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My wife bought lunch for our son and his friend yesterday. $32 for a 6" sandwich, chips, a cookie, and bottled water at Subway (x2). $32 for barely better quali

My wife bought lunch for our son and his friend yesterday. $32 for a 6" sandwich, chips, a cookie, and bottled water at Subway (x2). $32 for barely better quality than a fucking Lunchable. Oh, and the POS system automatically presented a 15% tip in the payment screen. Casual dining in America is not going to survive the next five years IMO. I know we will be doing our part to no longer support the system (we already quit McD's because it is almost $40 for our family of three to eat a meal there.)

ghaff 3y ago
Subway takes the cake of mass market chains that seem like they ought to be a lot better than they are. I directionally agree with you. There are already a lot of relatively labor-intensive things in the West that even upper middle class people don't routinely have like personal drivers, chefs, and even housekeepers, or lawn care. Given demographic shifts, it wouldn't shock me if thoughtlessly eating out at fast food restaurants joined the list for a fair number of people. (More automation too though you can only do so much. Eating at home is generally going to be cheaper.)
- brodouevencode 3y ago
  The Western appetite for convenience is at all time highs. QSR growth is in the double digits YoY largely driven by app prevalence w.r.t. rewards and loyalty and delivery services. There was a slight downturn after re-opening from COVID, but it is back up to nominal levels.
UncleEntity 3y ago
You can’t print trillions of dollars and not expect prices to rise. My casual take is prices of fast food has roughly doubled since this whole inflation thing took off. And they all have universally decided in the last month that a “large” drink is what was formerly the medium drink so double the price for less meal — not sure if that’s a “healthy choice” thing or they’re just being weasels though. I’ve never once had subway try to get a tip out of me and I eat there fairly regularly, not even the “tip cup” that employees like to put out to guilt you into tipping for things like watching you use the automatic checkout robots. —edit— Oh, and McDonald’s is still semi-reasonable if you use their app (to get free stuff) and pay attention to whatever their current loss leaders are. Yeah, I eat way too much fast food…
- vidanay 3y ago
  If you build an online order at the Subway website, you will see a line item for "Sandwich artist tip". In-person ordering has the same thing on the POS during checkout (like so many places do these days)
- alphabettsy 3y ago
  Your take seems way off.
brodouevencode 3y ago
Where do you live that it costs $16/person for Subway? This doesn't seem anything like a national average.
- vidanay 3y ago
  Northern Illinois (not Chicago)
  - brodouevencode 3y ago
    This seems to suggest you are paying well above average: https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/subway-prices/ https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/subway-prices/
- alphabettsy 3y ago
  They paid $16/ea because a meal includes only a single “side” such as a cookie or chips with a fountain drink cup. Choosing bottled waters and additional sides probably added $5-6 each. Subway, McDonald’s, whatever get you when you do add-ons.

ghaff 3y ago

Subway takes the cake of mass market chains that seem like they ought to be a lot better than they are. I directionally agree with you. There are already a lot of relatively labor-intensive things in the West that even upper middle class people don't routinely have like personal drivers, chefs, and even housekeepers, or lawn care. Given demographic shifts, it wouldn't shock me if thoughtlessly eating out at fast food restaurants joined the list for a fair number of people. (More automation too though you can only do so much. Eating at home is generally going to be cheaper.)

brodouevencode 3y ago
The Western appetite for convenience is at all time highs. QSR growth is in the double digits YoY largely driven by app prevalence w.r.t. rewards and loyalty and delivery services. There was a slight downturn after re-opening from COVID, but it is back up to nominal levels.

UncleEntity 3y ago

You can’t print trillions of dollars and not expect prices to rise. My casual take is prices of fast food has roughly doubled since this whole inflation thing took off. And they all have universally decided in the last month that a “large” drink is what was formerly the medium drink so double the price for less meal — not sure if that’s a “healthy choice” thing or they’re just being weasels though. I’ve never once had subway try to get a tip out of me and I eat there fairly regularly, not even the “tip cup” that employees like to put out to guilt you into tipping for things like watching you use the automatic checkout robots. —edit— Oh, and McDonald’s is still semi-reasonable if you use their app (to get free stuff) and pay attention to whatever their current loss leaders are. Yeah, I eat way too much fast food…

vidanay 3y ago
If you build an online order at the Subway website, you will see a line item for "Sandwich artist tip". In-person ordering has the same thing on the POS during checkout (like so many places do these days)
alphabettsy 3y ago
Your take seems way off.

brodouevencode 3y ago

Where do you live that it costs $16/person for Subway? This doesn't seem anything like a national average.

vidanay 3y ago
Northern Illinois (not Chicago)
- brodouevencode 3y ago
  This seems to suggest you are paying well above average: https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/subway-prices/ https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/subway-prices/
alphabettsy 3y ago
They paid $16/ea because a meal includes only a single “side” such as a cookie or chips with a fountain drink cup. Choosing bottled waters and additional sides probably added $5-6 each. Subway, McDonald’s, whatever get you when you do add-ons.