No problem, as salaries also trippled in that time
Tap for spoiler
/s
Maybe not tripled, but making 7.25-10/hour was pretty common in 2008. The standard today is 15-20/hour at fast food.
I’m aware this doesn’t justify tripling the price. Even 3x wages would not triple the cost of the burger.
Yet $7.25 is still the federal minimum wage today
Yea pretty fucked up.
They created like 40% more money supply in the span of a single year. It then rises at about 10% a year on average, due to a CPI that does adjustments at the whims of some entity whose goal seems to be to understate inflation.
Consider me spoiled 😢
Norway has been considered to be super-expensive among tourists and others looking in from abroad. However, Norwegians going to the US really have to mind their spending nowadays, especially when eating out. Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe, so the price we see on the menu is what we expect to pay.
If you go to a gas station near an airport in Western Norway, you can get a massive 300g burger (3/4 lb) with added cheese and bacon for about 200 kroner, which is $19. If you want something that normal people can finish, a regular 150g cheeseburger is about $12. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger is 43 kroner, or $4.12. If you order a burger at a restaurant or a pub, you’ll probably be spending about $25 for a bacon cheeseburger with included fries. You’re not expected to tip in Norway.
Considering that the prices Americans here refer to don’t include taxes and tips, I’m actually pretty sure it would be more expensive to eat out in the US than in Norway, and average pay for a waiter/waitress here is about $41 000 per year.
Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe
It is in England (which while not in the EU, it is in Europe). And unlike the US, they will try to guilt you into a big auto tip.
I’ve lived in London for seven years, never felt there was pressure or expectations of tips, though there were options to tip on the card terminal occasionally. But yes, wages in London are shit (unless you’re a banker), so if I could afford to leave 50p in the pub jar, I would.
The CEO’s, shareholders and the 1% need to make more! There is no fucking way I am going to spend $17.00 for a fucking cheeseburger.
Yup. As soon as I see a fancy toothpick in the picture, I know I should just leave.
What 'Murica thinks flavour is: fat, salt, sugar, shit.
Cheeseburger with bacon is a quintessential white man food.
Muslims and Jews cannot eat it. Indians are forbidden too. Asians don’t tolerate lactose and other minorities can’t afford it nowadays.
When on some day you feel cultural superiority in your veins, order a cheeseburger with bacon and know that you are amongst the selected few who can savour this delicacy
Put on a Burger King hat too for a good measure and order it sitting in your SUV. Celebrate this wonderful country
The Christian Bible has the same restrictions about eating pigs, but they just ignore it. A lot of Jewish people in the US do as well.
Muslims and Jews cannot eat it
Those are religions, not races.
other minorities can’t afford it nowadays.
Because minorities are poor?
Asians don’t tolerate lactose
Neither do I, but I’m having that ice cream and destroying that toilet.
Stop being weird. It’s unnecessary.
I was jesting, isn’t that obvious? However, I am always in the mood for an internet argument ⌨️
It’s not reddit, people can be sarcastic without the /s.
Poe’s law got me on this one. I no longer see this viewpoint as extreme enough to be satire
Someone should tell the rest of the world that fat, sugar, and salt aren’t allowed.
$10 Aud gets you a proper burger in Oz at a bakery or takeaway spot, you’ll pay $20+ Aud inc chips/fries in a pub/bistro, but either way you have to tackle them to stop them putting fucking pickled beetroot on it first, dark times all round indeed…
Holy cow, where do you live that Burgers are still $10 anywhere.
I had a double smash cheeseburger for 9€ on friday in germany.
160g meat
Is that cheap, by current standards? I’m in Australia, and so is the commenter I asked, but where I am it’s unheard of for burgers to be much below $20.
10€ is ~18AUD
There’s cheaper burgers, but I wouldn’t really call them burgers with the cheap frozen patties and bread. It’s definitely on the cheaper side though, as i’ve paid 14€ for a burger in the past.
So I guess it’s pretty much the same.
Suburban fish and chip shops that have been around for 30 years and also sell either souvlaki or an assortment of chinese dishes.
Damn. I’m starting to really feel how expensive my city is.
Yeah local bakeries still do them for $10, proper fresh buns and salad, still do schnitzel rolls with proper chicken for that price too, not with a big processed chicken nugget pretending to be a schnitzel…
I am so curious what part of Oz you’re in, because absolutely nowhere is anything near those prices, where I am, but I am in an expensive city.
Central Coast NSW, there’s 2 Vietnamese bakeries and a tradies favourite all within 5mins from me…
$17 for a burger, even if it really did look like the picture, which we all know it doesn’t, is way too much. No, thank you.
I pay $12/day to feed myself. I make all of my own meals at home, I haven’t eaten out since the pandemic. I formed the habit, and just kept cooking at home as prices got ridiculous. My diet is excellent, mostly fresh vegetables, and organic chicken.
It,s still “cheap” for what goes into producing a beef patty. Impossible meat is just as expensive and you don’t have to feed and care and torture an animal to produce it.
Burgers are fine-dining now. Still trying to find cheap food that’s nutritious and doesn’t contain too much fiber for medical reasons. Eventually that will be fine dining prices too.
Being on a food TV show and becoming slightly famous therefor allows you to increase your prices and still keep all the seats filled. The best burger place near me has increased to $10 from $5 over roughly the same time period, in keeping with the increase in beef prices over that time.
AI burger meat is my favorite.
That’s good, cause it’s all we’ll be able to afford in a few years.
You mean your cheese slices don’t have more than 4 points?
That seems to track. A local place near me burgers have gone from around 10 bucks about 7 years ago to 17-18 bucks a burger. Seems to be the going rate these days
Guess what will happen to food prices in the US when farmers cannot exploit cheap migrants anymore…
Not to worry - they’ll be replaced with children and prisoners and robots.
According to the US Dept of Labor and Statistics, ground chuck cost $2.83/lb in March 2008, and 5.85/lb in March 2025. If i can basic math, that’s an increase of
206106%.Edit: Math hard.
106%
That is an increase of 106%
Well, at least you can do basic logic…
US department of Labor and Statistics
You say? Ooh I know this, a direct Survey can give the enumerator data for a final presentating about the unemployment rate is!
(This has been an Any Austin tribute)
a direct Survey can give the enumerator data for a final presentating about the unemployment rate is!
Forgive me for being dense, but I don’t understand what you’re saying.
Here have a taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WIyUqW_4s
Wow, so I did tha math. The official inflation rate factors up to just over 1.5 (50% increase) over the past 16 years. But this meme suggests a factor of 3.58!!! (258% increase)
Looking at beef in particular, a pound of ground beef has gone up from $2.10/lb in 2008 to $6.20 in 2025.
Chicken breast, on the other hand, has gone from $3.50/lb to about $4.10.
Beef has been getting more expensive faster than inflation basically my whole life, while stuff like chicken, milk, and eggs have been volatile, jumping up and down at times, and stuff like rice and flour have long periods of stability with the occasional big permanent jump.
That chicken price is indicative of the increasing size and density of factory farms, which caused the bird flu epidemic in the first place.
The official inflation rate doesn’t include food or energy. It’s ridiculous.
It does include food and energy, but they also separately report a “core” inflation that excludes those items because food and energy tend to go up and down.
Or up and less up
Food and products have 2.3x’d since just before covid started.
The most funny thing was the “I can’t eat an iPad” reply, when someone from the Fed tried to explain these mental gymnastics
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704893604576199113452719274
For those who don’t have a plugin to bypass WSJ paywall
It’s prepared food, so the price also depends on wage increase and changes to tip structure in that state. Several states began fair wage for servers after 2008, so the gratuity may now be included in the price of the meal.
I would like to say, California instituted a $20 fast food minimum wage which was estimated to cause an 8% increase in overall wages (they already trend high there) but a 1.5% increase in menu prices. To my mind this tracks as wages are kind of small (too small) against ingredients, building lease, etc.
Granted, increasing the wages of everybody in the agricultural supply chain would probably have a bigger effect, but overall I think businesses tend to mcfucking lie about the impact of wage increases on consumer prices.
I’m more getting at tipped worker vs fair wages for servers. The minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hr, but tipped worker minimum wage is $2.13/hr. States that have shifted to fair wages now must pay their workers standard minimum wage. Most eateries in those states have increased their prices 15-20%, and inform customers that the gratuity is now included in the meal price. It’s no different on your wallet, but could account for some of the increase in price point depending on the location of the establishment.
It was on a famous show.
Gentrification came for flavortown.
Rent is now $4000/mth. No loitering.
LOL where can you find $4k/month? My dentist said her office rent in W. Seattle was $11k/mo.
For commercial rent that nearly seems reasonable. Especially considering what they’re charging for dentistry, that’s like… 3 people without insurance? 🥲
My rent was $8,000 a month in 2009 for a strip mall restaurant that sat 40 people. It wasn’t in an expensive area either.
In-N-Out
Is the objectively superior choice
Interior to Whataburger
I’ve heard Texans rave about that shit for years
Imagine my surprise when it was the worst burger I’ve ever had, I spit it out. Truly Texans are dipshits
I’m not Texan but I dunno what happened to you. It is definitely better tasting than in and out to me. I find inn’s stuff pretty mid with the worst fries ever.
The fries I can accept (they don’t double-fry and don’t salt them unless you ask them to), the burger I can’t unless you’re in some weird ass bumpkin place as every location I’ve ever been to has produced a top-tier (for the price of fast food) burger. I’m not gonna pretend they hold a candle to the handmade ones I make or anything but they’re the best common-ish fast food place around (West Coast only TBF, they’re taking forever to spread, likely because non west coast people don’t have the burger fetish we do)
I’ve only had them in Vegas and LA and they were both underwhelming. Like it’s not gross but I’ve honestly had better from a good BK.
hail corporate
rotatingsandwiches.com mentioned! Probably one of the best website on the internet icl
I miss in n out but at least my current state has a cheap burger joint. Its not as good but the cheapest option is like 2.50 which im not sure how that’s financially possible tbh
Man in my country the trash burger joints (the burgers are good they just look or feel nothing like classical burgers, they put in a ton of salad and shit to make it bigger) used to do 1.80 and such. The most famous one did a gigantic one for I think 2.50 back in… 2013. Same burger now is 6.50
In our case the minimum salary has nearly tripled, so it’s kinda OK, but it’s kinda sad that economic growth is just canceled out by rising prices.
Nice animation, but their burgers, at least around here, are atrocious. Really the worst of the worst.
