Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.
Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food “as a rare treat,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices.”
Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.
A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.
The devil’s bargain that the American Middle Class struck in the 70s was that women would enter the labor force and all the domestic work would be handled by a professional service sector. Rather than cooking at home, we all eat out at cheap kitchens. Rather maintaining a home, we just rent. Rather than spend a day cleaning, we have dishwashers and rumbas and cheap immigrants to do maid work. Rather than spending time outdoors, we get a gym membership. Rather than providing child care ourselves, we outsource to daycare centers. Etc, etc.
That deal has been breaking down since at least the Housing Crisis of '08, but its really kicked into high gear after COVID. What was supposed to be cheap industrialized outsourcing has climbed in cost by leaps and bounds.
You can argue that the original deal sucked. Establishing a permanent underclass to do the grunt labor of civilization had all sorts of awful knock on effects, not the least of which was the food getting saltier and sugarier and generally more awful for our physical health.
But the alternative is what? Tell half the population to get back in the kitchen? Boycott Big Agriculture? Just eat smaller portions?
Yes back in the kitchen but this time not just one gender. Eating out shouldn’t be the norm.
You couldn’t keep me out of the kitchen if you tried. But I’ve found that confidence fuels engagement.
Home Econ and cooking class are great tools for establishing basic skills and familiarity. Deliver a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to grill, and he’ll cook for the rest of his life.
More elder millennial. But I’m old enough to remember the tail end of home economics and shop class taught in the American education system. And I remember when it was all immolated to cut taxes.
Kids today have no idea how much was robbed from them. McDs selling you pink slime in a bun for 10x what it cost to produce is only the latest atrocity.
what was robbed from them?
kids don’t live on McDonalds.
youtube is full of tutorials how to make your own food, more knowledge is available to them then ever.
If kids live on mcd, it’s because their parents got robbed of a liveable wage and need to overextend themselves.
stop shouting at the golden arch decorated skies and saying women belong in the kitchen
