The inflationary depression has caused a couple of new restaurant trends:
1. At some fast food restaurants, all burgers on the menu now come with cheese, at higher prices, of course. Including the cheese supposedly justifies the prices, but you pay for it even if you don’t want cheese.
2. Items are smaller at higher prices.
We visited a Chili’s last night for the first time in several years. An hour before closing time we were the only customers, which suited us fine, but made us wonder about the viability of the restaurant. The Chili’s Old Timer, which used to be a man-sized burger, was barely bigger than a slider, and my wife had to pay for the cheese even though she didn’t want it. The order of fries was also about half the size I remember. The chicken dish I had was also substantially smaller than a few years ago.
This matches the grocery store trend of massive package-size reductions. If that trend continues, you’ll soon be paying $4 for a single-serving box.
Brother, can you spare a dime-sized burger?
I started noticing this at least 5 years ago and it irritates me. Apparently I'm one of the rare people out there who likes a burger with no cheese. What's with the assumption that everyone wants it, and why should I subsidize those who do?