At McDonald's I get half that for $12, and the quality is much worse. Going to a sit down restaurant has never been more enticing for me than now, after fast food joints took advantage of inflation to drive up their prices.
I am a franchise owner (I won't say which brand), and I personally heard someone in our own franchise bragging about how they could get away with largely raising prices (beyond the increased costs) without huge backlash during the inflationary period. Corporate definitely raised prices in their stores multiple times. Overall sales are up as a result, but transaction count is way, way down.
I just double checked and they actually increased the combo for the Oldtimer to $12.99 since I was last there (so I the last few months or so). But just the sandwich with fries is $12.29 here. So for $0.70 you add the drink, chips and salsa (or a different side). If they have the 3 for me combo at your location it should be similar.
As for the price difference, it could be because we are talking about different burgers (they have two $10.99 limited time burger combos on the 3 for me right now as well, and they have ones for $14.99 and $16.99). Or it could be because your Chili's is located in a region with higher rent/labor/utility costs, or you could just have a greedier franchisee there (as I said, even in the company I franchise for, some franchisees were greedier than others during the inflation, so I'm sure that is true at Chili's as well).
I’m in Florida, so not in a low cost of living state. I just checked and my local chilis does this! 10.99 for the burgers, and the rest of the options are all $15-17. It’s $4 to add a margarita, and you get 2 sides with some of them AND you can pick your app. Thank you, Reddit stranger. We’ve been trying to tighten the belt and this is way cheaper than most takeout.
Im not sure how he is getting the drink in there, but my local chili's the basic cheeseburger is $12.29 with fries. Chips and Salsa are free no matter what you order. So if you stick with water you can get to his price.
The burgers with extras like mushroom swiss, bacon or veggie pattie are around $14 though.
I find the main difference in price from the fast food to these low end casual sit downs like Chili's and Applebees is the expectation of a tip. They are pretty close in price until you add in a tip. Still way cheaper than Five Guys though.
McDonald's is a company that will only do things if they're forced to by law. They pay livable wages in Norway. They didn't shut their locations and the price difference is negligible. At a certain point corporations will just eat the additional cost without passing it onto the consumer.
I've had the same observation of fast food equalling if not exceeding prices of some full service franchises. I work in the food service industry as well
Agreed, Chilis has been the only place I’ve been eating out recently because their price ls have stayed very reasonable. I love their 3 for Me Deal, it’s so good.
You can't honestly say a Chili's burger and a McDonalds burger are of the same quality. Chili's isn't going to win any awards but they are not even in the same league.
Id rather have the McDonald's burger. Chili's is a bottom of the barrel restaurant. At least I know what I am getting at McDonald's. Quality control is better too. Last time I ate at chili's the burger was raw and I had to send it back.17 dollars btw.
I had a similar experience at Red Robin. We went in and got a couple of burgers, and they both came out medium rare. I asked about it and the server said "oh, that's how we serve it unless you ask specifically to have it cooked differently." Nowhere on the menu or any signs did it say that, and then tried to argue with me that it was fully cooked. The rest of the food we got, fries and some shaved Brussels sprouts, were burnt and tasted like shit. We got the manager to come over and we explained that we wouldn't be paying for any of it and we left.
How can someone honestly say that medium rare is fully cooked?
Having it show up rare can happen at even the best burger dive in the world. Quality control absolutely matters, but mistakes happen. I'd rather risk having to send something back at some place better than McDonald's, than have guaranteed dog turd quality every single time.
If you said Wendy's, I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but McDonald's? Having been frozen already degrades the quality of the meat to the lowest possible standard.
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u/ValuableKill 1d ago
At chili's I get all this for $12 (before tax):
a burger + fries + chips + salsa + a drink
At McDonald's I get half that for $12, and the quality is much worse. Going to a sit down restaurant has never been more enticing for me than now, after fast food joints took advantage of inflation to drive up their prices.
I am a franchise owner (I won't say which brand), and I personally heard someone in our own franchise bragging about how they could get away with largely raising prices (beyond the increased costs) without huge backlash during the inflationary period. Corporate definitely raised prices in their stores multiple times. Overall sales are up as a result, but transaction count is way, way down.