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.
if base food prices really make the old fast food economics nonviable, I expect the space to die off and be replaced by fast causal. otherwise I expect a lot of them to die on their own greed and the rest to get with it. it seems the fast food space is going all in on drive-thrus so maybe that’s their future niche?
That’s just it, we can see the finances of McDonald’s, and they could definitely make their burgers quite a bit cheaper if they wanted to. But they keep wages low and prices high because it allows them to make massive profits.
Which is stupid to do in the long run, because a nice restaurant is the same price or slightly higher. But all the stockholders are concerned about is quarterly profits, not long term ones. Capitalism is remarkably short sighted.
Ride your quarterly profits and attendant bonuses as long as possible and don’t give a shit about the future because that’s the next CEO’s problem in less than 5 years from now when you golden parachute out
Fast food has been all in on drive thrus since the inception of drive thrus. Most places make about half of their money that way and for some it’s far more.