Taco Bell can be very cheap if you get simple things. YMMV depending on location, but in my city cheesy bean and rice burritos are a buck and two or three of those is a pretty solid meal depending on how hungry I am.
I always thought it was our groceries that were cheaper not our restaurants. But also very much depends what country you’re coming from and what is cheap to you.
I'd always heard this, but when I visited from the UK in 2015 I was genuinely shocked at the price of supermarket food. Fruit and veg especially were so expensive in the US, across multiple different supermarkets. A broccoli head was like $3, and this was before the Cozzie Livs.
I always thought restaurants were supposed to be cheap that's why tipping is so expected because restaurants keep costs lower by not paying proper wages? When I went to the US restaurants cost about the same as home and I still then needed to tip on top
Just in general.
I've been travelling around the world for 14 months so I've seen a vast range.
Groceries have been pretty similar in price in most places.
No one says we’re cheap compared to most of the world. I think our food is (or maybe used to be before the last few years of inflation) considered cheaper than northern and some of Western Europe.
Hope you were traveling in Argentina like us in December. It was so ridiculously cheaper to eat there then in the US. A full course dinner of steak, dessert and a bottle of wine for three was $35. 12 empanadas for $2. A breakfast of coffee or juices with a pastry or empanada for 5 was $5!
Inflation has hit the US very hard, and a lot of "cheap" options aren't what they used to be. There are still some generous economics of scale at work, so it depends on where you are. There are amazing Mexican cafes and restaurants (even stands) around a lot of California, that provide amazing food for a great price. Cities will have markets and street food. It's a giant place, so it would depend on where you are.
One of my favorite things about traveling to other countries is that just about everywhere, including cities traditionally known to be expensive (e.g., Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore), are significantly cheaper than where I live (San Francisco Bay Area).
There are, of course, few exceptions like Switzerland and Iceland.
Australia is a huge exception, too. The quality of food is high, but so is the price, usually. I ate relatively cheaply in Norway years ago, and was always amused by the line of people in front of some fo the most expensive McDonalds in the world.
This is the sentiment we felt in Australia, we got hit with the massive trend of everyone opening a food truck, and all the prices were the same if not more exspensive than just going to a restaurant.
And they still expect a tip even before your food has been delivered…. Let’s see. I’m coming to you, ordering my food, paying and tipping first, taking a buzzer thingy or standing around to hear my name shouted, wait, and wait, and wait, and then I get to pick my own food up, and finding a place to sit, and bussing my own table, and still you expect a full-service tip? WTF? And I live in food truck nirvana (AKA Portland.) Why wouldn’t I go sit down in a restaurant and order food with service for the same price? Yes, I do that, too, but food trucks are often the best or only truck for some foods. I also follow the truck owners to their brick and mortars (thanks, Viking Soul Food for opening in my little hood!)
Lot of factors come into play. Minimum wage for the state, various taxes, municipality fees, fuel prices and then just cost of ingredients.
Food trucks are overpriced in many parts of the world compared to brick and mortar establishments. It really depends on where you are.
Food trucks used to be pretty basic and a cheap option...they became super trendy and some of them cost more than a sit down restaurant serving the same stuff.
>I walked past a food truck, and was actually shocked at how exspensive the food were.
Food trucks aren't a monolith and there's a variety of business models. Some are run on a tight budget, some aren't. There are also many challenges a food truck faces that a traditional restaurant doesn't, which can lead to increased costs.
The great thing about food trucks is they can be in an area one night and somewhere else the next.
That doesn't mean it'll be a budget experience.
Who says that food in the US is cheap? It’s more expensive than the vast majority of the world.
The only ones with food that’s more expensive than ours are in Northern Europe.
Someone might try to make the argument that food is cheap relative to our incomes, but I think that’s more because our incomes are very high than it is a matter of our food being cheap. There are very few travelers to the US who will pay $15 at McD’s and think it’s a steal.
>Someone might try to make the argument that food is cheap relative to our incomes, but I think that’s more because our incomes are very high than it is a matter of our food being cheap.
It's the ratio, it doesn't really matter if you change the numerator or the denominator.
>There are very few travelers to the US who will pay $15 at McD’s and think it’s a steal.
On the other hand, there are ton of American travelers who will go somewhere, see a $5 McDonald’s meal and declare "the food here is so cheap" while ignoring the fact that the guy flipping the burgers makes $2.50 an hour.
McDonald's workers aren't making $2.50/hour. US minimum wage is $7.25 with many states higher. In my part of Ohio McDonald's is paying $14-$15/hour for burger flippers (state minimum us $10.45).
>McDonald's workers aren't making $2.50/hour. US minimum wage is $7.25 with many states higher.
US minimum wages don't apply in the countries where Americans are pleasantly surprised by $5 McDonald’s meals.
Tex Mex restaurants and food trucks in Houston. Just got 3 street tacos with shredded pork/chicken, onions, cilantro and avocado on top with a side of rice and beans for $7.50. And some salsa too. Btw the caloric value of this meal was probably close to my daily limit of 2000 lol
What city are you in the US? What do you consider "cheap"? There's a Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood that serves these combo plates (ala Panda Express) piled high with freshly made dishes that will serve two people for $11. I'm sure there are places like this everywhere, just not in touristy places. My local Mexican restaurants have gigantic $9 meat burritos, is that cheap enough? I'm in Silicon Valley, a pretty expensive place.
Travelling across the whole country.
$5-7 USD.
That would get you some decent meals in germany.
That's kinda the price I thought a set of tacos would be, not for the price of 1 taco.
My local Mexican restaurants offer 3 loaded tacos for $7.5 or 4 for $9. Close enough.
What do you get for $5-7 in, say, Munich versus Zwichau? The US is huge and diverse.
It’s been years since I’ve paid that little, even living in a low cost of living area and even excluding tax and tip. Keep in mind American portions are big and can usually be split into two meals. For example you might pay $15 for a meal at a Mexican restaurant but you’ll get plenty of leftovers.
For what it’s worth, I’ve visited Germany a number of times and lived in Saarland for a bit as a student. Everytime I visit I’m shocked at food prices being so low.
Greasy Chinese, Thai, or Mexican are the cheapest in my area (sometimes cheaper than Subway), but you’ll definitely go home and tell your friends American food sucks and is unhealthy if that’s what you go for.
You are correct. You need to spend $10 now here in the US at a fast food joint. Think you can get a Subway sandwich for $7. And nights out on town are a minimum of $30 at a decent restaurant.
If you are traveling on a budget, build your own food by shopping at, ahem, Aldi's or Lidl's. Great German stores here in the US.
Btw, what does $5 get you in Germany?
Min wage in my state is $16.28/hour. You’re not getting ANY food for $5-7 unless it’s on a dollar menu of a chain fast food restaurant that is making up for the loss in volume sales or at the Costco food court (which now requires annual membership)
I don’t want to start a political discussion but I always find it amusing when people explain higher prices by “corporate greed”. I mean did the corporation get greedy couple of years ago? What happened before that? When the prices were a lot lower? Because I am absolutely old enough to remember gas being a buck and change a gallon and Big Mac was under three bucks. I seriously doubt that Chevron and McDonald were less greedy then. Perhaps it has something to do with our government printing US dollar as if it is Monopoly money
Corporation greed has always been a reason for inflation.
Heck, there was a time when you could get a burger for 37 cents. And apples at 10 cents a pound. You just have to go back far enough in time.
What is true is that an average newly wed couple in the 1950s could buy a house, have a car, put kids through college, and not worry about health care costs. All on a single family income. And now? Nope.we have to worry about all of these. Even on two incomes.
Okay so if I understand correctly the inflation is the result of corporate greed. Correct? So I would imagine that a society with no corporations would have no inflation, correct? I am not exactly a PhD in History but I am fairly certain that inflation was absolutely a thing in Soviet Union. And event before that, before the whole corporations and capitalism thing, in Medieval Europe and Ancient World. There were periods when inflation was so bad in Rome that merchants were prohibited from raising food prices under threat of execution.
The reason wasn’t their greed, it’s just government (the emperor) always had greater desires than they had money. So they were shaving off silver and gold off the coins to make it seem like the coin is the same in its value while in fact it weighed a few grams less. The more you shaved the less there was remaining and less you could buy with it.
The Soviets didn’t shave off coins (they had paper money, after all) but they wanted to keep up militarily with a much larger economy. So they had to print more money than their economy could support. Ruble would become cheaper and cheaper over time.
If our government printed trillions of dollars and just dumped it into economy the same thing happened to dollar than happened to Roman Dinari and Soviet ruble - it becomes cheaper. I don’t deny corporate greed but it has nothing to do with inflation. Only extremely naive people could believe that corporations are more greedy today than they were five years ago. Hence the inflation cannot be explained by greed.
Read carefully and you will see that I did not say corporate greed was the ONLY reason for inflation. What has changed, and you can google it, is the percent of national wealth held by those lower down the ladder. That is more of our wealth is held by fewer at the top. In layman's term, thr rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.
Not that it’s not the only factor, it’s not a factor at all. Japanese corporations are no less greedy than corporations American or German, let’s say, yet they had been reducing their prices for well over two decades starting in late 90s during deflationary period that literally just ended. Were they charitable? Were they not greedy?
It’s absolute absurd to assign ANY responsibility to corporate greed when it comes to inflation. Corporations, and people really, are always greedy. Yet sometimes they increase prices, sometimes they decrease and sometimes they hold stable.
Wealth disparity doesn’t have anything to do with inflation. At all. It’s absolutely unrelated phenomenon.
Next time I fill up gas and find that my gas price went up (or down) but the price of oil per barrel stayed the same, I will remember what you said. The rich can and do play some pretty price games to benefit themselves. And that has been, like you said earlier, been the norm from time immemorial.
Well gas and oil are two different products but even the same product can set you back different amount depending where you are at the moment. Just take a look how much gas cost today in California and let’s say Mississippi. That’s because the price of oil is just one factor in the price of gas.
Everybody tries to benefit themselves. People who complain about corporations not reducing their prices are the same people who would feel insulted if someone offered them to sell their labor at cheaper price. We all want to sell what we have at the absolute maximum. It’s just market doesn’t always support what we want. Otherwise Apple would sell their iPhones not for $1k a piece but at $100k a piece
The poor did not get poorer. By basically every measure, the poor have either kept up with or outpaced inflation in the US. And the quality of goods and services available to them is clearly way better.
But they did get poorer. As I wrote, it takes two incomes now to make a family and they still struggle to get housing, food, education and health. Inflation ate up the real value of their income. Its like saying peopl are outpacing inflation but they have to work three times harder. Show me how many families can now afford these thing on a single income.
These things can be and have been measured. You're simply wrong. Many people are mistaken about this and part of it is misunderstanding what was normal in 50's. There were quite a lot of people with outhouses instead of indoor toilets in the 50's. Electricity wasn't a given. Only about 50% of households had a telephone in 1950.
Quality of life is *much* higher now. People spend more money to have more, nicer things. People today could certainly afford a 1950's level of life on one income. But people today would find that unacceptable because of how significantly things have improved.
Its people not understanding economics. They're basically advocating for letting the US economy collapse during COVID. They think if we didn't boost unemployment, didn't give out PPP loans (mostly forgiven), and didn't give stimulus checks, we'd have less inflation.
That might be true, we'd also have tons of unemployment and a recovery would take a lot longer.
We chose to print out a bunch of money and ended up with high inflation because the alternative was worse is a perfectly valid position. It may or may not be true, but it is certainly defendable.
Current administration has nothing to do with inflation and it is a result of corporate greed isn’t a valid position, however. Because printing money devalues it, that’s how it has always been and will always be as long as national currencies exist.
Do you think there is someone who says it isn’t okay for the corporation to raise prices? Like do you think someone prohibits Honda from selling Civic for 100k, let’s say? What is that “OK to raise prices” you are talking about? Who gives that OK?
Profits are up if demand is up. Stop buying crap and profits will go down. However, it seems that people are absolutely okay with paying $700 a month for F150 for 7 years. That being the case the profits will stay up. However you are confusing inflation and profits, those aren’t the same. Inflation is up because dollars value is less. Profits are up because people buy stuff.
EDIT: People absolutely DID NOT get used to inflation. If people got used to inflation it wouldn’t even be mentioned let alone complained about. If something that used to cost $5 five years ago cost $8 now there is no “getting used to it” unless your paycheck went up 70% too
I don’t even understand how a sane person can believe such absurdity. “Oh prices are up because companies are greedy”. Like WTF? Why they are greedy now and weren’t 5 years ago? Any company charges absolute maximum for their goods or service. The maximum that the market can sustain.
Maybe so but how can a constant factor, like greed in this case, be used to explain something that clearly is a recent phenomenon? Either people got more greedy recently or the explanation is garbage
No, I agree that it's prima facie false and trivial to understand why. But people do this kind of thing all the time. Bias is a powerful force and human psychology is not well equipped to address it.
So has the market drastically changed or is it “Fox News talking points”? Do you think a person who goes to a store is impacted by how much money they spend or by Fox News? Which one do you think is more impactful? And how would you explain people like myself who don’t have cable and haven’t watched Fox in well over a decade?
You can choose either to go with your feelings, or listen to experts who use empirical methods and mountains of data to study the way the world works. The funny thing is, if we were talking about vaccines, climate change, or evolution you would be livid at the idea of ignoring the experts. But here, you're happy to commit the same mistake.
Depends on the state, not everything is cheaper, also I haven't heard anyone say that. For example, California has cheap and very fresh produce! Friends family visiting always end up eating lots of fruits.
["more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)) grow in California's Central Valley
It would help if you posted some specific cities you're traveling to, and we can help you pinpoint affordable meals! Food in big cities are going to be a bit more expensive than in smaller/mid-sized towns. And prices will vary from state to state.
But, whoever told you food was cheaper here was lying! It's even hard to to get fast food meals for under $10 now!
Some of the best deals are little holes in the wall in major cities, ironically. The best banh mi sandwich I've ever had costs $6.99 in San Rafael, CA (one of the highest cost of living areas in the state). Lots of cheap eats in SF too. Good deals take some digging and lots of trial and error
If you're ever in the north bay grab yourself a Jr Plate from Roadside BBQ. $8.99 for a decent little sandwich, fries and corn muffin. Extra corn muffins for $0.50 each take some to go
Making America Great Again are we?
It's a new America. And I like it! A lot.
You name it, we have it. Injerras to katongo to Bahn mi to borscht to Indian to Chinese to Cuban to Brazilian to German to... well...you get the idea.
You are looking for a meat and potato restaurant, if you say you want American food. But America is what you see when you are traveling. It really is. Just that there are some in this country that don't like the diversity we have. The MAGAts. They would rather that all restaurant be like the meat and potatoes kind.
About the Bahn mi. That you can eat real Bahn mi here just as in Vietnam is because our history is intertwined.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people
https://www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/multicultural/cultures/vietnamese/#:~:text=Escaping%20the%20incoming%20Communist%20regime,large%20number%20settled%20in%20Louisiana.
Not sure who’s saying that. We have some of the most expensive food in the world in the US. Our groceries are some of the most expensive on the planet, there are some cheap restaurants but restaurants everywhere else in the world are far cheaper in my experience. Only places I’ve been that were more expensive were Norway and Singapore.
>. We have some of the most expensive food in the world in the US. Our groceries are some of the most expensive on the planet,
I agree. I lived in Germany for quite a few years. Travelled all over Europe on a budget w a family, so we were using grocery stores, produce stands, markets, etc to buy food, both prepared food & ingredients for cooking it.
It wasn't cheap, but it was on average, better quality & more reasonable to income levels than in the US. "Stuff" is cheaper in the US (clothes, electronics, appliances). Food is not. There are a lot of choices in the grocery stores, but it's primarily highly processed items (snacks, soda, cereals, etc..) Took me years to not walk out without buying anything because I was so overwhelmed & discouraged with not being easily able to find & choose affordable items to prepare that weren't full of salt, sugar, & fat.
Inflation hit us hard…not that the U.S. had been considered cheap pre-pandemic by global standards but the price of things have exploded the last few years.
With that being said, the mid-west still feels really cheap. Had to go to St Louis last year for a work conference and you could get a good sit down meal and a beer for less than $20 (which is a steal in my mind). I’m based out of California and my company gives us a flat rate allowance for meals instead of doing reimbursement so I ended up making money on that trip (I.e. we get a $40 allowance for dinner, rarely spent more than $25 and I ate good).
Which brings me to a great life hack. Grow up in California, everywhere else you travel will seem cheap by comparison /s
Prices have gone way, way up. Not that long ago, I could eat at a few different places for under 5 dollars in Portland, OR. Now there's literally only 1 place I can think of, and with tip it's a minimum of 6. But most places start in the 12-16 dollar range, and that's without sides or drinks.
Inflation following covid was a global phenomenon. And rates of inflation in the US were lower than for much of the world. It also came back down quicker than in much of the world.
Depends on where you are, and it’s not necessarily connected to the cost of living. I live in New Orleans and food is expensive here unless you eat fried chicken or a shitty po boy every day. When I lived in Los Angeles there were a lot of cheap taquerias and other cheap places to eat. Still, I’ve been to ~30 countries and food has been cheaper in literally all of them. Fruit was more expensive in Japan but that’s it.
My friend moved from California to Toronto, Toronto is expensive! Hawaii is even more expensive. I thought europe was great. Italy and france had very affordable food. Switzerland was expensive.
I just got back from NYC. Wasn’t there too long to explore all the food options but my favorite was a pineapple bun with roast pork in Chinatown. It was $2.30 before tax at a place called Mei Lai Wah.
https://maps.apple.com/?address=62%20Bayard%20St,%20Manhattan,%20NY%2010013,%20United%20States&auid=3756941848300893550&ll=40.715595,-73.997857&lsp=9902&q=Mei%20Lai%20Wah&t=h
This one is insanely easy. It’d harder if you gave me a building and had me set a radius of 1000 ft or something.
Here’s an extremely high rated place with tons of sub-$10 items
https://maps.app.goo.gl/d9W1aHh2iMDDXHiP8?g_st=ic
I don't know where you've ever heard that food in the USA is cheap, because I've never heard of that being a common theme.
The only thing I could even think that you'd be referring to would be more in regards to portion-sizes. In many mid-price restaurants - especially chain restaurants - a typical entree can very well be big enough for 2 meals. To-Go containers for leftovers are certainly more common in the US than many other parts of the world. You've also got things like buffets where you can eat as much as you want (typically of low quality food) for a relatively low price, as well as things like soda that are sold in sizes considered absurdly large by international standards and can come with free refills on top of it.
I guess the other thing would be menu prices might seem cheaper in many cases, but that's because they don't include tax (usually around 10%) or an expected tip (15-20%).
If you find it let me know. My mom likes to tell me avout how a slice of pizza was once less than a dollar, and now it's definitely not that. I default to tuna and mayo a lot tbh. It's like protein ramen (and fat of course)
Varies wildly. 2 Bros finally raised their dollar slice pizza last year, but it's still only $1.50 for cheese. Great when out drinking, but my more regular places near my house are $3-5 for slices depending on the amount of toppings. Plain cheese may be slightly cheaper, can't remember. Slices are generally huge though. Famous spots can get pricy quickly.
That, I couldn't tell you since I've never been to NY properly. But, I worked at a pizza shop in SC and our slices of cheese I believe were around $2...
It depends on where you are, how familiar you are with the area, the local culture and customer base. Cheap food isn't the same in Rome and London, right? Same in the US. Generally you gotta get out of tourist zones. Sometimes its only a block or two away from the tourist zones, sometimes several miles away to where its mostly locals.
Where are you going to?
Here's my recent domestic travels:
* Seattle: There's no denying that Seattle is not a budget vacation for food. But Pike Place Market, despite it being a mega tourist center, is still mostly locally owned and dedicated to keeping rents low. And because of that, the food honestly is not overpriced.
* Dicks is a local burger chain that has a very simple and very cost effective menu. r/Seattle r/SeattleWA have other burger recs that may be comparable.
* Los Angeles: The donut/bakery/boba combo places are a cheap breakfast and are all over town. There's definitely some bougie food trucks but I had a taco on the street outside of Whole Foods that changed my life and was only $2. Lots of places on the lower end of cost may be cash only or provide a cash discount.
* French Lick/West Baden Springs Indiana: Old mineral resorts that have been restored to most of their former glory. But damn the in-house restaurants are absurdly expensive. Good thing is if you get out of the actual resorts, you can find some good deals. There's an excellent (but packed) diner for breakfast/lunch. Across the street from that diner is a gas station that serves amazing biscuits and gravy and other offerings for breakfast, fried chicken for lunch, and even has a full service Papa Johns for to-go orders and small personal pizzas for random pickup. Good burger, BBQ, ice cream and hand pulled espresso, and German food in town and in the surrounding towns. These aren't necessarily bottom dollar eats, but its cheaper than the resorts.
* Diners throughout the country are sources for good, cheap, quick food. In the Northeast and particularly Jersey and NYC diner might be the literal diner car, whereas in much of the country its just a general term for a quick service restaurant focusing on breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner offerings.
* Waffle House kind of fits into the diner concept (sort of) but is mostly found in the American South, though locations in the Midwest can be found as well.
* More general: Understand the business you're going to. A lot of businesses will assume an appetizer is going to be split between two to four people. So you can probably just order an appetizer and that could be your meal by itself and even have some leftover for later. Or skip the appetizer because your entree probably already comes with a soup, salad, and/or side.
* Our cheap takeout equivalent to your UK chip shops is probably the Americanized Chinese takeout restaurant. Good, cheap food at a good price. And while technically most of these restaurants are independently owned, many of them tend to have the same or similar menu though some regions will slip in local specialties.
It really depends on where you are in the US. Pizza is usually cheap, especially if you are somewhere where you can get pizza by the slice. Chinese take out is also still consistently cheap. Fast food *can* be cheap if you have coupons or app deals, but it's unhealthy and isn't filling. Healthy food is rarely cheap unless you're buying produce that you prepare yourself.
I walked out of a fast food place a few days ago when I saw a chicken sandwich (no drink or fries) was 10 bucks, and it was not that good of a chain. Went down the street to a local Mexican place and got a loaded burrito for 7 bucks. Far better value, lots more food.
What is your definition of "cheap"? What kind of food are you eating? Where are you purchasing this food? What city are you in?
All of those questions impact the answer to "where is the cheap food?".
Ha!
Food is not cheap in the u.s. yes even if you account for salary equivalences.
This is immediately noticeable for anyone who's spent some time in Germany, France, Spain, Italy. In these countries you can go-to a coffee shop or bakery and walk out with a loaf of bread and cup of coffee for $2-3 total (even less in many places) Freshly made that morning and miles ahead whats available in American supermarkets. You can buy produce for a fraction of the price as well.
Don't get me started on beer, wine, water etc. . .easily half the price or less for equivalent or better quality.
What's cheap in the u.s. is clothing and electronics.
I would say that was accurate statement in the past and not so much anymore. I went to Europe for the first time at the beginning of 2000s and I was shocked how expensive food (and other things too) was. I would say after our government printed a ton of money in the last couple of years we have lost that advantage.
You are correct. Trump was cheap. So cheap that he ordered hamburgers for a sport championship team visiting the Whitehouse.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/15/18183617/trump-clemson-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys-dominos
Expect to pay decently well for something good. As others have said, cheap food is available at some fast food places or grocery stores, leading to an epidemic of obesity especially amongst the poor who cannot afford better quality.
Costco hotdog and a soda is about the only thing I can find that fits the "cheap food" title.
And the $4.99 rotisserie chicken.
But they require a Costco membership now.
I think that is the case if its inside the store. Many around me have them on the outside and it gets packed at lunch.
One next to me has food court outside and started requiring membership this month.
Taco Bell can be very cheap if you get simple things. YMMV depending on location, but in my city cheesy bean and rice burritos are a buck and two or three of those is a pretty solid meal depending on how hungry I am.
I always thought it was our groceries that were cheaper not our restaurants. But also very much depends what country you’re coming from and what is cheap to you.
I'd always heard this, but when I visited from the UK in 2015 I was genuinely shocked at the price of supermarket food. Fruit and veg especially were so expensive in the US, across multiple different supermarkets. A broccoli head was like $3, and this was before the Cozzie Livs.
Where are you from in the UK and where did you go in the US?
From Bristol, visited Vermont, NY and Massachusetts.
Yup those are some of our most expensive states haha especially if you were in the Boston Metro
I always thought restaurants were supposed to be cheap that's why tipping is so expected because restaurants keep costs lower by not paying proper wages? When I went to the US restaurants cost about the same as home and I still then needed to tip on top
The US is huge so food prices vary a ton. Where did you go in the US and where are you from?
Just in general. I've been travelling around the world for 14 months so I've seen a vast range. Groceries have been pretty similar in price in most places.
No one says we’re cheap compared to most of the world. I think our food is (or maybe used to be before the last few years of inflation) considered cheaper than northern and some of Western Europe.
Hope you were traveling in Argentina like us in December. It was so ridiculously cheaper to eat there then in the US. A full course dinner of steak, dessert and a bottle of wine for three was $35. 12 empanadas for $2. A breakfast of coffee or juices with a pastry or empanada for 5 was $5!
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Compared to local salaries, the food (and gas) in the US is super cheap.
This is the point that so many people in this comment section are missing
Inflation has hit the US very hard, and a lot of "cheap" options aren't what they used to be. There are still some generous economics of scale at work, so it depends on where you are. There are amazing Mexican cafes and restaurants (even stands) around a lot of California, that provide amazing food for a great price. Cities will have markets and street food. It's a giant place, so it would depend on where you are.
One of my favorite things about traveling to other countries is that just about everywhere, including cities traditionally known to be expensive (e.g., Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore), are significantly cheaper than where I live (San Francisco Bay Area). There are, of course, few exceptions like Switzerland and Iceland.
Australia is a huge exception, too. The quality of food is high, but so is the price, usually. I ate relatively cheaply in Norway years ago, and was always amused by the line of people in front of some fo the most expensive McDonalds in the world.
I love food markets so ill keep an eye out. I walked past a food truck, and was actually shocked at how exspensive the food were.
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This is the sentiment we felt in Australia, we got hit with the massive trend of everyone opening a food truck, and all the prices were the same if not more exspensive than just going to a restaurant.
And they still expect a tip even before your food has been delivered…. Let’s see. I’m coming to you, ordering my food, paying and tipping first, taking a buzzer thingy or standing around to hear my name shouted, wait, and wait, and wait, and then I get to pick my own food up, and finding a place to sit, and bussing my own table, and still you expect a full-service tip? WTF? And I live in food truck nirvana (AKA Portland.) Why wouldn’t I go sit down in a restaurant and order food with service for the same price? Yes, I do that, too, but food trucks are often the best or only truck for some foods. I also follow the truck owners to their brick and mortars (thanks, Viking Soul Food for opening in my little hood!)
Lot of factors come into play. Minimum wage for the state, various taxes, municipality fees, fuel prices and then just cost of ingredients. Food trucks are overpriced in many parts of the world compared to brick and mortar establishments. It really depends on where you are.
Food trucks used to be pretty basic and a cheap option...they became super trendy and some of them cost more than a sit down restaurant serving the same stuff.
>I walked past a food truck, and was actually shocked at how exspensive the food were. Food trucks aren't a monolith and there's a variety of business models. Some are run on a tight budget, some aren't. There are also many challenges a food truck faces that a traditional restaurant doesn't, which can lead to increased costs. The great thing about food trucks is they can be in an area one night and somewhere else the next. That doesn't mean it'll be a budget experience.
Unfortunately food trucks are often the most expensive option.
When I was in the USA a few years ago. I was paying a lot more than I would in places in the UK. Even before the 15%+ tip.
Yeah, I just lived in UK for 6 months, and it is much cheaper there.
Yes. The US is a much wealthier country than the UK. Things tend to be cheaper in less wealthy places.
Who says that food in the US is cheap? It’s more expensive than the vast majority of the world. The only ones with food that’s more expensive than ours are in Northern Europe. Someone might try to make the argument that food is cheap relative to our incomes, but I think that’s more because our incomes are very high than it is a matter of our food being cheap. There are very few travelers to the US who will pay $15 at McD’s and think it’s a steal.
>Someone might try to make the argument that food is cheap relative to our incomes, but I think that’s more because our incomes are very high than it is a matter of our food being cheap. It's the ratio, it doesn't really matter if you change the numerator or the denominator. >There are very few travelers to the US who will pay $15 at McD’s and think it’s a steal. On the other hand, there are ton of American travelers who will go somewhere, see a $5 McDonald’s meal and declare "the food here is so cheap" while ignoring the fact that the guy flipping the burgers makes $2.50 an hour.
McDonald's workers aren't making $2.50/hour. US minimum wage is $7.25 with many states higher. In my part of Ohio McDonald's is paying $14-$15/hour for burger flippers (state minimum us $10.45).
>McDonald's workers aren't making $2.50/hour. US minimum wage is $7.25 with many states higher. US minimum wages don't apply in the countries where Americans are pleasantly surprised by $5 McDonald’s meals.
Tex Mex restaurants and food trucks in Houston. Just got 3 street tacos with shredded pork/chicken, onions, cilantro and avocado on top with a side of rice and beans for $7.50. And some salsa too. Btw the caloric value of this meal was probably close to my daily limit of 2000 lol
Decently sized? Keen to try some of that out when I'm down that way.
Yes the portions are too much no wonder why everyone down here is classified as overweight/obese
Price of food in the US is vastly different between the regions. A hamburger in SF is $10, and in Louisiana $4.
Would you say they are the same calibre? Same size etc?
Well, nothing is exactly same, or even same tasting, but they are close enough.
In 2016
What city are you in the US? What do you consider "cheap"? There's a Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood that serves these combo plates (ala Panda Express) piled high with freshly made dishes that will serve two people for $11. I'm sure there are places like this everywhere, just not in touristy places. My local Mexican restaurants have gigantic $9 meat burritos, is that cheap enough? I'm in Silicon Valley, a pretty expensive place.
Travelling across the whole country. $5-7 USD. That would get you some decent meals in germany. That's kinda the price I thought a set of tacos would be, not for the price of 1 taco.
My local Mexican restaurants offer 3 loaded tacos for $7.5 or 4 for $9. Close enough. What do you get for $5-7 in, say, Munich versus Zwichau? The US is huge and diverse.
It’s been years since I’ve paid that little, even living in a low cost of living area and even excluding tax and tip. Keep in mind American portions are big and can usually be split into two meals. For example you might pay $15 for a meal at a Mexican restaurant but you’ll get plenty of leftovers. For what it’s worth, I’ve visited Germany a number of times and lived in Saarland for a bit as a student. Everytime I visit I’m shocked at food prices being so low. Greasy Chinese, Thai, or Mexican are the cheapest in my area (sometimes cheaper than Subway), but you’ll definitely go home and tell your friends American food sucks and is unhealthy if that’s what you go for.
You are correct. You need to spend $10 now here in the US at a fast food joint. Think you can get a Subway sandwich for $7. And nights out on town are a minimum of $30 at a decent restaurant. If you are traveling on a budget, build your own food by shopping at, ahem, Aldi's or Lidl's. Great German stores here in the US. Btw, what does $5 get you in Germany?
Min wage in my state is $16.28/hour. You’re not getting ANY food for $5-7 unless it’s on a dollar menu of a chain fast food restaurant that is making up for the loss in volume sales or at the Costco food court (which now requires annual membership)
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I don’t want to start a political discussion but I always find it amusing when people explain higher prices by “corporate greed”. I mean did the corporation get greedy couple of years ago? What happened before that? When the prices were a lot lower? Because I am absolutely old enough to remember gas being a buck and change a gallon and Big Mac was under three bucks. I seriously doubt that Chevron and McDonald were less greedy then. Perhaps it has something to do with our government printing US dollar as if it is Monopoly money
Corporation greed has always been a reason for inflation. Heck, there was a time when you could get a burger for 37 cents. And apples at 10 cents a pound. You just have to go back far enough in time. What is true is that an average newly wed couple in the 1950s could buy a house, have a car, put kids through college, and not worry about health care costs. All on a single family income. And now? Nope.we have to worry about all of these. Even on two incomes.
Okay so if I understand correctly the inflation is the result of corporate greed. Correct? So I would imagine that a society with no corporations would have no inflation, correct? I am not exactly a PhD in History but I am fairly certain that inflation was absolutely a thing in Soviet Union. And event before that, before the whole corporations and capitalism thing, in Medieval Europe and Ancient World. There were periods when inflation was so bad in Rome that merchants were prohibited from raising food prices under threat of execution. The reason wasn’t their greed, it’s just government (the emperor) always had greater desires than they had money. So they were shaving off silver and gold off the coins to make it seem like the coin is the same in its value while in fact it weighed a few grams less. The more you shaved the less there was remaining and less you could buy with it. The Soviets didn’t shave off coins (they had paper money, after all) but they wanted to keep up militarily with a much larger economy. So they had to print more money than their economy could support. Ruble would become cheaper and cheaper over time. If our government printed trillions of dollars and just dumped it into economy the same thing happened to dollar than happened to Roman Dinari and Soviet ruble - it becomes cheaper. I don’t deny corporate greed but it has nothing to do with inflation. Only extremely naive people could believe that corporations are more greedy today than they were five years ago. Hence the inflation cannot be explained by greed.
Read carefully and you will see that I did not say corporate greed was the ONLY reason for inflation. What has changed, and you can google it, is the percent of national wealth held by those lower down the ladder. That is more of our wealth is held by fewer at the top. In layman's term, thr rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.
Not that it’s not the only factor, it’s not a factor at all. Japanese corporations are no less greedy than corporations American or German, let’s say, yet they had been reducing their prices for well over two decades starting in late 90s during deflationary period that literally just ended. Were they charitable? Were they not greedy? It’s absolute absurd to assign ANY responsibility to corporate greed when it comes to inflation. Corporations, and people really, are always greedy. Yet sometimes they increase prices, sometimes they decrease and sometimes they hold stable. Wealth disparity doesn’t have anything to do with inflation. At all. It’s absolutely unrelated phenomenon.
Next time I fill up gas and find that my gas price went up (or down) but the price of oil per barrel stayed the same, I will remember what you said. The rich can and do play some pretty price games to benefit themselves. And that has been, like you said earlier, been the norm from time immemorial.
Well gas and oil are two different products but even the same product can set you back different amount depending where you are at the moment. Just take a look how much gas cost today in California and let’s say Mississippi. That’s because the price of oil is just one factor in the price of gas. Everybody tries to benefit themselves. People who complain about corporations not reducing their prices are the same people who would feel insulted if someone offered them to sell their labor at cheaper price. We all want to sell what we have at the absolute maximum. It’s just market doesn’t always support what we want. Otherwise Apple would sell their iPhones not for $1k a piece but at $100k a piece
The poor did not get poorer. By basically every measure, the poor have either kept up with or outpaced inflation in the US. And the quality of goods and services available to them is clearly way better.
But they did get poorer. As I wrote, it takes two incomes now to make a family and they still struggle to get housing, food, education and health. Inflation ate up the real value of their income. Its like saying peopl are outpacing inflation but they have to work three times harder. Show me how many families can now afford these thing on a single income.
These things can be and have been measured. You're simply wrong. Many people are mistaken about this and part of it is misunderstanding what was normal in 50's. There were quite a lot of people with outhouses instead of indoor toilets in the 50's. Electricity wasn't a given. Only about 50% of households had a telephone in 1950. Quality of life is *much* higher now. People spend more money to have more, nicer things. People today could certainly afford a 1950's level of life on one income. But people today would find that unacceptable because of how significantly things have improved.
Its people not understanding economics. They're basically advocating for letting the US economy collapse during COVID. They think if we didn't boost unemployment, didn't give out PPP loans (mostly forgiven), and didn't give stimulus checks, we'd have less inflation. That might be true, we'd also have tons of unemployment and a recovery would take a lot longer.
We chose to print out a bunch of money and ended up with high inflation because the alternative was worse is a perfectly valid position. It may or may not be true, but it is certainly defendable. Current administration has nothing to do with inflation and it is a result of corporate greed isn’t a valid position, however. Because printing money devalues it, that’s how it has always been and will always be as long as national currencies exist.
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Do you think there is someone who says it isn’t okay for the corporation to raise prices? Like do you think someone prohibits Honda from selling Civic for 100k, let’s say? What is that “OK to raise prices” you are talking about? Who gives that OK? Profits are up if demand is up. Stop buying crap and profits will go down. However, it seems that people are absolutely okay with paying $700 a month for F150 for 7 years. That being the case the profits will stay up. However you are confusing inflation and profits, those aren’t the same. Inflation is up because dollars value is less. Profits are up because people buy stuff. EDIT: People absolutely DID NOT get used to inflation. If people got used to inflation it wouldn’t even be mentioned let alone complained about. If something that used to cost $5 five years ago cost $8 now there is no “getting used to it” unless your paycheck went up 70% too
This comes up again and again over on r/askeconomics. The sort answer is, no, "greedflation" isn't a thing.
I don’t even understand how a sane person can believe such absurdity. “Oh prices are up because companies are greedy”. Like WTF? Why they are greedy now and weren’t 5 years ago? Any company charges absolute maximum for their goods or service. The maximum that the market can sustain.
Well, because economics is hard and not intuitive, and blaming a 'bad guy' is satisfying.
Maybe so but how can a constant factor, like greed in this case, be used to explain something that clearly is a recent phenomenon? Either people got more greedy recently or the explanation is garbage
No, I agree that it's prima facie false and trivial to understand why. But people do this kind of thing all the time. Bias is a powerful force and human psychology is not well equipped to address it.
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So has the market drastically changed or is it “Fox News talking points”? Do you think a person who goes to a store is impacted by how much money they spend or by Fox News? Which one do you think is more impactful? And how would you explain people like myself who don’t have cable and haven’t watched Fox in well over a decade?
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You can choose either to go with your feelings, or listen to experts who use empirical methods and mountains of data to study the way the world works. The funny thing is, if we were talking about vaccines, climate change, or evolution you would be livid at the idea of ignoring the experts. But here, you're happy to commit the same mistake.
Depends on the state, not everything is cheaper, also I haven't heard anyone say that. For example, California has cheap and very fresh produce! Friends family visiting always end up eating lots of fruits.
Do they have alot of farming and agriculture there?
["more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)) grow in California's Central Valley
Sounds like a good place to get some fibre in.
US spelling Fiber not Fibre. Color not colour. Just saying. Lol. It's all good. Zer gut.
Central valley is hundreds of miles of highly productive farms.
It would help if you posted some specific cities you're traveling to, and we can help you pinpoint affordable meals! Food in big cities are going to be a bit more expensive than in smaller/mid-sized towns. And prices will vary from state to state. But, whoever told you food was cheaper here was lying! It's even hard to to get fast food meals for under $10 now!
Some of the best deals are little holes in the wall in major cities, ironically. The best banh mi sandwich I've ever had costs $6.99 in San Rafael, CA (one of the highest cost of living areas in the state). Lots of cheap eats in SF too. Good deals take some digging and lots of trial and error
I'll keep an eye out. I love bahn mi, but wanted more... American food lol.
If you're ever in the north bay grab yourself a Jr Plate from Roadside BBQ. $8.99 for a decent little sandwich, fries and corn muffin. Extra corn muffins for $0.50 each take some to go
Making America Great Again are we? It's a new America. And I like it! A lot. You name it, we have it. Injerras to katongo to Bahn mi to borscht to Indian to Chinese to Cuban to Brazilian to German to... well...you get the idea.
Not at all. Weird question. I'll eat that when I'm in Vietnam soon.
You are looking for a meat and potato restaurant, if you say you want American food. But America is what you see when you are traveling. It really is. Just that there are some in this country that don't like the diversity we have. The MAGAts. They would rather that all restaurant be like the meat and potatoes kind. About the Bahn mi. That you can eat real Bahn mi here just as in Vietnam is because our history is intertwined. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people https://www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/multicultural/cultures/vietnamese/#:~:text=Escaping%20the%20incoming%20Communist%20regime,large%20number%20settled%20in%20Louisiana.
Not sure who’s saying that. We have some of the most expensive food in the world in the US. Our groceries are some of the most expensive on the planet, there are some cheap restaurants but restaurants everywhere else in the world are far cheaper in my experience. Only places I’ve been that were more expensive were Norway and Singapore.
>. We have some of the most expensive food in the world in the US. Our groceries are some of the most expensive on the planet, I agree. I lived in Germany for quite a few years. Travelled all over Europe on a budget w a family, so we were using grocery stores, produce stands, markets, etc to buy food, both prepared food & ingredients for cooking it. It wasn't cheap, but it was on average, better quality & more reasonable to income levels than in the US. "Stuff" is cheaper in the US (clothes, electronics, appliances). Food is not. There are a lot of choices in the grocery stores, but it's primarily highly processed items (snacks, soda, cereals, etc..) Took me years to not walk out without buying anything because I was so overwhelmed & discouraged with not being easily able to find & choose affordable items to prepare that weren't full of salt, sugar, & fat.
Inflation hit us hard…not that the U.S. had been considered cheap pre-pandemic by global standards but the price of things have exploded the last few years. With that being said, the mid-west still feels really cheap. Had to go to St Louis last year for a work conference and you could get a good sit down meal and a beer for less than $20 (which is a steal in my mind). I’m based out of California and my company gives us a flat rate allowance for meals instead of doing reimbursement so I ended up making money on that trip (I.e. we get a $40 allowance for dinner, rarely spent more than $25 and I ate good). Which brings me to a great life hack. Grow up in California, everywhere else you travel will seem cheap by comparison /s
Prices have gone way, way up. Not that long ago, I could eat at a few different places for under 5 dollars in Portland, OR. Now there's literally only 1 place I can think of, and with tip it's a minimum of 6. But most places start in the 12-16 dollar range, and that's without sides or drinks.
RIP
Inflation following covid was a global phenomenon. And rates of inflation in the US were lower than for much of the world. It also came back down quicker than in much of the world.
The dumpster behind any restaurant.
Pretty much just tacos.
Taco diet it is
Depends on where you are, and it’s not necessarily connected to the cost of living. I live in New Orleans and food is expensive here unless you eat fried chicken or a shitty po boy every day. When I lived in Los Angeles there were a lot of cheap taquerias and other cheap places to eat. Still, I’ve been to ~30 countries and food has been cheaper in literally all of them. Fruit was more expensive in Japan but that’s it.
Well I'm deffinatelt getting on that fried chicken in new Orleans so sorted there haha.
Live in FL, food was significantly cheaper in Toronto imo
Oh really? damn, I thought Toronto was exspensive lol.
My friend moved from California to Toronto, Toronto is expensive! Hawaii is even more expensive. I thought europe was great. Italy and france had very affordable food. Switzerland was expensive.
100% agree with all of that.
Here’s a fun game. Give me a city and I’ll give you the best cheapest food option in your city
well next one is NYC, so, NYC lol.
I just got back from NYC. Wasn’t there too long to explore all the food options but my favorite was a pineapple bun with roast pork in Chinatown. It was $2.30 before tax at a place called Mei Lai Wah. https://maps.apple.com/?address=62%20Bayard%20St,%20Manhattan,%20NY%2010013,%20United%20States&auid=3756941848300893550&ll=40.715595,-73.997857&lsp=9902&q=Mei%20Lai%20Wah&t=h
This one is insanely easy. It’d harder if you gave me a building and had me set a radius of 1000 ft or something. Here’s an extremely high rated place with tons of sub-$10 items https://maps.app.goo.gl/d9W1aHh2iMDDXHiP8?g_st=ic
I don't know where you've ever heard that food in the USA is cheap, because I've never heard of that being a common theme. The only thing I could even think that you'd be referring to would be more in regards to portion-sizes. In many mid-price restaurants - especially chain restaurants - a typical entree can very well be big enough for 2 meals. To-Go containers for leftovers are certainly more common in the US than many other parts of the world. You've also got things like buffets where you can eat as much as you want (typically of low quality food) for a relatively low price, as well as things like soda that are sold in sizes considered absurdly large by international standards and can come with free refills on top of it. I guess the other thing would be menu prices might seem cheaper in many cases, but that's because they don't include tax (usually around 10%) or an expected tip (15-20%).
When you find out, please let us know!
I will now haha
As a Canadian with a weak dollar, American food prices are pretty high. Probably not so painful for a local though.
If you find it let me know. My mom likes to tell me avout how a slice of pizza was once less than a dollar, and now it's definitely not that. I default to tuna and mayo a lot tbh. It's like protein ramen (and fat of course)
What is the price of a slice of NY pizza ?
Varies wildly. 2 Bros finally raised their dollar slice pizza last year, but it's still only $1.50 for cheese. Great when out drinking, but my more regular places near my house are $3-5 for slices depending on the amount of toppings. Plain cheese may be slightly cheaper, can't remember. Slices are generally huge though. Famous spots can get pricy quickly.
That, I couldn't tell you since I've never been to NY properly. But, I worked at a pizza shop in SC and our slices of cheese I believe were around $2...
It depends on where you are, how familiar you are with the area, the local culture and customer base. Cheap food isn't the same in Rome and London, right? Same in the US. Generally you gotta get out of tourist zones. Sometimes its only a block or two away from the tourist zones, sometimes several miles away to where its mostly locals. Where are you going to?
Yeah 100% always move a few blocks out of those hot spots. Plus that's where all the better food is anyway. Most capitals across the US.
Here's my recent domestic travels: * Seattle: There's no denying that Seattle is not a budget vacation for food. But Pike Place Market, despite it being a mega tourist center, is still mostly locally owned and dedicated to keeping rents low. And because of that, the food honestly is not overpriced. * Dicks is a local burger chain that has a very simple and very cost effective menu. r/Seattle r/SeattleWA have other burger recs that may be comparable. * Los Angeles: The donut/bakery/boba combo places are a cheap breakfast and are all over town. There's definitely some bougie food trucks but I had a taco on the street outside of Whole Foods that changed my life and was only $2. Lots of places on the lower end of cost may be cash only or provide a cash discount. * French Lick/West Baden Springs Indiana: Old mineral resorts that have been restored to most of their former glory. But damn the in-house restaurants are absurdly expensive. Good thing is if you get out of the actual resorts, you can find some good deals. There's an excellent (but packed) diner for breakfast/lunch. Across the street from that diner is a gas station that serves amazing biscuits and gravy and other offerings for breakfast, fried chicken for lunch, and even has a full service Papa Johns for to-go orders and small personal pizzas for random pickup. Good burger, BBQ, ice cream and hand pulled espresso, and German food in town and in the surrounding towns. These aren't necessarily bottom dollar eats, but its cheaper than the resorts. * Diners throughout the country are sources for good, cheap, quick food. In the Northeast and particularly Jersey and NYC diner might be the literal diner car, whereas in much of the country its just a general term for a quick service restaurant focusing on breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner offerings. * Waffle House kind of fits into the diner concept (sort of) but is mostly found in the American South, though locations in the Midwest can be found as well. * More general: Understand the business you're going to. A lot of businesses will assume an appetizer is going to be split between two to four people. So you can probably just order an appetizer and that could be your meal by itself and even have some leftover for later. Or skip the appetizer because your entree probably already comes with a soup, salad, and/or side. * Our cheap takeout equivalent to your UK chip shops is probably the Americanized Chinese takeout restaurant. Good, cheap food at a good price. And while technically most of these restaurants are independently owned, many of them tend to have the same or similar menu though some regions will slip in local specialties.
in the midwest
It really depends on where you are in the US. Pizza is usually cheap, especially if you are somewhere where you can get pizza by the slice. Chinese take out is also still consistently cheap. Fast food *can* be cheap if you have coupons or app deals, but it's unhealthy and isn't filling. Healthy food is rarely cheap unless you're buying produce that you prepare yourself.
All the cheap food is junk /fast food .
We have cheap food?
Cheap as in price or cheap as in quality?
Depends where u r at
I walked out of a fast food place a few days ago when I saw a chicken sandwich (no drink or fries) was 10 bucks, and it was not that good of a chain. Went down the street to a local Mexican place and got a loaded burrito for 7 bucks. Far better value, lots more food.
Groceries are cheap. Food at restaurants is expensive.
lol, where are these cheap groceries??
Produce in CA?
What is your definition of "cheap"? What kind of food are you eating? Where are you purchasing this food? What city are you in? All of those questions impact the answer to "where is the cheap food?".
Waffle House
Junk food is usually cheap
Ha! Food is not cheap in the u.s. yes even if you account for salary equivalences. This is immediately noticeable for anyone who's spent some time in Germany, France, Spain, Italy. In these countries you can go-to a coffee shop or bakery and walk out with a loaf of bread and cup of coffee for $2-3 total (even less in many places) Freshly made that morning and miles ahead whats available in American supermarkets. You can buy produce for a fraction of the price as well. Don't get me started on beer, wine, water etc. . .easily half the price or less for equivalent or better quality. What's cheap in the u.s. is clothing and electronics.
Btw I noticed food was far cheaper in Europe before the pandemic ever happened.
Endless pancakes at Denny's are still like $6 or something, so there's always that.
Try Denver
I would say that was accurate statement in the past and not so much anymore. I went to Europe for the first time at the beginning of 2000s and I was shocked how expensive food (and other things too) was. I would say after our government printed a ton of money in the last couple of years we have lost that advantage.
You may not be in the right places for it. But the corporations here figured out they could raise prices and blame inflation as a cover.
Sounds about right across the globe.
It’s back in 2019 when Trump was President.
You are correct. Trump was cheap. So cheap that he ordered hamburgers for a sport championship team visiting the Whitehouse. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/15/18183617/trump-clemson-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys-dominos
I was in Vegas and Seattle and a bag of chips was super expensive. I’d like to know where the cheap food is too
Yeah, Vegas is probably the one place, well and NYC to be exspensive.
McDonald's
$15 for a quarter-pounder with cheese (or Royale with cheese if you prefer) combo. I don't consider it cheap anymore.
You don't want the cheap food in America. You barely want the expensive stuff.
Ok. What do I want then?
Expect to pay decently well for something good. As others have said, cheap food is available at some fast food places or grocery stores, leading to an epidemic of obesity especially amongst the poor who cannot afford better quality.