Re:American Eating Habits Are Changing Faster than Fast Food...
by cptskippy on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @12:51PM
(#17961363)
I agree with you in a way. I think the rise of the new chains you describe is a result of the gradual decline of the old guard of fast food. And if you look at those new chains today vs when they opened you see a decline in quality as well.
In the late 90s everything at Subway was prepared fresh in store and the meat was single origin. Today everything comes in bags and the "meat" is lower in quality than the crappiest of hot dog.
Chipotle went from fresh in 2001 to unsanitary burrito factory in 2017. They're being followed down the hole cloesly by Moe's and a bit further back by Willy's.
Starbucks went from a high end coffee house in the 90s to a candy store.
Dunkin Donuts in the 90s made fresh donuts nightly in store, today they have them shipped in from factory and aren't any better than grocery store bakery donuts, just more varied.
Perhaps that's the natural order of most fast food as they chase margins. Death by a thousand compromises.
I'm not even certain if they should try to keep up. Sure, they can offer me hummus and crudites for a light lunch when I'm on the road. But grocery stores already have that covered, and at a price point that's probably much lower than McDonald's could manage. And they can offer me beans, rice and fixins, but Qdoba will already sell me two meals' worth of that for less than twice the cost of a single meal at McDonald's, so again, there just isn't a lot of gold for them in them thar hills.