A dining experience.
Granted, that's been something fast food has been doing for quite some time now. But now it just makes less sense as a business strategy. Fast food is supposed to be, well...fast. But now when you order it takes more time to get your food.
It used to be that you'd place your order and walk away from the counter with a tray. Now you tend to get an order slip, or in the case of some fast food restaurants, you get a placard to be served at your table. It's also way more common to be directed out of the drive through lanes to a parking spot to wait for something.
Sorry folks, but that's not what fast food was ever supposed to be.
Of course, they say they are aiming for better quality. If your order is made to order it will be hotter and fresher. But I have to tell you, for me, that's rarely true. I find the quality of the made to order food no better than how it was before. In fact, the faster food was actually better.
Let's face it. The chains did it to save money too. Ideally, if you miscalculate the burger drop on the grill, you might wind up throwing away more food.
What people are doing now is weighing the differences. If the food costs as much as a sit down restaurant, and at the same time they'll wait about the same time for their food, why bother with fast food?
My wife and I have marveled at the exorbitant prices of fast food lately. Not that we eat it that often. But there are periods when we tend to eat more of it—such as when we are coming back from camping trips or have more things going on during the summer that leave fewer dinner or lunch options.
We recently went to A&W and bought a double bacon cheeseburger, some hand-tossed chicken fingers and an order of fried cheese curds. That cost us around $32. On another trip, with just two Quarter Pounders and two large orders of fries, that ran about $24. And when we went to Hardees, we dropped about $28 on some onion rings, a chicken sandwich and a mushroom and Swiss burger.
We did not order drinks with any of these meals.
From purely an economic standpoint, we could have gone to Applebee's or Chili's or some other place and spent about the same amount, and probably would have spent about the same amount of time with presumably tastier menu options.
And that's what consumers are doing. They are considering, "If I have to wait about the same time for my order and even if maybe I drop another $10, it's worth it."
The fact is that fast food was always the cheaper option. In fact, it was usually much cheaper. Quicker and cheaper. Those factors no longer exist. So therefore, consumers are shifting because they want a bigger bang for their buck, and fast food simply isn't offering that anymore.
Imagine the cost to a family of four making a simple, quick trip to McDonald's. That might cost over $100 easily. Why not go to a sit down restaurant instead?
At the same time, I don't blame the fast food chains for some of the price increases. They are dealing with inflation just like everyone else is. On top of that, there's been a long and strong push to raise wages for employees, and as the old saying goes, money doesn't grow on trees. It has to come from somewhere, and where it is coming from are consumer's pockets.
What will be critical now for fast food chains is to become very creative in their approach. The consumer shift may be something that is long lasting, and if fast food wants their customers back, they are going to really have to dig in hard on what they can do to get them back.
One thing, in the short term, I think they will need to do, is going back to at least being fast food. Before, they were never really in direct competition with casual dining. But now they are. If they want to succeed, they need to separate themselves again and not only offer good food fast, but in an economical way.
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© 2024 Jim Bauer
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