[mekanicalsyncop]

It used to be 3-5x more than fast food.

A burger with a meal + a drink @ Wendys is like $8+. The price of fast food has risen quite a bit over the years.

I can get a burger and fries that's 10x better at Friendly's, Ruby Tuesday's or a half a dozen other franchises for about $10-12 and the only sacrifice I have to make is that I'll have to drink water instead of soda.

[flowerbeater]

I don't buy this. At a fast food chain, drinks are $1 with free refills. A burger is $3 for the fancy ones, $1 for the dollar menu ones. The windows also have all sorts of 4 for $4 or $5 value meal deals. So $5 without any coupons at Wendy's. Two people can eat for $6 if you use a coupon.

Ruby Tuesday burgers are $9.50 with fries. Add a soda, tip, tax, and it's $16. The multiple is still 3-4x.

[mekanicalsyncop]

It also depends on where you live. Some places the price disparity might be higher than others.

Also if you're talking about dollar menu stuff or the stuff close to it, its about 1/3 the size of the burgers included in fast food meals. The burgers in the meals are comparable in size to what you would get at a sit down restaurant.