4 ms·

I’ve never seen a sandwich store sell sandwiches (talking normal sized sandwich not whatever small bite size they sell as “regular size” with shrinkflation) for

I’ve never seen a sandwich store sell sandwiches (talking normal sized sandwich not whatever small bite size they sell as “regular size” with shrinkflation) for less than 12-15 bucks in big cities.

tempusalaria 4y ago
In London or Paris it’s $5-6 for a decent sandwich
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  One thing I love about France is that they have a pretty good supermarket-store ready-to-eat sandwich culture as the inexpensive on-the-go meal option. At a US 7-11, you never know if the sandwich might be a week old or not.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    QFC and Whole Foods in the states are similar. At least here in Seattle, although not quite as nice as LA, or abroad. 7-11 is ok in Japan or China (or say a Co-op Pronto in Switzerland). I wish we could get those in the states.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
ericabiz 4y ago
I guess it depends on the city. I live in Austin (metro population 2.28M), and most places price sandwiches around $10 or less here. Here’s Thundercloud, a popular chain (often described as “a step up from Subway”): https://thundercloud.com/main-menu/ https://thundercloud.com/main-menu/ I also checked Jersey Mike’s, another familiar chain, and a regular size “original Italian” is $9.95 here. I will say that generally Texas tends to have lower prices on food than coastal metros like NYC/SF/LA, but the airport prices mentioned in the article for NYC still seem absurd.
- thefourthchime 4y ago
  Austinite here too. Articles like this make me thankful for our airport, honestly one of the best in American as far as food and drinks are concerned.
- lowkey 4y ago
  Notably the price of a similar wrapped sandwich at the ATX airport is $16
- moomoo11 4y ago
  Is Austin still worth moving to from CA or has it gotten a lot more expensive? I’ve only spent a couple days in Austin many years ago, so I don’t know much.
  - bsder 4y ago
    Depends from where in CA. Austin cost of living is not very low anymore. It's not San Francisco stupid levels, but I didn't feel a lot of difference between San Diego and Austin in the last couple of years. Texas makes up for not having income tax by having big property taxes. So, you may make out on that exchange depending upon what your family situation is. If you're earning are closer to median, California is probably better than Texas. If you're a high earner, Texas is probably better because California is biting you via income tax. However, if you're coming to Texas, make damn sure your healthcare situation is sorted out. California is good about healthcare--the exchanges are decent and you can by healthcare retail for the price advertised on the exchange. This shocked me at one point as it meant that a friend could completely bypass the exchanges for healthcare and just buy it. Yeah, you wouldn't get reimbursement like the exchanges, but you could just whip out a credit card and purchase it retail. Texas, on the other hand, is terrible at healthcare. The Republicans have sabotaged most things from the Federal government. Most of the hospital chains are mediocre and below, and many publicly available health plans are ferociously bad.
  - lowkey 4y ago
    Housing in Austin metro has gone up in recent years but it is still 1/3 the price of a home in the Bay Area or San Diego. Property taxes are proportionately higher than in California but lower on an absolute basis for a similar property due to the large difference in purchase prices. No state income taxes means most people with decent incomes will come out ahead in Texas. What the sister comment says about healthcare in Texas is true, unfortunately. Most healthcare providers are private equity backed and treat healthcare as an assembly line. It is difficult to find providers who prioritize quality care over checking boxes. As for publicly available plans I don’t have personal experience, but I don’t doubt the sister comment’s claims. Best have a good job with a quality healthcare plan.
sys_64738 4y ago
Essen in Manhattan was 8 bucks.
smelendez 4y ago
This isn’t really a sandwich shop sandwich though. It’s more like something you’d grab off the shelf at CVS or 7-11, where it would be under $10. A comparable, frankly better looking, sandwich at Whole Foods in Columbus Circle is $7.99. https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/whole-foods-market-vegan-turkey-cheese-sandwich-65-oz-b07q5bw2x5 https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/whole-foods-market-...
- effingwewt 4y ago
  Can we all just take a minute to realize how we now normalize a 10 dollar sandwich made with less than a dollar's worth of ingredients? 7-11 is the worst offender I've seen. Cheap sandwiches or salads for $8+. $3+ for a 20oz soda. No prices listed on anything. Or if they are it's only when you buy two or more. Profiteering plain and simple.
  - MikusR 4y ago
    Here are instructions how to get much cheaper sandwiches: https://youtu.be/jtqpuYvOfHY https://youtu.be/jtqpuYvOfHY
  - morsch 4y ago
    Wait, what? The product (or its shelf, whatever) isn't labeled with the price? Is that common in the US or is it a 7/11 thing? I guess it's communism to make displaying the price a legal requirement. Competition will sort it out...
    - stametseater 4y ago
      7-11 shelves have price labels, except for when the employees at that shop are too lazy to put those labels up, which is fairly often in my experience. The franchised 7-11s seem to be better at it, the 7-11s owned by corporate are a shitshow because many of the employees don't care and there's no owner around to make them care.
  - prottog 4y ago
    I don't know about not listing prices (that seems shady), but surely you realize that the cost of the ingredients have very little bearing on the final price of the product? Unless you assume that running a 7-11 or any other store or restaurant that might sell food has zero overhead, with no rent, utilities, taxes, or employees to pay. In a further note, profit has got to be one of the most misunderstood things in economics. Every endeavor of human commerce has to involve profit for at least one party, otherwise the transaction would not occur at all. If you can put together a sandwich for $1 in ingredients and, say, $4 in your time and labor, why would you sell it for less than $5 plus some profit? At exactly $5 you may as well not engage in this business at all, since you've effectively gained nothing.
nordsieck 4y ago
> I’ve never seen a sandwich store sell sandwiches (talking normal sized sandwich not whatever small bite size they sell as “regular size” with shrinkflation) for less than 12-15 bucks in big cities. I guess it depends on how posh you want your sandwich. You really have to try to get a Subway (the chain) sandwich that expensive. Same with a burrito from Chipotle, although that may be heretical[1]. --- 1. https://flowingdata.com/2017/05/02/sandwich-alignment-chart/ https://flowingdata.com/2017/05/02/sandwich-alignment-chart/
AndrewOMartin 4y ago
This might explain the $29 ham and cheese sandwich [1] in NYC, gives airports the right to charge up to $31.9 for a sandwich. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/12i4fot/29_ham_and_cheese_sandwich/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/12i4fot/29_ham_and_che...
- standardUser 4y ago
  I live in Manhattan and see lots of "shocking" prices. But I have never seen anything this absurd. Not by a longshot. Is it real?
  - pengaru 4y ago
    Eli Zabar's EAT; for when Whole Foods' prices are too low
    - standardUser 4y ago
      I appreciate the warning!
pdntspa 4y ago
Jesus christ, what cities are you in? Like come the fuck on. Here in San Diego overpriced sandwiches are $6-$10 at the local 7-11, and that is still way too much.
jononomo 4y ago
What about McDonald's? They sell a chicken sandwich for about $5, and I'm sure there is a McDonald's in every city you've been in.

tempusalaria 4y ago

In London or Paris it’s $5-6 for a decent sandwich

Scoundreller 4y ago
One thing I love about France is that they have a pretty good supermarket-store ready-to-eat sandwich culture as the inexpensive on-the-go meal option. At a US 7-11, you never know if the sandwich might be a week old or not.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  QFC and Whole Foods in the states are similar. At least here in Seattle, although not quite as nice as LA, or abroad. 7-11 is ok in Japan or China (or say a Co-op Pronto in Switzerland). I wish we could get those in the states.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

ericabiz 4y ago

I guess it depends on the city. I live in Austin (metro population 2.28M), and most places price sandwiches around $10 or less here. Here’s Thundercloud, a popular chain (often described as “a step up from Subway”): https://thundercloud.com/main-menu/ https://thundercloud.com/main-menu/ I also checked Jersey Mike’s, another familiar chain, and a regular size “original Italian” is $9.95 here. I will say that generally Texas tends to have lower prices on food than coastal metros like NYC/SF/LA, but the airport prices mentioned in the article for NYC still seem absurd.

thefourthchime 4y ago
Austinite here too. Articles like this make me thankful for our airport, honestly one of the best in American as far as food and drinks are concerned.
lowkey 4y ago
Notably the price of a similar wrapped sandwich at the ATX airport is $16
moomoo11 4y ago
Is Austin still worth moving to from CA or has it gotten a lot more expensive? I’ve only spent a couple days in Austin many years ago, so I don’t know much.
- bsder 4y ago
  Depends from where in CA. Austin cost of living is not very low anymore. It's not San Francisco stupid levels, but I didn't feel a lot of difference between San Diego and Austin in the last couple of years. Texas makes up for not having income tax by having big property taxes. So, you may make out on that exchange depending upon what your family situation is. If you're earning are closer to median, California is probably better than Texas. If you're a high earner, Texas is probably better because California is biting you via income tax. However, if you're coming to Texas, make damn sure your healthcare situation is sorted out. California is good about healthcare--the exchanges are decent and you can by healthcare retail for the price advertised on the exchange. This shocked me at one point as it meant that a friend could completely bypass the exchanges for healthcare and just buy it. Yeah, you wouldn't get reimbursement like the exchanges, but you could just whip out a credit card and purchase it retail. Texas, on the other hand, is terrible at healthcare. The Republicans have sabotaged most things from the Federal government. Most of the hospital chains are mediocre and below, and many publicly available health plans are ferociously bad.
- lowkey 4y ago
  Housing in Austin metro has gone up in recent years but it is still 1/3 the price of a home in the Bay Area or San Diego. Property taxes are proportionately higher than in California but lower on an absolute basis for a similar property due to the large difference in purchase prices. No state income taxes means most people with decent incomes will come out ahead in Texas. What the sister comment says about healthcare in Texas is true, unfortunately. Most healthcare providers are private equity backed and treat healthcare as an assembly line. It is difficult to find providers who prioritize quality care over checking boxes. As for publicly available plans I don’t have personal experience, but I don’t doubt the sister comment’s claims. Best have a good job with a quality healthcare plan.

sys_64738 4y ago

Essen in Manhattan was 8 bucks.

smelendez 4y ago

This isn’t really a sandwich shop sandwich though. It’s more like something you’d grab off the shelf at CVS or 7-11, where it would be under $10. A comparable, frankly better looking, sandwich at Whole Foods in Columbus Circle is $7.99. https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/whole-foods-market-vegan-turkey-cheese-sandwich-65-oz-b07q5bw2x5 https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/whole-foods-market-...

effingwewt 4y ago
Can we all just take a minute to realize how we now normalize a 10 dollar sandwich made with less than a dollar's worth of ingredients? 7-11 is the worst offender I've seen. Cheap sandwiches or salads for $8+. $3+ for a 20oz soda. No prices listed on anything. Or if they are it's only when you buy two or more. Profiteering plain and simple.
- MikusR 4y ago
  Here are instructions how to get much cheaper sandwiches: https://youtu.be/jtqpuYvOfHY https://youtu.be/jtqpuYvOfHY
- morsch 4y ago
  Wait, what? The product (or its shelf, whatever) isn't labeled with the price? Is that common in the US or is it a 7/11 thing? I guess it's communism to make displaying the price a legal requirement. Competition will sort it out...
  - stametseater 4y ago
    7-11 shelves have price labels, except for when the employees at that shop are too lazy to put those labels up, which is fairly often in my experience. The franchised 7-11s seem to be better at it, the 7-11s owned by corporate are a shitshow because many of the employees don't care and there's no owner around to make them care.
- prottog 4y ago
  I don't know about not listing prices (that seems shady), but surely you realize that the cost of the ingredients have very little bearing on the final price of the product? Unless you assume that running a 7-11 or any other store or restaurant that might sell food has zero overhead, with no rent, utilities, taxes, or employees to pay. In a further note, profit has got to be one of the most misunderstood things in economics. Every endeavor of human commerce has to involve profit for at least one party, otherwise the transaction would not occur at all. If you can put together a sandwich for $1 in ingredients and, say, $4 in your time and labor, why would you sell it for less than $5 plus some profit? At exactly $5 you may as well not engage in this business at all, since you've effectively gained nothing.

nordsieck 4y ago

> I’ve never seen a sandwich store sell sandwiches (talking normal sized sandwich not whatever small bite size they sell as “regular size” with shrinkflation) for less than 12-15 bucks in big cities. I guess it depends on how posh you want your sandwich. You really have to try to get a Subway (the chain) sandwich that expensive. Same with a burrito from Chipotle, although that may be heretical[1]. --- 1. https://flowingdata.com/2017/05/02/sandwich-alignment-chart/ https://flowingdata.com/2017/05/02/sandwich-alignment-chart/

AndrewOMartin 4y ago

This might explain the $29 ham and cheese sandwich [1] in NYC, gives airports the right to charge up to $31.9 for a sandwich. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/12i4fot/29_ham_and_cheese_sandwich/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/12i4fot/29_ham_and_che...

standardUser 4y ago
I live in Manhattan and see lots of "shocking" prices. But I have never seen anything this absurd. Not by a longshot. Is it real?
- pengaru 4y ago
  Eli Zabar's EAT; for when Whole Foods' prices are too low
  - standardUser 4y ago
    I appreciate the warning!

pdntspa 4y ago

Jesus christ, what cities are you in? Like come the fuck on. Here in San Diego overpriced sandwiches are $6-$10 at the local 7-11, and that is still way too much.

jononomo 4y ago

What about McDonald's? They sell a chicken sandwich for about $5, and I'm sure there is a McDonald's in every city you've been in.