No problem, as salaries also trippled in that time
Tap for spoiler
/s
Maybe not tripled, but making 7.25-10/hour was pretty common in 2008. The standard today is 15-20/hour at fast food.
I’m aware this doesn’t justify tripling the price. Even 3x wages would not triple the cost of the burger.
Yet $7.25 is still the federal minimum wage today
Yea pretty fucked up.
Consider me spoiled 😢
Wow, so I did tha math. The official inflation rate factors up to just over 1.5 (50% increase) over the past 16 years. But this meme suggests a factor of 3.58!!! (258% increase)
The official inflation rate doesn’t include food or energy. It’s ridiculous.
Food and products have 2.3x’d since just before covid started.
It was on a famous show.
It’s prepared food, so the price also depends on wage increase and changes to tip structure in that state. Several states began fair wage for servers after 2008, so the gratuity may now be included in the price of the meal.
AI burger meat is my favorite.
That’s good, cause it’s all we’ll be able to afford in a few years.
You mean your cheese slices don’t have more than 4 points?
Gentrification came for flavortown.
Rent is now $4000/mth. No loitering.
LOL where can you find $4k/month? My dentist said her office rent in W. Seattle was $11k/mo.
For commercial rent that nearly seems reasonable. Especially considering what they’re charging for dentistry, that’s like… 3 people without insurance? 🥲
My rent was $8,000 a month in 2009 for a strip mall restaurant that sat 40 people. It wasn’t in an expensive area either.
When Bob’s Burgers started airing the burger of the day was $5.95. This used to be a reasonable price for a burger.
The CEO’s, shareholders and the 1% need to make more! There is no fucking way I am going to spend $17.00 for a fucking cheeseburger.
In Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta’s character freaks out over the “5$ milkshake”.
In 2025 a chocolate shake is 5.49 at the sonic near me. I thought that was expensive but compared to this thread apparently inflation on milkshakes hasn’t been to bad. Though I’m pretty sure you can get a $10 shake if you start asking them to add every kind of diabetes candy into it.
There’s a fast food chain where I live called Nifty Fifty’s ('50s themed of course). They have “dessert milkshakes” for $9.85 - basically shakes with a whole extra dessert blended in - and if you get it malted you’re at $10.50. TBF they’re really fucking good milkshakes, but $10 is ridiculous.
We’re not in flavor town anymore, Toto.
Guess what will happen to food prices in the US when farmers cannot exploit cheap migrants anymore…
Not to worry - they’ll be replaced with children and prisoners and robots.
$10 Aud gets you a proper burger in Oz at a bakery or takeaway spot, you’ll pay $20+ Aud inc chips/fries in a pub/bistro, but either way you have to tackle them to stop them putting fucking pickled beetroot on it first, dark times all round indeed…
Being on a food TV show and becoming slightly famous therefor allows you to increase your prices and still keep all the seats filled. The best burger place near me has increased to $10 from $5 over roughly the same time period, in keeping with the increase in beef prices over that time.
Do we really not see that being on that show might have something to do with that?
Norway has been considered to be super-expensive among tourists and others looking in from abroad. However, Norwegians going to the US really have to mind their spending nowadays, especially when eating out. Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe, so the price we see on the menu is what we expect to pay.
If you go to a gas station near an airport in Western Norway, you can get a massive 300g burger (3/4 lb) with added cheese and bacon for about 200 kroner, which is $19. If you want something that normal people can finish, a regular 150g cheeseburger is about $12. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger is 43 kroner, or $4.12. If you order a burger at a restaurant or a pub, you’ll probably be spending about $25 for a bacon cheeseburger with included fries. You’re not expected to tip in Norway.
Considering that the prices Americans here refer to don’t include taxes and tips, I’m actually pretty sure it would be more expensive to eat out in the US than in Norway, and average pay for a waiter/waitress here is about $41 000 per year.
$17 for a burger, even if it really did look like the picture, which we all know it doesn’t, is way too much. No, thank you.
I pay $12/day to feed myself. I make all of my own meals at home, I haven’t eaten out since the pandemic. I formed the habit, and just kept cooking at home as prices got ridiculous. My diet is excellent, mostly fresh vegetables, and organic chicken.
Coming out of left field here, but… scaling beef production is not very sustainable?
Like, unless it’s a rare treat, I feel like beef has to go artificial or prices keep going up, even if wealth distribution is worked out.
I mean, I agree, but beef consumption in the US has dropped in the past 20 years. And you can find similar price stories for all meal prices, regardless of ingredients.
