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In my industry, there's a saying along the lines of "Good, fast, cheap. Pick two."
I think the fast food industry version is "Good, fast, cheap? No, no. And believe it or not, also no."
I don't eat fast food very often, so this is entirely anecdotal. Of the fast food chains I've eaten at in recent history, Taco Bell is by far the worst. Against my better judgment, I even broke down and gave them a second chance at a different location thinking maybe my first terrible experience was a fluke. Didn't work out. Makes me think it's bad everywhere. Wendy's has held up the best of the places I've eaten. It's definitely not cheap anymore, fast depends on the location as well as other factors, and good is relative, but overall it hasn't gone down hill as bad as the others.
Wendy's is pretty decent, expensive but better if you use their app. I usually still see a code in there somewhere for $2 off or something, and their small frosty's aren't quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
Taco bell I feel like every restaurant is different. One near my house used to be bomb AF, then they had a changeover of all their staff and now it's terrible. Even the drive thru is different now they now have an AI taking your order lmao. Another location down the road is better at the food quality, but they fuck up what is supposed to go with your order half the time so at that one I always have to check the bag in the parking lot before I leave.
The older I get the most I just feel like it isn't worth it as much anymore. If I'm going to have to wait a half hour plus in the drive thru line, pay $15 for a meal now or $20+ if I wanted to get dessert or another side item too, and deal with people and the headaches of it, I'd rather just keep driving home and cook something there in about the same time. Plus I can usually get 3 or 4 meals out of that $20 worth if I make it at home so each leftover is faster to make.
Fast food industry is doing a great job making sure that I stay away as best I can and be inconvenient. The sole exception so far has been Little Ceasars, still $6 for a lunch combo and if you order in the app it's great, get notified when it's ready and I literally just park out front walk in grab my order out of the ready bin and off I go. I don't understand why others haven't pivoted that way as well.
their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
My local Wendy's did a promo where you bought a keychain tag for $3 and can get a Jr Frosty with any purchase until the end of 2025. That certainly helps the Frosty thing, at least.
Politics aside, Chik-Fil-A is consistently one of the better quality fast food places I've been to.
Man I wish the frosty tag thing was a thing at mine. It is but it basically isn't. If you order online and order a physical keychain they won't give you one then try to argue about it when you ask where is my keychain I paid for it. Ask me how I know 😂
They did offer an in-app version too, but then you're stuck choosing between app coupons so you're basically either already using the $2 off a combo like I was or getting the frosty that costs about the same. So in my case it didn't save me any money :/
At least they aren't five freaking bucks like other fast food places are doing with cold treats.
taco bell definitely has one of the widest ranges in quality. one near my house is fucking awful and never gets the substitutions right, but the one 20 minutes away is great
The Tacos Bell near me are pretty decent... You just have to put it in its own, separate genre of food. I don't eat at Taco Bell when I'm in the mood for Mexican food. I eat at Taco Bell when I'm in the mood for Taco Bell.
To me it’s McDonalds, how something using the exact same ingredients and prep can taste so different and have vastly different delivery times in everyone you go to boggles the mind
Which is wild when you realize the original idea behind McDonalds was to apply engineering and mass production ideas to food to maximize speed and consistency, and now a lot of the time they fail at both.
Honestly I don't think I've ate at Mcdonald's in the last six months now that I think about it. The enshittification of their app deals, price hikes, quality going down, the whole disease outbreak thing, just really turned me off of them. I know they had a bad quarter recently I hope they have another bad one 🤣
What is your industry? That saying is awesome.
I've heard it in engineering and software both
Pretty common saying in the business world.
Software development. I certainly didn't coin the phrase, but it's well-known and I agree, pretty fitting even outside of the IT industry.
This sums up my experience as well. It's never been healthy, but at least it used to be cheap and tasty. But nowadays mcdonalds is so expensive I almost consider it a luxury, and the plastic-looking sauces and mystery meat are in no way appetizing (tho that might just be me getting older and changing preferences as opposed to the actual food getting worse)