I don't go there but when I'd drop in to use a bathroom while travelling I always found it shockingly expensive. I'd rather go to the local hole in the wall dumpling joint and get a plate full of real homemade and inexpensive food any day.
I live in a semi rural dying city. Our cheapest options are just going to local joints. It may not be as quick and you may have to speak to someone, but I just recently spent$60 for mid ass Mexican for two and I would have much rather picked it up. Now I admit I was being lazy and just got paid.
For McDonald's you have to use the app to get any kind of deal.
Food trucks tend to run cheaper as they cut down a lot of expenses in their operation compared to restaurants with dining areas, staff, drive thrus, etc.
On top of that, I have found a few random local places with rather decent prices. A pub in town, a chinese restaurant across town, and a diner. They took a while to find though and not all their items are cheap. I am also finding places are incorporating delivery apps into their operations to avoid paying out as much too through middlemen.
Not at all my experience; food trucks tend to be massively overpriced (and poor quality) in my area. I assume they expect to sell based on convenience and novelty. I guess it isn't working as there aren't very many around.
Damn that is unfortunate. Out of curiosity, what is the population density?
I am in a 50k city in a 300k county. Much smaller and selection plummets and quality and cost get highly variable.
When I lived in a larger city of 2 mil I found the prices to be reliably higher, with quality (sometimes) matching. But Portland OR sort of made a 'thing' about quality street food vs your average street vendor, so my experiences may already be skewed.
Just outside a major city in the southeast, so substantially higher.
There's about 50k just in my suburb. Perhaps the food trucks here come from further in the city where prices generally are a bit higher?
I confess, I haven't been very thorough. I just tried a couple and wasn't impressed with the prices, so stopped bothering.
Life hack: you take some bread, put some ham and cheese on top of it, put another slice of bread on top and boom! you've got food! If you're feeling fancy you add tomato, lettuce, hard boiled egg, tuna or anything else.
If you're not at home, you can easily find flat surfaces to prepare your food on, known as benches. They are available in any park that hasn't had them removed just to spite the homeless. You can also add butter to your park bench sandwiches using a credit or debit card.
!I actually knew someone who did so while making food to sell at a funeral to raise money for the deceased.!<
For less than the cost of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, you can buy a loaf of fresh bread and some good cheese or roast beef, which you will enjoy much more
Chain restaurants often times will be more expensive than small, hole in the wall places. Part of that is the price of rent that gets passed onto the consumer. If you have the option, I'd say try to find a taco truck, food window (no seating area), or grab and go food from a grocery store.
If you're in Seattle, Dicks Drive In is still relatively cheap compared to McDonalds.
Dicks isn’t far behind really. But in far more willing to spend my money there because the food quality is so much better and they do a great job taking care of their employees.
They used to sell a T Shirt that said that and had the Dick's drive through logo on it. They might still sell it, idk, I still have mine so I never looked to see.
A lot of folks are suggesting fast food apps help you continue getting cheaper prices on their low quality meals. But not much mention that you are selling your data to continue receiving those meals at those lower rates.
I'd still say they're the cheapest of the big chains. An article came out a week or so ago saying a meal was $18 but that was at a specific McDonalds at some rest area off a major highway in the NE. The prices in the rest of the country are more normal.
The problem is if you want cheap, you have to use their app and be ok with the deals that are offered. I've resigned myself to the fact that it's probably the cheapest option in the event I forgot to bring my lunch to work. I can get a double cheeseburger and a 6pc nuggets for $4. It's not much variety but it's something in a pinch.
If you're not using the app, then their prices are criminal compared to what they used to be.
There's a super small Thai place near where I live
And you can get an amazing meal for like $10
Like I'm talking some of the best food I've ever eaten
And they never needed to raise their prices cause of inflation
The only issue is one of the owner is kind of sus and dropped "last nazi trained artist" in a convo but contradictorily married to a Thai woman and knowledgeable about budisim
Me and my gf glanced at each other with a "ya hearing this" face lol