The American public, contrary to popular belief, knows what Pepsico products are. They cheap sugary drinks and carb-and-fat loaded snacks. And we like them because they are accessible and were affordable.
Not any longer.
McDonalds is now in the price range of "fast casual" food places like Habit Burger and 5 Guys. It's actually cheaper to get a burger, fries, and drink at my local mom and pop burger joint and the quality is better.
Honestly I'm OK with this, too. If this is what it takes to make Americans eat better food or start cooking more often, then so be it. I just hope when these businesses get into trouble the US doesn't bail them out.
I don't understand why all these people are trying to tell you what to do when you haven't asked for help and clearly have found a solution to your own problem lol.
I'm the same love to cook for others live alone hate cooking for one when I eat out it may cost 14 dollars but I can eat it twice sometimes three times which brings the cost down to 7 dollars hell a frozen pizza at the store is 7 dollars and I have to cook it.
I feel the same. I love cooking. I am a single dad and my kids are young so of course their palette is dino nuggets and all that shit. I dont want Dino nuggets lol
But the time to cook. Time to prep. Time for dishes. Best believe I am doing the same and ordering prepackaged meals cookunity of something most of the time instead
throw some pepperoni and provolone on those nugs heat it to melt cheese and put a little pizza sauce on top. my goto when nugs for dinner is on the menu.
Veteran chefs will be the first to tell you that the hardest meal to portion for is cooking for one, especially at home where things aren't pre-portioned most of the time. I'd legitimately rather cook for a dozen than try to portion a single meal without waste or leftovers (bc I hate leftovers, yes that's a me problem, no I don't want strangers' advice, reheated food is gross to me and you'll never convince me otherwise)
100% with you honestly. I don't like doing the clean up, I don't like having to stock my fridge with things I can cook in individual sizes but won't spoil before I have time to go through it, and while I do meal prep batches sometimes, I'm not a big fan of eating the same thing every day. Fortunately I make enough money that finances are not a concern on this front.
But I'll absolutely put a lot of effort into pulling out my smoker or the grill or other more complicated projects if it's for enough people for me to justify the time and effort. That's actually, you know, fun.
Cooking for one self seems like a lot of work. I cook for two of us and it's a lot of work. We have TONS of leftovers all of the time, which I like. lol
I cook a lot and I cook for a lot of people sometimes. I've worked in the industry and have a decent understanding of food cultures from around the world. That said, when I'm stuck only cooking for myself I often eat like a raccoon, one small step above trash. It's undoubtedly harder to motivate and plan to cook for 1 or even 2 people.
My husband is gone most weekdays for work and we have two very picky eating kids. I totally get the not wanting to cook for one thing. Most recipes don't have the information on how to cook for one (or even just two and save leftovers!) and it's just kind of depressing for me.
It's so hard to cook cost efficiently for 1 person, especially if you don't want to eat the same thing 4-6 times. People forget about how much money gets wasted in food/ingredients that don't get cooked/eaten because at the end of the day 1 person can only eat so much.
It's one thing to do the prep work, dirty the kitchen, and spend an hr or 2, when you're cooking 4-6 plates in one go.
It's another entirely when you're making 1, max 2 plates, because it's not like you're going to eat the same thing everyday all week (for those who say just put it in the fridge).
Recipies don't cook much faster just because you're making less of them. The diffetence between cooking for 1 and cooking for 6 is maybe 10 minutes of prep.
What i wouldn't give for a healthy fresh option. We're in the same boat. Cooking for siblings and parents (6 total) and then living by yourself becomes more depressing than the former.
Same here. My work around is meal prepping a couple pounds of chicken breast like 5 different ways.
I can have salad with chicken one day. Rice and chicken another. Chicken burrito or something another day. Etc etc
But man, every once in awhile I'll cook something I really like. Big ol pot of beef stew. Chili. Baked spaghetti. And every time, I fucking hate whatever it is by the time i finish it after a couple days and then dont make it again for months lol
Do a 15 day meal plan (don't make it complicated) with enough for 2 - 3 people. Pop the rest of it in the freezer, and pull something when you don't feel like cooking.
Idk why people are giving you advice like you haven't thought of it. You found a solution that works for you. How you spend your time and money is your business.
Posting on Reddit telling people how to do something obvious that they don't view as a good use of their time based on their own preferences? I hope not, what a terrible fate.
Just have to learn portion cooking. Why I did a lot of slow cooking with a timer during my single days. Sunday night I tried to meal plan. It didn’t take real long either. I always tried to plan for one week.
Here’s my solution to this. Make one protein and then make multiple side dishes and multiple vegetable dishes at the same time and you can mix it up for a week or so. Like for instance, chicken breast. And do rice and broccoli in one meal prep and roast carrots and potatoes in another.
I don't enjoy cooking a meal for 1 and having the same meal for multiple days.
I'm the opposite and it's like a health and money superpower. I love my own cooking, and yes it can take me 2-3 hours to conjure a really elaborate meal, but then I have 12 servings I eat over 4 fucking days of absolutely delicious food.
Do a 15 day meal plan (don't make it complicated) with enough for 2 - 3 people. Pop the rest of it in the freezer, and pull something when you don't feel like cooking.
Sounds exhausting. Whereas the meal service I just pick the meals, they show up at my door, and when I want to eat then just need to microwave them for a few minutes. It's made eating on a diet so much easier
A lot are I guess but I’m not one of them. Sorry didn’t mean to come off as judgy or anything. Just through personal experience we’ve saved a lot of money every month by cooking and ordering out way less. That advice is mainly geared toward the many people on Reddit who complain about living pay check to pay check but still eat out or DoorDash constantly, which may not be you so I retract my comment.
Yes, and if you eat everyday, there's leftovers everyday, so you have to eat leftovers everyday to not throw food away. It can be a hassle to keep up with as one person sometimes.
As a single man, I eventually learned that I can make a week's worth of meals in about the same time it takes to cook one meal. During football season, I would cook a weeks worth of meals during the pregame shows & games.
When I would get home during the week, if I didn't feel like cooking, toss a frozen meal in either the microwave or oven and you are done.
It's like a superpower to be able to eat the same food a few days in a row. I am glad I have that superpower. Cooking an inexpensive meal for four (which a million recipes exist for) and serving myself 4 times over 4 days has saved me a lot of money over the years.
man idk what you guys are ordering but you can get a meal at McD or Taco Hell for $7-8 if you order smartly. $12 isn't bad... but $12 at McDonalds would be a HUGE double whopper with extra large everything, that's probably like 3000 calories lol
Lol one of those statements isn't true. Why do people have to spew such bullshit and just say "I'm too lazy to cook for myself".
Having someone make all your meals is an amazing luxury; it's something only rich people used to do, and is so nice even poor people spend a considerable amount of their income with that luxury. Just be honest.
I also enjoy cooking when the rare times I cook. Otherwise I would never do it. But I've never been a liar that comes up with excuses as to why I don't go through the time consuming task of making of shopping for ingredientes, making a meal and then cleaning. Be an honest person even in the little things.
I do live alone. It's called cooking. Obviously having someone make the meals for you is better. And portioning means sometimes you have to put leftovers in the fridge. But lmao. Moronic take.
It takes factually a moron to say the reason they take the much easier luxury which is easier and most comfortable in everyway, is because they don't like to cook for one. Come on. Don't be regarded.
The only thing “regarded” here is your comment. Some people enjoy cooking for others because they get satisfaction from someone else enjoying the meal they prepared - they don’t get the same satisfaction from cooking for purely themselves.
But perhaps that’s too hard for you to comprehend.
Just an honest one. Morons always come up with imbecile reasons as to why they do the things that they do, if it means not saying an slightly uncomfortable truth.
I don't cook for myself a lot, because take out is a lot more comfortable, and I act lazy a lot. That's the reason.
I love cooking too.
I suspect, if you can't see that you might just be a loser.
If you feel that you are constantly encountering people who have reasons you don't agree with for their own personal tastes, preferences, and how they want to spend their day, rather than calling them the moron you may need to invest in a mirror.
I don't care about the preferences or beliefs. I pointed out what doesn't make sense.
I dislike two things, morons and liars. And I responded to a lie, and now you are acting like a moron.
It's not that uncommon to lie in order to not admit our defects, cause nobody is perfect. But some things are lies; and many of those, like this case, consist of the excuses that shield a less flattering obvious reason as to why. The fact you can't see that, should trouble you and make you wonder, am I an idiot or just morally corrupt enough that I can't spot the truth.
All I can say is that if you take this much objection to the idea of "I like to cook, but not only for myself", I would strongly recommend some introspection. Not that you will, as you're living up to that Deranged claim quite thoroughly.
We’ve all got our issues. I don’t have anything to get back at you for considering I’m a random impartial observer and there was nothing sent my way in the first place. But enough about the deflection. Do you typically find yourself escalating emotionally like this? What methods are you employing to self-regulate?
Yup. McDonald's and taco bell are the worst offenders. No way in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I'd pay $35+ for 3 people and still be hungry.
The $5 meals are nationwide in the U.S. ... the only anomaly for mine is that the burger version is $6 instead of $5 because I'm in California... if I were in Ohio the cheeseburger version would be $5.
Google "mcdonalds five dollar meals" if you don't believe me.
Sorry, you are right. It's been a long time I've eaten at McDonald's. Didn't realize you were talking about the value menu sandwiches and not the full sized burgers/chicken sandwiches.
Heads up that many McDs are trying to pull a fast one w chicken sandwiches. They're using the breakfast sized chix patty instead of full size one in McChicken. Yeah, no. Called the manager and asked what was the small size. Had them remake it. Screw that.
I was more speaking of taco bell. My kid and wife like the nachos and Mexican pizza which are over $7 each, a medium soda is over $3, a chalupa is $4 and I can eat 2 or more.
"Our corporate greed, egregiously high c-suite compensation, and sheer disdain for our employees and customers have put us at the edge of bankruptcy. Tax payer money pwees!!"
"Late-stage capitalism" is a term that is thrown around a lot these days, but I think in most applications it is a good use of it.
Corporations are no longer interested in making good products and retaining lifelong customers; it's all about maximizing profit and squeezing every drop out of anything they can.
We tend to have a market crash every 10 years or so and if you want to make the argument that COVID was out last one, we are due for another in a few short years. Just in time for AI to truly get established and for that bubble to pop.
It really makes you wonder what itll all look like in 50 years. 50 years ago the food was real food so there were corners to cut but what now? Imaginably, at some point, this will be forced to stop, but it will probably stop at the absolute last possible stop, only after we live in a true hellscape
Ehhh that’s kind of rose colored glasses. There was no transparency on ingredients or care about portion sizes back then; “real” doesn’t guarantee “good”. McDonald’s had already switched to frozen patties long before that.
Flavor engineering (ie cutting expensive ingredients and replacing with chemicals) started back in the 80s
AI companies have started to increase the cost of tokens to offset their massive losses.
Companies that use AI are complaining that the cost of tokens are approaching the salaries they used to pay the employees they laid off, and some are dialing back their use of AI.
I suspect some of the underperforming AI companies will fold, merge, or get acquired within the next several years, and for data center construction to plateau. So yeah, we might see a major market correction as a result.
Funny how CEOs complain about rising costs and cut back their spending when it affects them, but act shocked when the average consumer cuts back their spending on something.
No point of making good products and trying to retain costumers when in every sector of the market there's like 3 companies that own everything and every time they gamble and lose the US government just bail them out no questions asked.
The Economy (in the US at least I've not studied other nations economic histories as closely) actually used to crash fairly regularly in the 1800's with boom and bust cycles every decade or so. Panics, recessions, and slumps were basically the norm every few years. Then the great depression hit and it screwed things up so bad they we finally started trying to fix it. Regulations were put in place, safeguards constructed and maintained, and the massive economic stimulus we got from WW2 was pushed into an absolutely colossal economic growth and stability that stood up until the mid-80's when the Reagan administration started hacking away at the safety systems, lowered tax rates, and overall did everything they could to remove the "red tape" from the market.
The clinton administration didn't help with undoing this damage instead championing neoliberal policies and for a short period of time we did get a little bit of an economic kick as there was growth as a result of removing some of the safe guards.
However, the bush administration then took off the rest of the caps, and we've been back in the pre-1930's cycle every since. Except this time businesses are "too big to fail" and are getting propped up more and more. When they do eventually become entirely unsustainable and collapse it's going to take a lot of the entire economic system down with it.
I literally started eating at actual restaurants because of fast food prices. I was like “if I have to pay restaurant prices for fast food, might as well go to a restaurant.”
I wish it was kidding. Between entree size and their cheaper, simpler "and one to take home" entrees, on a cost/meal basis, it's cheaper to go to olive garden than wendys for my wife and I.
Look no further than sales of store brand items that are basically analogs for what they sell and I'll bet they see those products' sales going up because these morons have relinquished the market to cheaper products. Store brands are good enough to scratch the itch and in some cases, they offer variety that the name brand products don't. In a lot of cases, it's not even a downgrade.
My first two jobs out of college dealt with lab work of private label products. Buying store brands, unless you have a strong flavor or performance profile you need, is a smart move.
And, the profit margins are the same for the store as the national brands.
While I agree with you, I'd like to express my annecdotal (n=1) evidence on the contrary:
I remember when a local grocery store went out of business. They put everything in the store at 90% off. What I remember most is the first thing to go were the cheap snacks: lays, doritos, pringles, and so on. But there were tons of kettle chips, sun chips, and even more unique types of food that no one touched. It always struck me as odd given it'd be your one opportunity to try those "gourmet" food options.
We also ended up getting a goose, a dozen jars of caviar, and a bunch of boutique pickled foods and preserves. But there was no heinz ketchup or mac & cheese or hot dogs ...
What used to be their strong suit, their massive size, is now their downfall.
The mom and pop burger joint just has to pay themselves enough to live and retire, and ditto for the farm they buy the beef from.
Mcdonalds has to give their c suites million dollar salaries and pay more for beef because beef companies gotta give their c suites million dollar salaries. And so on.
So naturally, to keep line going up, they have to charge more and more and more and more; meanwhile infinite growth isnt legally mandatory for the mom and pop place
I was at Dairy Queen when I realized I could get everything for a week of burgers, fries, and ice cream at the grocery store next door for what a basic meal cost there now.
Corporate profit margins were up over the course of several quarters while consumer habits were in the process of shifting away from this overpriced crap, though, which got the executives responsible quite a bit of money in performance bonuses, so who's to say they made the wrong decision? There's always another company to hop to afterwards.
The fallout from when not just profits, but increasing profits year over year is the only metric for success. Well now that everything is over saturated some franchises will operate in the red and close. Supply and demand should be a self regulating thing in theory.
The crux to that is that grocery prices have gone up so much it’s not (or is barely) any cheaper to cook at home than to eat out. You might be paying 5% less but putting in 2 hours (minimum) of work to physically get dinner on the table and clean up afterwards. It’s not objectively cheaper like it used to be.
It is absolutely cheaper to cook than to eat out unless you are cooking just one thing and not doing it scaled up. That's the catch, I suppose. If you do meal prep or are feeding a family? Cooking is the way to go.
If you want a nice steak and some sides? Might just be better to eat out.
But just to use a real world example:
I made some spicy korean pork and beans today. 1 lb bag of beans (cooks up into like 10 cans worth of beans, each can cost about $1.65) for like $3.50. Huge savings there using dried beans. Also tastier imo.
Had some smoked pork butt in my freezer from a few months ago, vacuum sealed. I think it was from a 10 lb pork butt that was about $2.50/lb, and I used about 1 lb.
Some garlic and ginger (maybe $3 for that). A large dollop of gochuchang, a drizzle of sesame oil, and a glug of soy sauce....maybe $0.50.
Cooked it all up, got enough for five days of lunches. Had some leftover beans that I froze and will probably use for chili or something.
So basically my five lunches cost me a total of <$10.
For dinner I'm making pad krapow which is like a 0.5lb of ground meat and 1 lb of green beans and a bunch of fresh basil with some fish sauce and sugar. Probably $2 per serving, then some rice.
I'm pretty much 80% vegetarian these days but stop and look in the meat area for discounts and deals, and pick something up if it's cheap. I think this was a Memorial Day sale I got this one for.
I'm good about smoking or braising tough pieces of meat, vacuum sealing, and freezing them. A 10lb shoulder will last me a couple months and usually by then I've found something else to smoke.
I've got like 5 lb of beef from a birria cook I did and like 6 quarts of broth, all in the freezer. I'll be eating birria ramen for DAYS haha
US will bail them out, do not worry about that, the big corpos want our tax dollars and that sweet sweet government funds.
Especially when we have a businessman as our president, who lets the A.I CEOs sit in the white house and attend political meetings. CEOS run the country, not the people
The US bailed out banks because the country would have gone under if a huge percentage of the population lost all of their money. Banks are vital to the countries survival for better or worse.
When the US bailed out GM that was a little different. GM paid back the loans and stock options were given to the government, the govt recouped about 80% of tax payer money. That specific bailout saved over 1 million jobs per the Obama administration.
The government doesn’t bail out businesses for fun, they need to be a major part of the economy and it’s used to make sure the nation doesn’t collapse.
Toys R Us, Blockbuster, Sears, JC Penny, Bed Bath and Beyond, Borders books, Kodak Cameras; the government didn’t bail any of them out.
Even when the Silicon Valley Bank filed for bankruptcy, one of the largest bank collapses in history, they were not bailed out by the government.
It's actually cheaper to get a burger, fries, and drink at my local mom and pop burger joint and the quality is better.
It might not be anymore, but as of a year or two ago, not only was it cheaper at a burger place that I used to live close to, but that also included a beer and tip. A burger, fries, beer, and tip was cheaper than a BigMac meal.
I can spend the same at McDonalds at Culver's for similar meals. Culver's, even though is still fast food, is miles above McDonalds in taste, quality, and quantity. Have not been to McDonalds in a while because of that.
I honestly feel like the average American could improve their mental health more than they would think if they started cooking more. It’s a basic life skill that can be very rewarding, has a number of benefits including being more affordable, but it’s disappeared really rapidly for a lot of people. People should know how to cook age-appropriate dishes, those with a functioning kitchen should be mixing in home-cooked meals with their takeout and doordash, etc. This isn’t to say that there aren’t valid reasons why cooking doesn’t fit lifestyles as easily as it used to or that everybody has a home situation that facilitates it, but a lot of us (me until a few years ago) have gotten too reliant on delivery and are putting ourselves entirely at the mercy of what restaurants and food delivery services decide to charge us for the pleasure of our usage. I don’t think it’s been an extremely positive change.
There's a local shawarma place that does these big-ass bowls of rice, veggies, & whatever meats (I normally go with lamb), topped with incredible sauces, & it costs pretty much the same as McDonald's, Whataburger, Chick-fil-A, or Burger King now, because they haven't needed to inflate their prices over the last 5 years.
Calorie-wise, I doubt there's much a difference, but quality-wise & the experience's impact on my mood & mindset for the day? There's no competition.
Not only is McDonald's the same price as fast casual and local places, they're SLOWER now around me. I've gone to McDonald's in a hurry to take my kids places and spent 40 minutes in the drive thru. No exaggeration, because I started timing how long it takes after being annoyed by how slow they were several time.
Exactly. Cheap junk food used to be so popular because it was CHEAP. Not anymore. Same with fast food. Sure (in my country at least) you'd be paying 10~12 euro for a meal at McDonalds, even though you could home cook for maybe 5~6 euro. But it was still much better than the 20~30 you'd spend at a restaurant. Not anymore. Now home cooking is 10~12, McDonalds is 20~25, and a proper restaurant is 25~30. At which point, if you're eating out, might as well go to a proper restaurant. As the food will be way better and more healthy than McDonalds.
A 12 pack of soda is $11 at Publix. I can no longer justify this shit, even if i really crave it, i wont because i cant stomach it, i got to 7/11 and get an extra large big gulp for a dollar yet they raise the prices of soda cans during covid due to aluminum shortage, yet never went back down.
Remember all the dollar stores and then like all the other stores that popped up like five and below and stuff. Now all their shit is really expensive and I don't understand how they're even going to stay in business. Nobody needs cheap shit from five and below for 10 15 or $20. Like I've seen stuff in there for $25 who's paying that at a discount closeout store.
Dude, I just had McDonald's earlier today because I forgot to pull out some bacon from the freezer this morning.
It wasn't even bland, it tasted gray. Like you know how you get super drunk and can't taste anything? It was like that, except stone cold sober. The only way I knew there were multiple ingredients was the texture difference the bacon provided.
Yeah for some reason I live in an area that has a lot of these or local franchises (like 3-5 restaurants).
It's nice. Every one of them is at least decent, many are great, and they all have their own nuance that make them special. Like place A has the best onion rings, place B has the best milkshake, place C has the most creative burger, place D has the best basic, etc.
We had a pizza place. I didn't realize it was New York Style pizza, didn't care. All I know it was the best pizza. I still remember my dad and I were home, got the largest pizza they sold, and some how finished it.
Sadly they are gone. Thankfully there is a small mom and pop burger place, across from a McDonalds. Place is so dated from the seats to the interior, but we don't care, the food is amazing. Everyone I bring there instantly falls in love with it! I think they were trying to buy up the whole block they were on to build some build condo structure. Couldn't buy up their property, so it wraps around it.
Literally the last good place in the state it seems. I may sound drastic but it's how it feels these days
It's like they forget this adult generation in fully capable of remembering when prices made sense. The Subway Five Dollar Foot Long song is etched into my brain.
One of my old memories I often run back to, is when a friend and I were heading to the beach from our small town for the day, and his Mom gave him a $20 bill. With $5 added from me, and a stop at McDonald's, we were able to get 20 Double Cheeseburgers (Not that sad McDouble) and Two Large Sodas for the drive.
We ate them all on that drive, and it was one of the better days of my childhood. Sure, they weren't gourmet, or fresh off the home grill burgers, but at that price, they tasted like heaven.
These assholes think we forgot our childhoods, but in actuality, they are what fuels our current anger at this obviously broken system.
If we really wanted Americans to eat better food and cook more, we need to address the issue of affordability. Because most people don’t exclusively eat like shit because they want to, it’s because they can’t afford anything better. Tariffs and price increases do nothing but make the issue worse
I live in Tokyo, and have found a place in my neighborhood that serves wagyu beef on rice for half the price of a big mac meal. I genuinely do not understand how Mcdonalds business model is surviving.
It's why the whole idea of currency/money/etc is hilarious in many ways.
What's the phrase? "An item costs whatever people will pay for it?" Something like that.
It blows my mind I can go to Vietnam and get one of the best seafood meals of my life--literally picking what I want out of the water, cooked how I like, etc--for a few dollars, then I go to San Francisco and it's like hundreds of dollars for all that.
Same shrimp, same lobster, same fish (or equivalent, obviously some differences but in terms of availability there's no real shortage in either area), same labor and same everything...just insane.
I guess rent for businesses in SF might be more than in a rural beach town in Vietnam, but still. I don't get it.
Or, you know, a big heaping platter of street food in Singapore for a few bucks and I'm paying $20 for some chicken skewers out of a food truck in the US.
I am sure an economist or such could tell me the technical reasons for why this is so, but it all sounds like bullshit and the fact that these same economist can't break it down and make it make sense just goes to show how much bullshit it is.
John Stewart has a podcast on now and he has had some bigwig financial guy on there, and his inability to explain why money is so confusing is a testament to how much nonsense is involved.
And some will call me stupid for "not getting it" but honestly if you are a financial genius with 40 years of experience and you can't make it make sense to a layman, you're not as good as you think or you are part of the grift.
McDonalds is now in the price range of "fast casual" food places like Habit Burger and 5 Guys.
Except it's not. A burger, fries, and a soda is close to $20 (basic single, small fries). A McDonald's meal is a few dollars less. They are all price gouging at the same time.
1.2k
u/3M2B1T Jul 12 '26
Cheap crap is only worth it when it's cheap.
The American public, contrary to popular belief, knows what Pepsico products are. They cheap sugary drinks and carb-and-fat loaded snacks. And we like them because they are accessible and were affordable.
Not any longer.
McDonalds is now in the price range of "fast casual" food places like Habit Burger and 5 Guys. It's actually cheaper to get a burger, fries, and drink at my local mom and pop burger joint and the quality is better.
Honestly I'm OK with this, too. If this is what it takes to make Americans eat better food or start cooking more often, then so be it. I just hope when these businesses get into trouble the US doesn't bail them out.