[chasd00]

> I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida.

That’s $22 per person. Would like to see what they ordered. Not saying I don’t believe it but that’s pretty high. My family of 4 can eat chilfila for that and chikfila is kind of pricey for fast food where Popeyes is pretty much trash.

[bityard]

No, that's about right in my (very limited) recent experience. It's _very_ easy to spend as much at a fast food restaurant these days as you would at a sit-down restaurant, especially if you don't do one of their combo meals, or add one or two extra items to your order

The crazy high prices and general unhealthiness aside, my main beef (if you'll pardon the pun) with fast food places is that more and more of them are taking orders via AI and/or requiring you to download and install their app to place an order.

[ryukafalz]

Where is this happening? I think I would walk out and never come back if I walked into a fast food place and couldn't order until I downloaded an app.

[thewebguyd]

You aren't required to but you will pay substantially more by not using the app and creating an account. They offer "exclusive" deals that usually amounts to roughly ~20% off menu price, while they raised all their base prices that much or more so you are subjected to data harvesting in order to pay the normal pirces.

[senordevnyc]

I order fast food all the time and I'm always scoping for deals, rewards, etc. in the apps, and it's nowhere near 20% off on average.

[senordevnyc]

What? Where are you going? What does "taking orders via AI" even mean? I have never once been in a fast food restaurant anywhere in the US that didn't have counter service, self-serve ordering kiosks, or both.

[bityard]

The McDonald's drive through.

[senordevnyc]

They’re testing it at a whopping five stores.

[throwaway27448]

I don't think chick-fil-a is any less trash than Popeyes, personally, and the fried chicken itself is lower quality—too sweet and moist. The fries are dry and unseasoned. The biggest selling point is the lemonade.

Granted, I don't eat at either because better value fried chicken than both is not terribly difficult to find.

[kraquepype]

Menu prices in the restaurant are ridiculous now.

The only way I can stomach buying fast food is through deals on their apps, which I find very anti-consumer and predatory.

It's also super annoying when you just want a quick and cheap meal but you need to spend an inordinate amount of time on their app to figure out how not to get taken advantage of by their pricing.

[thewebguyd]

Yeah, fast food just isn't worth it anymore. Used to be super cheap comparatively to regular restaurants. Now I can go get a generous serving of pad thai from a local place here for less than a 10 pcs McNugget meal, and is usually ready just as fast as McDonals have gotten slower over the years.

I don't know how fast food is still in business. Around ~$36 before tip and tax to feed my family of 3 Thai food & the local Teriyaki place or maybe ~$45 for Chinese, and I'm in a HCoL area. Fast food ends up even more than that.

Agree on the apps, I hate them and they are not only predatory but buggy pieces of junk.

[TheGRS]

Whoa...harsh words. I consider their fried chicken sando the best in the biz, yes even over Chik-fil-a

[kraquepype]

Yeah 9 times out of 10 I'd rather go to Popeyes. It is greasy but it's spiced well and I can't think of a single bland thing on their menu.

I'll say though that the customer experience at Chick-fil-a is top notch, and they really have drive through down to a science. Buying the food their has always been a pleasant experience.

[jmathai]

They employ 3-4 people to man their drive through. No wonder it's such a great experience. Subconsciously, I think I pick CFA over alternatives, in part, to not have to deal with poor customer service.

[chasd00]

late to a reply but poor choice of words on my part. I have a pretty knee jerk reaction to fast food, i tolerate chikfila just because the drive through operation and teamwork at a busy store is a sight to behold. I know chikfila is more expensive than average for fast food however.

[throw544577]

Popeyes is way tastier. Chick-fil-a is so bland.

[micromacrofoot]

to be fair, it's all trash