5 ms·

Then the question becomes: what else are the people who don't have time to cook actually eating? It's possible to make that tasty, healthy, or relatively inexp

Then the question becomes: what else are the people who don't have time to cook actually eating? It's possible to make that tasty, healthy, or relatively inexpensive. But it's not easy to do all three. My fear would be that the price point fast food used to be able to hit is not populated by many healthy meals at all.

mcntsh 2y ago
Everyone has time to cook... it takes way less time make a sandwich than it does to go pick up takeout.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  Sure but it takes less time to pick up takeout than it does to shop for a household. Especially if you have to use public transit, can only buy what you can carry, have to bring a kid with you. When I teach people to cook I usually point out that when you're at the point where you're in the kitchen with the ingredients out, 2/3 of the work is done. There's a lot of labor in planning and shopping.
  - mcntsh 2y ago
    Yeah if you need to shop for a household every day, but usually you can do it once or twice a week and be fine. People do it all around the world, people who are much much poorer than Americans, people who also do not have cars, people who generally work longer hours.
    - giraffe_lady 2y ago
      I'm trying to get you to see that it's a significant chore and you shouldn't dismiss it. It's usually done in addition to other obligations like work and childcare. A lot of americans are also poor, work long hours, or don't have reliable access to a car. Also people "around the world" may not be cooking at home as much as you assume either. Street food is everywhere and it is not new by any means. Individual household kitchens for city dwellers have not historically been the norm, and they still aren't in a lot of places.
      - thunky 2y ago
        > it's a significant chore and you shouldn't dismiss it But you're comparing it to getting fast food for every meal, which is also a chore. One way or another, feeding yourself and your family is always going to be a chore.
- throw46365 2y ago
  This only scales if everyone you are cooking for is prepared to eat the same thing. And it doesn't apply to lunch for most of the non-WFH world. And takeout delivers these days.
  - mcntsh 2y ago
    What exactly do you think that people did before fast food and delivery?
    - throw46365 2y ago
      What exactly is the relevance of this question to people living in 2024? I mean, I cook 90-95% of my meals from scratch with the odd canned ingredient and for the rest, rely on healthy-option microwave meals or a sandwich to stop me slipping into snacking for the times when depression or tiredness do not allow it, which keeps a latent eating disorder at bay. But people who eat a lot of fast food do not always do so out of laziness. Large numbers of city dwellers barely have access to a kitchen, e.g. at least 1.5 million people in the UK and probably more like 3.5 million live in HMO (multiple occupant) accommodation that does not have a private kitchen; those people are lucky if they have access to their own hotplates. It doesn't matter what people did before fast food. It matters what people can find now, in the life that we have now, as an alternative to fast food. Just telling people they should cook their own meals from scratch is not good enough. That is why the question of fast food now being a "luxury" is so interesting. Because it likely means people who relied on fast food to meet dietary needs -- even fairly healthy fast food like fresh sandwiches (in the UK meaning) -- are now eating something worse, not something better. It's naive to assume it will -- or even can -- lead to a renaissance in home cooking.
      - mcntsh 2y ago
        What changed in 2024 compared to 1924 when it comes to cooking your own food? Kitchen/living situations in cities were much worse then and people stayed alive then without Doordash... why is that not possible now? You even have access to more technology and food that make it easier to cook. Frozen veggies, lunch meat, supermarkets, freezers.
anonfordays 2y ago
In college I barely had time to eat, but I always cooked my own meals. I prepped and made large batches of delicious things that I could eat over the week. Humanity was able to do this before fast food existed. We should be able to do it now.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  Yeah so you had time to do the shopping, cooking, and portioning every week which is at least a few hours right? And you had a single store nearby that could provide you with everything you needed in one go, and reliable access to it. And of course a kitchen to do this work in, a way to store it during the week, a way to carry it and reheat it where you need to eat it. You can see how not every part of this is guaranteed right? And how removing even one makes it significantly more of a burden, and it's easy to imagine missing several of these.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - anonfordays 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - throw46365 2y ago
      > It's evident that you come from insane levels of privilege and comfort if you think food prep is a burden. First off, no it isn't evident, and second, this is rude.
      - anonfordays 2y ago
        Yes that was a bit snarky and rude. I wasn't able to edit, so I reposted without snark/rudeness.
    - giraffe_lady 2y ago
      You don't know shit about me and you should not assume like this. I was 8 the first time I slept on the street, I was 15 the last time an adult provided a meal for as a minor. I was 45 the first year I earned more than $22k despite working full time for most of it. I don't know what it's like to be college poor like that, no. None of my family or anyone I knew from my youth ever went, I didn't even presume to hope for it. I don't find it particularly challenging or strenuous to cook all my meals, but I have at points in the past. And enough people have told me that they do, and I don't see how I have authority to tell them they're incorrect about their own experiences. That last doesn't seem like a limitation you face, however.
iancmceachern 2y ago
Exactly, it's not as if these folks are replacing fast food with healthier, more expensive options. It's getting replaced with cup of noodles and microwave lunches.
chung8123 2y ago
Raw vegetables are all three of those.

mcntsh 2y ago

Everyone has time to cook... it takes way less time make a sandwich than it does to go pick up takeout.

giraffe_lady 2y ago
Sure but it takes less time to pick up takeout than it does to shop for a household. Especially if you have to use public transit, can only buy what you can carry, have to bring a kid with you. When I teach people to cook I usually point out that when you're at the point where you're in the kitchen with the ingredients out, 2/3 of the work is done. There's a lot of labor in planning and shopping.
- mcntsh 2y ago
  Yeah if you need to shop for a household every day, but usually you can do it once or twice a week and be fine. People do it all around the world, people who are much much poorer than Americans, people who also do not have cars, people who generally work longer hours.
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    I'm trying to get you to see that it's a significant chore and you shouldn't dismiss it. It's usually done in addition to other obligations like work and childcare. A lot of americans are also poor, work long hours, or don't have reliable access to a car. Also people "around the world" may not be cooking at home as much as you assume either. Street food is everywhere and it is not new by any means. Individual household kitchens for city dwellers have not historically been the norm, and they still aren't in a lot of places.
    - thunky 2y ago
      > it's a significant chore and you shouldn't dismiss it But you're comparing it to getting fast food for every meal, which is also a chore. One way or another, feeding yourself and your family is always going to be a chore.
throw46365 2y ago
This only scales if everyone you are cooking for is prepared to eat the same thing. And it doesn't apply to lunch for most of the non-WFH world. And takeout delivers these days.
- mcntsh 2y ago
  What exactly do you think that people did before fast food and delivery?
  - throw46365 2y ago
    What exactly is the relevance of this question to people living in 2024? I mean, I cook 90-95% of my meals from scratch with the odd canned ingredient and for the rest, rely on healthy-option microwave meals or a sandwich to stop me slipping into snacking for the times when depression or tiredness do not allow it, which keeps a latent eating disorder at bay. But people who eat a lot of fast food do not always do so out of laziness. Large numbers of city dwellers barely have access to a kitchen, e.g. at least 1.5 million people in the UK and probably more like 3.5 million live in HMO (multiple occupant) accommodation that does not have a private kitchen; those people are lucky if they have access to their own hotplates. It doesn't matter what people did before fast food. It matters what people can find now, in the life that we have now, as an alternative to fast food. Just telling people they should cook their own meals from scratch is not good enough. That is why the question of fast food now being a "luxury" is so interesting. Because it likely means people who relied on fast food to meet dietary needs -- even fairly healthy fast food like fresh sandwiches (in the UK meaning) -- are now eating something worse, not something better. It's naive to assume it will -- or even can -- lead to a renaissance in home cooking.
    - mcntsh 2y ago
      What changed in 2024 compared to 1924 when it comes to cooking your own food? Kitchen/living situations in cities were much worse then and people stayed alive then without Doordash... why is that not possible now? You even have access to more technology and food that make it easier to cook. Frozen veggies, lunch meat, supermarkets, freezers.

anonfordays 2y ago

In college I barely had time to eat, but I always cooked my own meals. I prepped and made large batches of delicious things that I could eat over the week. Humanity was able to do this before fast food existed. We should be able to do it now.

giraffe_lady 2y ago
Yeah so you had time to do the shopping, cooking, and portioning every week which is at least a few hours right? And you had a single store nearby that could provide you with everything you needed in one go, and reliable access to it. And of course a kitchen to do this work in, a way to store it during the week, a way to carry it and reheat it where you need to eat it. You can see how not every part of this is guaranteed right? And how removing even one makes it significantly more of a burden, and it's easy to imagine missing several of these.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- anonfordays 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - throw46365 2y ago
    > It's evident that you come from insane levels of privilege and comfort if you think food prep is a burden. First off, no it isn't evident, and second, this is rude.
    - anonfordays 2y ago
      Yes that was a bit snarky and rude. I wasn't able to edit, so I reposted without snark/rudeness.
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    You don't know shit about me and you should not assume like this. I was 8 the first time I slept on the street, I was 15 the last time an adult provided a meal for as a minor. I was 45 the first year I earned more than $22k despite working full time for most of it. I don't know what it's like to be college poor like that, no. None of my family or anyone I knew from my youth ever went, I didn't even presume to hope for it. I don't find it particularly challenging or strenuous to cook all my meals, but I have at points in the past. And enough people have told me that they do, and I don't see how I have authority to tell them they're incorrect about their own experiences. That last doesn't seem like a limitation you face, however.

iancmceachern 2y ago

Exactly, it's not as if these folks are replacing fast food with healthier, more expensive options. It's getting replaced with cup of noodles and microwave lunches.

chung8123 2y ago

Raw vegetables are all three of those.