Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.

Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food “as a rare treat,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices.”

Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.

A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You can’t pay your employees poverty wages and expect them to care about quality.

    It has to hurt for the people who spend their hard earned money on a night off from cooking by ordering out at McDonald’s, but it’s a lesson we all learn the hard way.

    • _number8_@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      it’s very hard to give a shit when you’re making a meal that costs $15 in 30 seconds when you make maybe $9/hr. the math is so plainly unfair and it’s right in front of you all day

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        6 months ago

        Yeah. When you entire shift could just barely afford a days worth of calories and nothing more I think you would basically check out.

      • arefx@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        All the fasst food places here pay like 15$ minimum, mcdonalds. Bk, Wendy’s, all the big names.

        It’s still shit money but it’s not THAT low.

    • spaghettiwestern
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      6 months ago

      If you’re selling a product that you can’t produce by paying employees a lousy wage, you have to pay what’s needed to produce a salable product. This is the way business works everywhere and is true for both skilled and unskilled labor.

      These companies have radically increased their prices while allowing the products produced to go to shit, and their customers are doing what customers always do when faced with crappy products and high prices. We’re going elsewhere.