Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The Post makes a discovery. About 20 years behind the rest of the nation, but yeah, lunch is expensive. How is this possible, since there’s no inflation under the Obama administration? The article doesn’t say.
The correlation between price and the decline in visits is a revelation to the Post but glaringly obvious to me. Prices have shot way up. Three years ago, the Golden Arches offered several value meals for under $5.00. Now there aren’t any, most are in the $7.00 range. A 40% price increase is noticeable to guys like Joe Shlabotnik, whose disposable income has not kept pace. So he packs a lunch from home, which pointy-headed economists call “substitution” but which everybody else calls “the new normal.”
More proof of the utter disconnect between coastal elites and fly-over country hicks. We knew about this years ago; they’re just now figuring it out. So who are the real dummies?
Joe Doakes
Rhetorical question, right, Joe?
Good observations JD.
I’m not exactly living check to check, but a few months ago, I calculated after what I have spent eating lunch out in just one month. I was only buying lunch out about three days per week, but it was still about $75. Consequently, although I have to indulge in a Chick-fil-A and unless I’m attending a Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting, I bring my lunch.
Is $75 a month a lot? Not in the grand scheme of things maybe, but I guess I’d rather spend my money on ammo or range fees. After all, one has to have their priorities straight.
I brown-bag it most days simply because of time constraints and the fact that I cook better than most restaurants so my leftovers taste better than their offerings.
And yes, lunch costs too much. But it’s been that way for many, many years.
Joe has been full of rhetorical questions lately.
OT. Mitch, I am sure your post on recent 2015 crime statistics report is in the queue. I just cannot see you passing up on lobbying for ban on knifes since they are used in disproportionately larger number than guns in homicides.
There’s some real hardcore reporting going on there. And it seems like a shock to them. Another article that is linked from there is on how bar soap sales are down. Apparently 55% of those surveyed find bar soap inconvenient.
I’m wondering who was willing to answer questions for this survey on soap.
“But when it comes to soap, the perception of cleanliness may also be a factor. Nearly half of those surveyed said they believe bar soaps are often covered in germs, a view that was more widely held among younger consumers than older ones. (Sixty percent of 18- to 24-year-old shoppers said they worried about germs on bar soap, compared to 31 percent of those 65 and older.)”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/08/23/the-problem-with-bars-of-soap/?tid=a_inl
How on earth can a person ignore the fact that his lunch is going up in price? Are all these guys on expense accounts and totally ignorant of math and numbers?
Are all these guys on expense accounts and totally ignorant of math and numbers?
Yes, yes and yes! A trifecta.
Throw your hat on the ice for me, JPA! And an octopus! (it used to take eight wins to get Lord Stanley’s cup, so Red Wings fans occasionally throw them on the ice in the playoffs)
….and these guys, who can’t figure out that the Dollar McMenu is disappearing for a reason, claim to be our betters in terms of good economics. Sigh.
Alas, most of those Dead Things wins came against my hapless Leafs, so growing up in T.O. I have unfortunately witnessed my share of cephalopods on the ice.
This is not an either-or situation.
Dine-n-dash. If anyone tries to stop you, give them a few ‘Allahu Akbar”‘s and they will back right off.
This is life in Obama’s America.
Looks like Joe needs to fact check his man of the people act.
http://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/mcdonalds-prices/
You can still get a 2 Cheeseburger Meal for $4.89. In fact most meals are priced at $6.39, closer to the $5.00 than $7.00.
Yes, Rick, but keep in mind that up to a year or so back, you could get a double cheeseburger for a dollar, not just a cheeseburger, and even the “McDouble” today ($1.19 or so?) has a smaller BOM than does the old “Double Cheeseburger.” Chez Mac took a piece of “cheese” out to get it under a dollar for as long as they could.
You can quibble on a couple of specifics, but the central point that it’s very strange that the Post writers haven’t noticed food prices going up still holds.
In fact most meals are priced at $6.39, closer to the $5.00 than $7.00.
Uhhhhh….maybe in your funhouse mirrored world, but in my reality-based world, $7-$6.39=$.61, while $6.39-$5=$1.39
One other thought is that $4.89 plus sales tax exceeds $5, and $6.39 plus tax gets me awfully close to $7. My apologies, Rick; you’re wrong all around.
Bill C. Yep that was stupid of me.