$20 Lunch
Lunch often runs me about $20 nowadays. And no, this isn't me dining out at fancy places. I'm talking about "fast casual" restaurants, places that are just one step above fast food chains like McDonald's. Though even McDonald's is getting pricey enough that people are objecting. Witness the complaint about the $16 McDonald's lunch combo that went viral recently. And of course if you want better food than the golden arches it's going to cost more than the golden arches. A basic combo at Five Guys- a cheeseburger, little fries, and a regular soda- costs around $20 around here.
Today I grabbed lunch at a favorite local taqueria. It's a casual place, the kind of joint where you wait in line to order at the counter, though they bring the food out to your table after you sit. My old usual order there comes out to $19.xx and has for about a year now. I say old usual order because I've traded down. But rather than trading down to a cheaper restaurant I've traded down to a cheaper order. Instead of a deluxe burrito and a regular soda that ring up to $19.xx I found that their meat quesadilla and regular drink total just $15.xx and are just as satisfying, if not more.
The galling thing about $20 for lunch isn't just that lunch now chews up a whole $20 bill. It's also that I can remember when things were way cheaper. And we're not even talking about "back when TV was black and white" days. When I was a student in the mid 1990s I could buy a fast food combo for 3 bucks and change, and lunch at a fast casual restaurant, e.g. a couple slices of pizza and a small fountain soda, was usually $5 or so. Occasionally I'd splurge on something pricier and run the bill up over $7. 😅
Now, part of that is differences in local cost of living. I lived in cheaper cities in college and graduate school. But even living out here in costly Silicon Valley I still remember paying a lot less than $20 for lunch. For example, in the early 2010s in Silicon Valley I could reliably spend under $10 for the kind of lunch that now runs to $20.
Today I grabbed lunch at a favorite local taqueria. It's a casual place, the kind of joint where you wait in line to order at the counter, though they bring the food out to your table after you sit. My old usual order there comes out to $19.xx and has for about a year now. I say old usual order because I've traded down. But rather than trading down to a cheaper restaurant I've traded down to a cheaper order. Instead of a deluxe burrito and a regular soda that ring up to $19.xx I found that their meat quesadilla and regular drink total just $15.xx and are just as satisfying, if not more.
The galling thing about $20 for lunch isn't just that lunch now chews up a whole $20 bill. It's also that I can remember when things were way cheaper. And we're not even talking about "back when TV was black and white" days. When I was a student in the mid 1990s I could buy a fast food combo for 3 bucks and change, and lunch at a fast casual restaurant, e.g. a couple slices of pizza and a small fountain soda, was usually $5 or so. Occasionally I'd splurge on something pricier and run the bill up over $7. 😅
Now, part of that is differences in local cost of living. I lived in cheaper cities in college and graduate school. But even living out here in costly Silicon Valley I still remember paying a lot less than $20 for lunch. For example, in the early 2010s in Silicon Valley I could reliably spend under $10 for the kind of lunch that now runs to $20.