In the East Bay, I've noticed that the chain restaurants are consistently more expensive. Chipotle is more expensive than the taqueria down the street, not by a lot, but by a buck or two. And the bigger chains jacked up prices by more than the more regional ones: Subway costs the same as Togo's. McDonald's costs more than In n Out.
Businesses have found that people are willing to spend ~$20 on a fast/fast-casual lunch, and now most everybody charges that amount. But the national chains are also aiming for food consistency between locations, which means that my Chipotle and McDonald's meal is going to be only as good as they can economically make it in a blasted food desert like Indianapolis, whereas the local restaurants and regional chains can take advantage of me living less than 200 miles of 40% of the country's fresh produce production.
The fast food / fast-casual segments are losing price differentiation, and the fast food options are losing on quality.
That’s interesting because I’m in the East Bay Area too and have the opposite experience.
Chipotle burrito is $10.50, 80% of taquerias are $15 burritos.
In N out double double meal is $11, but McDonalds app has free fries so a Double Quarter (with 2x meat), fries, and drink is $9…
I just looked it up. At my local Chipotle, a burrito is $13.65 + $2.50 guac + $2.80 for chips and salsa + $2.85 drink, comes out just over $21.80 before tax. Tacqueria around the corner, Super fajitas burrito $15.49 + free chips and salsa + $3.75 for a drink, comes out to $19.25 before tax.
If you consider guacamole an extravagance, the more basic burrito at the tacqueria is $13.49, so the gap shrinks, but is still in the tacqueria's favor.
Between the two, Chipotle's chips are better, but everything else is a downgrade quality wise.
And I don't think it's reasonable to include coupons in McDonald's pricing. I'm not installing malware on my phone to save the $3 a McDonald's fry costs.
Businesses have found that people are willing to spend ~$20 on a fast/fast-casual lunch, and now most everybody charges that amount. But the national chains are also aiming for food consistency between locations, which means that my Chipotle and McDonald's meal is going to be only as good as they can economically make it in a blasted food desert like Indianapolis, whereas the local restaurants and regional chains can take advantage of me living less than 200 miles of 40% of the country's fresh produce production.
The fast food / fast-casual segments are losing price differentiation, and the fast food options are losing on quality.