5 ms·

Immediate reaction: "Luxury"? Have they ever tasted Fast Food?

JohnFen 2y ago
Heh, mine was similar: how awful does a person's life have to be to consider fast food a "luxury"? But I think they mean "luxury" as in "optional" rather than "luxurious".
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  My complaint is that it isn’t even fast. I had a Burger King gift card in my wallet when I arrived at the PATH terminal at the World Trace Center and after I walked out of the Oculus I saw a CHOPT salad restaurant across the street and a BK across the corner. BK was crowded inside and was emitting greasy fumes I could smell outside. My calculation was that it could take most of 30 minutes to wait in line and get my food at the BK, at the CHOPT I punched my order into a tablet and had it in 3 minutes. I worked at BK in the late 1980s and there they would try to have burgers ready in the steam tray and on the heat chute before you ordered them so you really could get it fast. Fast food restaurants don’t seem to do this anymore.
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    Yep. My favorite "fast food" place is an 8-decade-old neighborhood ice cream shop. They have a variety of good sandwiches in their refrigerator case, ready to grab & go. And none of 'em have the "opps, am I eating the wrapper?" chemo-plastic taste or mouth feel of modern fast food.
  - schlauerfox 2y ago
    It led to waste, now they push don't assemble till ordered, the number crunching and metric pressure is absurd.
    - throwup238 2y ago
      There's a small chain called Dick's in Seattle that still makes their burgers in an assembly line ahead of time. There's no customizing the order but the most expensive burger is 4.85 (2nd most is 2.95) and it's really fast. They're super popular so there's not much waste.
    - bell-cot 2y ago
      IANAEC (Evil Capitalist)...but my first thought is to keep number of slower-to-make menu items down, allow up to (say) 7% "made & unsold" waste on those, and donate the unsold ones to the Local Shelter (or whatever) every day for the tax write-off. Disappointing a cash customer costs far more than the wholesale value of a burger or two. And maybe workers on harder-to-fill shifts get to take a few would-be-donated burgers home every day, too.
      - PaulHoule 2y ago
        At BK in the 1990s we “did it” like so: burgers and buns went into a “broiler/steamer” machine which did the flame broiling on top and toasted the buns on the bottom, we would assemble burgers (regular size) and whoppers (XL) and put them in the steam tray, people at the whopper board and burger board would take them out of the steam tray and put the condiments on and put them in boxes in the heat chute. Burgers could sit in either the heat chute or the steam tray for 10 minutes and we were supposed to throw them out if they went over that limit. Under normal conditions we didn’t throw a lot of them out but we would go to a purely on demand model on Sunday afternoons when we could sometimes go 20 minutes between customers.
- iancmceachern 2y ago
  There are lots of people who live every day under the poverty line. This is a very distasteful comment.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    I don't understand what's distasteful about it.
    - iancmceachern 2y ago
      You said "... how aweful does someone's life have to be to consider fast food "luxury"..." It's very distasteful to hit down
      - JohnFen 2y ago
        I know what I said, but I don't think I was hitting down at all. I honestly don't understand why it's being taken that way. Ah well, I clearly failed to communicate clearly/carefully enough. To clarify, the reason that I am surprised that my comment was taken this way is because very poor people often eat fast food out of necessity. For them, it's not a luxury at all. In any case, it certainly wasn't an intentional insult or anything. I wasn't even talking about poor people at all.
        iancmceachern 2y ago
        For many folks it is a luxury over cooking for themselves or getting food from food banks, kitchens, etc. $10 for a burger and fries isn't accessible for many.
linguae 2y ago
The luxury isn’t in the taste, it’s in the convenience. Sometimes I get hungry, but I didn’t plan ahead and I’m too busy to cook. Sometimes cooking isn’t an option, such as while traveling, or some mishap happens while cooking. Thus it’s nice to be able to have somebody else cook. However, fast food has gotten mighty expensive in the past few years ($10+ for a combo meal feels obscene), and so I’m finding myself getting grab-and-go items like Lunchables at the grocery store instead of stopping at a fast food restaurant. Sometimes when I feel like spending more money, I prefer going to a sit-down restaurant where paying a few dollars more buys a better meal.
- FooBarBizBazz 2y ago
  I stopped at a rest stop on the highway, and regrettably got a breakfast "meal" from the only establishment there, a McDonald's. It consisted of a small, spongy sandwich, called a "McGriddle", which I will never order again; a single potato-patty "hash brown" thing; and a small black coffee. This cost $14. Surely I will continue to make other mistakes in my life, but this is one I can avoid in future.
  - listenallyall 2y ago
    Nobody should be eating them on the regular, but damn those McGriddles (with the syrup baked in) are tasty. Often 2-for-1 or heavily discounted via the app.
    - FooBarBizBazz 2y ago
      Ugh. I disputandum your gustibus.
satvikpendem 2y ago
The luxury is the price, not the taste. For the same price, I can get much better local food.
throw46365 2y ago
There's plenty of really tasty fast food out there. The problem is if it's the tasty the right way it is expensive, and if it is the bad kind of tasty it's unhealthy.

Heh, mine was similar: how awful does a person's life have to be to consider fast food a "luxury"? But I think they mean "luxury" as in "optional" rather than "luxurious".

PaulHoule 2y ago
My complaint is that it isn’t even fast. I had a Burger King gift card in my wallet when I arrived at the PATH terminal at the World Trace Center and after I walked out of the Oculus I saw a CHOPT salad restaurant across the street and a BK across the corner. BK was crowded inside and was emitting greasy fumes I could smell outside. My calculation was that it could take most of 30 minutes to wait in line and get my food at the BK, at the CHOPT I punched my order into a tablet and had it in 3 minutes. I worked at BK in the late 1980s and there they would try to have burgers ready in the steam tray and on the heat chute before you ordered them so you really could get it fast. Fast food restaurants don’t seem to do this anymore.
- bell-cot 2y ago
  Yep. My favorite "fast food" place is an 8-decade-old neighborhood ice cream shop. They have a variety of good sandwiches in their refrigerator case, ready to grab & go. And none of 'em have the "opps, am I eating the wrapper?" chemo-plastic taste or mouth feel of modern fast food.
- schlauerfox 2y ago
  It led to waste, now they push don't assemble till ordered, the number crunching and metric pressure is absurd.
  - throwup238 2y ago
    There's a small chain called Dick's in Seattle that still makes their burgers in an assembly line ahead of time. There's no customizing the order but the most expensive burger is 4.85 (2nd most is 2.95) and it's really fast. They're super popular so there's not much waste.
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    IANAEC (Evil Capitalist)...but my first thought is to keep number of slower-to-make menu items down, allow up to (say) 7% "made & unsold" waste on those, and donate the unsold ones to the Local Shelter (or whatever) every day for the tax write-off. Disappointing a cash customer costs far more than the wholesale value of a burger or two. And maybe workers on harder-to-fill shifts get to take a few would-be-donated burgers home every day, too.
    - PaulHoule 2y ago
      At BK in the 1990s we “did it” like so: burgers and buns went into a “broiler/steamer” machine which did the flame broiling on top and toasted the buns on the bottom, we would assemble burgers (regular size) and whoppers (XL) and put them in the steam tray, people at the whopper board and burger board would take them out of the steam tray and put the condiments on and put them in boxes in the heat chute. Burgers could sit in either the heat chute or the steam tray for 10 minutes and we were supposed to throw them out if they went over that limit. Under normal conditions we didn’t throw a lot of them out but we would go to a purely on demand model on Sunday afternoons when we could sometimes go 20 minutes between customers.
iancmceachern 2y ago
There are lots of people who live every day under the poverty line. This is a very distasteful comment.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  I don't understand what's distasteful about it.
  - iancmceachern 2y ago
    You said "... how aweful does someone's life have to be to consider fast food "luxury"..." It's very distasteful to hit down
    - JohnFen 2y ago
      I know what I said, but I don't think I was hitting down at all. I honestly don't understand why it's being taken that way. Ah well, I clearly failed to communicate clearly/carefully enough. To clarify, the reason that I am surprised that my comment was taken this way is because very poor people often eat fast food out of necessity. For them, it's not a luxury at all. In any case, it certainly wasn't an intentional insult or anything. I wasn't even talking about poor people at all.
      - iancmceachern 2y ago
        For many folks it is a luxury over cooking for themselves or getting food from food banks, kitchens, etc. $10 for a burger and fries isn't accessible for many.

linguae 2y ago

The luxury isn’t in the taste, it’s in the convenience. Sometimes I get hungry, but I didn’t plan ahead and I’m too busy to cook. Sometimes cooking isn’t an option, such as while traveling, or some mishap happens while cooking. Thus it’s nice to be able to have somebody else cook. However, fast food has gotten mighty expensive in the past few years ($10+ for a combo meal feels obscene), and so I’m finding myself getting grab-and-go items like Lunchables at the grocery store instead of stopping at a fast food restaurant. Sometimes when I feel like spending more money, I prefer going to a sit-down restaurant where paying a few dollars more buys a better meal.

FooBarBizBazz 2y ago
I stopped at a rest stop on the highway, and regrettably got a breakfast "meal" from the only establishment there, a McDonald's. It consisted of a small, spongy sandwich, called a "McGriddle", which I will never order again; a single potato-patty "hash brown" thing; and a small black coffee. This cost $14. Surely I will continue to make other mistakes in my life, but this is one I can avoid in future.
- listenallyall 2y ago
  Nobody should be eating them on the regular, but damn those McGriddles (with the syrup baked in) are tasty. Often 2-for-1 or heavily discounted via the app.
  - FooBarBizBazz 2y ago
    Ugh. I disputandum your gustibus.

satvikpendem 2y ago

The luxury is the price, not the taste. For the same price, I can get much better local food.

throw46365 2y ago

There's plenty of really tasty fast food out there. The problem is if it's the tasty the right way it is expensive, and if it is the bad kind of tasty it's unhealthy.