I see a lot of complaints about fast food being and other meals becoming much more expensive than usual. I know it’s true because grocery prices are absurd, but I genuinely don’t know what’s considered “expensive” with fast food.
I just instinctively know it’s expensive and never eat out. Like $8 for one small smash burger just seems absurd to me, but apparently that’s always been normal?
My ex and I had a rule to never order anything from a restaurant we could make at home. Quite conveniently, she was an incredible cook that could make damn near anything and I’m not too bad myself. The only time we’d ever eat out was for birthdays/anniversaries or sushi once every few months or so. Spending $50-$100 for us both at “fancy” places felt like an exorbitant luxury but I realize now that’s not far off from what many people spend regularly on meals.
The combination of very rarely eating out and then living outside the US when I did eat out slightly more resulted in me being absolutely shocked at prices recently. I went with a friend to a greasy small town diner and was in utter disbelief at $14 for an omelette. He assured me that it was pretty normal and it like short circuited my brain. I just couldn’t comprehend paying that much for a few eggs prepared so simply, easily 10x the cost of the ingredients. Paying that kind of premium regularly, especially scaled up on more expensive dishes, is so far outside of what I consider reasonable or even somewhat financially responsible that I’m shocked anyone does it. But the fact that the diner was PACKED with a line out the door made me feel like I was the one that’s out of touch with reality
I’m reminded of the slowly boiling frog analogy.
lol diners have always been uniquely absurd imo
The prices of eggs and chicken hit a weird spike at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and hasn't really gone back down since. But to me I think it's always been a bit too high for egg dishes considering the low price point (B4 the conflict obvi) and that a restaurant can buy at wholesale prices.