The decline of fast food restaurants.

PantherProud said:
If you live by the Dayton Mall, I can’t recommend El Toro Express enough.

it’s a Mexican sit down style restaurant that started their own Chipotle style fast food location, with a drive thru you can order from.

Portion sizes are enormous. Their burritos are nearly 1 1/2 times the size of a Chipotle burrito for only a dollar more. Could easily feed two kids and maybe two adults. Our go to now is the chicken nachos.

I never take pictures of food but took this one awhile back to show a friend. $10 for chicken nachos that can easily feed two people.

they have burritos, tacos (both soft and hard I believe), nachos and quesadillas. Also kids meals for $6.

Oh, did I mention you can order margaritas to go?

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Looks like a plethora of dressing on that salad, lol. But from your description I'd definitely check them out.
 
Zunardo said:
That's the biggest change from my perspective. We didn't go to McDonald's often when I was little, but when we did it was the best day ever.

Went inside our local Arby's yesterday to peruse the menu and get my dad a sandwich and fries. Had to wait five minutes for someone to take my order, and I was the only customer inside - seemed the workers were focused on the drive-thru (busy) and delivering the call-ahead orders by going out the door to the parking lot (steady).

Looked around, marveled at how much nice seating they had, including some intimate barstool counters - and nobody using them. Ironic, because the current Wendy's ad campaign seems to emphasize the indoor customer experience with the goofy crew members. I'll have to go there next time and see if that's happening in real life.
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I read somewhere ( here perhaps) where the drive thru took priority. The fast food restaurant is judged on the speed of keeping the line moving. I've seen many cars leave a line because it's taking longer than normal. However if you're already inside you say to yourself" Well, I'm already here" and the chance of leaving decreases
To the OP of the decline of fast food restaurants- I disagree. Not that Tesoro doesn't have valid points- price/ quality. But lines are still long and we as a society want instant gratification. What's more instant than pulling in a drive thru at 6:00 and even if your wait time is longer than expected you have your bag of goodies at 6:10.
About piercing and tats? Pretty much the new normal. I work in Healthcare and I'll bet yhete are a few of you that will be surprised at the number of young physicians having tats and actual sleeves.
 
nupanther said:
I read somewhere ( here perhaps) where the drive thru took priority. The fast food restaurant is judged on the speed of keeping the line moving. I've seen many cars leave a line because it's taking longer than normal. However if you're already inside you say to yourself" Well, I'm already here" and the chance of leaving decreases
To the OP of the decline of fast food restaurants- I disagree. Not that Tesoro doesn't have valid points- price/ quality. But lines are still long and we as a society want instant gratification. What's more instant than pulling in a drive thru at 6:00 and even if your wait time is longer than expected you have your bag of goodies at 6:10.
About piercing and tats? Pretty much the new normal. I work in Healthcare and I'll bet yhete are a few of you that will be surprised at the number of young physicians having tats and actual sleeves.
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When I was in high school I worked at Taco Bell. There absolutely was a metric and expectation as far as how fast
You got drive thru orders out. There was no metric as far as how fast to serve walk in customers.
 
Zunardo said:
Looks like a plethora of dressing on that salad, lol. But from your description I'd definitely check them out.
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Was out and about and hungry. Stopped by. Couldn’t get a great picture for some reason. There was a weird shadow.


Edit: got my wife a margarita. It’s easily 50% tequila. Very strong.

IMG_6054.jpeg
 
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LICKING COUNTY FAN said:
Pricing themselves out of business.
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You would think so, but reality is the young generation thinks nothing of putting down $15 for a lunch when they make $30/hr at age 25. I asked a group of young engineers today if they packed their lunch or got fast food?

Four of the six get fast food, two pack their lunch. Of those two, I asked why they pack. One does it primarily to save money, the other hates to feel rushed to get out of the building, go find food, eat it, and get back for work all in 30 minutes.
 
D4fan said:
You would think so, but reality is the young generation thinks nothing of putting down $15 for a lunch when they make $30/hr at age 25. I asked a group of young engineers today if they packed their lunch or got fast food?

Four of the six get fast food, two pack their lunch. Of those two, I asked why they pack. One does it primarily to save money, the other hates to feel rushed to get out of the building, go find food, eat it, and get back for work all in 30 minutes.
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I will say that taking 30 minute lunches helps eliminate the urge to go out for lunch.
 
I’m amazed at the number of people who still eat fast food. They’re literally poisoning their body, particularly their gut health. Food as fuel and not pleasure is the start of being healthier, physically and mentally.
 
The biggest downside of fast food prices is the quality. I'll pay money for good food. But the 'value' menu of any fast food franchise is garbage food. Their 'regular' menu is good, but not for the price.

As someone said up thread, the 30 minute lunch break really makes packing a lunch worthwhile. When I had a desk job after high school, we'd sometimes go in together and order food for delivery. Split a pizza, etc. There was a good pizza/italian place near the office that had really great salads, wings, and pizza for great prices. And had deals for lunch specials. So, 5-10 of us would all order at once and the receptionist handled receiving/paying the food and then we'd take lunch when it arrived. For that, a $10-$15 pizza split 3 or 4 ways wasn't seen as that expensive. The office also had two vending machines that had daily pre-made food stocked by the vendor that you could microwave that was usually only $2-$3.

We never had time to eat out. And that was long before UberEats, Door Dash, etc became a thing.

Today, I try to make my own food when home. I'll eat out when traveling due to time savings, but even that's gotten ridiculous.
 
Tesoro said:
Why should anything matter? It’s easier to live the life of a lib … no standards: lazy.
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Your selective use of punctuation is lazy.

Why do you let tattoos and piercings bother you? Did the tattoos and piercings get your order wrong?
 
When I want a good, quality meal with above average service my first three choices are always chains notorious for cutting corners, having a loose definition of “food” and pay minimum wage. It’s a no brainer!
 
Folks do you homework, look at the menu. These places have food for all budgets. If you're getting the marketing items and the premium sandwiches and selections, then yes, you're going to overpay. All of these places have dollar menus use them. And there is some truth in the pricing. Many restaurants, especially with alcohol, the food is moderately priced because they make money on booze. The Gen Y crowd are big drinkers, especially wine and women. So what's the rub?? Convenience. You eat at the fast food places, it like buying groceries at the Gas station convenience store over a traditional grocery store.
Also, why is the prices so high...remember, we keep pushing minimum wages up and there is so few that want to work that these places have to overpay for labor. That overpayment for labor comes back at you in the costs of goods and services. I'm stunned that so many people never see the correlation of wages vs. prices. People want to get paid alot, and spend little for themselves. Doesn't work that way. And even though many have chosen to not cook and eat out more than ever before, the old home cooked meal is still the way to go if you want to stretch that food budget.

Also, do not buy drinks at restaurants. Do a quick calculation on what you buy in drinks at restaurants over a 3 month period, and multiply it by 4 and that's what you spend, just on drinks. A typical pop at a sit down restaurant is generally $2.50 - $4.00.
 
nupanther said:
I read somewhere ( here perhaps) where the drive thru took priority. The fast food restaurant is judged on the speed of keeping the line moving. I've seen many cars leave a line because it's taking longer than normal. However if you're already inside you say to yourself" Well, I'm already here" and the chance of leaving decreases
To the OP of the decline of fast food restaurants- I disagree. Not that Tesoro doesn't have valid points- price/ quality. But lines are still long and we as a society want instant gratification. What's more instant than pulling in a drive thru at 6:00 and even if your wait time is longer than expected you have your bag of goodies at 6:10.
About piercing and tats? Pretty much the new normal. I work in Healthcare and I'll bet yhete are a few of you that will be surprised at the number of young physicians having tats and actual sleeves.
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For those under 30, I'd say less people DON'T have tats that those that do, across all industries. We recently changed our dress code policies and had to loosen up on some of those. You can't find young people who don't have tats. Crazy thing for docs is many started med school and was likely told they'd close some doors and they got them anyway. High arm, back, private areas, ok, it's just the hands, neck, face tats that really make me wonder about the decision making of the person. Oh well.
 
14Red said:
Folks do you homework, look at the menu. These places have food for all budgets. If you're getting the marketing items and the premium sandwiches and selections, then yes, you're going to overpay. All of these places have dollar menus use them. And there is some truth in the pricing. Many restaurants, especially with alcohol, the food is moderately priced because they make money on booze. The Gen Y crowd are big drinkers, especially wine and women. So what's the rub?? Convenience. You eat at the fast food places, it like buying groceries at the Gas station convenience store over a traditional grocery store.
Also, why is the prices so high...remember, we keep pushing minimum wages up and there is so few that want to work that these places have to overpay for labor. That overpayment for labor comes back at you in the costs of goods and services. I'm stunned that so many people never see the correlation of wages vs. prices. People want to get paid alot, and spend little for themselves. Doesn't work that way. And even though many have chosen to not cook and eat out more than ever before, the old home cooked meal is still the way to go if you want to stretch that food budget.

Also, do not buy drinks at restaurants. Do a quick calculation on what you buy in drinks at restaurants over a 3 month period, and multiply it by 4 and that's what you spend, just on drinks. A typical pop at a sit down restaurant is generally $2.50 - $4.00.
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Obviously the their raise should come out of the profits. So instead of McD's making $10B while paying $8 an hour they should pay $15 and hour and just absorb the hurt and only make $1B. Its pretty much this idea that companies should be capped at how much profit they can make as a % of sales and anything above that is required to go into the low level employees pocket. lol
 
CedarBuck92 said:
I respect where you are coming from but if having 1 cookie a week is what keeps someone on their otherwise healthy eating plan its still a win. You can have the healthiest diet but if you hate how everything tastes you won't last on it long.
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I don’t disagree with that being a great start. My elimination comment had more to do with fast food than sugar. Fast food should be eliminated from everyone’s diet ASAP. 95% of it has zero nutritional value and is full of gut damaging ingredients.
 
I pack my lunch for work 4 days out of 5. I do grab lunch out usually once a week. Just order off the value menu or use coupons. I refuse to do apps, just to get food a "special price for app users" One way to mess with the folks at Wendy's - Tell them you want the $5 or $6 biggie sack, they don't know what to say - lol
 
Down in the valley said:
I pack my lunch for work 4 days out of 5. I do grab lunch out usually once a week. Just order off the value menu or use coupons. I refuse to do apps, just to get food a "special price for app users" One way to mess with the folks at Wendy's - Tell them you want the $5 or $6 biggie sack, they don't know what to say - lol
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I am now retired, but I packed four out of five days, too. Packing is much healthier and cheaper. I would usually eat out on Fridays.

A female office worker always complained about how tight her money was and yet she ate out for lunch all five workdays. I asked her about it and she said that eating out for lunch everyday was her little reward. Priorities.
 
nupanther said:
I read somewhere ( here perhaps) where the drive thru took priority. The fast food restaurant is judged on the speed of keeping the line moving. I've seen many cars leave a line because it's taking longer than normal. However if you're already inside you say to yourself" Well, I'm already here" and the chance of leaving decreases
To the OP of the decline of fast food restaurants- I disagree. Not that Tesoro doesn't have valid points- price/ quality. But lines are still long and we as a society want instant gratification. What's more instant than pulling in a drive thru at 6:00 and even if your wait time is longer than expected you have your bag of goodies at 6:10.
About piercing and tats? Pretty much the new normal. I work in Healthcare and I'll bet yhete are a few of you that will be surprised at the number of young physicians having tats and actual sleeves.
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You're right, the new normal. As far as the decline, I'd agree. Good old competition normally prevails. If you give a good product in a timely mannor, you'll be just fine. McDonald's is generally always busy and yet they are able to keep up most of the time.
 
BlackHawk said:
I am now retired, but I packed four out of five days, too. Packing is much healthier and cheaper. I would usually eat out on Fridays.

A female office worker always complained about how tight her money was and yet she ate out for lunch all five workdays. I asked her about it and she said that eating out for lunch everyday was her little reward. Priorities.
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BlackHawk, it maybe scary, but we think alot alike. I've seen it for years and years. The people who complain about how much they make and never having any money, are the ones who make poor financial decisions. Shopping at convenience stores, eating out for most meals, getting special coffies, etc. I've often said most people don't have earning problems, they have spending problems. Workers make more money today than ever before.
 
FWIW I was watching Top Chef the other day and there's Chefs who have worked in Michelin Star restaurants and James Beard Award Nominated Chefs and I think everyone of them had tattoos that were quite visible.

Pretty much the norm anymore, not just fast food joints.

And trust me, many of these tattoos would be seen as 'trashy' by most.
 
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