That’s not surprising as it was likely to be abused on day one
Wait you guys have free refills at McDonald’s?
I stopped going to corporate fast food and my life got easier. If you are a hungry person like me, a couple of mental rules I set up.
If I actually want to eat out, I need to be motivated enough to go out and get it myself. (No more doordash/grubhub/uber/ anything).
If I’m willing to spend my hard earned money, I will only spend it on good, local food. No more McDs, I go to my local burger joint now. No more dominos, I go to the sticky tabled pizza joint.
If neither of those sound good, then I’m not actually hungry enough.
Now that fast food is no longer cheaper than a sit-down restaurant, it just means that fast food has no use case anymore. You’re better off picking up a grab&go type thing from the grocery store. Fast food used to be cheaper, more consistent, and faster, but with the concession that the quality wasn’t great. Now it’s expensive, it completely sucks in unpredictable ways, and it isn’t actually that fast. It’s like the industry only exists for people who are on a road trip and also want to punish themselves for some reason.
If you’re not traveling, $7 at my local Publix’s butcher can buy you some decent sushi or a fish & vegetable entree w/ either salmon or talapia that cooks in 17-18 minutes.
stoners and idiots will keep them afloat for decades.
Fast food is often the only restaurant option for people working night shifts. I used to clock out at 5am. You know what’s open at 5am, when you’re hungry but too tired to cook dinner because you’ve been on your feet for ten hours? Fast food. Maybe a diner if you’re near a truck route, but honestly that’s not much different.
It’s far from the only way society ignores the needs of people who keep everything running behind the scenes, but it sure was annoying.
I started living this way too. Honestly, fast food doesn’t even have a value proposition anymore. It’s not cheaper than some local family run taco or burger truck/shack, and significantly crappier. Also, the lady or guy handing you your food keeps the money after paying the cook and what not, if they’re not the cook themselves. I’d rather that than it go to frozen patty distributors and stock buybacks or whatever they’re up to these days.
It’s marginally cheaper than a run of the mill sit down joint.
Also soda… I don’t understand why anyone drinks that shit. I used to, then I stopped, and now when I try it it’s gross honestly. Syrup with bubbles in it. You want some, make some ginger ale, its easy and delicious. You cut up some ginger, cook it in a pot with sugar and water, let it cool, put it in a pressure bottle and pitch yeast, it’s ready in a couple of days.
I’ve never ordered door dash or any of that stuff, as soon as I heard about it o was put off by the idea.
You’ve got the right idea man. No lazy food. If it’s not worth effort you’re not actually hungry.
Where I am “fast food” big chain stuff is only a buck or two cheaper than the good local brewery sit down place. It’s weird.
Yeah man, used to be you could spend like 5 or 6 bucks and get something quick. Full meal too. Nowadays I think those companies are just riding on inertia, Americans are used to eating it and still have this idea that it’s cheaper even though if you think about it for a second it’s not. By the time you pay it’s like 10-12 bucks. Meanwhile there’s a Cuban lady down the street, she has no menu, she just makes one thing each day it’s something different, whatever she wants, you don’t get to decide, you hand her 10 bucks and she hands you a little box of the most delicious surprise you’ve ever had. Why would I pick the corpo garbage over that?
I ditched soda a few years back and I’m glad I did. I had really bad headaches but after cutting soda they have more or less gone away.
I drink la Croix and sparkling water. People make fun of it for no flavor, but I say back to them no, your taste buds are shot because you drink fizzy syrup so anything less than pure sugar tastes like nothing
I’m super disappointed also in what these burger chains offer. All of them have small shitty burgers full of sugar.
Started making my own burgers. It takes 10 minutes! Mix meat and a bit of salt and pepper and make the pieces really thin. Fry in pan. It’s delicious.
Fast food is disgustingly expensive for the amount of food you get too. Their drinks are ultra cheap sugar water, and even that they are thinking of limiting.
Don’t make them thin, at least 1cm or even 2, then it’ juicy and delicious and don’t overcook them. If you can get safe meat (grind it yourself) then go with medium raw, it makes the burger absolutely stunning!
I knew I would get opposing views here :)
There are many ways to do it, but I think everyone should make their own at home. It’s super tasty and quick.
That I can agree with ;)
Haha I love Lemmy. Anywhere else you’d have started a flame war.
Personally I love mine super thick, medium well with crispy crispy bacon. Top it off with mayo, lettuce and tomato.
Smash burgers are a interesting diversion… But I want to need to unhinge my jaw to eat burgers. Lol
How do you keep the bun from disintegrating before you’re done when they’re very thick? My parents and a lot of burger restaurants make them that way and I hate it because of that. It turns into a mess. I make mine like 1/4 lb and that seems to be the sweet spot for me.
You can try adding an egg to the minced meat, that usually helps keep it together.
That helps the patty. I’m talking about the bun. With thick burgers the juice gets into it and by the time you’re halfway through the thing has completely fallen apart. It’s even worse if you have any kind of sauce on the burger.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/iM_KMYulI_s?si=QA-I5MvLkCAkLgbv
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
if done right thin is fine, but thick is better. We have a place where double is the standard burger and its made to order but fast because you can cook them fast. That being said the place with the thick jucy burgers has a line out the door constantly while they are open.
Smash burgers and thick burgers can both be good; they’re just different.
I have like, five resturaunts in my list.
I did the same thing when the pandemic was over, although I’m never really sure where to go in my neighborhood so in effect I hardly ever eat out
My life has definitely gotten better since I started doing this. Local restaurants are almost universally better anyways
Oh just in case you don’t know a soda costs like 10-15¢
Less unless their costs have tripled.
It was mostly an anecdotal number.
Anecdotal doesn’t mean made up
10 years ago when I worked at a movie theater the paper cups ran us about 30¢ each. The soda was about 5¢.
i think the ice can be the difference
Oh, good. Serves them right, for limiting the ‘free WiFi’ to only browse their menu.
I can find better places to get fucked in the ass, thank you.
I can find better places to get fucked in the ass, thank you.
If you have suggestions I’m all ears!
Sounds like you should be looking for suggestions for places to get fucked in the ears then.
Hello.
obscurest vinyl
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/n1SGvnvMYwM
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
They actually did that? I havnt been to Maccas in years due to no vegan options besides coffee with soy milk though their coffee is not that good anyway. I dont expect the wifi to be fast but I expect to be able to use it for stuff other than looking at the menu.
Here in my area, southern Mississippi, yes they’ve done that. You can connect to their network, but only for mcdonalds dot com…
☹️
People were using their wifi to do crimes
No different than any other public WiFi though.
Honestly I think they did that more because people would just lurk there, like buy one single cheap item and then sit there for 6 hours on their laptop browsing Facebook or whatever.
Individual owners can mostly do what they want. Locations in poor communities have lots of challenges with homeless folks using the restaurant as home base.
I have no idea why anyone still goes to McDogsbreath (I’ll likely hear some reasons in responses to this comment, but I’ve heard them before and don’t buy them). Back in the day I rarely had positive experiences when I was dragged out there reluctantly. Plasticy food of subpar quality, and very uncomfortable, plastic furniture.
And in recent years, between the prices quadrupling, the limited menu for people who don’t like burgers, the shite Wi-Fi, and now them not even being willing to lose 10c on a relatively small % of customers who get a soda refill… Why go there at all! There are so many better fast food options than that disaster of a chain.
The problem is that the soda machine takes maintenance and gets destroyed. They make a huge margin on Soda so I doubt that’s the problem.
I go there maybe twice a year. It’s the apple pies.
I agree with you that it’s shitty. The reason I go there is because the one near my house is the easiest place to get in and out of on the way to the highway when I’m going to my friends after work and need to grab something for dinner. 2 Mcdoubles is pretty cheap and have decent amount of protein. $6ish for dinner I can eat in the car.
It’s cheap, quick, and good for a burger delivered to your window.
But it’s not cheap anymore
It’s gone up but the ranting that is over $20 is overblown. I can get 2 bacon egg and cheese bagels for 4.50. Or I got a triple quarter pounder meal and a happy meal for like $20.
Sometimes I just have a hankering for fresh McDonald’s fries.
Their fries just fucking get me. They carry the meal. I don’t eat McD’s often but the fries always deliver the exact disappointment I’m expecting and I eat every single one.
Gotta eat them fast or they go sad and floppy in 5 minutes
Their fries used to do it for me. A long time ago they were fried in tallow and they had a better ratio of longer fries. They also used an amount of salt that tasted good right after getting out of the fry oil so it would stick to the fries, but the huge difference was the oil. They tasted so much better. Now my favorite fry choice is Arby’s curly fries.
I’m not sure if they changed, or my taste changed, but the fries are almost inedible to me now. They smell fantastic still, but they just taste so fake.
They did change at some point in the 2000s, they used to use meat in the cooking, they don’t anymore
How are you traveling back in time 20 years?
Never been a thing at McDonalds here in the UK.
Don’t have them in my area
This is pretty much how it is in most of Europe. At least generally in the UK drinks are served by the people working there and the machines are behind the counter.
I remember some years ago burger king sometimes had self serve drink machines. But cannot say I’ve been inside one in the UK for some time. So may no longer be the case.
The other exception is Costco which seems to work like an outstation of the USA over here. They have the self serve drink machine that is almost always out of syrup and allows refills.
Having said all that it does seem like penny pinching.
Here in Finland, since their return in 2013, Burger King has sought to differentiate from other chains by having self serve drinks and unlimited refills.
At least a couple years ago the burger king on the ring road around bluewater had a self serve machine. could be gone now though
does seem like penny pinching.
Not even penny pinching. Gouging. You could steal gallons in a cleverly disguised backpack and still not even negate their profit from the 3 bucks or so you paid for a cup.
Just like the good ole days
I wish had a dime for every time I’ve seen a homeless person walk into a McDonalds, Jack In The Box or similar, just fill up their skanky ass cup (I even saw one take a cup out of the trash can outside first) from the machine and walk out, of course without paying. Like it or not this move makes sense. I don’t mind asking an employee for a refill.
I have literally never seen this but jack in the box is not a thing near me so likely pretty different area. All the same its easy to see why. One thing I have mentioned in inflation talks is how much the cheapest most base things have went up and soda is one of my poster children. Can still get 99 cents but only as a super loss leader which before was like 69 cents. buck 25 or buck 50 is still basic loss leader. 2 for five is a basic sale and they are 3 bucks not on sale. So it definitely doubled. Previously the cups cost more than the soda but I think that is changing.
Ah I see. You’re part of the crowd who sees homeless people are subhuman.
that’s not a ‘problem’ everywhere.
if they dump the free refills here and still take 15 minutes to make a simple order, i’m going elsewhere. i’ve already cut way down because of cost and time, i’ll just forget they exist entirely. three competitors are literally adjacent. all three also have free refills, and all three can beat mcdonalds service times. prices are basically the same now, mcdonalds hasn’t had that advantage since before covid.
Yes, let’s make a worse experience for everyone in the name of hurting vulnerable people who are already suffering immensely. And you approve because it’ll save a multibillion dollar company 10 cents. Cool. That says a lot about you.
Well, your response is telling as well. You night not notice, but there is a serious twist in your logic: why is it on McDonald’s to feed the homeless? It shouldn’t be and they cannot be called out for not doing it. By blaming companies for stuff like that, you obfuscate where the blame should really go: everyone in any form of government and everyone supporting bullshit narratives that social welfare and capitalism are polar opposites and cannot go together. Don’t waste your energy on fucking companies. They will not foot the bill the government should.
If they paid their damn taxes in proportion to their use of our public services and share of income maybe the government could actually do that. But hey, you’re the one who decided that the homeless person trying to survive was sufficient justification for more widespread corporate greed.
It’s the governments responsibility to make companies pay their fair share of taxes.
Exactly. Don’t blame fucking companies for doing what companies were always about to do. Blame the government for letting them. If you get mauled by a lion, you won’t blame the lion, you (or your heirs) will blame the zoo for saving money on the fence. Why is it different with companies?
So because the zoo fucked up I shouldn’t be upset with the lion for mauling people? You. An be upset at two things simultaneously, and you sure as shit don’t need to support making life harder for the people already being mauled. That’s some “Boys will be boys” defense right there.
there is no defense in there. I never defended the company. I just called your stance that companies ought to do social welfare unreasonable. I very much like everyone to do social welfare stuff, but to blame companies when they refuse to do what the fucking government should is just a pretty twisted stance, innit?
I rarely get McDonald’s, but one of these ones was built near where I live a couple years ago (replacing an old one). It is always a complete ghost town inside. No one eats there. They have all the parking and all the seats. Just none of the customers.
Its terrifying when you go to the American south and west. People treat McDonalds like really food and they treat soda as a water substitute.
Don’t care. Self serve machines are basically covered in diarrhea anyway. Everytime I awkwardly and semi-accidentally turn something into a combo I grimace as I use the taps some kid was just wiping their snot on.
Just getting over a brief cold which could’ve easily been caused by using a self-serve tea machine at a habit burger.
man you guys live in some gross areas. im not sure a kid could even reach the nozle in places near me. They tend to be somewhere between 4 or 5 feet off the ground and a kid has to hold the bottom of the cup and use the top of the cup to extend his reach to activate the lever. now messy pop residue all over the counter. that is common.
man you guys live in some gross areas. im not sure a kid could even reach the nozle in places near me.
You tell yourself whatever you need to, but they’ve done studies and those nozzles were almost always covered in poop bacteria from the people using them, the people “cleaning” them or a combo.
Links to these studies would be nice
Thirty seconds of searching yielded this: https://www.delish.com/food-news/a44040735/are-restaurant-sodas-dirty/
Congratulations, you’ve provided a source for your claim and it was just that easy!
I really don’t care man, everyone on the Internet needs sources for things that are pretty commonly known like they don’t also have keyboards.
I honestly almost didn’t bother searching for you this time either. Each thread on the Internet isn’t the beginning of some scientific argument like a lot of randos seem to think. I used to care a little more before I realized just how worthless and stupid providing sourced claims was.
Now I know, you aren’t changing most people’s minds. They’ll still think masks don’t work, that covid is caused by 5g, that the world is flat, etc etc etc.
I’m happy to just know I’m right and whistle along and take the downvotes on the chin because it’s all worthless anyway.
Many claim to want evidence just to give you a homework assignment, and won’t be persuaded a single iota by it.
I haven’t seen them in ages over here. Especially since Covid, they disappeared fast!
I boycott McGenocide months ago and it was surprisingly easy. There’s much better food to eat out there.
McGenocide is definitely a new one. Honestly you probably shouldn’t be eating fast food more than once a month. It is a McGenocide to your insides.
Why I now don’t ever go there. The one dollar drinks and the fries was something I went to for a treat every once in a while, now I just not go to any of the fast food or even restaurants
Besides in and out because I know they won’t change anything, they haven’t changed anything sense idk forever
It’s amazing watching the language of people who don’t even realize they have an addiction.
If I’m going to spend $20 - $30 for a burger and fries and a drink, I will go to a local diner and give the money to people who need it, and who care about their food, and what’s more, those burgers are almost guaranteed to be vastly superior in quality.
When I was young my friends and I would stop at a McDonald’s for value-menu snacks on the way to paintball or my family would stop there when traveling for convenience and cheap food.
Now that the “cheap” is gone, what exactly are they offering? For the price of one of their meals I can buy ground beef and make burgers for everyone. I’m so confused how institutions like this survive. Oh yeah, a population addicted to fast fixes of sugar and high-calorie carbohydrates.
