[silisili]

Honestly, it's always been that way for a lot of things. Ten years ago I remember trying to make the ultimate home pizza, spent over $30 in ingredients and realized it's cheaper to buy out. Same with hamburgers - unless you can use all of the ingredients to make 5 or 6.

Restaurants have always been rather low margin, and they're buying ingredients a heckofa lot cheaper than a single shopper can.

[stasomatic]

Costco rotisserie chicken at $5.99. I know it's their door buster, but since they won't increase prices on principle, it's the least expensive protein in town, delicious too.

Try to make one yourself for $5.99 when just a pound of chicken thighs at the same store is $3/lbs.