3 ms·

The article and the analyses in it seem to have overlooked a couple of things: - Decline in quality of food: As far as I know, pan pizza in the 90s at Pizza Hu

The article and the analyses in it seem to have overlooked a couple of things: - Decline in quality of food: As far as I know, pan pizza in the 90s at Pizza Hut (that the article talks about) had the dough made in house; modern versions have reheated frozen dough. I feel like this is an important distinction. If I'm just reheating frozen pizza, I can do that at home. - Decline in quality of service: The article mentions this in passing (server knowing the order of a frequent customer) but doesn't go any deeper. In my experience, a lot of the servers (not just at chains, but everywhere) these days are younger people who seem pretty indifferent to the customer experience. Certainly I don't think that any servers at a Pizza Hut will remember someone's order in 2025. The factors I mention above are hard to measure, especially over time. But I do feel like they have contributed to the decline of chains to some degree as well as things like orders to go, did delivery apps, etc.

dagw 2y ago
Decline in quality of food I honestly think this is a big one. I love restaurants and love going out to eat, but the number of restaurants I feel I want to go to just keeps declining. Places I used to love and go to weekly, I don't visit any more because the food just isn't good. I'm honestly having a hard time remembering the last time a new place blew me away. Combine that with rapidly rising food prices, and it's just not fun any more. Going out dropping $50+ and leaving slightly disappointed, is just depressing.
Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago
> reheated frozen dough It doesn't stop there. Many of the big chain sit-down restaurants do little more than reheat pre-prepared items. You are basically getting airplane dinners. Its all centralized, mass produced, and cost-optimized.
- ballenf 2y ago
  And I'm skeptical it's actually cost-optimized. I think it's effort-optimized. The owner doesn't have to supervise reheating pre-prepared meals that are microwaved. I guess that's another form of cost-optimized, but it just feels like most restaurants don't have anyone in charge with any incentive to care.
  - BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
    Care costs money though right? Isn’t that cost optimization with extra steps?

dagw 2y ago

Decline in quality of food I honestly think this is a big one. I love restaurants and love going out to eat, but the number of restaurants I feel I want to go to just keeps declining. Places I used to love and go to weekly, I don't visit any more because the food just isn't good. I'm honestly having a hard time remembering the last time a new place blew me away. Combine that with rapidly rising food prices, and it's just not fun any more. Going out dropping $50+ and leaving slightly disappointed, is just depressing.

Eddy_Viscosity2 2y ago

> reheated frozen dough It doesn't stop there. Many of the big chain sit-down restaurants do little more than reheat pre-prepared items. You are basically getting airplane dinners. Its all centralized, mass produced, and cost-optimized.

ballenf 2y ago
And I'm skeptical it's actually cost-optimized. I think it's effort-optimized. The owner doesn't have to supervise reheating pre-prepared meals that are microwaved. I guess that's another form of cost-optimized, but it just feels like most restaurants don't have anyone in charge with any incentive to care.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
  Care costs money though right? Isn’t that cost optimization with extra steps?