every single website.

      It’s insane, people are like “who cares if they know I buy milk” not realising that actually all the data you’re providing is combined in aggregate and they likely have a very complete profile of everything about you.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      4 months ago

      Nah that would imply they have good deals. The dollar menus are still basically done even on the apps and it feels like because they decided they are doing cheaper combos the deals needed to go. Haven’t seen good deals on the apps since they were clawing back customers.

      Someone with a spreadsheet is finding the exact profit margins they want and the answer is more than they are currently getting.

  • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    It’s been good, pushed me to shop more local.

    used to be national chain fast food was cheap, buy a meal for ~$3-6, and local chains / restaurants where more expensive, $7-15.

    Now I can go to a sit down local chain for $7-20 or get a fast food for 15-20

  • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Yeah 5$ for a drop of Coca-Cola and a memory of a hamburger between two playing cards that takes an hour to get to you

  • bluestribute@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I used to eat fast food every day after work. If I had a side hustle, I would eat fast food after my side hustle. But I stopped when I would go through the drive thru, pay $15, then sit for 10 minutes in the parking lot for old, cold, shitty food. Fast food isn’t fast. Fast food isn’t cheap. And fast food doesn’t taste good. It’s been over 3 years since I voluntarily ate fast food and I’m never going back.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    4 months ago

    fast food companies can go fuck themselves. i used to get fast food at least a few times a week. since the things i ordered went from ~$11 to ~$18 i now get fast food maybe once every few months. it’s almost august and i think i’ve gotten it 3 times this year when there was no other option, and each time was a disappointment. even though i always expect shitty garbage from it

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        4 months ago

        For me it was when meal combos hit double digits. I understand prices in western economies will always increase due to inflation, but just seeing two digits reminded me that fast food is overpriced for what it is and it isn’t even fast anymore.

        For nearly the same price I can get take home from a regular restaurant that will end up being three meals that will taste better and pick it up faster than going through a drive through.

        • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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          4 months ago

          Granted where I live there are tons of food options, but that’s the part that gets me, how much they’ve gone up in price compared to other places. I probably would have glossed over the price increase as just inflation if they didn’t start costing as much as local spots but you get worse food

  • Jo Miran
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    4 months ago

    Anybody old enough to remember Burger King’s $1 Whopper?

    My four heart stents remember.

  • forrcaho@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    People learned how to cook again during the Pandemic … found out it wasn’t hard, and some even found it enjoyable. Tacking on a period of inflation right after that, and fast food is no longer anywhere near the economic staple it was in the Before Times.

  • Laser@feddit.org
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    4 months ago

    Go to McDonald’s about every 4 years because of some external circumstance

    “Yup, still garbage”

    Have one in 5 minute walking distance ever since I moved here 5 years ago. Never bought anything there. They’d need to pay me to eat their offerings.

    But in fairness shoutouts to the McDonald’s in Madrid airport terminal 4 outside of security. The only place in there not trying to rip you off. Had my share of salads there