eric76 said:

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Ol_Ag_02 said:

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If you're a half-way decent cook going out just isn't worth it. Just wasting money on food that isn't as good as what I make at home.

Now I will gladly spend money at the local taco shop becuase i don't have a shawarma grill to cook al pastor on.

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I've read that more and more restaurants across the country buy their food frozen from Sysco or other similar countries. The more they do that, you get the same mediocre crap wherever you go.

I used to go to one local restaurant for chicken fried steak on occasion, but their chicken fried steak quality suddenly plummeted. It had the look of being premade and frozen patty and all they had to do was to drop it in the deep fryer.

If they can't cook it at least as good as I cook it, why go?

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100% the case. Sysco and Ben E Keith. Everyone wants cheaper food and this is how it happens, but it is at th e expense of everything being the same. Even the restaurants that try to resist it and stay with local distributors can only do so for so long before the distributor gets bought out by one of the big boys.

Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

Sadly, de-risking for investors at scale is often just going cheap, no matter the impact to employees and customers. They'd rather make a widget for $5 and sell for $10, versus making a widget for $8 and sell for $13. If it's $8, has to sell for $16. Look at one episode of shark tank, it's auto-reply make it in Asia, I need a royalty so I get my money back, price point not high enough, I need more equity, I need withdrawals along with you, I need you to quit your full time, etc. What helps make America great is liquidity and capital access in the financial system, but when everyone is trying to squeeze a quick 40% IRR out of their money, it's hard to tell what is smart money versus greed.

Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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Trump started it with his horrible response to COVID, but yes, Biden's autopen turned it to eleventy-threeve.

Not where I live. People don't run out of money in the magical land of San Antonio apparently.

Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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Five Guys has been notoriously overpriced for a couple of years now

BigRobSA said:

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Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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Trump started it with his horrible response to COVID, but yes, Biden's autopen turned it to eleventy-threeve.

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and yet Powell is lowering rates...

Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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split the fries at 5 guys. They dump a bunch of extra fries into the bag.

Logos Stick said:

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BigRobSA said:

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Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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Trump started it with his horrible response to COVID, but yes, Biden's autopen turned it to eleventy-threeve.

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and yet Powell is lowering rates...

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And they would be cut in half again if Trump had his way

Boomers were growing up, eating out was a treat that happen maybe once a year.

Then came the fast food industry and it was cheaper to eat out.

That now has changed back to cheaper to find a good wife that can cook homemade meals.

5Amp said:

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Boomers were growing up, eating out was a treat that happen maybe once a year.

Then came the fast food industry and it was cheaper to eat out.

That now has changed back to cheaper to find a good wife that can cook homemade meals.

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Might be easier to keep eating out.

SigAg6 said:

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Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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split the fries at 5 guys. They dump a bunch of extra fries into the bag.

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From what I have heard...not any more.

Which brings up the next point: Shrinkflation is alive and well in the food industry at large. Mostly in un-prepared food, but sometimes in prepared food as well. So inflation of food (in general) is worse than it might appear if you look close enough.

javajaws said:

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SigAg6 said:

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Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy, I really feel sorry for the young people, my grandsons and daughters. Marsha and I went to Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago and decided to drop in to 5 Guys. She had the little burger, I had the two patty one, she got fries with hers and I had an order of fries, we each had iced tea. Wait for it, $50 without the tip, FIFTY DOLLARS!!! That is unreal to me, I know I am an Old, but the Biden years seem to have driven prices for food totally outta sight. How do young families afford to ever eat out?????

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split the fries at 5 guys. They dump a bunch of extra fries into the bag.

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From what I have heard...not any more.

Which brings up the next point: Shrinkflation is alive and well in the food industry at large. Mostly in un-prepared food, but sometimes in prepared food as well. So inflation of food (in general) is worse than it might appear if you look close enough.

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If so, that's an American thing then.

Just ate there in Spain last week and they dumped mucho extra fries in the bag.

part of the problem is that your dining options these days boil down to this tier list:

1) fast food priced like it's fast casual
2) fast casual slop (think chipotle)
3) restaurants competing to see who can heat up sysco food the best
4) actually good and affordable restaurants that immediately get gobbled up by private equity firms and bled dry
5) good restaurants with well sourced food that costs minimum $75 a person

We eat at more restaurants than we should. It's strictly due to convenience. We are almost empty nesters which will make it less expensive.

I think most of you would be shocked how much of your meals from restaurant/fast food comes from Sysco/SYGMA. Heck.....Sysco creates the menus for most of the places.

You'd be surprised at the quality of food that Sysco pushes in the back door, and what slop comes out the front after the kitchen gets ahold of the food.

For me, a big reason why we don't eat out as much anymore is that people have lost the ability to behave in public. Pretty much any restaurant (from diner or coffeeshop to higher-end full service) has some jerk playing instagram videos or watching the baseball game at full volume on his or her phone, and God help you if you think they should turn the damn volume off.

infinity ag said:

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n_touch said:

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BonfireNerd04 said:

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US tipping culture needs to die.

Abolish the subminimum wage. Make restaurants fulfill their duty to pay their workers instead of guilt-tripping customers into doing it. Raise the price of the food accordingly. Be like the rest of the world.

I'm tired at being prompted to pay 20% or more just for someone doing their normal job. Especially when it's at a restaurant that doesn't even have waiters, but just gives you your food over the counter. Quit pretending that it's "too complicated" to disable the tip prompts on the card reader.

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Removing tipping all together would decimate the restaurant industry. Also, a good server can make more than an hourly wage that a restaurant owner would be willing to pay at a decent restaurant. Right now the issue is exactly what you are saying about tipping to do your normal job. It was never designed for the Starbucks barista making $15/hour or the Subway sandwich worker making $10/hr. Being hit with tips from every angle is what is causing the issue.

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You argument is just like the "we don't have skills in America so need to hire H1Bs from India" that corporations dish out.

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I seriously don't think you read what he wrote past that first sentence. He is 100% correct. And your comparison/analogy/whatever is way off.

If ANYONE is prompted to tip at a restaurant (or anywhere else) that doesn't have waiters/servers -- or that asks for it for non-waiters/servers, put in ZERO. It is really pretty easy. If it is so annoying that you can't stand it, quit going. After a (long) while, they'll stop.

(Don't take this to mean that I am in favor of ANY minimum wage; I'm not. I would abolish it completely. However, I have no issue with a lower pay scale/tipping system for waiters/servers.)

cab559 said:

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aggieforester05 said:

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I took my wife to a nice restaurant for her birthday. We both got a ribeye that came with potatoes and asparagus. Chips/Queso for appetizer. She got one old fashion and I got one beer. $176 plus tip came out to $211. Date night has gotten a little steep to say the least.

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I'm curious which 'nice' restaurants offer chips and queso as an appetizer with the option for a ribeye entree? Sounds like absurd prices for a Chili's or Applebee's.

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As one who goes there often, Chili's does not have to top $ 25/30 but you have to allow for the tip. Whataburger can go as low as $ 11+ if you skip the drink and fries.

Nice restaurants in Europe don't appear to have a problem.

Aggie95 said:

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We eat at more restaurants than we should. It's strictly due to convenience. We are almost empty nesters which will make it less expensive.

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Move 20-30 minutes away from town like I did. You'll be surprised at how little you eat out.

n_touch said:

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Omperlodge said:

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I think how they have applied inflation has hurt their business more than anything else. They want to maintain their old margins at new higher costs. For instance, if your costs where $3 and you sold it for $10 you made $7. Now your costs are $6 and instead of going to $13 you go to $20. This runs off customers and you don't even notice it at first because those that do still come are covering the 50% drop in customers. Then those stop coming and you go out of business.

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Pretty entertaining that the consumers that use DD/Uber the most are the ones that complain they have no money, yet can afford inflated pricing on the apps. As well hurting the entire industry by increase pricing across the board to cover the cost of the apps.

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I don't think a lot of people realize the markup they're paying.

I'll doordash for pickup when retailers don't have their own online platforms. The local Chinese place is on both platorms. DoorDash, for the exact same order, is $30 more, and that's with no delivery involved.

I don't see how restaurants can stay afloat with the slim margins, but so many have abandoned their own online platforms and delivery drivers, that they've backed themselves into a corner.

I can't say I agree with this. I've traveled and eaten all over Europe, including many Michelin starred places as well as some real dumps. The food quality and price is often much better than I would find in the states. Sure the service is slower and more lackadaisical but I expect that when in Europe. Don't even get me started on alcohol, beer and wine prices there compared to Americ, the markup here is ridiculous and you're not expected to tip after every beer!

I took my parents to Europe for the first time this summer and my dad was shocked at the quality and affordability of food there. His family has been restaurant owners for over 50 years.

I dont do fast food as often anymore, but if I need breakfast or a quick bite on the go, PTerrys is great. There is one less than a mile from my house.

Their sausage egg and cheese burger is 3.78 with tax and you can get their double cheese burger for around 6 bucks with tax.

Yes, the burgers aren't as big as whataburgers, but I am sated for several hours until dinner and I dont feel like a fat POS who hates himself afterwards. I dont miss the fries or drink, I drink mostly water these days.

Aggie95 said:

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We eat at more restaurants than we should. It's strictly due to convenience. We are almost empty nesters which will make it less expensive.

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Us too. I don't notice any of the restaurants my wife and I go to struggling, most of the places in Port A/Rockport and San Antonio/Boerne are packed and several you have to have a reservation in order to get a seat. The food cost is one thing, it's the adult beverages that can really make for an expensive meal regardless of it is a Mexican food restaurant or an upper end place.

txyaloo said:

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n_touch said:

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Omperlodge said:

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I think how they have applied inflation has hurt their business more than anything else. They want to maintain their old margins at new higher costs. For instance, if your costs where $3 and you sold it for $10 you made $7. Now your costs are $6 and instead of going to $13 you go to $20. This runs off customers and you don't even notice it at first because those that do still come are covering the 50% drop in customers. Then those stop coming and you go out of business.

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Pretty entertaining that the consumers that use DD/Uber the most are the ones that complain they have no money, yet can afford inflated pricing on the apps. As well hurting the entire industry by increase pricing across the board to cover the cost of the apps.

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I don't think a lot of people realize the markup they're paying.

I'll doordash for pickup when retailers don't have their own online platforms. The local Chinese place is on both platorms. DoorDash, for the exact same order, is $30 more, and that's with no delivery involved.

I don't see how restaurants can stay afloat with the slim margins, but so many have abandoned their own online platforms and delivery drivers, that they've backed themselves into a corner.

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There are ways to use DD/Uber to your advantage as a restaurant owner, but they have to care and many times they do not. They are just trying to stay afloat and adding anything else to that, even something that would save them money and possibly increase business is not something they have the time or bandwidth to take on.

You can really see the impact of inflation on formerly cheap Mexican food.

A plate of beef fajita nachos is now $20 at many neighborhood joints.

BBRex said:

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I'm an old (55), and when I was in high school, me and a lot of high school kids I knew had jobs, especially at grocery stores and restaurants. We don't have kids, but I don't think many high school-aged kids are getting jobs anymore. That means the job pool for those jobs has decreased, and, at the same time, the wages you have to offer a 20-something to take that same job is higher.

At the same time, the economy has been slow, which means fewer patrons. Restaurant owners are caught in the squeeze.

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I mowed yards five days a week while in high school. Now I get that my kids high school experience may not be normal, but they can't have jobs. They get done with extracurriculars in the fall semester at 6:30 four days a week. Home by 7:00, eat some dinner and then they both have several hours of homework. Their "job" is school.

It just wasn't like that in the 90s.

A lot of the systems we have in place are simply not designed for 350MM people. College is a big one on that list considering there were 265MM people in 1995 and 195MM in 1965. People can work there tail off and not get into a school that someone was previously able to get into with their same stats.

Stonegateag85 said:

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I can't say I agree with this. I've traveled and eaten all over Europe, including many Michelin starred places as well as some real dumps. The food quality and price is often much better than I would find in the states. Sure the service is slower and more lackadaisical but I expect that when in Europe. Don't even get me started on alcohol, beer and wine prices there compared to Americ, the markup here is ridiculous and you're not expected to tip after every beer!

I took my parents to Europe for the first time this summer and my dad was shocked at the quality and affordability of food there. His family has been restaurant owners for over 50 years.

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I'm not saying the food is bad or that the service is terrible. It's just a different experience with regards to atmosphere and service. I've had many excellent meals abroad but the flavor is going to be different than what an American palate expects. Asia moreso than Europe and Australia.

I'm an old. Eating out was a treat.

People my age remember the neighborhood filling with the aroma of most houses on the block all preparing dinner.

titan said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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MemphisAg1 said:

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I travel a lot for business.

Restaurants are packed, no matter where in the US you go.

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Doesn't always mean they're profitable or sustainable. A packed restaurant may be operating on razor thin margins to stay packed, and while it remains open, it is a poor investment and at severe risk to any kind of interruption.

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This might explain certain inexplicable sudden closures. Of a place you thought was doing well.

Even happens to chains. The most baffling being Picasso's group of restaurants because it just pre-dated the 2020 Covid disaster in that they shuttered before the March 2020 shut down.

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I get this reference! Went to get a pizza and it was closed.

AnScAggie said:

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Aggie95 said:

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We eat at more restaurants than we should. It's strictly due to convenience. We are almost empty nesters which will make it less expensive.

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Us too. I don't notice any of the restaurants my wife and I go to struggling, most of the places in Port A/Rockport and San Antonio/Boerne are packed and several you have to have a reservation in order to get a seat. The food cost is one thing, it's the adult beverages that can really make for an expensive meal regardless of it is a Mexican food restaurant or an upper end place.

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We live in Rockport so we don't remotely eat out like we used when we lived in Dallas, but when we do we are paying what we paid in Dallas. The prices here are no different and frankly higher in some cases. Now, that's because Rockport is a high end second home town for a lot of rich people out of San Antonio, Austin, and Houston so I get it.

We eat at home a lot these days though. When we were in the Dallas corporate rat race we would eat out 4-5 nights per week because it was too exhausting to even think about cooking. No f'ing way we could do that now.

Yeah but your access to fresh seafood is way better, even if you have to catch it yourself!