Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount.
Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food “as a rare treat,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “Nothing has made me cook at home more than fast-food prices.”
Roberts is hardly alone. Many consumers are expressing frustration at the surge in fast-food prices, which are starting to scare off budget-conscious customers.
A January poll by consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions found that about 25% of people who make under $50,000 were cutting back on fast food, pointing to cost as a concern.
On the flipside it’s forcing people to make healthier choices.
Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean healthier. I know when I was young, most nights I would make a box of rice a roni and chop up a hot dog to add in. It was about the cheapest meal I could make, but it definitely wasn’t healthy.
I literally had cake for breakfast most days cause you could get discount nearly expired ones from the hidden end cap in Walmarts and that was cheap and gave me some energy for the day and then nothing but hotdogs and hashbrowns.
Yeah, cheap doesn’t mean healthy. We should at least start with making sure people can get all the calories they need each day this country certainly produces enough of them and throws away so much.
I’m tired of malnutrition and starvation being looked at like a good diet for the poor.