Bottom tier food. Bottom tier company. I don't know why anyone eats this level of trash anymore. Inflation has hit fast food harder than other types of restaurants, or groceries. It doesn't make sense justifying paying these prices for this when you can get better food for comparable prices now. There used to be an expectation that this food would at least be cheap.
I survived on one meal a day at McDonald's when I was stuck doing day labor in Seattle around the 2002 crash.
Back then it was actually cheap to get enough food to survive on for under 5 bucks. I remember the 20 cheeseburger and hamburger deals they had twice a week.
The price increases to cheeseburgers really hurts, when that was usually my main dollar menu deal.
during that time, you could get whopper or jumbo jack or big 'n tasty, etc. for 99c just about everywhere. 3 bucks was all it took to eat lunch...
even less if you ordered the 'all american meal' at mcdonalds: small hamburger or cheeseburger, small fries, small drink. was only $1.79 or $1.89. wasn't always on the menu board, but i never encountered a store that didn't sell it even if it wasn't.
its almost 12 bucks just to get a whopper 'meal' here now.
BK around us has the 2 for $6 deal and I've found it very useful when we run late and can't cook. Not dollar menu prices by any means, but most affordable option we've found among the fast food joints around us
If using the app, BKs value is generally pretty good because they often have decent coupon deals reletively speaking compared to other fast food joints.
And consistency. It may not be the best food in the world, but I can order anywhere between Miami to Miramichi, New York to Nanaimo, or LA to London, and get the exact same Big Mac and fries every single time.
I used to get 3 double cheeseburgers and a large tea for $4.20 including tax. McDonald's and Little Caesars were by far the cheapest meals I could buy unless you want to count ramen noodle packs. Groceries were way more expensive. Now both are expensive LOL.
So $0.80 for a burger or $0.99 for a double cheeseburger. I'll take the double.
Besides that, if you only had $5 to spend you could not have bought the supplies to make a single burger for $5. Have to buy at least a pound of beef, a whole pack of buns, etc. Even in your example I'd argue fast food was cheaper.