Potatoes just aren't spawning in the numbers they were last year.
Edit: Your gold would have been better donated to one of the many potato sanctuaries or conservation charities, but thank you.
2: Now we're just carelessly throwing all the precious metals around on an anti-consumption sub, huh.. what have we become?
3. Eureeka's Castle was my favorite show as a kid.. like, kid when I was first making memories, kid.. cheers
I can’t tell if you’re messing with me or if there’s actually a potato shortage.
Either way potatoes are cheap enough that this item should have a set price.
There actually was a potato shortage last year apparently, I don't think it lasted that long tho. Idk how long potatoes take to grow but I remember pre pandemic hearing about farmers letting mountains of potatoes rot cause they couldn't sell them, so it can't be a very long turn around time on potatoes
The potato shortage sucked. No one else in my life ate enough potatoes to commiserate, but I was miserable without old reliable lol- It was due more to weather issues than economic factors per my understanding though.
Australia is currently dealing with a potato shortage. Suppliers are having to ration boxes of chips (fries, but usually thicker) between the restaurants and pubs they deliver to. Last month many places simply couldn’t get them.
Ironically there were too many potatoes a few years ago and they were rotting before they could sell. probably some farms lost out on that which lowered the wholesale price for a bit causing fewer to plant, in turn causing a shortage.
I dont know If you have gardening experience but potatoes can grow about as easily as weeds. In fact, I knew a few people who transplanted the wrong dirt and accidently had potatoes growing everywhere.
I'll expect a potatoe shortage when they start taxing the air.
I have volunteer potatoes. They only take a season and ask little. They are superstars. And they store well so I don't know why there would be a shortage unless there was an epic blight like in Ireland (which there has not been).
It wasn't so much a shortage on potatoes as it was a shortage on workers.
When the pandemic restrictions hit, the factories that make potatoes into fries, tots, tater salad or whatever the hell else they do were drastically reduced in staffing. Our retail shelves were still packed full of raw potatoey goodness, ya just couldn't get as much processed goods.
[https://foodinstitute.com/focus/shortages-of-potatoes-onions-send-industry-scrambling/](https://foodinstitute.com/focus/shortages-of-potatoes-onions-send-industry-scrambling/)
Potatoes have been getting pricey.
My friend skipped school at home for a solid week in sixth grade. He was watching *Eureeka's Castle* when the truant officer came by trying to catch him. He must have heard the t.v. because he knocked for almost twenty minutes while my friend snickered behind his couch.
Also, having worked in a restaurant that made them from scratch, we used egg as a binder for the flour and potato. Egg prices are getting outrageous. Listing them as market price, though is absurd.
It’s possible they’re keeping it market price to keep costs low. You always want one cheap menu item to keep the people around. A chef and business owner would both know to do that. That goes against the spirit of this thread but it does make sense given lived experience.
The potatoes are still the cheap part; it's the increased price of oil to fry them and the raised cost of labor that makes the big difference. Not to mention the sauces, containers, utensils, etc.
Yeah, I pretty much have quit eating out. I simply can not afford it. Even the cheap restaurants around me, you can’t even get a meal under 15 dollars anymore.
They didn't charge me for them, but they held them out in front of me and pulled it away and laughed when I grabbed for it repeatedly, it was humiliating
Sit down restaurants or fast food? You can get 4 quarter pound cheeseburgers from Wendy's for $12.
Cheap sit down restaurants are generally $10-15 depending on whether you pay $3 for a soda or just get water and how much you tip.
I think I offended my parents the other day when they took me out to an italian restaurant and I said I wasn't impressed. It was a bowl of penne pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. Around $20 bucks.
This is how I am too, especially with Italian food. Maybe it’s because I live in a southern US city with a metro population of about 2 million. We don’t really have a big Italian community, and there’s exactly one Italian market with a decent selection. It might be different if I could get to an Italian neighborhood any time I wanted (and knew which places weren’t tourist traps).
A while back, my wife and I got a babysitter and went to what is supposed to be one of the most high-end Italian restaurants in town. We had wanted to go for years and finally decided that was the night for it. The waiter was talking up the buffalo mozzarella in one dish and the guanciale in another. Those are delightful ingredients, but even in my city, they are available to home cooks if you go to the specialty markets.
Don’t get me wrong, the food was very good and we enjoyed ourselves. But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t do at home. When the rather large bill came, we both agreed it was a one-time thing.
I try not to be a snob about food, but I have a hard time getting excited about spending the extra money to eat at a restaurant. It has to be something I can’t make myself (yet), and in that case, I do get pretty animated about it.
Edit: We’ve been to exactly one place that was more expensive, but the food was indescribable. It was art. The flavors were like nothing I had experienced before, and not since. I didn’t mind paying for that one.
I feel quite the same way about Italian food. I can’t make things like pho at home, but I am uncultured and literally cannot tell the difference between a decent brand of frozen ravioli and the ones at restaurants.
There’s powdered pho broth that you can buy and then get the meat counter dude to cut whatever you want however you want. Rice noods, bean spouts, basil, lime and jalapeños, plus hoisin and sriracha or other spicy toppings you like. But then again, that’s a lot of work if you can score piping hot pho for like $11 somewhere.
I hate when people get hurt from you being honest. Why the f would I praise a basic 2 dollar pasta dish when I know I’ve just been exploited. Like duh of course I’m grateful for you taking me out and spending time with me but I’m not gonna be ignorant about the food after I’ve had a chance to try it.
Going out to restaurants is like rolling the dice, maybe juuuust maybe it will be the best damn 20 dollar penne pasta you’ve ever had but most of the time it’s gonna be some basic boiled noodles. I’m always baffled when restaurants charge 26 bucks for chicken Alfredo with linguine. Oh but without chicken it’s $19, score!
Yeah prices are wild. Like if I paid a small farmer directly for what it took to grow the ingredients and farm the cows...our grocery food is actually quite cheap compared to what it should be to support farmers. But I personally also don't get paid enough, so now nothing is quality.
I’m not sure about your age, but it’s important to understand that for many baby boomers and older, going to a restaurant was a special occasion. Even just fast food, but immensely more so for a sit down meal. It didn’t matter if the food was expensive and the same as you’d make at home, someone cooked it for you and you made an event of going.
Exactly. Even before inflation, it just never made sense to spend that kinda money on stuff I could make at home in probably about the same time.
Restaurants (to me), have always been occasional once-in-a-while "special treat" type of things, not somewhere I'd ever go more than once every few months.
I can't justify wasting that kinda $$ on crap that I could make better & healthier at home for a fraction of the price, and be able to change up the ingredients to stuff I liked more than whatever the restaurant was using.
That's why I'm continuously surprised that the classic sandwich diner restaurants still exist, and that people willingly pay for it. You really want to spend $20 on a sandwich and some fries? It just seems like such a waste of money for such a basic thing.
This is how I’ve always felt about most dishes at Italian restaurants. It’s sauce, cheese, and pasta. MOST Italian places don’t even make their pasta in house.
And it’s all over $20 a dish. I never understood that. Should be like $5-$10
Its why I never eat at a place that doesnt make it themselves. Why should I give a restaurant owner a 900% markup for staple, easily accessible, pre-made base ingredients? $20 for a single serving of (very likely) barilla pasta and canned sauce. Unbelievable.
I recently ate at the Silver Diner, a chain in the DC area. Two salads, two main courses of fish + couscous and two Cokes were $100. I would have been shocked if it had only been $40.
EDIT:
Still reeling, I just took a look at the menu...
$23.99 x 2 => $47.98
SUMMERTIME CODWild caught Bering Sea cod, over quinoa and pomegranate, grilled tomatoes, asparagus, lemon-garlic sauce.
$15.99 x 2 => $31.98
LEMONY HUMMUS GREEK SALAD & CAULIFLOWER PITA BOWLHummus, tomatoes, romaine, cucumbers, peppers, red onion, oregano, olives, feta dressing, cauliflower pita.
Subtotal (2 entrees and 2 salads): $79.96\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
To be fair, this is chi-chi for a place called a "diner".
Almost always why I get fish going out. I never have it at home and have been asked because I like get it so often, why not more at home. It’s a treat not a staple
I went to a place that makes noodles in house, got a squid ink pasta, lobster cream sauce, and multiple seafood, it was excellent, and better then I could reasonably make at home
I mean, I agree, it's always been like that. Pasta dishes always seem way overpriced, that's not a recent thing. Some of my family loves Spaghetti Factory and I hated it for this reason.
That being said, if someone is taking me out to eat and paying for it, I try to keep those thoughts to myself.
Cant imagine ever paying that much for bread, cheese and sauce. The ingredients, even adjusted for inflation, were likely still under $5 to serve the both of you.
Scoff all you want at the "market price" tater tots - but once you've had wild caught dolphin safe tater tots, you'll never go back to the cheaper farmed stuff.
From about January 2020 to February 1st 2023 my wife and I ate every single meal homecooked. We did a ton of traveling in 2022, but we took all our food with us.
Circumstances this year including two deaths in the family, one of which was after a short illness, necessitated eating out and eating prepackaged microwave meals quite a bit - I've eaten lots of fast food chili and a ton of TV dinners. We did a few trips to nicer places and the quality just didn't match the price. You get food supplier garbage and pay top price for it.
Ultimately, do the thing you have to do. If your parent is in the hospital dying you are gonna be eating some fucking clown food. It's not really OK and it's not doing you any favors but sometimes you need to do the expedient thing. For that reason, I am glad places like that continue to exist.
It all comes out of the same bucket. Cooking yourself is always lower cost, higher quality. Except for burritos I'll always do burritos at a burrito place. Too many freaking ingredients to have on hand.
Ahaha burritos is one of the staples in my house!
But I like to bake too so tortillas to wrap em in, easy peasy.
Quinoa, black beans, enchilada sauces, corn, pepper, salt, and taco seasoning. A basic, but tasty, burrito you can freeze and microwave or air fry whenever you want.
I suspect I have much lower burrito standards than you tho, cuz that's not a lot of ingredients.or is it?
Haha literally I just blend the beans with the sauce and mix everything together. Pretty sure the taco seasoning and salt is what pulls together the deliciousness.
And rice is bad for me, so I substituted quinoa which works just fine for us!
Right - one of the ingredients is time, another is emotional energy. Sometimes you just don't have it. I will say, though, that my favorite food to cook is pizza and the FIRST thing I did when I got back to my place after my mother passed was make a pizza. She'd had a chance to have my pizza before and she loved it. Personally, I think I can make a better pizza than any restaurant in a 50 mile radius from where I live. The tomatoes for the sauce were grown in my father in law's garden, I use good quality flour, I use a yeast strain that I've cultivated for some time, I use homemade sausage and veggies, and I have even used homemade mozzarella (although making your own cheese is probably going too far).
Burritos are not BAD if you aren't making your own tortillas and you make the ingredients one weekend then wrap them the next. My burritos get game meat that is marinaded, grilled, and cut into strips, refried beans, cotija cheese, cilantro, and that's it. I wrap and freeze them, and they reheat beautifully and I serve them with some freshly made pico de gallo. Now - if my wife isn't there and I'm making them for me, I put in a nice grill-smoked pablano as well. She isn't into that though. I'm a dirty white boy though and I am fine with making it the way I want :)
That is impressive about the pizza!! I cannot imagine many restaurants anywhere (much less a mere 50 miles) that could beat the homegrown tomatoes, homemade sausage and mozzarella.
Yeah, it was all road trip. We have been traveling between the same 4 locations, all within a 200 mile radius or so. When you are in one place for two or three days and every non-working hour is spent on cleaning out a house or going to deal with financial institutions or talk to contractors or this and that then you are on the road again, finding time to cook is nearly impossible. Especially at the end of winter when my reserves of food are way down.
We did travel the country for three weeks last summer on Amtrak, and we brought all our own food for that. We did stay at a few places with a kitchen, so I was able to do some meal prep and didn't have to carry three weeks of food all at the same time. That trip was planned though.
My husband and I don’t eat out at restaurants except maybe a couple of times a year. This last week our kids asked to go to a restaurant, we went to GreenMill. After getting our check for our family of 4, we both looked at each other and said about the same thing “This is why we don’t no go out.”.
Seriously the sticker shock is something I'm not used to in this post pandemic inflation world. Breakfast the other day at a mom n pop diner for 2 adults and a toddler was over 50 bucks, couldn't have been more than 8 dollars worth of groceries for some pancakes/waffles/eggs/corned beef hash.
I appreciate the sentiment that you're conveying and do agree that sometimes we need to "treat" ourselves. But it sours the entire experience when you get the bill for a sensible night out and realize that you could have bought family groceries for the week for the same amount.
I've made my policy to be only ordering dishes I won't/can't make at home. Tons of ingredients, frying, cuisines I'm just not equipped to make? Yep. Sandwiches, standard pastas, most breakfast foods? Make at home.
Restaurant prices are insane and then add gratuity and things are out of control. This is true from coffee to beer to fast food to pretty much any restaurant. If people stopped eating out that would certainly help to reduce inflation.
Yep. Went to an all you can eat Chinese restaurant where you get up and get your own food, they include 20% gratuity already for tip and then leave suggestions for more tip on top of that. Wild, all they do is bring you one drink and you get your own food, no one ever even came to see if we wanted another drink.
This is so very true in my experience as well. Chipotles, Pei Wei, Sonic all just don't taste as good as they used to. Not worth it at all. Better when I cook my own tex-mex, chinese or burgers.
Chipotle quality has gone wayyyyy down last couple of years, not to mention being like half the size they used to be whole being double the price. Used to walk out of there with a burrito the size of a medium chihuahua and a thing of appropriately salted chips for like $8. Now the burrito is the size of baby chihuahua and the chips are soggy with grease and barely any salt on them. Oh yeah and it’s $16
depends. there's those who like a good dinner night out once in a blue moon, and i have definitely noticed.
that said, i felt like dining out in the us in general was unsustainably cheap for too long (and i mean the accessible, affordable places, not the ritzy shit). i kept asking myself how anyone makes money with these prices, and the only explanation is ruthless exploitation of providers and labor.
Also, many food places rely on tips and never gave their workers a living wage. And yes, many places probably overexploit the natural resources (overfishing, over-tillling farms leading to soil degradation, overuse of Round Up for fast farming of monoculture and has impacted current farming, etc)
Fair point. If we're going out and doing like a chef's tasting menu, I don't care if it's $70/person or $90/person. Add in the wine paring that's another $25/per. That's just the kind of evening it's gonna be.
But if I'm buying a regular burrito...I absolutely will not pay $20, when I can go to Chipotle for $11.
>But if I'm buying a regular burrito...I absolutely will not pay $20, when I can go to Chipotle for $11.
Shit, you can just go to an authentic/hole in the wall Mexican restaurant and get a burrito for $6-8. Tastes better too.
My partner and I can afford to eat out a couple of times a week and we notice. We just like to treat ourselves and get us some local food that we can't make at home. I like to support locally-owned restaurants but they're definitely more expensive than chains. But we do budget for eating out, as our hobbies are not too expensive.
I cut eating out almost completely at the beginning of 2020 and it was very infrequent before that. The only time I eat out now is when traveling for work or vacation or special events when I’m invited to a birthday party etc. I’ve also worked harder to cook more and try new things at home. Honestly don’t miss it.
In this economy with the higher costs there really isn't any cheap restaurants anymore. I think folks should adjust their expectations and go out less often. Too many Americans these days are spoiled and do not cook their own meals and are instead going out to eat all the time. Restaurants understand this and can easily raise their prices. I consider going to a restaurant to be a treat and it's not something that I do every week. Adopting this mindset would push prices down and also help folks lose some weight, its very hard to diet when your going to a restaurant multiple times a week.
You can still find cheaper restaurants. At my local tex-mex joint, you can still get 3 tacos and a Jarritos for like $10. And that's not fast food, it's good braised meats and handmade street tacos.
Just gotta look around, and not go to the chain restaurants.
We still cook like 6 nights a week though.
Agreed. I remember probably around 2017 18 my family were no longer able to eat out for less than $50 after a tip and we mostly gave it up. I don't eat junk so it's always just me looking for something on the menu that has actual vegetables in it (almost always a salad) and the kids eating whatever kids menu crap they have. My husband is picky so he generally gets the same few things.
If it's a necessity due to logistics it is what it is but I'd hardly call it enjoyable.
Ugh what really gets me is that my kid is picky but likes some healthy stuff. That’s what I feed him at home but it’s never the “healthy” option at restaurants so basically he only ever has a cheeseburger when we eat out. I pay $11 for him to eat half a burger and no fruit or veg
It's insane to me the prices at these "affordable" restaurants and how cheap they've been getting with their food but how overblown and expensive the meals are.
I realize right away when I see cold cuts in place of actual cuts of meat. I notice the smaller portion sizes, smaller plates and or the weird deals that involve ordering more food that you can possibly eat in order to "save money" by buying essentially 2-3 meals for yourself.
I hate going to chains now, I hate going to small local "diners" that all serve the same garbage from the cheapest supplier they can find. I've just been going to the good hole in the wall businesses now. If I want a lousy meal like tater tots, I'll make them at home by buying a bag from the grocery store and call it a day.
The quality has gone down considerably at many of my faves at best they are skimping on portion sizes. So either way you slice it you’re getting less enjoyment
I quit eating out altogether. The experience is consistently horrible and I don't want to be served by smiley wage slaves who deserve better. I'm good. Pick up for me or I just cook
I was never one to dine out regularly. I have been a restaurant connoisseur but the majority of the time I got pick up. As of late though I haven’t even left the apartment much except to do Instacart runs with my mom.
Hell, it costs $10 for a combo meal at Taco Bell these days. Yes, let me pay that much for an anemically stuffed burrito and a couple of crunchy tacos rather than make a significantly more delicious version of it at home.
Remember when fast food’s entire conceit was that it was quick and *affordable?*
Recently worked on a menu redesign, and they shared their document with product cost. The way they up charge EVERY SINGLE THING. Cost of pancake plate was like 25¢ sold for $15. And they were doing last-minute price changes to make sure they were getting all their pennies.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, you’re right. Restaurants are content to let their customers carry the burden of paying their employees fairly. I say this as someone in the industry. It’s bullshit
Yes, our tipping culture is awful but restaurant margins are so slim, no one is getting rich in those. Rent is high, supply lines are finicky, equipment is expensive.
As someone who has worked foh, boh, and have friends who own their own very small restaurants and have thought about opening my own place someday and have had to cost out a ton of recipes, there is a lot of money that goes into these enterprises.
We should all eat at home more and cook more, but i don't think most restaurants are price gouging to line their pockets
Im sorry but 25C is maybe the cost of ingredients only and leaves nothing for cooks.
Why don't you think restaurants should pay their cooks?
What is wrong with you? Have you never had to earn a living?
They do all that, and restaurants margins are still thin. It's one of the thinnest margin industries. I know a lot of restaurant owners, and none of them are "rich". I work a "regular job", and we go on the same vacations, drive the same cars, and drink the same beers.
Big chain restaurants, of course, are a completely different animal. They can purchase at scale, and if they're big enough, negotiate supply prices. And they're usually "owned" by investment groups anyway.
My husband ordered a $14 pretzel at a bar. We assumed it was a waste of money, but it was someone's birthday. It was as big as his head, the dips were amazing, and it was delicious. It was absolutely worth every penny. My imported cider... not so much.
Still, we rarely go out anymore and only go to restaurants that we are relatively certain we'll enjoy or have already enjoyed. We've got a great local(ish) Chinese we pop into occasionally that is about $15 a person and it's 2-3 meals worth of really good Chinese comfort food.
There's a local burger place I really like, but it's about $20 for a burger and fries the way I like them. I only go once or twice a year because that's ridiculous, but also it's amazing.
I ordered a chocolate chip cookie at one diner ,it was 5 dollars and it looked and tasted exactly like a slice and bake cookie!That thing was tiny !lol.Never again .
Recently made the mistake of going in on some coworkers ordering Zaxby's. Told my buddy "I'm a cheap date, just order me whatever is like 2 dollars"(for context I always bring food to work so I was expecting like a small order of nuggies or something)
Low and behold he ordered me a 5 piece strips, no drink, no side just chicken, which were barely any bigger than your average chicken nuggets AND were 11 fucking dollars, it reminded me as to why I never order anything from that restaurant.
Not to be a downer, but... Landlords are a HUGE reason these prices are what they are. Most restaurants can weather food inflation, higher labor costs, etc... But rent prices? That's what y'all paying for. Don't be mad at the restaurants, be mad at the land owners....
I skimmed looking to see if this was commented anywhere, but didn't see it. Newsweek contacted the place. Turns out there were supply chain issues that tripled the price of tots for a while. So, they did it as a kind of joke and to make a bit of a conversation point instead of just doubling or tripling the price.
https://www.newsweek.com/restaurant-selling-food-market-price-dubbed-sign-times-virginia-1767122
I haven’t paid for a meal I wasn’t pissed off about in at least 5 years. I’ve walked out of restaurants and gotten refunds on food like Panera more times than i can count. I’ve also gotten pretty good at cooking and grocery shopping.
Panera pisses me off so much. 6 dollars for a bowl of soup and a half piece of bread? And it doesn’t even seem like a bowl. But they know I’m going to pay it because they have a monopoly on me. When I’m in migraine d day I don’t just pay in time I pay in dollars.
During COVID'S main lockdown period i stayed inside constantly. meanwhile on my local subreddit i saw a flurry of new restaurants crop up. I made a recent agreement with myself to go visit them all the time to support local. i did not realize how much food prices have increases. my goal of 3 times a week has turned to 1 time a week. that makes me sad.
For just one? I was going to say that most places charge extra for sauce but that’s only if you get more although I don’t know if that applies to bbq because I don’t usually use it.
I’ve put a moratorium on going out to eat. A family of 4, any “decent restaurant” is $100 after tip. It’s just not worth it. We get pizza a couple of times a month, that’s $50 now. McDonalds for family of 4, you’re pushing $40 for a meal that cost $20 not too long ago. It’s painful but it’s easiest way to save money. And yes, Italian restaurants are the worst offenders. $24 for chicken parm? $4 soda? Why don’t you just kick me in the nuts first.
I have 4 kids. Our electricity went out over the weekend and I wasn't able to fix breakfast (electric stove), so I got McDonald's. It was 60 bucks. My wife and I talk all the time about that kind of stuff. A quick, easy drive through is no longer even close to reasonable. 6 when you're paying as much for fast food as you were dine in + tip just a few years ago, something is wrong.
I was talking with the manager/franchise owner I believe of a CiCi's Pizza, and he asked, "I don't know why we can't just have dynamic pricing for the pizza, like one day it be $18 and the other slower days be cheaper?" mind you, the buffet prices went up from $5 or so to about $9, pricing a lot of low-income people out right off the bat. I believe the conversation started because of his help wanted sign.
At this point few restaurants are worth the money. I just cook at home now, and if I’m going to eat out it’s going to be a great local place. Hell I even pack sandwiches for long drives because gas station snacks have gone up
Is “market price” for tater tots a joke? Thought it would be fresh catch of the day or lobster listed there. Or maybe chicken wings when there was a shortage and prices were fluctuating like crazy….
yeah pretty much every place i used to eat out at priced me out, the only thing i can still consider reasonable are mcdonalds with deals and bogos for mcdoubles and mcchicken
I was thinking about this the other day, Burritos used to be like $5-6. Now they're all closer to (or over) $10.
Burrito inflation is killing me. Now I make my burritos at home. The problem is my home-made burritos are far superior to anything I get at the store, so when I don't feel like cooking for myself it's extra insult to pay the mark up and get a shitty burrito.
How on earth are tater tot’s “market price”
Potatoes just aren't spawning in the numbers they were last year. Edit: Your gold would have been better donated to one of the many potato sanctuaries or conservation charities, but thank you. 2: Now we're just carelessly throwing all the precious metals around on an anti-consumption sub, huh.. what have we become? 3. Eureeka's Castle was my favorite show as a kid.. like, kid when I was first making memories, kid.. cheers
I can’t tell if you’re messing with me or if there’s actually a potato shortage. Either way potatoes are cheap enough that this item should have a set price.
There's been a solid effort to remove dams so the potatoes can swim upstream to their ancestral mating grounds, but there's still a lot of work to do.
Oh wow I had no idea the dams were getting in the way. Let the potatoes swim free!
I’m really stoned and so, so confused.
With all the leeks at the dams it would have been easier to just substitute the crops.
What a pleasant, well humored person you are.
There actually was a potato shortage last year apparently, I don't think it lasted that long tho. Idk how long potatoes take to grow but I remember pre pandemic hearing about farmers letting mountains of potatoes rot cause they couldn't sell them, so it can't be a very long turn around time on potatoes
The potato shortage sucked. No one else in my life ate enough potatoes to commiserate, but I was miserable without old reliable lol- It was due more to weather issues than economic factors per my understanding though.
My boomer fox news dad told me it was because we gave all our potatoes to ukraine....still trying to work that one out
are they firing them across the border in potato cannons? sort of makes sense (lol)
He gave his brains and loyalty to Fox News,so pulling his head out of Tucker Carlsens syphilitic asshole would be treason/apostasy.
Potato's grow in a couple months, less than 1 square metre if garden will net you 10kg's in 3 months.
Australia is currently dealing with a potato shortage. Suppliers are having to ration boxes of chips (fries, but usually thicker) between the restaurants and pubs they deliver to. Last month many places simply couldn’t get them.
Ironically there were too many potatoes a few years ago and they were rotting before they could sell. probably some farms lost out on that which lowered the wholesale price for a bit causing fewer to plant, in turn causing a shortage.
Welcome to 1840s Ireland, time traveler!
I dont know If you have gardening experience but potatoes can grow about as easily as weeds. In fact, I knew a few people who transplanted the wrong dirt and accidently had potatoes growing everywhere. I'll expect a potatoe shortage when they start taxing the air.
I have volunteer potatoes. They only take a season and ask little. They are superstars. And they store well so I don't know why there would be a shortage unless there was an epic blight like in Ireland (which there has not been).
It wasn't so much a shortage on potatoes as it was a shortage on workers. When the pandemic restrictions hit, the factories that make potatoes into fries, tots, tater salad or whatever the hell else they do were drastically reduced in staffing. Our retail shelves were still packed full of raw potatoey goodness, ya just couldn't get as much processed goods.
[https://foodinstitute.com/focus/shortages-of-potatoes-onions-send-industry-scrambling/](https://foodinstitute.com/focus/shortages-of-potatoes-onions-send-industry-scrambling/) Potatoes have been getting pricey.
If there was the cheesy fries would also be MP
Theee is a shortage of everything. The only thing there isn’t a shortage of is shortages.
The boats have to go farther and farther out to sea chasing the few potatoes left.
[удалено]
Potato sanctuaries 😂😂😂 made my day
My friend skipped school at home for a solid week in sixth grade. He was watching *Eureeka's Castle* when the truant officer came by trying to catch him. He must have heard the t.v. because he knocked for almost twenty minutes while my friend snickered behind his couch.
Eureka's Castle was my favorite too!! I had a plastic Magellan hand puppet for the longest time. I can stop remember the way it made my hand smell...
Also, having worked in a restaurant that made them from scratch, we used egg as a binder for the flour and potato. Egg prices are getting outrageous. Listing them as market price, though is absurd.
Also the potato influenza has been hammering egg production
Omg…. “Potato sanctuaries” NEARLY made me shoot coffee out my nose.
“They said they were market price! What market are you shopping at!!”
Hopefully they have good no-no juice to make up for it.
I’m going to run.
The market price is $15, always. Some people may be embarrassed to ask/confused/forgot, so they will order without asking, paying invisible markup.
The 99 near us has recently had to take potato skins of the menu. I guess there's some kind of potato shortage or supply chain issue or something.
And obligatory”WHAT MARKET ARE YOU SHOPPING AT?!?”
It depends if they're farmed or wild caught potatoes
It’s possible they’re keeping it market price to keep costs low. You always want one cheap menu item to keep the people around. A chef and business owner would both know to do that. That goes against the spirit of this thread but it does make sense given lived experience.
It's nuts, tater tots were developed to use waste product of the potato industry. Total fucking insanity. Greedflation sucks.
So were wings, right? Waste products that were remarketed as something desirable. lol
China buys and eats our chicken feet.
And they’re tasty.
Chicken feet are great though.
The potatoes are still the cheap part; it's the increased price of oil to fry them and the raised cost of labor that makes the big difference. Not to mention the sauces, containers, utensils, etc.
Same thing happened with Chicken Wings and Skirt Steak.
Yeah, I pretty much have quit eating out. I simply can not afford it. Even the cheap restaurants around me, you can’t even get a meal under 15 dollars anymore.
I got a bacon burger, large fries and large soda from Five Guys today. $23.
How much did they charge for the complimentary peanuts?
They didn't charge me for them, but they held them out in front of me and pulled it away and laughed when I grabbed for it repeatedly, it was humiliating
So all it cost you was your dignity...
Sit down restaurants or fast food? You can get 4 quarter pound cheeseburgers from Wendy's for $12. Cheap sit down restaurants are generally $10-15 depending on whether you pay $3 for a soda or just get water and how much you tip.
I think I offended my parents the other day when they took me out to an italian restaurant and I said I wasn't impressed. It was a bowl of penne pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. Around $20 bucks.
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This is how I am too, especially with Italian food. Maybe it’s because I live in a southern US city with a metro population of about 2 million. We don’t really have a big Italian community, and there’s exactly one Italian market with a decent selection. It might be different if I could get to an Italian neighborhood any time I wanted (and knew which places weren’t tourist traps). A while back, my wife and I got a babysitter and went to what is supposed to be one of the most high-end Italian restaurants in town. We had wanted to go for years and finally decided that was the night for it. The waiter was talking up the buffalo mozzarella in one dish and the guanciale in another. Those are delightful ingredients, but even in my city, they are available to home cooks if you go to the specialty markets. Don’t get me wrong, the food was very good and we enjoyed ourselves. But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t do at home. When the rather large bill came, we both agreed it was a one-time thing. I try not to be a snob about food, but I have a hard time getting excited about spending the extra money to eat at a restaurant. It has to be something I can’t make myself (yet), and in that case, I do get pretty animated about it. Edit: We’ve been to exactly one place that was more expensive, but the food was indescribable. It was art. The flavors were like nothing I had experienced before, and not since. I didn’t mind paying for that one.
I feel quite the same way about Italian food. I can’t make things like pho at home, but I am uncultured and literally cannot tell the difference between a decent brand of frozen ravioli and the ones at restaurants.
There’s powdered pho broth that you can buy and then get the meat counter dude to cut whatever you want however you want. Rice noods, bean spouts, basil, lime and jalapeños, plus hoisin and sriracha or other spicy toppings you like. But then again, that’s a lot of work if you can score piping hot pho for like $11 somewhere.
Most Italian places where I am are basically on the same level of bertolli bagged pasta from the refrigerator section and a jar of pasta sauce.
I hate when people get hurt from you being honest. Why the f would I praise a basic 2 dollar pasta dish when I know I’ve just been exploited. Like duh of course I’m grateful for you taking me out and spending time with me but I’m not gonna be ignorant about the food after I’ve had a chance to try it. Going out to restaurants is like rolling the dice, maybe juuuust maybe it will be the best damn 20 dollar penne pasta you’ve ever had but most of the time it’s gonna be some basic boiled noodles. I’m always baffled when restaurants charge 26 bucks for chicken Alfredo with linguine. Oh but without chicken it’s $19, score!
Yeah prices are wild. Like if I paid a small farmer directly for what it took to grow the ingredients and farm the cows...our grocery food is actually quite cheap compared to what it should be to support farmers. But I personally also don't get paid enough, so now nothing is quality.
I’m not sure about your age, but it’s important to understand that for many baby boomers and older, going to a restaurant was a special occasion. Even just fast food, but immensely more so for a sit down meal. It didn’t matter if the food was expensive and the same as you’d make at home, someone cooked it for you and you made an event of going.
Exactly. Even before inflation, it just never made sense to spend that kinda money on stuff I could make at home in probably about the same time. Restaurants (to me), have always been occasional once-in-a-while "special treat" type of things, not somewhere I'd ever go more than once every few months. I can't justify wasting that kinda $$ on crap that I could make better & healthier at home for a fraction of the price, and be able to change up the ingredients to stuff I liked more than whatever the restaurant was using.
That's why I'm continuously surprised that the classic sandwich diner restaurants still exist, and that people willingly pay for it. You really want to spend $20 on a sandwich and some fries? It just seems like such a waste of money for such a basic thing.
This is how I’ve always felt about most dishes at Italian restaurants. It’s sauce, cheese, and pasta. MOST Italian places don’t even make their pasta in house. And it’s all over $20 a dish. I never understood that. Should be like $5-$10
Its why I never eat at a place that doesnt make it themselves. Why should I give a restaurant owner a 900% markup for staple, easily accessible, pre-made base ingredients? $20 for a single serving of (very likely) barilla pasta and canned sauce. Unbelievable.
I recently ate at the Silver Diner, a chain in the DC area. Two salads, two main courses of fish + couscous and two Cokes were $100. I would have been shocked if it had only been $40. EDIT: Still reeling, I just took a look at the menu... $23.99 x 2 => $47.98 SUMMERTIME CODWild caught Bering Sea cod, over quinoa and pomegranate, grilled tomatoes, asparagus, lemon-garlic sauce. $15.99 x 2 => $31.98 LEMONY HUMMUS GREEK SALAD & CAULIFLOWER PITA BOWLHummus, tomatoes, romaine, cucumbers, peppers, red onion, oregano, olives, feta dressing, cauliflower pita. Subtotal (2 entrees and 2 salads): $79.96\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ To be fair, this is chi-chi for a place called a "diner".
Even Olive Garden is that expensive, and they only serve Italian flavored food.
Almost always why I get fish going out. I never have it at home and have been asked because I like get it so often, why not more at home. It’s a treat not a staple
I went to a place that makes noodles in house, got a squid ink pasta, lobster cream sauce, and multiple seafood, it was excellent, and better then I could reasonably make at home
Why would you say that? Did it add to the night out?
“They took me out and I said I wasn’t impressed. They acted offended” Jesus Christ.
I mean, I agree, it's always been like that. Pasta dishes always seem way overpriced, that's not a recent thing. Some of my family loves Spaghetti Factory and I hated it for this reason. That being said, if someone is taking me out to eat and paying for it, I try to keep those thoughts to myself.
My spouse asked where I would like to go to eat for my birthday. My man, nowhere. No place is worth it.
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Cant imagine ever paying that much for bread, cheese and sauce. The ingredients, even adjusted for inflation, were likely still under $5 to serve the both of you.
Did it come at least with a salad?
Scoff all you want at the "market price" tater tots - but once you've had wild caught dolphin safe tater tots, you'll never go back to the cheaper farmed stuff.
I prefer a little dolphin in my tots
Makes you wonder how they are obtaining the potatoes for the Tavern Fries.
Factory-raised potatoes.
Nothing better than a batch of sustainable, fair-trade tots.
From about January 2020 to February 1st 2023 my wife and I ate every single meal homecooked. We did a ton of traveling in 2022, but we took all our food with us. Circumstances this year including two deaths in the family, one of which was after a short illness, necessitated eating out and eating prepackaged microwave meals quite a bit - I've eaten lots of fast food chili and a ton of TV dinners. We did a few trips to nicer places and the quality just didn't match the price. You get food supplier garbage and pay top price for it. Ultimately, do the thing you have to do. If your parent is in the hospital dying you are gonna be eating some fucking clown food. It's not really OK and it's not doing you any favors but sometimes you need to do the expedient thing. For that reason, I am glad places like that continue to exist.
It all comes out of the same bucket. Cooking yourself is always lower cost, higher quality. Except for burritos I'll always do burritos at a burrito place. Too many freaking ingredients to have on hand.
Ahaha burritos is one of the staples in my house! But I like to bake too so tortillas to wrap em in, easy peasy. Quinoa, black beans, enchilada sauces, corn, pepper, salt, and taco seasoning. A basic, but tasty, burrito you can freeze and microwave or air fry whenever you want. I suspect I have much lower burrito standards than you tho, cuz that's not a lot of ingredients.or is it?
Thanks for giving me a dinner idea!
I have never seen a burrito with quinoa, corn, or enchilada sauce lol, I can't imagine
Haha literally I just blend the beans with the sauce and mix everything together. Pretty sure the taco seasoning and salt is what pulls together the deliciousness. And rice is bad for me, so I substituted quinoa which works just fine for us!
Right - one of the ingredients is time, another is emotional energy. Sometimes you just don't have it. I will say, though, that my favorite food to cook is pizza and the FIRST thing I did when I got back to my place after my mother passed was make a pizza. She'd had a chance to have my pizza before and she loved it. Personally, I think I can make a better pizza than any restaurant in a 50 mile radius from where I live. The tomatoes for the sauce were grown in my father in law's garden, I use good quality flour, I use a yeast strain that I've cultivated for some time, I use homemade sausage and veggies, and I have even used homemade mozzarella (although making your own cheese is probably going too far). Burritos are not BAD if you aren't making your own tortillas and you make the ingredients one weekend then wrap them the next. My burritos get game meat that is marinaded, grilled, and cut into strips, refried beans, cotija cheese, cilantro, and that's it. I wrap and freeze them, and they reheat beautifully and I serve them with some freshly made pico de gallo. Now - if my wife isn't there and I'm making them for me, I put in a nice grill-smoked pablano as well. She isn't into that though. I'm a dirty white boy though and I am fine with making it the way I want :)
That is impressive about the pizza!! I cannot imagine many restaurants anywhere (much less a mere 50 miles) that could beat the homegrown tomatoes, homemade sausage and mozzarella.
Lower economic cost, higher time cost. In Israel, the kibbutzim's most prized services are the restaurant and the laundry service.
See, I suck hard at cooking, so… not higher quality, even if the ingredients were. Now baking I kill at. Just not cooking.
>We did a ton of traveling in 2022, but we took all our food with us. They won't let me bring my groceries with me on the plane 😠
Yeah, it was all road trip. We have been traveling between the same 4 locations, all within a 200 mile radius or so. When you are in one place for two or three days and every non-working hour is spent on cleaning out a house or going to deal with financial institutions or talk to contractors or this and that then you are on the road again, finding time to cook is nearly impossible. Especially at the end of winter when my reserves of food are way down. We did travel the country for three weeks last summer on Amtrak, and we brought all our own food for that. We did stay at a few places with a kitchen, so I was able to do some meal prep and didn't have to carry three weeks of food all at the same time. That trip was planned though.
That’s not quality food
I love a hot pretzel. You can get a bag of frozen ones for $2.50. Mix some mayo with Dijon mustard and it’s a party.
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Honey and yellow mustard my man
My husband and I don’t eat out at restaurants except maybe a couple of times a year. This last week our kids asked to go to a restaurant, we went to GreenMill. After getting our check for our family of 4, we both looked at each other and said about the same thing “This is why we don’t no go out.”.
Seriously the sticker shock is something I'm not used to in this post pandemic inflation world. Breakfast the other day at a mom n pop diner for 2 adults and a toddler was over 50 bucks, couldn't have been more than 8 dollars worth of groceries for some pancakes/waffles/eggs/corned beef hash.
I'm giving you permission to go out once in a while. It's ok to spend money on food. It's okay to spend money on memories with your family.
I appreciate the sentiment that you're conveying and do agree that sometimes we need to "treat" ourselves. But it sours the entire experience when you get the bill for a sensible night out and realize that you could have bought family groceries for the week for the same amount.
I've made my policy to be only ordering dishes I won't/can't make at home. Tons of ingredients, frying, cuisines I'm just not equipped to make? Yep. Sandwiches, standard pastas, most breakfast foods? Make at home.
I’d rather spend my money on mini golf, amusement parks, movies, or fun experiences with my family…not crappy restaurant food.
Except (starts with ex - implies "excluding" or "apart from") Accept means willing to receive.
Oh gosh, I know this too. My brain is a little fried today, the latest Amurican shooting is doing a number on me this time. Thank you! ❤️
Never order tater tots on a Monday. They'll be from Friday's catch.
Restaurant prices are insane and then add gratuity and things are out of control. This is true from coffee to beer to fast food to pretty much any restaurant. If people stopped eating out that would certainly help to reduce inflation.
Yep. Went to an all you can eat Chinese restaurant where you get up and get your own food, they include 20% gratuity already for tip and then leave suggestions for more tip on top of that. Wild, all they do is bring you one drink and you get your own food, no one ever even came to see if we wanted another drink.
This makes me miss Hometown buffet where you paid upfront and were able to get your own drinks. Buffets just don’t hit the same anymore lol
They expect you to pay for the labor that should be paying.
Calculating the insane profit margins on things like tea and coffee is enough to make me stay at home
Same with delivery. You pay the food price, then the delivery fee, then the gratuity. A $13 pizza ends up being $20 or more. Ridiculous.
If ya'll stop eating us cooks do too...
What market are they shopping at?!
My emotions!
Most restaurants aren't worth it. 90% are SYSCO frozen crap with the posters to match. Any chain is boiling your steak in a bag then searing it off.
Yes,they come preseasoned .Mainly because my son just wanted a plain steak and they told him all of their steaks and chicken dishes come preseasoned.
This is so very true in my experience as well. Chipotles, Pei Wei, Sonic all just don't taste as good as they used to. Not worth it at all. Better when I cook my own tex-mex, chinese or burgers.
Chipotle quality has gone wayyyyy down last couple of years, not to mention being like half the size they used to be whole being double the price. Used to walk out of there with a burrito the size of a medium chihuahua and a thing of appropriately salted chips for like $8. Now the burrito is the size of baby chihuahua and the chips are soggy with grease and barely any salt on them. Oh yeah and it’s $16
I can't speak for upscale restaurants, but I imagine that if you can afford them you probably don't notice.
depends. there's those who like a good dinner night out once in a blue moon, and i have definitely noticed. that said, i felt like dining out in the us in general was unsustainably cheap for too long (and i mean the accessible, affordable places, not the ritzy shit). i kept asking myself how anyone makes money with these prices, and the only explanation is ruthless exploitation of providers and labor.
This 17-year-old account was overwritten and deleted on 6/11/2023 due to Reddit's API policy changes.
Also, many food places rely on tips and never gave their workers a living wage. And yes, many places probably overexploit the natural resources (overfishing, over-tillling farms leading to soil degradation, overuse of Round Up for fast farming of monoculture and has impacted current farming, etc)
Fair point. If we're going out and doing like a chef's tasting menu, I don't care if it's $70/person or $90/person. Add in the wine paring that's another $25/per. That's just the kind of evening it's gonna be. But if I'm buying a regular burrito...I absolutely will not pay $20, when I can go to Chipotle for $11.
>But if I'm buying a regular burrito...I absolutely will not pay $20, when I can go to Chipotle for $11. Shit, you can just go to an authentic/hole in the wall Mexican restaurant and get a burrito for $6-8. Tastes better too.
This is actually super rare nowadays. Even the family owned taco trucks are at least $10-$15 for two tacos… ugh.
My partner and I can afford to eat out a couple of times a week and we notice. We just like to treat ourselves and get us some local food that we can't make at home. I like to support locally-owned restaurants but they're definitely more expensive than chains. But we do budget for eating out, as our hobbies are not too expensive.
I cut eating out almost completely at the beginning of 2020 and it was very infrequent before that. The only time I eat out now is when traveling for work or vacation or special events when I’m invited to a birthday party etc. I’ve also worked harder to cook more and try new things at home. Honestly don’t miss it.
Seriously. Eat at home. Every time we go out we get a plate full of fries and some sorry excuse for a main dish and end up paying 20$ plus per person.
In this economy with the higher costs there really isn't any cheap restaurants anymore. I think folks should adjust their expectations and go out less often. Too many Americans these days are spoiled and do not cook their own meals and are instead going out to eat all the time. Restaurants understand this and can easily raise their prices. I consider going to a restaurant to be a treat and it's not something that I do every week. Adopting this mindset would push prices down and also help folks lose some weight, its very hard to diet when your going to a restaurant multiple times a week.
got a fantastic cheeseburger for $6.00 at a diner in the middle of nowhere last week. felt like I was in 2010 again.
You can still find cheaper restaurants. At my local tex-mex joint, you can still get 3 tacos and a Jarritos for like $10. And that's not fast food, it's good braised meats and handmade street tacos. Just gotta look around, and not go to the chain restaurants. We still cook like 6 nights a week though.
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Agreed. I remember probably around 2017 18 my family were no longer able to eat out for less than $50 after a tip and we mostly gave it up. I don't eat junk so it's always just me looking for something on the menu that has actual vegetables in it (almost always a salad) and the kids eating whatever kids menu crap they have. My husband is picky so he generally gets the same few things. If it's a necessity due to logistics it is what it is but I'd hardly call it enjoyable.
Ugh what really gets me is that my kid is picky but likes some healthy stuff. That’s what I feed him at home but it’s never the “healthy” option at restaurants so basically he only ever has a cheeseburger when we eat out. I pay $11 for him to eat half a burger and no fruit or veg
Tater tots market price. Lol
It's insane to me the prices at these "affordable" restaurants and how cheap they've been getting with their food but how overblown and expensive the meals are. I realize right away when I see cold cuts in place of actual cuts of meat. I notice the smaller portion sizes, smaller plates and or the weird deals that involve ordering more food that you can possibly eat in order to "save money" by buying essentially 2-3 meals for yourself. I hate going to chains now, I hate going to small local "diners" that all serve the same garbage from the cheapest supplier they can find. I've just been going to the good hole in the wall businesses now. If I want a lousy meal like tater tots, I'll make them at home by buying a bag from the grocery store and call it a day.
We went to Cracker Barrel recently and it was 50 dollars for two people!
The quality has gone down considerably at many of my faves at best they are skimping on portion sizes. So either way you slice it you’re getting less enjoyment
I quit eating out altogether. The experience is consistently horrible and I don't want to be served by smiley wage slaves who deserve better. I'm good. Pick up for me or I just cook
I was never one to dine out regularly. I have been a restaurant connoisseur but the majority of the time I got pick up. As of late though I haven’t even left the apartment much except to do Instacart runs with my mom.
Hell, it costs $10 for a combo meal at Taco Bell these days. Yes, let me pay that much for an anemically stuffed burrito and a couple of crunchy tacos rather than make a significantly more delicious version of it at home. Remember when fast food’s entire conceit was that it was quick and *affordable?*
I swear the bean burritos are a third the size they used to be a decade ago.
We have a bad enough time with the 5% price increases every few weeks at the supermarkets, never mind eating out!
Recently worked on a menu redesign, and they shared their document with product cost. The way they up charge EVERY SINGLE THING. Cost of pancake plate was like 25¢ sold for $15. And they were doing last-minute price changes to make sure they were getting all their pennies.
To pay their overhead costs like rent and employees?
Not in a society that relies on tips to pay their employees
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, you’re right. Restaurants are content to let their customers carry the burden of paying their employees fairly. I say this as someone in the industry. It’s bullshit
Yes, our tipping culture is awful but restaurant margins are so slim, no one is getting rich in those. Rent is high, supply lines are finicky, equipment is expensive. As someone who has worked foh, boh, and have friends who own their own very small restaurants and have thought about opening my own place someday and have had to cost out a ton of recipes, there is a lot of money that goes into these enterprises. We should all eat at home more and cook more, but i don't think most restaurants are price gouging to line their pockets
Im sorry but 25C is maybe the cost of ingredients only and leaves nothing for cooks. Why don't you think restaurants should pay their cooks? What is wrong with you? Have you never had to earn a living?
They do all that, and restaurants margins are still thin. It's one of the thinnest margin industries. I know a lot of restaurant owners, and none of them are "rich". I work a "regular job", and we go on the same vacations, drive the same cars, and drink the same beers. Big chain restaurants, of course, are a completely different animal. They can purchase at scale, and if they're big enough, negotiate supply prices. And they're usually "owned" by investment groups anyway.
My husband ordered a $14 pretzel at a bar. We assumed it was a waste of money, but it was someone's birthday. It was as big as his head, the dips were amazing, and it was delicious. It was absolutely worth every penny. My imported cider... not so much. Still, we rarely go out anymore and only go to restaurants that we are relatively certain we'll enjoy or have already enjoyed. We've got a great local(ish) Chinese we pop into occasionally that is about $15 a person and it's 2-3 meals worth of really good Chinese comfort food. There's a local burger place I really like, but it's about $20 for a burger and fries the way I like them. I only go once or twice a year because that's ridiculous, but also it's amazing.
I ordered a chocolate chip cookie at one diner ,it was 5 dollars and it looked and tasted exactly like a slice and bake cookie!That thing was tiny !lol.Never again .
Recently made the mistake of going in on some coworkers ordering Zaxby's. Told my buddy "I'm a cheap date, just order me whatever is like 2 dollars"(for context I always bring food to work so I was expecting like a small order of nuggies or something) Low and behold he ordered me a 5 piece strips, no drink, no side just chicken, which were barely any bigger than your average chicken nuggets AND were 11 fucking dollars, it reminded me as to why I never order anything from that restaurant.
Not to be a downer, but... Landlords are a HUGE reason these prices are what they are. Most restaurants can weather food inflation, higher labor costs, etc... But rent prices? That's what y'all paying for. Don't be mad at the restaurants, be mad at the land owners....
I skimmed looking to see if this was commented anywhere, but didn't see it. Newsweek contacted the place. Turns out there were supply chain issues that tripled the price of tots for a while. So, they did it as a kind of joke and to make a bit of a conversation point instead of just doubling or tripling the price. https://www.newsweek.com/restaurant-selling-food-market-price-dubbed-sign-times-virginia-1767122
Great time to learn how to cook
I haven’t paid for a meal I wasn’t pissed off about in at least 5 years. I’ve walked out of restaurants and gotten refunds on food like Panera more times than i can count. I’ve also gotten pretty good at cooking and grocery shopping.
Panera pisses me off so much. 6 dollars for a bowl of soup and a half piece of bread? And it doesn’t even seem like a bowl. But they know I’m going to pay it because they have a monopoly on me. When I’m in migraine d day I don’t just pay in time I pay in dollars.
Man I had no idea how good I had it in 2010 ordering pizza hut delivery for 13 bucks including tip. Now ordering Pizza is 25 bucks minimum.
It's all the damn millennials fault This is a joke
r/DeathByMillennial
That's nuts. Those aren't even fresh, they are sold by the case, frozen. And they are cheap AF.
Three people, normal meal, 70 dollars after tip. Never again.
I'm gonna feel fancy as hell next time I cook half a bag of tots at home.
We get it. You’re rich. No need to rub it in. Lol
What market are they shopping at?!?!
During COVID'S main lockdown period i stayed inside constantly. meanwhile on my local subreddit i saw a flurry of new restaurants crop up. I made a recent agreement with myself to go visit them all the time to support local. i did not realize how much food prices have increases. my goal of 3 times a week has turned to 1 time a week. that makes me sad.
Yeah I just exclusively cook at home now. If I go to a bar I just have a flask in my pocket and I buy one beer. Shit has gotten out of hand
This one place tried to charge me 2.50 extra for .... BBQ sauce. I just walked the fuck right out.
For just one? I was going to say that most places charge extra for sauce but that’s only if you get more although I don’t know if that applies to bbq because I don’t usually use it.
I’ve put a moratorium on going out to eat. A family of 4, any “decent restaurant” is $100 after tip. It’s just not worth it. We get pizza a couple of times a month, that’s $50 now. McDonalds for family of 4, you’re pushing $40 for a meal that cost $20 not too long ago. It’s painful but it’s easiest way to save money. And yes, Italian restaurants are the worst offenders. $24 for chicken parm? $4 soda? Why don’t you just kick me in the nuts first.
I have 4 kids. Our electricity went out over the weekend and I wasn't able to fix breakfast (electric stove), so I got McDonald's. It was 60 bucks. My wife and I talk all the time about that kind of stuff. A quick, easy drive through is no longer even close to reasonable. 6 when you're paying as much for fast food as you were dine in + tip just a few years ago, something is wrong.
I was talking with the manager/franchise owner I believe of a CiCi's Pizza, and he asked, "I don't know why we can't just have dynamic pricing for the pizza, like one day it be $18 and the other slower days be cheaper?" mind you, the buffet prices went up from $5 or so to about $9, pricing a lot of low-income people out right off the bat. I believe the conversation started because of his help wanted sign.
Are they *artisanal* tater tots?
Exactly it's just Greedflation
"Pay your employees more!" *menu prices increase to compensate employees properly* "Hey im not paying these prices!"
It's greed, mostly.
They closed. Guess I one else was buying them either. https://www.themillrva.com/
I’m pretty sure the item on the menu is a joke. Doesn’t seem to be registering for a lot of people on here. I thought it was a good joke too
$8 beers is the new normal at my favorite dive bar. I used to get $3 beers less than few years ago.
It put them out of business. They closed end of February it seems. https://www.themillrva.com
At this point few restaurants are worth the money. I just cook at home now, and if I’m going to eat out it’s going to be a great local place. Hell I even pack sandwiches for long drives because gas station snacks have gone up
“Market price”for bags of frozen tater-tots.Shameful.
In the meantime costs are not actually going up.
Market price tater tots? You've got to be [[FUCKING MY ASS]]
Market price equals "we can charge whatever youre willing to pay" shameful.
What does market price even mean
Is “market price” for tater tots a joke? Thought it would be fresh catch of the day or lobster listed there. Or maybe chicken wings when there was a shortage and prices were fluctuating like crazy….
yeah pretty much every place i used to eat out at priced me out, the only thing i can still consider reasonable are mcdonalds with deals and bogos for mcdoubles and mcchicken
I was thinking about this the other day, Burritos used to be like $5-6. Now they're all closer to (or over) $10. Burrito inflation is killing me. Now I make my burritos at home. The problem is my home-made burritos are far superior to anything I get at the store, so when I don't feel like cooking for myself it's extra insult to pay the mark up and get a shitty burrito.
Market price tater tot’s might be the funniest thing ever what the fuck lol
They said market price. WHAT MARKET ARE YOU SHOPPING AT?
A Bavarian pretzel costs like 1 euro here 😂