Fast food price increse

[Vinayaka]

I spend time at truck stops.
But I eat food I bring with me.

I'm 50 50 on that. 0% on the first statement, 100% on the second. This trip I learned just how much food you can bring on a carry-on. Boss started feeling sick (fainty, no food) on a United Airlines flight, and they have a hands-free policy for sales now where you have to download their app beforehand, and then they know by where you're sitting if you have it or not, and you can order food. After I more or less got stern, saying, "So you'd rather have my wife faint, and have to deal with that situation, than find a way to let me buy some food!" she gave me the snack pack for free. After telling that story to friends, we found out what you can bring on board, so on the flight home, I loaded up on cheese, crackers, etc. before boarding.

 

[Revoltingest]

I'm 50 50 on that. 0% on the first statement, 100% on the second. This trip I learned just how much food you can bring on a carry-on. Boss started feeling sick (fainty, no food) on a United Airlines flight, and they have a hands-free policy for sales now where you have to download their app beforehand, and then they know by where you're sitting if you have it or not, and you can order food. After I more or less got stern, saying, "So you'd rather have my wife faint, and have to deal with that situation, than find a way to let me buy some food!" she gave me the snack pack for free. After telling that story to friends, we found out what you can bring on board, so on the flight home, I loaded up on cheese, crackers, etc. before boarding.

I bring food on planes too.
And I try to avoid planes.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Competition. There is a balance between profitability and being competitive. Increasing prices will only drive customers away to the competition.

Right. That's my point. That's why a business can't just arbitrarily raise prices the way you're suggesting.

Of course we wouldn't, which is why penny profit analysis is based on percent increases rather than direct dollar ones.

You missed my point, but you don't seem open to me explaining it a different way.

Huh? What I said has nothing to do with supply and demand.

You were talking about the relationship between costs, price, and profit. Do you and your 20 years of experience in business really think that this has nothing to do with supply and demand?

I offered an insight to the OP's question based on my 20+ years experience managing restaurants the industry. I'm not interested in debating these insights. If you disagree with them, that's your prerogative.

And I do disagree with them. Your "insights" make no sense.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Right. That's my point. That's why a business can't just arbitrarily raise prices the way you're suggesting.

I wasn't suggesting they do. Are you just making straw men now?

You missed my point, but you don't seem open to me explaining it a different way.

Not when you misrepresent what I say from the outset.

You were talking about the relationship between costs, price, and profit. Do you and your 20 years of experience in business really think that this has nothing to do with supply and demand?

What we are discussing here has nothing to do with supply and demand. There is no shortage of goods, do demand isn't impacted by supply. What we are talking about is flow-through on a P&L, not supply and demand.

And I do disagree with them. Your "insights" make no sense.

You forgot to finish your sentence with "to me."

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I wasn't suggesting they do. Are you just making straw men now?

Yes, you were:

"I've been telling people since the whole doubling minimum wage discussion began that they could expect price increase directly proportional to COGS."

Not when you misrepresent what I say from the outset.

What do you think I've misrepresented?

What we are discussing here has nothing to do with supply and demand. There is no shortage of goods, do demand isn't impacted by supply. What we are talking about is flow-through on a P&L, not supply and demand.

You didn't understand what I was talking about, did you?

I'm not talking about supply shortages; I'm talking about the supply curve (i.e. the amount of a product that we expect to be offered on the market, given a price) and the demand curve (i.e. the amount of a product that customers are willing to buy, given a price). This is Econ 101 stuff.

You forgot to finish your sentence with "to me."

No, it was correct as I wrote it.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Competition. There is a balance between profitability and being competitive. Increasing prices will only drive customers away to the competition.

Dairy Queen reminds us thats only true if the customer is smart enough to realize the better deal.

 

[Revoltingest]

Dairy Queen reminds us thats only true if the customer is smart enough to realize the better deal.

It doesn't depend upon customers being smart.
Only that customers generally behave as they tend to.

 

[JustGeorge]

Lately, I'm finding if I need to do a fast food 'treat', Arby's is the most economical.

Very limited options for vegetarians(though they do have a few unexpected ones), but you can get a small curly fry for under two dollars, and a shake for under 4.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It doesn't depend upon customers being smart.
Only that customers generally behave as they tend to.

Yeah, it actually does. Dairy Queens 1/3 pound burger didn't sell very well because Americans widely suck at math and thought 1/3 pound is less than a 1/4 pound. The better deal lost out because of this faulty perception of it as a poor deal as people believed they were paying more for less.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yeah, it actually does.

Intelligence is merely one factor
that affects human behavior.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Intelligence is merely one factor
that affects human behavior.

One factor, and one factor that threw normal economics and business on paper a gnarly curveball of an exception.

 

[Revoltingest]

One factor, and one factor that threw normal economics and business on paper a gnarly curveball of an exception.

Intelligence as been downgraded as a factor
in consumer behavior based on modern
research. The model Homo Economicus
has been greatly modified since the days
of Adam Smith

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Intelligence as been downgraded as a factor
in consumer behavior based on modern
research. The model Homo Economicus
has been greatly modified since the days
of Adam Smith

Milton Friedman seemed to put a lot of faith into smart, informed consumers.

 

[Revoltingest]

Milton Friedman seemed to put a lot of faith into smart, informed consumers.

"Faith"?
And here I thought he was a fan of data.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't eat much fast food but....

I bought a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees back in December 2023 and it was $3.49 after tax.

I bought a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees yesterday and it was $4.57 after tax.

I was like did you ring it up wrong or did the price increase that much? She said all prices went up at the first of the year. I said a $1.08 is a big jump for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit lol

Makes me wonder if it has anything to do with the California raise that started at the first of the year.
Raise prices everywhere to help offset the cost of that raise to $20 per hour for fast food.

Um, food prices have been through the roof since society committed suicide in 2020. A couple bags of groceries is $30 now and you're worried about a fast food biscuit? Of course that's going to cost more. This is a global issue. It has nothing to do with some poor food service workers getting a raise in a very expensive state. Stop blaming the poor and working class.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

"Faith"?
And here I thought he was a fan of data.

Oh, yes, economists do put a lot of emphasis on data and they put faith in their predictions and explanations based on that. Consumers making smart, informed decisions is an assumption of such economic beliefs. Other social sciences have realized and accepted you just can't assume and it's better to take steps to proactively inform people. And we also have lobbyists doing their thing to keep consumers misinformated and under informed (its why our nutritional fact labels are in metrics).
It's this informed consumer that's supposed to thwart unethical companies with people not buying from them. But all we see of this anymore is political expressions in the form of protest buying/not buying.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It has nothing to do with some poor food service workers getting a raise in a very expensive state.

The sad thing is the part I live in isn't really that much different from where I lived in Indiana. But you make so much more money here and you're incomdle is taxed less by the state when you're poor. Amd from what I've been told and seen on trips there it's basically the same. Even a few years ago I about **** a brick pulling up to a Taco Bell in rural Indiana and seeing California prices. Rent prices were even starting to reach the same rates. But I definitely wouldn't be making 20.50 an hour for my position in Indiana. I made 13 to do social work, with kids, and that's incomparably harder (pays around 18 starting out here) for work that left me floating right at the poverty line with a state that fattens itself off the poor taxing me well back down below that.
In general America is going to have to pay more to end the destruction of the severe exploitation of artificially low prices, but in traditional American manner it's not going about it the right way and we aren't seeing the things that should come with it, such seeing people lifted out of poverty with better wages and benefits. But this America, where it's assumed you picked your life circumstances before birth.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Lately, I'm finding if I need to do a fast food 'treat', Arby's is the most economical.

I never thought I'd ever hear that, especially since they don't do the 5 for $5 deals anymore. But, yeah, thet do have some good deals. But it's 7 bucks full price for a 4 piece cheese stick so evem though they have my favorite it's only with a coupon.

 

[JustGeorge]

I never thought I'd ever hear that, especially since they don't do the 5 for $5 deals anymore. But, yeah, thet do have some good deals. But it's 7 bucks full price for a 4 piece cheese stick so evem though they have my favorite it's only with a coupon.

I've never gotten the cheese sticks.

I get the full order of jalapeno poppers sometimes, and its only 5 something.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I've never gotten the cheese sticks.

I get the full order of jalapeno poppers sometimes, and its only 5 something.

They actually didn't have the jalapeno poppers when I worked there. They did before. They did after. But not during.