They do have the order Kiosks and phone app. which essentially eliminates one or two people but good luck getting everyone onboard with that!

I don’t agree. People ordering this stuff with DoorDash adding more cost to it already anyhow. You seen the line at Starbucks for the costly coffee?

Just got back from NYC. Burgers and Fries cost $28-$38! (Not fast food) Pastrami Sandwich, no fries, just sandwich on stale rye bread $26-$30. Eating out is getting crazy!

You know (or should have) that I was referring to assistance programs that you don't have to pay into in order to receive benefits, so I find that comment somewhat disingenuous. And no, I am not yet receiving any govt bennies, even the ones I paid into. But one day in the future, if they're still around.

You are paying extra for a service not otherwise included in the cost of the meal. Personally, I never use Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc. If I want to eat out, I do it for the experience, atmosphere and socialization with another couple or just my significant other. Plus those services take a huge cut from the restaurants.

There is no explanation for the whole Starbucks thing. Not only is it overpriced, it's not even good. But apparently some people would rather buy a $7 cup of coffee every day than put money away for a rainy day. My receptionist of 25 years is one of those people. She lives paycheck to paycheck and at 50 doesn't have enough savings to pay for a car repair, and has next to nothing in her 401k. But she never misses a morning at Starbucks.

That could come ! I was at a Dunkin' D some years ago now. I was eating donuts and had finished my coffee and thrown away the cup since they don't refill. Unfortunately I began to choke, a customer came to my aid, her husband ran to the counter, told clerk to quick give him some water that someone was in distress, she refsed to do so unless he produced and quarter (and she was intent on ringing it up first BEFORE getting the water !) Meanwhile, another customer in the line quickly found a quarter and literally flipped it to her, and another man, who actually reached me before that other two who were finally able to buy a cup of water (there was no free fountain in the place) had RUN to his car which was directly in front, gabbed a new bottle of water, and got to me first, after the wife of the first man who went for the water had successfully used the Heimlich maneuver. But that shows the lengths some businesses (of course not all) will go to for a QUARTER !

Cups get counted by management at end of shift. If the count comes up short, the cashier has to pay for it. After 3 occurrences, you get fired. This is to stop young teens from giving free food to all their friends. (I have a buddy who owns a fast food franchise. They must go to elaborate lengths to stop food theft by employees)

Not sure why I should've known about it, as it doesn't pertain to my situation. Sorry, i don't follow govt assistance programs, also I don't know anyone on them who is proud to receive it nor talks about them. I also don't watch TV local station news and local programming. The only two assistance program / govt transfer i am familiar with is social security and unemployment. Other than that, i am ignorant of amounts of welfare, medicaid, SNAP, who qualifies, how to get it, etc. .

Sorry to disappoint you that I am being disingenuous, but a couple can collect combined up to $60K with social security near / at max benefits, hence my comment.

And hopefully stale buns.

Its clear that management of these franchises don't know how to manage what they, themselves have created. I suppose part of the problem is the Franchise itself dictating minimum wage , 'cheap' employees along with the advent of the self serve drink machines. The cheapest of employees and self serve drinks for a higher price than when served from behind the counter are meant to increase profitability, but instead cost more in the long run due to theft. Fast food franchises seemed to do well in the past, but have evolved into management nightmares yielding little profitability in today's tough environment.

I worked for Burger King for a few years back home when I was younger. At the time, you could get a cheeseburger for $1. The ingredients of the sandwich cost maybe 40 cents, and the overhead involved in creating the finished product (including electricity, the machinery, labor, paper wrapping, someone to take the order, etc) was another 40-ish cents. So basically they made 20 cents on each cheeseburger they sold. If you get 1000 people ordering cheeseburgers, and nothing else, in a day, you're making $200 that day. That's not enough to cover the expense of the building being opened, the guy who cleans the kitchen, the woman who empties the trash in the parking lot, the manager's salary plus all 18 hours that there are employees in the building, getting paid whether they're making cheeseburgers or not.

So there's incentive to get them to buy drinks. Drinks cost only around 18 cents, including the cup, and it's self-serve so the only labor involved MIGHT be in filling the ice dispenser, and refilling the syrup bag once every couple of days.

If you give away the cup and the customer is only ordering a cheeseburger, it will cost your store money. But rather than say "no cup for cheeseburger buyers, you can only have a cup if you're buying a cheeseburger AND fries" - they say "there's a charge for the cup."

Seems fair to me, once you have the cup there's nothing preventing you from filling it with soda. We had that problem with kids in our store, so we eventually kicked them out. They'd buy a single small fry between them and ask for cups for water. And they'd fill them up with soda, drink the soda, then fill them again and leave the store with a second free cup of soda. Seniors were the worst - we'd get them come in, they'd buy a fry, unsalted (meaning - fresh, exclusively made just for them), grab a huge stack of napkins, and a free cup of senior coffee and sit there taking up space at the tables for hours - and go home with all those napkins.

IMO BK has been going down hill like snowball to hail for about 30 years. Some IMO are down disastrous. I will admit they have better buns than MDs. MDs the stale bun capitol of world. I wonder what foreign suppliers suppling MDs buns?:22yikes:

All the fast food chains have jumped the shark. McDonald's should be ashamed of themselves. The beauty in all of this is for the same money or less, you can go to a Five Guys or similar and actually get real food.

A "little" cheeseburger, a "little" fry, and a regular soda (they don't offer small), will set you back $17.27, before tax, at 5 Guys.

The little cheeseburger has a decent amount of meat, and the little fry is significantly more than a medium fry at McDonald's but I don't know of anyone who actually eats ALL those fries at 5 Guys. So let's compare similar to similar:

A "Daily Double" cheeseburger is $3.99. A medium fry is $3.99. A medium soda is $2.29. Total is $10.27, before tax. So it's $7 cheaper at McDonald's - which is almost enough to get you an additional little cheeseburger at 5 guys, or a Big Mac in addition to your double burger at McDonald's.

That said, I really like 5 guys burgers and fries, MUCH more than McDonald's. And when I go to McDonald's I don't get a soda, and I only grab a few fries from the medium fry I get for my husband. And sometimes I only get a single normal cheeseburger. OTOH at 5 Guys I get a "little" cheeseburger with tons of mushrooms and onions, and I eat most of the fries from the "little" portion, and sometimes I splurge and get a chocolate shake - but never a soda. There's really no comparison between the two. 5 Guys isn't fast food, and McDonald's doesn't really count as "food" at all, in my opinion. It's more like "things to fill your stomach that probably won't kill you as long as you don't eat it every day."

Don’t forget the peanuts.....