[HN Gopher] How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worke...
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How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California
Author : rbanffy
Score : 50 points
Date : 2023-09-18 16:17 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pluralistic.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (pluralistic.net)
| garciasn wrote:
| Most of the McDs around me are already paying $17-20 (in
| Minnesota, including rural areas) and the menu prices reflect it.
| We recently have begun to pay >$50 for a family of four. For
| context: the two cheeseburger meal is now just under $11. Subway
| is the same thing, with most sandwiches topping $10/ea and totals
| coming out around $50 for four of us.
|
| What is interesting, however, is that we're not witnessing this
| with traditional restaurants and/or fast casual spots. I wonder
| if they will catch up or if this sort of wage inflation or shove
| McDs out of the fast food category.
| reaperman wrote:
| Those are very similar to the prices we're paying in Houston,
| for what its worth. Generally about $12 per person for a basic
| fast food meal. McDonalds, What-a-burger (our version of In-n-
| Out), Wendy's, Raising Canes, its all about $12/pp.
| gdulli wrote:
| I've also noticed that the economics of fast food make no sense
| anymore compared to groceries and casual restaurants. Inflation
| has hit everything, but fast food has not retained the relative
| discount.
|
| A footlong basic chicken sub at a Subway near me is $13. A
| "Supreme Meats" is over $18. A "Beast" (whatever that is) is
| $21! All without a side or drink.
|
| Taco Bell and Wendys are similarly out of my guilty pleasure
| rotation. The discount was part of the basic contract we had
| with bottom tier food.
| ericmcer wrote:
| Visited Subway for the first time in ~10 years.
|
| Growing up their jingle was "$5 foot long" (this lasted til
| 2011 or so?). I figured there was no way a $5 price held, but
| I did not expect it to have almost tripled.
| bsder wrote:
| > I've also noticed that the economics of fast food make no
| sense anymore compared to groceries
|
| The deli sandwich thing, in particular, seems to have really
| broken the social compact.
|
| Their ingredients aren't better. Their price isn't better.
| Their service isn't better.
|
| It has become not uncommon for me to say "Yeah, I'll go to
| the grocery store and hit the deli because it's _better_ and
| _more convenient_. "
|
| How many more people like me will it take before all the
| sandwich places collapse?
| tschwimmer wrote:
| What I've noticed is there there is a huge "app subsidy"
| (drive through tax?) for many fast food chains. For example,
| Taco Bell has a $6 online-only combo that's probably 40-60%
| discount over the drive-thru menu equivalent. I've noticed
| similar things with other chains as well.
|
| As a business strategy, this makes some minor amount of sense
| since the app orders are transparently more efficient than
| drive through orders (say name and get food vs read menu and
| then "can I get uhhhhhh"). I also suspect online orders
| probably on average larger than drive up orders because it's
| easier to order more. On the other hand, there is very very
| minimal advertising of the app at the store. That sort of
| makes sense too - App orders probably have lower margin
| because the price sensitive customers are using it. So you
| don't want to steer your price insensitive customers to it if
| you don't have to. Overall, it's actually a nice case of
| price discrimination.
| gdulli wrote:
| I will absolutely not install an app to order food. But if
| it means Taco Bell is no longer part of my diet I'll take
| it as a win.
| fragmede wrote:
| Is it just a general fear of technology as to why or is
| there some other reason why you don't want to install an
| app?
| reducesuffering wrote:
| App subsidy / price discrimination is real. You can get $5
| taco bell meals, $8 McD double quarter pounder meals, and
| $2 dunkin coffee and donut if you know where to look. They
| all then have rewards that is another 7-10% cash back.
| acdha wrote:
| I wonder whether their subsidizing the app orders to push
| users over: not just because they can presumably mine other
| data but because they can hire fewer cashiers and maybe
| keep their kitchen utilization up if there's never a delay
| due to someone slow ahead of you in line. It would not be
| surprising to see a logical endpoint here treating the cash
| register like banks treated ATMs where there's eventually a
| charge to talk to a person (who might be on video so they
| can farm it out to a call center?).
| jstarfish wrote:
| > What is interesting, however, is that we're not witnessing
| this with traditional restaurants
|
| I think they've buffered against this a little by reducing wait
| staff and/or coming up with novel justifications to skim their
| earned tips.
|
| Also restaurants downgrading to fast-casual (a brewery near me
| now makes customers dispense their own soft drinks, leaving the
| single bartender to bus food and tend bar).
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| Considering that the USA has higher salaries overall than
| Norway or Switzerland and comparable cost of living, it seems
| like the USA is just catching up and being on the level one
| would expect it. In those countries, a fast-food meal is around
| US$20.
|
| Traditional restaurants and/or fast casual spots in the USA
| involve "mandatory" tipping, so even if menu prices are lower,
| I would assume that the total meal price is higher once one
| includes the tip, which nowadays is up to at least 20% if not
| 25%. I remember a Facebook thread that drew some angry wait
| staff posting things like "You better tip X% or you're going to
| get some nastiness in your food next time", and they were
| mainly coming from low-end chains.
| garciasn wrote:
| Fast casual does not have 'mandatory' tipping, but
| traditional restaurants do. Fast casual and fast food have
| started to include the tip options on credit card POS
| machines, but it's running into some public backlash.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Oh man, I remember being shocked a Big Mac Meal went for 11
| CHF in Lausanne in...2006. It must be up to at least 20 CHF
| now.
|
| I just got back from Japan, however, and I was absolutely
| spoiled by how affordable eating out was, really good food
| and no tipping culture. Heck, even the convenience stores in
| Japan provide better options than most fast food restaurants
| in the states. But I got a sense that the workers are
| struggling with the current system.
| rngname22 wrote:
| Total comp + benefits + social welfare for a fast food worker
| in Norway or Switzerland is far better than the equivalent
| for a fast food worker in Minnesota, the price rising in
| Minnesota to match Norway would not be commensurate as the
| Minnesota worker has far worse lifestyle economically.
| OfSanguineFire wrote:
| I wasn't thinking of the fast-food workers but rather the
| clientele. With American salaries being as high as they
| are, and a lot of other things in life being priced
| relatively high, I would have expected the American fast-
| food industry to easily get away with raising prices up to
| $20/meal, at least in some US markets.
| jvalencia wrote:
| I see the same thing re: not seeing this with traditional
| restaurants. I'm always shocked that taking Chili's to go is
| cheaper than fast food.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| > I'm always shocked that taking Chili's to go is cheaper
| than fast food.
|
| That's because the quality is even worse. Chili's (and
| Applebees) make almost zero profit on their food, it's just a
| loss leader to get people in the door and keep them drinking.
| The entire business model is real estate + cheap booze. The
| food just allows them to operate as a restaraunt instead of a
| bar, which is much easier to license in most places.
| jiofj wrote:
| >We recently have begun to pay >$50 for a family of four.
|
| It's incredible how inflated prices for fast food are. It's the
| same crap as always but it costs the same as going to a real
| restaurant.
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