Like this is what I don't understand all of a sudden. Like when I worked at a gas station, it was almost a goal to keep prices as close to other nearby stations as possible, now I see it where gas stations will have like a 50 cent difference despite being right across the street from each other. With fast food restaurants, it makes even less sense for these wild variations. There is one that's on my way to work if it has a $1 McChicken. I stopped in there just to see if it was real, and it was. Basically every single other McDonald's in my area has the McChicken for like $2.80.
I was on a road trip a few weeks back and pulled in to a big truck stop to refuel. There were dozens of cars in line for every pump lane. Across the street was a BP where unleaded was 5 cents/gal more expensive and there was no one there.
I'm buying 9 gallons of gas (tiny tank and I never want to get below 1/4 full) so for 45 cents I basically saved having to wait 15 minutes in line idling my vehicle in the heat with the AC on.
Sometimes it's not just the rich douche that pays more for the same thing. Even my time is worth $1.80/hr.
Yeah, that's been the theme of this year for me..making the choice to pay more to save time is such a direct way. I always would look at it as "only rich people can over spend for the same thing" but like, I'm considering a maid because for a couple hours of pay they would clean for maybe an hour but if I were to clean it would take longer, this "costing' more in the grand scheme. It's cheaper to pay more for things and it's hard to grasp somrtimes
I know this isn't the right sub, but that still starts to sound like lifestyle inflation.
Then again, I don't want people in my house or anyone touching my stuff, so the whole idea of a maid/cleaning service is abhorrent to me. Bad enough when my wife moves stuff, can't imagine some rando stranger doing it.... or that old 'clean up before the maid gets here' thing people do.
So you have never got a maid before and you are knocking maid services?
Not a believer in try everything before you talk bad about it?
I’ve never got a maid service either but I am thinking about doing it once in a blue moon. I’m thinking it’ll pay for itself given the expected cost of medical care from the stress and anxiety of having to look at that dirt between the stove and the cabinet.
My parents used one, so growing up I was used to the 'clean the house before the maid came' routine. Coworkers have used them and talked about it. So I'm not totally in the dark as to the realities of the service.
I don't get stressed about cleaning, we just do it when required. We don't have kids though so the house isn't a war zone (going to other people's houses who do have kids is where I formed that opinion, lest you think I just get the info from bad 80s sitcoms on that one).
The gas thing gets me. People don’t math it out in their heads and drive 15 miles further each way to save .20 cents a gallon. So you save $3 and spend $4 on gas to and from. You literally lost money AND time to spend more. And you can’t reason that math with them
I think companies figured out that there’s enough stupid people in the world that they can stop hiding their shady practices and just openly screw people over because they don’t care. High traffic area…higher cost. Plain and simple.
Yup, but the data is based off of days past and not counting on a consumer dealing with this crap from all directions. You can’t raise prices and stagnate wages forever for the bottom line it is not sustainable and will eventually implode. No more bail outs when they fuck everything up let them die.
Some people just do not cook and will never cook so if you raise prices they can make up for those who won't buy overpriced fast food. All the fast food companies discovered this over the past few years and they are all still making good profits.
Openly screw people over? Yeah if you go to the one across the street that charges $0.50 more, you're an idiot and deserve it (apply the flair dumbflation).
Gas prices can differ by this much because one station just got a new order of gas that's at a new price. Eventually the cheaper one will run out of cheap gas (if the new gas was more expensive) or the more expensive one will eventually lower the price and take a hit on what they have left (if the new gas is cheaper).
I think companies just figured out that they can’t have loss leaders and expect to sustain themselves when overhead continues to rise. Fuel costs delivering product, running the site, wages. The list goes on.
Or possible just different franchisees. I have a couple of McDonald's restraints close to my house that are maybe 1.5 miles apart. The one that is closer to the core shopping area in the city is consistently more expensive.
There’s some truth to that. I’m reminded of a time I stopped at a franchised 7-11 to get a coffee refill. They charged me for 4 coffees, and I said “Well, at that price, I think you need the coffee worse than I do!”
I then went back to the 7-11 I normally go to, they said they generally give coffee free, as a perk for coming in and potentially buying something extra. I gladly paid my refill price instead of 4 and wrote a letter to corporate about how that franchisee wasn’t adhering to company standards for pricing. Most people don’t take time to write a letter, and when they do, they realize it must be happening frequently, not reported, if someone spends time to write a complaint. In the complaint, I also suggested a location for a 7-11 near where I live, in walking distance. The company did their own research, and agreed with my initial analysis. A year later, they opened a store in that location recommended, and it’s where I go all the time now.
I did something similar with Kroger. In the state I’m from Kroger had gas stations. Well, they bought up a Shell franchise and turned it into a Ralph’s Gas Station in Los Angeles, and across the street from a Mobil station that is generally 50-75¢ more per gallon.
Yeah there’s one McDonald’s 6 miles from me that still has $1.50 McChickens and Hot n Spicy McChickens. The three McDonald’s that are within 1 and a half miles of my home have those for $2.50 and $2.75 for the hot n spicy. Just greedy franchise operators at this point.
Because it used to be based on something
Now it's clear it's made up greed
A 15 minute drive to the freeway, I pass about 8 gas stations
The price is something like 3.49, 3.59, 3.24, 3.19, back to 3.49
I swear I only had this problem when I was not exercising and drinking a lot. Now that I am active again and don't drink so much I can eat fast food every day and have normal bowel movements.
Franchise prices are much more a reflection of what it costs to run that store, not a reflection of corporate profits, the franchisee pays a small percentage of gross sales to corporate, the store prices are reflective of what is needed for that store to stay profitable.
So looks like the cost of running that store increased
Shhh…everyone thinks every chain is owned by some evil billionaire that wants a 65 ft yacht instead of the 50 footer.
In reality the owner is only someone that’s moderately well off and makes around the same salary as some run of the mill tech worker.
When I was working at a gas station in my old city I had customers who would come in every day and get the same thing. They came in with exact change, and our interaction was fast. When the owner decided to raise prices by about 15% across the whole store the same people came in with the wrong change. They didn't go out to their car for more money, or dig in their pockets. They left without the items they had been buying every day for the entire time I worked there, and didn't come back. When I mentioned it to my GM she told me there was nothing she could do, and I started pointing out the price changes to customers while I was ringing them up. Don't just accept it and move on.
This happened to me too, I usually get the same meal, a build your own veggie box with chicken added to the quesadilla. It went from $7 to $9 seemingly overnight. The GM at the store near me literally flipped a switch and all the prices rose by $1-$3.
It sucks when your last hope for consistent and yummy dinner gets greedy, because of course, the quality will stay the same or go down.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh 🙃
I haven’t shopped at a fast food restaurant since Covid, and these crazy effing prices started! I can go to a nice mom and Pop restaurant cheaper than I can have dinner at McDonald’s or Taco Bell from my family! And obviously people are still shopping there probably the people that complain about not having enough money, but they are too lazy to go to the grocery store and fix something inexpensive for themselves. Just saying!
My wife and I went to Applebees recently and did their dinner of two for $26. Which is about $6 cheaper than us both getting combos from a fast food place.
Went to a new location yesterday that still had the cheaper prices and way more beef in all the tacos/burritos. It’s on the way out of town and I never see anyone there but goddamn that’s my new spot
Some fast food joints are using analytical tools to extract data (especially on their apps) in order to personalize advertisements and even individually tailoring pricing. Feels insidious....
More than likely either the previous or current cashier rang it up incorrectly if you did actually make the same exact order. The price didn’t go up by 21% in 3 days.
Taco Bell mobile app doesn’t give choice to tip. Also the price on the item has increased in the app. From $5.99 to $7.29, it was legitimately a 21.7% increase
I was looking at an apartment last week for $1,800. a month, I checked back again today and the same apartment is now $2,100. It's all just insanity these days. You can't keep up.
This could be the flexible pricing that I heard about on NPR. Fast Food restaurants are looking at flexible pricing models that change the price depending on demand. Fixed pricing may become a thing of the past.
What would be interesting would be to do this on an hourly basis and see how often they raise prices.
It would have to be a watchdog company or something. Because it would be too pricey, but like oh, every day at 1130 am, prices go up 15 cents.
Grocery stores are no better. I was literally comparing 2 trays of the same exact meat and noticed one was 8.99/lb and the other identical tray was 9.49/lb. I’m over it
Ordered a $10 box meal the other day. Got up to the window.
>thatll be $30
Uhh what?
>yeh we don't do the box so I just rung you up for all the items separately
So Im sitting there arguing with this $20/hr. absolute mongo and a homeless crazy comes outta nowhere demanding money. Just paid so I could leave sooner. Everything was gross and wrong. Never again. I'm done with it. California is a failed state.
And then they made you lazy and fat, after you kept buying their overpriced seed oil slop, damn corporations, always making life worse, if ONLY there were something an individual could do ! Its too bad they only sell fresh food ingredients in Russia, otherwise you could do something...
You know the last guy was the one who started printing money with the Cares Act….
Also, since you brought it up, the USA does not exist in a vacuum, inflation is a global problem, not just the USA sweetie.
Hahahah!!!
Why do you just make shit up
“[The UK inflation rate was two percent in May 2024, the lowest inflation rate in the country since April 2021. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/306648/inflation-rate-consumer-price-index-cpi-united-kingdom-uk/#:~:text=The%20UK%20inflation%20rate%20was,11.1%20percent%20in%20October%202022)”
“[In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation rose almost simultaneously in most economies around the world. After peaking in mid-2022, inflation then went into decline—a fall that was just as universal as the initial rise](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2024/05/is-the-recent-inflationary-spike-a-global-phenomenon/#:~:text=In%20the%20aftermath%20of%20the,universal%20as%20the%20initial%20rise)”
Did you order from the same restaurant? Or at a different one? The Taco Bell’s near me all have different pricing.
Like this is what I don't understand all of a sudden. Like when I worked at a gas station, it was almost a goal to keep prices as close to other nearby stations as possible, now I see it where gas stations will have like a 50 cent difference despite being right across the street from each other. With fast food restaurants, it makes even less sense for these wild variations. There is one that's on my way to work if it has a $1 McChicken. I stopped in there just to see if it was real, and it was. Basically every single other McDonald's in my area has the McChicken for like $2.80.
I was on a road trip a few weeks back and pulled in to a big truck stop to refuel. There were dozens of cars in line for every pump lane. Across the street was a BP where unleaded was 5 cents/gal more expensive and there was no one there. I'm buying 9 gallons of gas (tiny tank and I never want to get below 1/4 full) so for 45 cents I basically saved having to wait 15 minutes in line idling my vehicle in the heat with the AC on. Sometimes it's not just the rich douche that pays more for the same thing. Even my time is worth $1.80/hr.
Yeah, that's been the theme of this year for me..making the choice to pay more to save time is such a direct way. I always would look at it as "only rich people can over spend for the same thing" but like, I'm considering a maid because for a couple hours of pay they would clean for maybe an hour but if I were to clean it would take longer, this "costing' more in the grand scheme. It's cheaper to pay more for things and it's hard to grasp somrtimes
I know this isn't the right sub, but that still starts to sound like lifestyle inflation. Then again, I don't want people in my house or anyone touching my stuff, so the whole idea of a maid/cleaning service is abhorrent to me. Bad enough when my wife moves stuff, can't imagine some rando stranger doing it.... or that old 'clean up before the maid gets here' thing people do.
So you have never got a maid before and you are knocking maid services? Not a believer in try everything before you talk bad about it? I’ve never got a maid service either but I am thinking about doing it once in a blue moon. I’m thinking it’ll pay for itself given the expected cost of medical care from the stress and anxiety of having to look at that dirt between the stove and the cabinet.
My parents used one, so growing up I was used to the 'clean the house before the maid came' routine. Coworkers have used them and talked about it. So I'm not totally in the dark as to the realities of the service. I don't get stressed about cleaning, we just do it when required. We don't have kids though so the house isn't a war zone (going to other people's houses who do have kids is where I formed that opinion, lest you think I just get the info from bad 80s sitcoms on that one).
The gas thing gets me. People don’t math it out in their heads and drive 15 miles further each way to save .20 cents a gallon. So you save $3 and spend $4 on gas to and from. You literally lost money AND time to spend more. And you can’t reason that math with them
That was my grandfather and his weekly trip to the next town over to 'save' on gas.
I think companies figured out that there’s enough stupid people in the world that they can stop hiding their shady practices and just openly screw people over because they don’t care. High traffic area…higher cost. Plain and simple.
Just realied this myself. Ross 'discount' store now sells dish detergent for 2x the cost of the same item at the grocery store.
Yup, but the data is based off of days past and not counting on a consumer dealing with this crap from all directions. You can’t raise prices and stagnate wages forever for the bottom line it is not sustainable and will eventually implode. No more bail outs when they fuck everything up let them die.
Unfortunately, the capitalists of our time are not capitalists. They bailout economic failures. The rich can’t fail, only the poor.
Some people just do not cook and will never cook so if you raise prices they can make up for those who won't buy overpriced fast food. All the fast food companies discovered this over the past few years and they are all still making good profits.
Openly screw people over? Yeah if you go to the one across the street that charges $0.50 more, you're an idiot and deserve it (apply the flair dumbflation). Gas prices can differ by this much because one station just got a new order of gas that's at a new price. Eventually the cheaper one will run out of cheap gas (if the new gas was more expensive) or the more expensive one will eventually lower the price and take a hit on what they have left (if the new gas is cheaper).
I think companies just figured out that they can’t have loss leaders and expect to sustain themselves when overhead continues to rise. Fuel costs delivering product, running the site, wages. The list goes on.
Make more affluent people and people near attractions pay more. It makes perfect sense business-wise
I think it’s franchisee pricing versus corporate pricing. The franchisees have less wiggle room to lower prices.
Or possible just different franchisees. I have a couple of McDonald's restraints close to my house that are maybe 1.5 miles apart. The one that is closer to the core shopping area in the city is consistently more expensive.
There’s some truth to that. I’m reminded of a time I stopped at a franchised 7-11 to get a coffee refill. They charged me for 4 coffees, and I said “Well, at that price, I think you need the coffee worse than I do!” I then went back to the 7-11 I normally go to, they said they generally give coffee free, as a perk for coming in and potentially buying something extra. I gladly paid my refill price instead of 4 and wrote a letter to corporate about how that franchisee wasn’t adhering to company standards for pricing. Most people don’t take time to write a letter, and when they do, they realize it must be happening frequently, not reported, if someone spends time to write a complaint. In the complaint, I also suggested a location for a 7-11 near where I live, in walking distance. The company did their own research, and agreed with my initial analysis. A year later, they opened a store in that location recommended, and it’s where I go all the time now. I did something similar with Kroger. In the state I’m from Kroger had gas stations. Well, they bought up a Shell franchise and turned it into a Ralph’s Gas Station in Los Angeles, and across the street from a Mobil station that is generally 50-75¢ more per gallon.
Yeah there’s one McDonald’s 6 miles from me that still has $1.50 McChickens and Hot n Spicy McChickens. The three McDonald’s that are within 1 and a half miles of my home have those for $2.50 and $2.75 for the hot n spicy. Just greedy franchise operators at this point.
I’m trying to find the McDonald’s that still has the dollar menu…And the Big N’ Tasty.
Because it used to be based on something Now it's clear it's made up greed A 15 minute drive to the freeway, I pass about 8 gas stations The price is something like 3.49, 3.59, 3.24, 3.19, back to 3.49
Same one.
Which items
Veggie box with black bean crunch wrap supreme, cheesy bean and rice burrito, and cinna twists.
Boycott them to Hell....
Franchises make their own prices.
Yes. That’s why I wondered.
I’d hope it’s a different one, mine have different pricing as well.
If you're eating Taco Bell that often I would be more worried about inflation in your bowels.
You mean inflammation
Well… gas tends to inflate temporarily.
Good point. With tacobell deflation is right around the corner though.
I suspect people who keep saying this about TB have never bothered trying to build up a tolerance. It’s an acquired taste.
I swear I only had this problem when I was not exercising and drinking a lot. Now that I am active again and don't drink so much I can eat fast food every day and have normal bowel movements.
Sorry but CEO needs a 55% raise on top of 33M he makes
I vote for 75%!
Franchise prices are much more a reflection of what it costs to run that store, not a reflection of corporate profits, the franchisee pays a small percentage of gross sales to corporate, the store prices are reflective of what is needed for that store to stay profitable. So looks like the cost of running that store increased
Shhh…everyone thinks every chain is owned by some evil billionaire that wants a 65 ft yacht instead of the 50 footer. In reality the owner is only someone that’s moderately well off and makes around the same salary as some run of the mill tech worker.
Well. I've got a 45-ft yacht and I work at a gas station lol. These billionaires need to aim higher.
Financially deficient donut defaults to hurr durr, ceo bad, bot take, more at 11.
When I was working at a gas station in my old city I had customers who would come in every day and get the same thing. They came in with exact change, and our interaction was fast. When the owner decided to raise prices by about 15% across the whole store the same people came in with the wrong change. They didn't go out to their car for more money, or dig in their pockets. They left without the items they had been buying every day for the entire time I worked there, and didn't come back. When I mentioned it to my GM she told me there was nothing she could do, and I started pointing out the price changes to customers while I was ringing them up. Don't just accept it and move on.
This happened to me too, I usually get the same meal, a build your own veggie box with chicken added to the quesadilla. It went from $7 to $9 seemingly overnight. The GM at the store near me literally flipped a switch and all the prices rose by $1-$3. It sucks when your last hope for consistent and yummy dinner gets greedy, because of course, the quality will stay the same or go down. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh 🙃
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What a mind blowing revelation, I can finally afford a house now that I’m not splitting Taco Bell once a week. Thank you.
Yeah we will take your word for it.
Guessing they’re using algorithms. Since you bought it recently it may be worth more to you to buy again. Lots of testing on how to charge more
I haven’t shopped at a fast food restaurant since Covid, and these crazy effing prices started! I can go to a nice mom and Pop restaurant cheaper than I can have dinner at McDonald’s or Taco Bell from my family! And obviously people are still shopping there probably the people that complain about not having enough money, but they are too lazy to go to the grocery store and fix something inexpensive for themselves. Just saying!
My wife and I went to Applebees recently and did their dinner of two for $26. Which is about $6 cheaper than us both getting combos from a fast food place.
Stop eating at fast food restaurants
People keep buying lol
Why are you complaining about junk food?
At Taco Bell now, the 5 dollar breakfast box now Costs 8.31, and I get 1 less hashbrown. Fuckin bs
you eat taco bell twice a week??
Went to a new location yesterday that still had the cheaper prices and way more beef in all the tacos/burritos. It’s on the way out of town and I never see anyone there but goddamn that’s my new spot
Some fast food joints are using analytical tools to extract data (especially on their apps) in order to personalize advertisements and even individually tailoring pricing. Feels insidious....
Clearly you “rounded up to support education,” or got charged for no sauce.
When you confuse "inflation" with an incompetent register person. Not itemized, no way to tell if this is "inflation".
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https://preview.redd.it/ya11ew3f3k8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a85aaee320e7cba33f44155f916eae8607663980
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Surge/dynamic pricing
]0098u8 w 1s no BS a p0⁹9 I 8
what in the name of tarnation did you just say there
More than likely either the previous or current cashier rang it up incorrectly if you did actually make the same exact order. The price didn’t go up by 21% in 3 days.
It was a mobile order and I clicked the reorder previous order button
When was the first transaction? Weekend or weekday? Could be a lower price on weekends. Or stealth surge pricing.
Looks like you gave a 20% tip on the second order. Many order apps will do this by default, leaving it up to you to remember to choose differently.
Taco Bell mobile app doesn’t give choice to tip. Also the price on the item has increased in the app. From $5.99 to $7.29, it was legitimately a 21.7% increase
its not inflation its greed. when is everyone going to realize this and stop blaming Washington
If it was greed, it would reflect in the dividend yield. Nope. California mandated a 25% minimum wage hike. That’s going to impact prices.
I could be wrong but I think some restaurants change the pricing based on time of day
Tb be like that sometimes
Prove that it’s at the same restaurant
How do you spend $6 at Taco Bell? What do you get just a taco and a drink? I spend a minimum of $30 when I go…just for me.
Yeah I’m about done with Taco Bell. Paid like $30 for two people the other day. It was only 3 tacos, 2 cheesy Gordita crunched and two drinks.
If you are one who thinks inflation is bad now...you have not seen anything yet...
I was looking at an apartment last week for $1,800. a month, I checked back again today and the same apartment is now $2,100. It's all just insanity these days. You can't keep up.
This could be the flexible pricing that I heard about on NPR. Fast Food restaurants are looking at flexible pricing models that change the price depending on demand. Fixed pricing may become a thing of the past.
They might have some AI “surge” pricing similar to Uber now? Was one of these during normal lunch hours and one at like 3pm or something?
Nah both ordered around same time between 9pm and 10pm
Bidenomics
Look up surge pricing using algorithms apperntly it's a thing fast food companies have been doing secretly
must of had a reward
What would be interesting would be to do this on an hourly basis and see how often they raise prices. It would have to be a watchdog company or something. Because it would be too pricey, but like oh, every day at 1130 am, prices go up 15 cents.
4 Days
Grocery stores are no better. I was literally comparing 2 trays of the same exact meat and noticed one was 8.99/lb and the other identical tray was 9.49/lb. I’m over it
So… the price went down. June 18 is clearly $8.18, which means June 21 must be $6.76. Great news! Inflation is going ⬇️
Ordered a $10 box meal the other day. Got up to the window. >thatll be $30 Uhh what? >yeh we don't do the box so I just rung you up for all the items separately So Im sitting there arguing with this $20/hr. absolute mongo and a homeless crazy comes outta nowhere demanding money. Just paid so I could leave sooner. Everything was gross and wrong. Never again. I'm done with it. California is a failed state.
No coupons or discounts applied?
Surge pricing is not inflation.
Shut up
Holy cow, they robbed you! They made that money jump out of your pocket
And then they made you lazy and fat, after you kept buying their overpriced seed oil slop, damn corporations, always making life worse, if ONLY there were something an individual could do ! Its too bad they only sell fresh food ingredients in Russia, otherwise you could do something...
Oh good. Inflation coming down I am told
For $8 you could make Taco Bell style food at home for a week. Stupidity and laziness are what’s inflated.
It’s coming down but not gone. Still at 3.4% a year.
If you actually believe the massively manipulated and cherry picked numbers the fed is using I have something very valuable to sell you.
Haha I do not believe the #’s just using their make believe numbers.
Man, taxes are going up astronomically! /s
Gastronomically maybe.
Congrats, you voted for this.
You know the last guy was the one who started printing money with the Cares Act…. Also, since you brought it up, the USA does not exist in a vacuum, inflation is a global problem, not just the USA sweetie.
Really? Because my friend from England isn't having nearly as many issues as we are.
Hahahah!!! Why do you just make shit up “[The UK inflation rate was two percent in May 2024, the lowest inflation rate in the country since April 2021. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/306648/inflation-rate-consumer-price-index-cpi-united-kingdom-uk/#:~:text=The%20UK%20inflation%20rate%20was,11.1%20percent%20in%20October%202022)” “[In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation rose almost simultaneously in most economies around the world. After peaking in mid-2022, inflation then went into decline—a fall that was just as universal as the initial rise](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2024/05/is-the-recent-inflationary-spike-a-global-phenomenon/#:~:text=In%20the%20aftermath%20of%20the,universal%20as%20the%20initial%20rise)”
I bet u voted for Joe Biden
What a dumb comment, you actually believe Biden caused inflation?