I survived on one meal a day at McDonald’s when I was stuck doing day labor in Seattle around the 2002 crash.
Back then it was actually cheap to get enough food to survive on for under 5 bucks. I remember the 20 cheeseburger and hamburger deals they had twice a week.
The price increases to cheeseburgers really hurts, when that was usually my main dollar menu deal.
during that time, you could get whopper or jumbo jack or big 'n tasty, etc. for 99c just about everywhere. 3 bucks was all it took to eat lunch…
even less if you ordered the ‘all american meal’ at mcdonalds: small hamburger or cheeseburger, small fries, small drink. was only $1.79 or $1.89. wasn’t always on the menu board, but i never encountered a store that didn’t sell it even if it wasn’t.
its almost 12 bucks just to get a whopper ‘meal’ here now.
BK around us has the 2 for $6 deal and I’ve found it very useful when we run late and can’t cook. Not dollar menu prices by any means, but most affordable option we’ve found among the fast food joints around us
If using the app, BKs value is generally pretty good because they often have decent coupon deals reletively speaking compared to other fast food joints.
I really don’t think you could’ve back in the dollar menu days. A double cheese burger for less than $1? Unless you’re buying you’re ingredients in a pretty bulk size (which if you’re regularly eating off the dollar menu, you probably can’t afford to do), I doubt you could have gotten much better than that
I used to get 3 double cheeseburgers and a large tea for $4.20 including tax. McDonald’s and Little Caesars were by far the cheapest meals I could buy unless you want to count ramen noodle packs. Groceries were way more expensive. Now both are expensive LOL.
So $0.80 for a burger or $0.99 for a double cheeseburger. I’ll take the double.
Besides that, if you only had $5 to spend you could not have bought the supplies to make a single burger for $5. Have to buy at least a pound of beef, a whole pack of buns, etc. Even in your example I’d argue fast food was cheaper.
And consistency. It may not be the best food in the world, but I can order anywhere between Miami to Miramichi, New York to Nanaimo, or LA to London, and get the exact same Big Mac and fries every single time.
This food was never cheap tbh
The point was convenience - a hot and ready to eat meal that you can grab at any time and don’t have to prepare yourself.
They had a thing called the dollar menu for decades.
During the 90s-2000s, they’d have hamburger Tuesdays where you can buy a hamburger for like $0.29 cents.
They had ads where families would come with “a few bucks” and feed everyone.
I survived on one meal a day at McDonald’s when I was stuck doing day labor in Seattle around the 2002 crash.
Back then it was actually cheap to get enough food to survive on for under 5 bucks. I remember the 20 cheeseburger and hamburger deals they had twice a week.
The price increases to cheeseburgers really hurts, when that was usually my main dollar menu deal.
during that time, you could get whopper or jumbo jack or big 'n tasty, etc. for 99c just about everywhere. 3 bucks was all it took to eat lunch…
even less if you ordered the ‘all american meal’ at mcdonalds: small hamburger or cheeseburger, small fries, small drink. was only $1.79 or $1.89. wasn’t always on the menu board, but i never encountered a store that didn’t sell it even if it wasn’t.
its almost 12 bucks just to get a whopper ‘meal’ here now.
BK around us has the 2 for $6 deal and I’ve found it very useful when we run late and can’t cook. Not dollar menu prices by any means, but most affordable option we’ve found among the fast food joints around us
If using the app, BKs value is generally pretty good because they often have decent coupon deals reletively speaking compared to other fast food joints.
Well to be fair it’s not McDonald’s fault that the dollar is practically worthless now
It used to be cheap. It wasn’t that long ago there was a dollar menu. Now a cheeseburger is $2.79.
You could always make a cheaper burger yourself. Yeah a pack of buns and and pound of burger would cost more, but per burger it was always cheaper.
I really don’t think you could’ve back in the dollar menu days. A double cheese burger for less than $1? Unless you’re buying you’re ingredients in a pretty bulk size (which if you’re regularly eating off the dollar menu, you probably can’t afford to do), I doubt you could have gotten much better than that
You totally could, those patties were tiny af and a pound of beef went far enough for it to even out
I used to get 3 double cheeseburgers and a large tea for $4.20 including tax. McDonald’s and Little Caesars were by far the cheapest meals I could buy unless you want to count ramen noodle packs. Groceries were way more expensive. Now both are expensive LOL.
You could get a pound of ground beef and a pack of burger buns and I think the one time I did the math it came out to 80 cents a burger.
So $0.80 for a burger or $0.99 for a double cheeseburger. I’ll take the double.
Besides that, if you only had $5 to spend you could not have bought the supplies to make a single burger for $5. Have to buy at least a pound of beef, a whole pack of buns, etc. Even in your example I’d argue fast food was cheaper.
Well yeah, the last time I did the math was probably 2006 or something lol
Though the prices I’m seeing currently are $7.94 for 2lbs, $2.88 for 8 buns, $2.48 for 24 cheese slices.
$1.51 per 1/4lb cheese burger.
tbh I have no idea how much this stuff costs without looking it up anymore, I just eat vegetables and beans now lol
And consistency. It may not be the best food in the world, but I can order anywhere between Miami to Miramichi, New York to Nanaimo, or LA to London, and get the exact same Big Mac and fries every single time.
Except now it takes forever to get your food from a place like this and they refuse to let you order ahead, which is insane.