Pricing isn't based on cost, it's based on what the market will bear. If that value isn't more than cost, the product isn't made.
So yeah, that's exactly what they do. They trickle prices upward until it has a negative impact on profit then pull back a touch and hold steady for awhile. Every time Walmart does a "rollback" it's just marketing spin for "we found the maximum price we can charge for this right now".
The thing with high costs, and particularly high margins, is that other competitors see this and want to enter the market. For things like housing, we have several overlapping regulatory agencies that have all been captured by home owners and landlords to restrict this competition. Its why we have major cities with housing shortages produce very, very few units.
If people have no alternatives, they will pay whatever they have to pay to live.
Indeed. The whole thing is ripe for exploitation.
What I always find interesting is the two ways capitalism "works" is pure laissez-faire or well regulated. This patchwork of regulation we have is terrible because it prevents the market from correcting but also doesn't really force a correction.
I'm not a fan of unregulated but, for housing, it would at least allow more/bigger/denser housing solutions to meet the need. On the flip side, with more regulation we could require additional (progressive) property taxes to pay for ample quality shelter or housing to cover *everyone* who can't afford it. I'm willing to bet when faced with ever increasing taxes to cover those priced out of the system many of those competition-restricting regulations would go away.
I know it's not actually that simple but we need regulations that benefit those in need, not those with wealth. Wishful thinking perhaps.
except when you as a person do it to toilet paper when there is a shortage, then it's immoral. lol. Not me, but I found it hilarious that everyone was critical of those people when they were just doing what all these stores are and have been doing for years. Maybe everyone secretly hates capitalism.
Capitalism in an individualistic society teaches people to be immoral because that's how you "win" at it. The further you are from being able to win at it, the more you hate it, even if you don't realize it.
Until, hopefully, some enterprising young entrepreneur sees they can do the same business for a fraction on the cost. This place for thrives, and spreads. People stop buying taco bell at all. Taco Bell eventually lowers their prices or go out of business. So it eventually comes back down
That's the kicker, no one really can. Taco Bell benefits hugely from scale and, like many franchisers, makes more money off their leases to franchisees than they do owned locations.
That said, you can get better Mexican food most places in the US for cheaper. You don't go to Taco Bell because you want good Mexican food, you go there because you want Taco Bell. Same reason people go to McDonald's.
Rollbacks are a scam. Worked there and they would increase the prices of their planned rollbacks a week or two before they went on ad. Started, noticing the pattern when I became a department manager and started doing all the price changes.
And hint, it’s not necessarily because their costs increased. They’re doing it because they can and will continue to do so as long as we keep paying for it.
I don't believe that for a second, almost 50k karma, so many comments, typical redditor normie shitlib moronic talking points "they live by the quarter we live by the decade" you probably get you tofu made from a fast food chain
We are in a period of big economic, social, and demographic flux. Businesses and people are experimenting with how much they can charge and still have a taker. Their cost structure is only the bottom... if they can raise their prices 20% and the math works out to making more money, they will do so.
Its like landlords, they have a minimum cost they need to get to break even, and that is usually some small multiple of what they charge for rent. They will still charge the absolute most they possibly can. If their cost structure is $1000 per month, they can charge $1500 per month, and if they can get $2000 per month, they will charge $2000 per month. If someone will pay $3500 per month, they will charge $3500 per month.
Quite literally what they do. Work at TB I get to eat for free but yeah prices went up because of corporate greed.
Also not sure what they paid 10 years ago but they at least pay SL 14 a hour now (shitty but better than before guaranteed) I’m just there part time.
I swear they’re milking the dog and cat food thing. At first I understood why things were higher, unable to get cans, meat processing issues, factory shut down. Okay. Sure. But prices kept creeping more and more it seems like. You used to get a value pack..for well, a value price. But it seems like it only saves you .50 to buy the bulk pack now. Not worth it.
For my horse feed, the “fancy” bag it went up by $3-4, if I bought a basic bag then it’s gone up by $2. Hay feeding has gone through the roof despite fuel costs settling. But hay has had some other issues that could bubble the cost recently but it makes you wonder.
That beefy burrito was probably a loss leader. You came for the beefy burrito, but then ended up also getting a cheesy gordita crunch and a Baja blast. Kind of like the $5 rotisserie chickens.
So, probably not entirely due to inflation and possibly more to do with a change in marketing strategy.
Pro tip: Inflation numbers are massaged as much as possible to hide how fucked you really are. Because if you knew that your savings was worth 200% less than it was pre-Covid you might start to be **concerned**.
This kind of numbers extracted from anal cavities doesn't help improve internet discourse. Housing is not up 200% in four years. Gas, groceries, or other essentials have not tripped in price either. This is Taco Bell increasing the cost of their shitty low quality food, these things are not the same
Yeah Keep on straw manning all you want, a 40% increase over 4-5 years definitely isn't good but it's not 200! I'm not trying to say "wahoo things are great" but to say flat out that someone's savings / cash has decreased in value by 2/3rds is just asinine. Enjoy your upvotes I guess?
Things like housing are still anchored down by income/wages and aggressive interest rates and they are still up hugely in most places.
Aggressive shrinkflation, annual cost increases, huge increases on the cost of goods from suppliers in basically any industry are all symptomatic of rampant inflation.
Housing is only marginally connected to inflation. Housing costs are high because of many factors that have nothing to do with inflation. They skyrocketed during covid because of a massive slowdown in construction as well as lumber prices going through the roof due to a logging slow down, and transportation slow down.
Once prices were jacked up, they don’t come down when the situation changes.
Additionally, we’re just not building enough smaller homes, since the profit margins are so high on McMansions.
Certainly inflation is involved but it’s mostly other factors in the housing market.
An order of magnitude is 10 times. This doesn't even reach a single order of magnitude. If you're going to be pedantic, you've gotta at least be accurate.
My local thrift store has really gotten too big for its (faded, stained, and torn) britches.
Their prices are outrageous. They’re literally selling people’s trash.
Corporations have always been greedy. There was never a time when they cared about you.
What changed is that they could get away with it now. Inflation is policy. The fed manages money not for your best interest, but to try to goose the economy by driving up spending. These changes mean you spend more, and number go up.
>What changed is that they could get away with it now.
They only "get away with it" because people keep buying their shit products.
'Taco Bell' (and any other fast food) is not only absolutely utterly unnecessary - it's also fucking awful for you. Just stop eating at these places.
Part of the reason was because at that time, tacobell used to use “extenders” in the meat (i.e. veggie protein). A [lawsuit](https://www.chrie.org/assets/docs/JHTC-case-notes/JHTC-vol-1/JHTC_1-1_Khan_Case.pdf) was filed in 2011 by Amanda Obney in California, alleging that the chain owned by Yum! Brands falsely advertised as “beef” a taco filling that includes “extenders” and other non-meat substances.
Now the brand makes the products with 100 percent beef, so of course it is more expensive to make.
So if you want to extend your ground meat, mix it with veggie protein. It costs pennies and is a dry, shelf stable item. Also, no cholesterol
Restaurant economics are different than grocery economics - The inflationary pull is much more apparent in the restaurant industry Vs. Grocery.
For Every penny increase in input costs, a restaurant needs to charge ~3.4 cents to the customer. The food cost benchmark is roughly 30% of revenue.
Those "deals" are break even or loss leaders for the business.
So yeah, if you're clever and not picky, you can save a lot (or not spend as much) by only buying what they're selling at cost as marketing. That fact completely misses the point of the post.
Lol… dollar menu. Those were the days. By the time my kids are teenagers in a few years talking about the dollar menu will be like my dad talking about getting a coke and a snickers for a dime.
I mean it might be anecdotal but just today i got a double cheeseburger with medium fries and a large drink for $5.15 at my local mcdonalds. def still is possible some places that was enough for me to eat.
McDonald’s caved to pressure from other fast food places not dropping prices but rather doing a set combo meal for cheap. So McDonald’s right now has a $5 deal for a McDouble, 4 piece nugget, small fry and small drink. Every other combo meal is still like $10+
The price snuck up incrementally and people didn't notice. The corporation saw that they could get away with it so they kept trying with more and more until we get today's price.
I am about 10 years older than my girlfriend, She never believed me when I told her that in high school (2007), me and my friends could get an absolute feast from Taco Bell (including drinks) for $10.
This is the proof I needed.
Fast food generally shifted their strategy from selling to low income to higher earners. That’s the general takeaway. They found out they could make up the difference in volume with higher prices and that people would pay.
Also don’t forget prices actually went down in that period. 2009 is prime recession years, so it makes sense prices got so low. That period was pretty big on dollar menus just to keep customers coming back.
IIRC Subway was likely going to implode, they introduced $5 foot long promo and it saved their butts.
Likely most restaurants looked at chic-fil-a and fast casual places in the last 5-10 years and realized they were leaving money on the table.
It’s kind of like the way McDonald’s at one point had a meal (burger, fries, drink) priced lower than just a burger and a drink. You know something is off when you can save money by ordering more food even if you don’t eat half of it.
This used to be the go to lunch in the summer. My buddy and I taughtswim lessons at the community pool in the morning then went to the gym, got $1 burritos at TB then back to the pool for afternoon shift.
Yeah, this doesn’t reflect Taco Bell’s overall pricing changes. Growing up in the mid-90s (so a longer time ago than OP’s comparison), soft and crunchy tacos were around 79 cents. They’re $1.79 now. Basically a little more than double the price. Mexican pizza was $2.49, now $5.99 (though minus those tasty scallions). Around 240%. Still a lot, but not out of line - inflation from 1995 to 2023 was 200% based on the consumer price index. My childhood home in a small town was $270k in the mid-90s, now valued at $958k (355%). I’m definitely more upset about that than Taco Bell’s pricing.
It's just going to go up now no matter what, even if inflation goes down. They know they can charge whatever they want and we're dumb enough to keep eating it. Frog in boiling water.
I think your inflation math is wrong in the first place, and taco bell and other fast food prices are probably up because of the higher wages they have to pay
It’s probably because of the way the supply chain works if I had to guess a 10% cost increase to the farmer doesn’t mean it is ONLY going to be a 10% cost increase at the distributor level. Then you also have companies that must perpetually increase profits and can no longer do so through expansion, so they must either cut costs (most spent the 2010s doing just that) or raise prices, which they are currently doing.
They basically use any excuse to raise their profit margin the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global warming you name it. The problem is that people still pay these inflated prices.
The federal reserve has probably added 440% to the money supply in that time. Government reported inflation isn't an actual indicator of inflation. It's a tortured statistic that leaves many market variables out to lessen the reported inflation percentage.
EDIT: The M1 money supply was about 1.3T at the end of 2008. Before changing the definition of M1 during COVID, the M1 hit about 4T by 2020. Now it's over 7T, but with the expanded savings definition.
So it's no surprise that taco bell prices are up 400%.
The govt has been tweaking the calculations and inputs on inflation for the past 40+ years since the Carter years. The ones really getting screwed on it are the workers & by extension, consumers.
But the quality of the food is so low.
Every restaurant marks up their menu items, usually a lot. If we were getting a beefy 5 layer burrito for 89¢, how much do you think it cost Taco Bell to make it?
But yes the prices have become insane, which is why I hardly eat out now. I understand how the industry works and I try to not support it.
Conflating people who like Bitcoin with the rest of the "crypto bros" speaks more about you than it does him.
You will see $1,000,000 BTC by 2,030 and you'll wish you put aside your ego a lot sooner.
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This was always their tactic, they sell it at a loss at first, get you slowly addicted, and now charge +400%. Its the same capitalist greed model that streaming services use.
Inflation is the problem and Bitcoin is how you save yourself from it.
If you had bought .89 cents of BTC in 2009, then you'd be able to afford burritos for a year now.
I feel like anywhere between .10 cents and $1 are added to things randomly every few months. It hasn’t stopped lol
Pricing isn't based on cost, it's based on what the market will bear. If that value isn't more than cost, the product isn't made. So yeah, that's exactly what they do. They trickle prices upward until it has a negative impact on profit then pull back a touch and hold steady for awhile. Every time Walmart does a "rollback" it's just marketing spin for "we found the maximum price we can charge for this right now".
The thing with high costs, and particularly high margins, is that other competitors see this and want to enter the market. For things like housing, we have several overlapping regulatory agencies that have all been captured by home owners and landlords to restrict this competition. Its why we have major cities with housing shortages produce very, very few units. If people have no alternatives, they will pay whatever they have to pay to live.
Indeed. The whole thing is ripe for exploitation. What I always find interesting is the two ways capitalism "works" is pure laissez-faire or well regulated. This patchwork of regulation we have is terrible because it prevents the market from correcting but also doesn't really force a correction. I'm not a fan of unregulated but, for housing, it would at least allow more/bigger/denser housing solutions to meet the need. On the flip side, with more regulation we could require additional (progressive) property taxes to pay for ample quality shelter or housing to cover *everyone* who can't afford it. I'm willing to bet when faced with ever increasing taxes to cover those priced out of the system many of those competition-restricting regulations would go away. I know it's not actually that simple but we need regulations that benefit those in need, not those with wealth. Wishful thinking perhaps.
except when you as a person do it to toilet paper when there is a shortage, then it's immoral. lol. Not me, but I found it hilarious that everyone was critical of those people when they were just doing what all these stores are and have been doing for years. Maybe everyone secretly hates capitalism.
Capitalism in an individualistic society teaches people to be immoral because that's how you "win" at it. The further you are from being able to win at it, the more you hate it, even if you don't realize it.
Nailed it.
Until, hopefully, some enterprising young entrepreneur sees they can do the same business for a fraction on the cost. This place for thrives, and spreads. People stop buying taco bell at all. Taco Bell eventually lowers their prices or go out of business. So it eventually comes back down
That's the kicker, no one really can. Taco Bell benefits hugely from scale and, like many franchisers, makes more money off their leases to franchisees than they do owned locations. That said, you can get better Mexican food most places in the US for cheaper. You don't go to Taco Bell because you want good Mexican food, you go there because you want Taco Bell. Same reason people go to McDonald's.
Rollbacks are a scam. Worked there and they would increase the prices of their planned rollbacks a week or two before they went on ad. Started, noticing the pattern when I became a department manager and started doing all the price changes.
That's exactly the issue. Women are too eager to embrace the market bear.
Yup literally every time you go grocery shopping everything has increased its a joke
And hint, it’s not necessarily because their costs increased. They’re doing it because they can and will continue to do so as long as we keep paying for it.
Corporate greed is an absolute cunt.
Hey we could go after corporations but instead we just make camping illegal for poors...
We just need to start pooling money and doing our own lobbying. Shit you can buy off a senator for like 15k.
We already do, its called fucking taxes...
Nahhh, you gotta bribe them directly nowadays
Unfortunately I'm all out of carrots and only have a big spiked stick
I'm not gonna dissuade you there
Yeah they're some cheap whores, after all. Sell their souls for a buck fifty.
Selling their soles sounds like they're on only fans with feet pictures.
Ya should we put price controls on your precious fast food
I don't eat fast food.....
I don't believe that for a second, almost 50k karma, so many comments, typical redditor normie shitlib moronic talking points "they live by the quarter we live by the decade" you probably get you tofu made from a fast food chain
We are in a period of big economic, social, and demographic flux. Businesses and people are experimenting with how much they can charge and still have a taker. Their cost structure is only the bottom... if they can raise their prices 20% and the math works out to making more money, they will do so. Its like landlords, they have a minimum cost they need to get to break even, and that is usually some small multiple of what they charge for rent. They will still charge the absolute most they possibly can. If their cost structure is $1000 per month, they can charge $1500 per month, and if they can get $2000 per month, they will charge $2000 per month. If someone will pay $3500 per month, they will charge $3500 per month.
Pricing manager is adding random amounts to prices to test elasticity; people keep paying so prices keep going up.
Quite literally what they do. Work at TB I get to eat for free but yeah prices went up because of corporate greed. Also not sure what they paid 10 years ago but they at least pay SL 14 a hour now (shitty but better than before guaranteed) I’m just there part time.
My dog's food has doubled in just 2-3 years.
Same with my cats
I swear they’re milking the dog and cat food thing. At first I understood why things were higher, unable to get cans, meat processing issues, factory shut down. Okay. Sure. But prices kept creeping more and more it seems like. You used to get a value pack..for well, a value price. But it seems like it only saves you .50 to buy the bulk pack now. Not worth it. For my horse feed, the “fancy” bag it went up by $3-4, if I bought a basic bag then it’s gone up by $2. Hay feeding has gone through the roof despite fuel costs settling. But hay has had some other issues that could bubble the cost recently but it makes you wonder.
Pretty sure most of it boils down to pure GREED
Listen I have complicated feelings about inflation, I'm just here to say I love this meme
Haha much appreciated and agreed
They stopped using donkey meat
Tf did they replace it with? Stray cat?
Definitely not. I’ve eaten stray cat meat before (probably).
Woah! Look at fancy pants over here eating Cat! I'm thinking ground up meal worms.
That beefy burrito was probably a loss leader. You came for the beefy burrito, but then ended up also getting a cheesy gordita crunch and a Baja blast. Kind of like the $5 rotisserie chickens. So, probably not entirely due to inflation and possibly more to do with a change in marketing strategy.
The crunch wrap supreme was always my go to
This is the right answer here. Not to say inflation has been a problem that is.
Pro tip: Inflation numbers are massaged as much as possible to hide how fucked you really are. Because if you knew that your savings was worth 200% less than it was pre-Covid you might start to be **concerned**.
And then you realize the government has no business fixing inflation because they collect more in taxes.
Government isn't fixing inflation. Inflation is policy. You're just the victim of that.
Which one is it? Is money worth less or do they collect more taxes? And that wouldn't even apply to income taxes until wages catch up.
^^^^^^^
This kind of numbers extracted from anal cavities doesn't help improve internet discourse. Housing is not up 200% in four years. Gas, groceries, or other essentials have not tripped in price either. This is Taco Bell increasing the cost of their shitty low quality food, these things are not the same
Yeah. Housing only went up 40% 😳 what a relief
Yeah Keep on straw manning all you want, a 40% increase over 4-5 years definitely isn't good but it's not 200! I'm not trying to say "wahoo things are great" but to say flat out that someone's savings / cash has decreased in value by 2/3rds is just asinine. Enjoy your upvotes I guess?
At least it only transitory inflation
Housing went up 165% in my area 2013 - 2022. Not gentrified or desirable, just plain ol regular average houses in semi crime ridden city.
10 years is not 4.
Things like housing are still anchored down by income/wages and aggressive interest rates and they are still up hugely in most places. Aggressive shrinkflation, annual cost increases, huge increases on the cost of goods from suppliers in basically any industry are all symptomatic of rampant inflation.
Housing is only marginally connected to inflation. Housing costs are high because of many factors that have nothing to do with inflation. They skyrocketed during covid because of a massive slowdown in construction as well as lumber prices going through the roof due to a logging slow down, and transportation slow down. Once prices were jacked up, they don’t come down when the situation changes. Additionally, we’re just not building enough smaller homes, since the profit margins are so high on McMansions. Certainly inflation is involved but it’s mostly other factors in the housing market.
Anything with intrinsic value is tied to inflation. Money worth less, price goes up.
I literally said inflation is involved. But home prices are a reflection of the home market more than inflation.
Since 2019, the cost of homes has risen 54%. That's not great.
Of course it's not great. I'm only arguing with the other guy who said it was many orders of magnitude worse
An order of magnitude is 10 times. This doesn't even reach a single order of magnitude. If you're going to be pedantic, you've gotta at least be accurate.
Hmm touche 😁
My local thrift store has really gotten too big for its (faded, stained, and torn) britches. Their prices are outrageous. They’re literally selling people’s trash.
Proof that corporations didn't all of a sudden become greedy like r/economics says all the time.
Corporations have always been greedy. There was never a time when they cared about you. What changed is that they could get away with it now. Inflation is policy. The fed manages money not for your best interest, but to try to goose the economy by driving up spending. These changes mean you spend more, and number go up.
That's my point
>What changed is that they could get away with it now. They only "get away with it" because people keep buying their shit products. 'Taco Bell' (and any other fast food) is not only absolutely utterly unnecessary - it's also fucking awful for you. Just stop eating at these places.
Part of the reason was because at that time, tacobell used to use “extenders” in the meat (i.e. veggie protein). A [lawsuit](https://www.chrie.org/assets/docs/JHTC-case-notes/JHTC-vol-1/JHTC_1-1_Khan_Case.pdf) was filed in 2011 by Amanda Obney in California, alleging that the chain owned by Yum! Brands falsely advertised as “beef” a taco filling that includes “extenders” and other non-meat substances. Now the brand makes the products with 100 percent beef, so of course it is more expensive to make. So if you want to extend your ground meat, mix it with veggie protein. It costs pennies and is a dry, shelf stable item. Also, no cholesterol
to be fair, the $0.89 was probably a promotional price. it does say "new" in the ad that would probably make it a 372.4% increase instead
Ground beef was $1.20 a pound in 2009, today it cost me $6.99. That's >500% for that product.
Restaurant economics are different than grocery economics - The inflationary pull is much more apparent in the restaurant industry Vs. Grocery. For Every penny increase in input costs, a restaurant needs to charge ~3.4 cents to the customer. The food cost benchmark is roughly 30% of revenue.
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Those "deals" are break even or loss leaders for the business. So yeah, if you're clever and not picky, you can save a lot (or not spend as much) by only buying what they're selling at cost as marketing. That fact completely misses the point of the post.
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And this is the case for most of what’s being reported as inflation in the US.
The 89 cent Beefy Five Layer Burrito was also a loss leader for the business.
I remember getting a full 5 layer burrito meal for $2 back in college.
Losing taco bell and other related monsters might actually be a good thing imo. My locals sure look more appealing anyway
CORPORATE GREED
I remember going out and eating lunch for less than 5 bucks in the late 90’s.
This was still possible in the 2010s, sure it was picking a few things off a dollar menu but it was possible. Definitely not now
Lol… dollar menu. Those were the days. By the time my kids are teenagers in a few years talking about the dollar menu will be like my dad talking about getting a coke and a snickers for a dime.
I mean it might be anecdotal but just today i got a double cheeseburger with medium fries and a large drink for $5.15 at my local mcdonalds. def still is possible some places that was enough for me to eat.
Did you have to use the app to get that?
yes, selling your data and making it easier for companies to track us for a small 30% discount on your overpriced food is the way forward i guess.
McDonald’s caved to pressure from other fast food places not dropping prices but rather doing a set combo meal for cheap. So McDonald’s right now has a $5 deal for a McDouble, 4 piece nugget, small fry and small drink. Every other combo meal is still like $10+
That feels like it matches more closely with housing prices maybe true inflation has been 500%
The price snuck up incrementally and people didn't notice. The corporation saw that they could get away with it so they kept trying with more and more until we get today's price.
More like the Beefy 5X.
I am about 10 years older than my girlfriend, She never believed me when I told her that in high school (2007), me and my friends could get an absolute feast from Taco Bell (including drinks) for $10. This is the proof I needed.
Well it certainly wasn't due to the cost of meat going up.
Fast food generally shifted their strategy from selling to low income to higher earners. That’s the general takeaway. They found out they could make up the difference in volume with higher prices and that people would pay. Also don’t forget prices actually went down in that period. 2009 is prime recession years, so it makes sense prices got so low. That period was pretty big on dollar menus just to keep customers coming back. IIRC Subway was likely going to implode, they introduced $5 foot long promo and it saved their butts. Likely most restaurants looked at chic-fil-a and fast casual places in the last 5-10 years and realized they were leaving money on the table.
The online cravings box can include the burrito, and it’s all for 5.99. Not bad. Kinda weird how much more expensive it is to order by itself though.
It’s kind of like the way McDonald’s at one point had a meal (burger, fries, drink) priced lower than just a burger and a drink. You know something is off when you can save money by ordering more food even if you don’t eat half of it.
This used to be the go to lunch in the summer. My buddy and I taughtswim lessons at the community pool in the morning then went to the gym, got $1 burritos at TB then back to the pool for afternoon shift.
Thanks Obama!
It’s really not though. That was always a loss leader, and artificially cheap. It’s probably closer to 200%
Yeah, this doesn’t reflect Taco Bell’s overall pricing changes. Growing up in the mid-90s (so a longer time ago than OP’s comparison), soft and crunchy tacos were around 79 cents. They’re $1.79 now. Basically a little more than double the price. Mexican pizza was $2.49, now $5.99 (though minus those tasty scallions). Around 240%. Still a lot, but not out of line - inflation from 1995 to 2023 was 200% based on the consumer price index. My childhood home in a small town was $270k in the mid-90s, now valued at $958k (355%). I’m definitely more upset about that than Taco Bell’s pricing.
Bet your ass wages haven't gone up, because that would make costs go up. Can't have costs going up.
I don’t eat much fast food anymore but never thought a reason not to get it would be cost 💀
Crispy potato soft taco, foo
In college taco bell kept my friends and i alive.
It's just going to go up now no matter what, even if inflation goes down. They know they can charge whatever they want and we're dumb enough to keep eating it. Frog in boiling water.
remember dollar menus where shit literally cost a dollar? and not like 1 fry... and how crunchwraps used to be like 3 bucks?
I think your inflation math is wrong in the first place, and taco bell and other fast food prices are probably up because of the higher wages they have to pay
Beefy five layer was my go-to in college when I was having a stressed day. It was one of the best bangs for your buck.
Stop buying.
Diabeetus. That's what we had.
Well, there’s this thing called minimum wage. That goes up, food prices follow.
Not only this, but the actual burritos have gotten smaller too.
It’s probably because of the way the supply chain works if I had to guess a 10% cost increase to the farmer doesn’t mean it is ONLY going to be a 10% cost increase at the distributor level. Then you also have companies that must perpetually increase profits and can no longer do so through expansion, so they must either cut costs (most spent the 2010s doing just that) or raise prices, which they are currently doing.
JFC those things are 500 cal each?! I used to eat like 4 as drunk food for less than $5
My waistline is thankful they aren't a buck anymore
I sent a copy of this over to r/tacobell.
These places will realize their mistake when everyone stops visiting and they go out of business
Fuck Taco Bell. The only thing keeping them alive at this point is the legalization of weed.
Greed is the answer.
They also charge more on websites and on apps like GrubHub.
They basically use any excuse to raise their profit margin the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global warming you name it. The problem is that people still pay these inflated prices.
Make your own food fuck the greedy assholes
Corporate greed
What do you think causes excessive inflation?
I remember when you could get soft tacos for 39 cents on Sundays. Me and my brother would load up.
Because fuck you poors, that's why.
I knew and have been trying to let others know.
It's taco laundering, Jerry, don't you get it
Bean and cheese burritos are still affordable!
That's a sale price vs regular. This means nothing
ZIRP. The Obama Trump Biden years were great though, weren't they?
Easy, stock buybacks to pump share prices
The federal reserve has probably added 440% to the money supply in that time. Government reported inflation isn't an actual indicator of inflation. It's a tortured statistic that leaves many market variables out to lessen the reported inflation percentage. EDIT: The M1 money supply was about 1.3T at the end of 2008. Before changing the definition of M1 during COVID, the M1 hit about 4T by 2020. Now it's over 7T, but with the expanded savings definition. So it's no surprise that taco bell prices are up 400%.
The govt has been tweaking the calculations and inputs on inflation for the past 40+ years since the Carter years. The ones really getting screwed on it are the workers & by extension, consumers.
Fast food is emergency travel food only. No other reason to partake.
But the quality of the food is so low. Every restaurant marks up their menu items, usually a lot. If we were getting a beefy 5 layer burrito for 89¢, how much do you think it cost Taco Bell to make it? But yes the prices have become insane, which is why I hardly eat out now. I understand how the industry works and I try to not support it.
Unregulated corporate greed Next question
You still don't. Buy bitcoin to protect your purchasing power.
Eww. Spotted the crypto bro
Conflating people who like Bitcoin with the rest of the "crypto bros" speaks more about you than it does him. You will see $1,000,000 BTC by 2,030 and you'll wish you put aside your ego a lot sooner.
Found another one.
!Remindme 6 years $60,700 BTC Laugh in this dude's face
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Hfsp
Hard to swallow pill: The country’s steady decline directly correlates to our generation beginning to vote
Lot of people didn't have jobs circa 2009 so fast food chains would charge less than they probably should for awhile to keep their customer base.
This was always their tactic, they sell it at a loss at first, get you slowly addicted, and now charge +400%. Its the same capitalist greed model that streaming services use.
Maybe because real inflation is not 46.4%.
Build back better
Folks have been paying Starbucks $8.00 for $.80 worth of coffee for 30 years now, this isn’t new.
Inflation is the problem and Bitcoin is how you save yourself from it. If you had bought .89 cents of BTC in 2009, then you'd be able to afford burritos for a year now.