The Alarming Decline of the Fast Food Industry

[Scotty]

Was watching a couple videos on why the fast food industry is currently on a downswing. It pretty much boiled down to rising food & labor costs beyond inflation, declining food quality, understaffing - which leads to increased waiting periods, and consumers instead opting to either go to locally owned restaurants or purchase all the ingredients at the grocery store and manually cook these meals at home.

I also think it's because people are starting to become health conscious. They've noticed the many issues with frozen, pre-made slop and have begun to live a healthier lifestyle. Exercising, studying recipes from internet videos and the like, consuming fruits, veggies, anything else with health benefits, and ditching fast food entirely (some of whom already spent decades avoiding these popular chains).

I believe the only solutions that these companies can do to save the fast food industry is by providing better quality food at a more reasonable price and hire more employees so people won't spend close to 10 minutes at the drive-thru or at least 20 waiting inside the restaurant. Sadly, given the current state of the economy, I don't see that happening any time soon. Juggernauts like McDonald's, KFC, and Subway will continue to make bank from squeezing every penny out of the average consumer and fast food will continue to be mediocre, insanely overpriced, and anything but "fast".

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

It's just difficult to justify stopping for fast-food with how expensive it's gotten lately. At least where I live, it's almost as expensive as a nicer meal at a sit-down restaurant now.

 

[Octopus]

People say it's 'collapsing', but McDonalds is still making enough profit to never go out of business for decades; they made an alleged 14 billion gross profit last year. That being said, yeah it's far too expensive now. Inflation is a hell of a drug. It used to be cheap, and now it can't even say that. My local Wendy's is hitting $20 Canadian just for a regular combo, which is insane.

 

[JPchicre]

Well it is a very predatory industry, we can only really feel bad in this situation, for the people that depend on it for employment and are being screwed by the decisions of their, probably much more financially secure, franchise executives.

 

[Scotty]

It's just difficult to justify stopping for fast-food with how expensive it's gotten lately. At least where I live, it's almost as expensive as a nicer meal at a sit-down restaurant now.

Yeah, that's another thing. Half of the time, I can visit a nice sit-down restaurant, order a similar meal for roughly the same price, and not only receive more food but it is also higher quality as it's usually made from scratch. You get more bang for your buck.

 

[Octopus]

As someone who works in the restaurant industry, it's also not just fast food of course. Here in Canada and by extension the States I'd assume, a lot of proper sit down restaurants are also struggling with costs. You'd be surprised how much stuff is frozen product, from chain restaurants at least.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Where I’m at people chose to buy some street foods it’s more accessible and cheaper.

 

[Octopus]

Where I’m at people chose to buy some street foods it’s more accessible and cheaper.

Can confirm, there is no food better than a chip truck poutine and burger here, and it's usually much cheaper, better and more food than a fast food place.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

I remember when combo meals were 3.00. Now I'm lucky if I leave a fast food without spending 10 dollars. If only salaries kept pace with inflation.

 

[UnDubious]

People say it's 'collapsing', but McDonalds is still making enough profit to never go out of business for decades; they made an alleged 14 billion gross profit last year. That being said, yeah it's far too expensive now. Inflation is a hell of a drug. It used to be cheap, and now it can't even say that. My local Wendy's is hitting $20 Canadian just for a regular combo, which is insane.

Every decline, no matter what size, is called a "collapse" or "downfall" on the Internet. Half the videos I get recommended on youtube have some variation of "THIS IS THE END" on the thumbnail. You'd think with how hard the world is apparently ending every single second, I wouldn't be here typing right now.

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Ya' love to see it

Local restaurants rock!!

 

[nyka]

Working at fast food has ruined it for me. Knowing the subpar standards and quality that "fast food" necessitates to operate at speed/scale just makes me wonder why I want to pay for overpriced slop when I could spend a few dollars more and go to a nonchain sit down restaurant or just as often make my own dinners for fractions of the cost. Fast food isnt fast or cheap anymore. They became greedy and their food sucks these days.

 

[Adrastia]

I don't eat fast food. But when I see it's like $17+ for a themed meal... That's ludicrous. You might as well go to a real restaurant and eat better food.

 

[petran79]

for the price of a golden burger or equivalent, you can buy cooked beef with mashed potatoes or grilled fish at a supermarket or eatery

 

[bjork]

I personally dislike going in to a place and having to use a giant screen to order. I don't want to order on my phone, either. Also if you have app-exclusive items, you're a bad company.

 

[Segadude113]

this has to do with quality of food, high prices due to tariffs, underpaid workers, and better competition with home cooking. Yes groceries are going up in price, but there's way to save money if you make everything from scratch.

 

[drizzes]

It's just difficult to justify stopping for fast-food with how expensive it's gotten lately. At least where I live, it's almost as expensive as a nicer meal at a sit-down restaurant now.

Fast food used to be a cheap alternative. Now it's a luxury.

 

[Scotty]

I personally dislike going in to a place and having to use a giant screen to order. I don't want to order on my phone, either. Also if you have app-exclusive items, you're a bad company.

I hate it when they lock items behind an app. Taco Bell is probably the worst offender. It's like "No, I'm not going to download your stupid app. I don't care about the benefits. I, the customer, should be able to order EVERYTHING on the menu. Not MOSTLY everything."

 

[Segadude113]

I hate it when they lock items behind an app. Taco Bell is probably the worst offender. It's like "No, I'm not going to download your stupid app. I don't care about the benefits. I, the customer, should be able to order EVERYTHING on the menu. Not MOSTLY everything."

i remember when you could get coupons in the weekly sunday newspaper.

 

[kuroninneko]

Last few times I went to Dunkin Donuts they made the worst coffee ever. I get mad just thinking about it.

Every fast food place went down in quality by a lot and crazy prices. Plus I dont trust people who hate their job with cooking. I heard some inside stories. For example one guy was too lazy to open the bag of fries so he would just throw the entire bag in the oil like it was a special time saving trick.

 

[nobitakun]

I don't see big changes lately. Youtube video titles are dumb, they only want visits, they don't care about anything else, let alone about you.

In my country I didn't see big changes for fast crappy food. New restaurants have opened, others have closed, prices have raised just a little bit to keep life costs, but that's it. I still can get a McDonalds or Burger King menu for 7€ and sometimes I get even an icecream included. Small burguers cost now around 2€, but there are tons of promotions.

The speed? well, my country is a slow paced country, so everything is slow. We love to give poor service and slow, that's our brand. But we also are very uneducated, so as customers we are also disgusting. Depending on the restaurant is faster or slower, but that's pretty much of it.

Luckily, I live in Europe, so food options are very varied and healthy options exist everywhere and not expensive, so I don't see any problem on these places to go bankrupt for good.

 

[kamille]

It's time for the healthy food industry to make a comeback

 

[gwardojones]

Last time I went to McDonald's, I ordered a medium drink, an ice cream cone and a large fry. It cost me $15 US. It wasn't even a full meal and it cost me almost as much as dinner at a normal restaurant. Taco Bell used to be a mainstay in my family. Every Sunday after church we'd load up on tacos and burritos. Last time we went, it cost $40 to feed three people, and none of us got a numbered meal.

I don't understand the business logic. Your food is slop. I'll give you money for the slop if it's cheap and fast. If it's neither cheap, nor fast, I'll get something else. But a lot of businesses these days act like "they'll come back no matter how much we charge," with the games industry being particularly bad about that.

I think a lot of industries are in for a wake up call when inflation makes us all realize we don't need any of this stuff to live.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I can only speak for myself, but both fast food & sit-down restaurants have become ludicrously expensive and significantly lesser in quality where I live. It is so much cheaper & quicker for me to cook my own meals.

I have been experimenting with making green curry the last couple of weeks and I am very proud of the results. I can also make 3-4 meals worth out of the ingredients I buy and for less than the cost of getting one of the same meals from a local restaurant.

I also personally don't believe "convenience" should justify significant price mark-ups. At a certain point, me having to pay more money cancels out any "convenience" of not doing something for myself.

 

[DjQuick2008]

i think i had a mcdonalds on holiday last in 2021 and KFC hasnt tasted good since at least 2018 i used to do cinema and go KFC across the road. The food court in my city mall is completely dead.