Wow. It finally happened.

[McGoddess09]

I got my first "in this economy" person.

Today, I opened (upfront,luckily. I hate opening grill!). Sunrise asked me if I could stay until 2 because one of the girls called in. Needing money badly, I say ok.

They put me on front counter.

One mother comes in with three kids.

She said "Small fries are no longer a dollar?!"
"No. They are not."
"Really?!"
"Yes."
"And that applies to all McD's then?!"
"Yes."
"I thought that you would have it, because in this economy..."
"Food costs went up for us too."
"But you know in this economy..."

She never really finished the sentence that contained the word 'economy'.

She kept badgering me about it.

On top of that, the grill people were just UGH! But, that will go into another post.

[blas]

Well lady, in this economy, if you still want to go out to eat and not break your budget, then you'll have to stick to McDonalds and BK and Wendy's. Too fucking bad, I still do it and I don't care.

What I get every time at McDonalds costs me $5 even. I don't whine.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Luckily for me, I've not heard that phrase used at the Litter Box (firsthand that is) but what I do hear is along the lines of "Everything's more expensive now."

Which I am aware of and I tell my customers that too. I shop the same places they do (pretty much) and have to pay bills too. The cost of living is higher for everybody and, while it sucks, there's not much we can do about it.

Sometimes (and this is just what I do) a little bit of empathy can be a good thing. Most customers know it's not the counter person's fault that prices are up.

But then you have the SC's . . . and they don't get it. They never have gotten it and they never will get it.

Just roll with the flow and do the best you can. . . that's really the only advice I can give.

[crashhelmet]

It surprised me when I went to McD's and found that medium fries were now $1.99 and all drinks were over $2.

CH

[Jester]

Well lady, in this economy, if you still want to go out to eat and not break your budget, then you'll have to stick to McDonalds and BK and Wendy's. Too fucking bad, I still do it and I don't care.

What I get every time at McDonalds costs me $5 even. I don't whine.

There are other options than Mickey D's, even "in this economy."

I always get a LARGE and healthy sub at Subway for $5 (with tax, $5.38, thank you very much).

And when I go to the grocery store, if I was to figure out what each meal costs me from what I spend on this and that, I am sure it would be far less than the fast food meals. Not to mention noticeably healthier.

Just saying.

And the lady in the OP was still a nuisance.

[McGoddess09]

I do have sympathy for everyone in this time. Saying it once is fine, but saying it a bunch of times, expecting me to do something just annoys me.

[blas]

I understand Jester, I go to Subway once or twice a week as well, even when there isn't the "$5 footlong" deal because I really only save 28 cents when they are $5 even.

[SG15Z]

Well in this economy prices are gonna go up. That's how bad economies work lady.

Did she not take an Economics class? Or at least history. I'm pretty sure they mentioned how it works during the while great depression part.

[freeatlast]

She needs to face the fact that food prices are getting out of hand. I went to the local Super Wal Mart yesterday for groceries because I just can't afford to go to the Marsh store that I prefer. Now that I am underemployed (making about 1/2 of what I made at my previous job) I have to really watch what I spend on food. Many weeks, I have a budget of about $30 which really doesn't buy much. The thing that really got my attention was the price of eggs. I used to eat eggs quite often because they were cheap (and because I really like eggs.) They were $1.48 a dozen. Seems like just yesterday, they were under $1 and even less if they were on sale. So, for $101 I got just enough groceries that it took 2 trips to carry them in from the car. If that hadn't included a case of sodas, I could have carried everything in 1 trip. And that is just groceries for 1 person. Sucks.

[edible_hat]

Working in petrol, I get this all the time. I've already written about the guy who called me a Nazi (thread titled "Godwin's law of petrol"), here's another winner loser:

SC: "That's a rip off! Diesel should be 80 cents!"
Me: "We only make 2 cents per liter" (I've since found out this is wrong, it's actually 1.5 cents)
SC: "But it should be 80 cents!"
Me: "When the distributor charges 78 cents, we'll charge 80."
SC: "Well you should sell it for 80 cents!"
Me: "Tell that to the distributors."
SC: "I'm telling you so you can tell them!"

Like that's going to do a lot of good... "Hey Mobil/Caltex/whichever distributor is cheapest at the time... this guy says you should charge 78 cents per liter for diesel!"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

SC: "That's a rip off! Diesel should be 80 cents!"
Me: "We only make 2 cents per liter" (I've since found out this is wrong, it's actually 1.5 cents)
SC: "But it should be 80 cents!"
Me: "When the distributor charges 78 cents, we'll charge 80."
SC: "Well you should sell it for 80 cents!"
"

And Patron ought to come out of my kitchen tap and I ought to be able to drink it out of Keith Hamilton Cobb's navel.

Idiot.

What, did the woman in the OP's story think that she was the ONLY one feeling the crunch "in this economy?"

So many idiots.

[SG15Z]

So many idiots.

And so few

....What?

[Akasa]

If you think food prices are out hand where you are you should try living in Hawaii. The cheap bread, on sale, is 2 loafs for $5. The regular bread goes for around $5. Eggs? Around $4 for a dozen. Don't even get me started on the cost of meat. Starberry jam? $5, grape $3.50. What really got me was the price of olive oil. $10 for a bottle, not even extra virgin, just plain old olive oil.

[joe hx]

And when I go to the grocery store, if I was to figure out what each meal costs me from what I spend on this and that, I am sure it would be far less than the fast food meals. Not to mention noticeably healthier.

me too. and most the time i can fix what i want to eat in less time than i would have to wait in line at mcdonalds

[SG15Z]

Yeah i try to eat at home as much as I can. It's much much cheaper. And occasionally faster or about the same. Though some days I just don't have time and just pay the 5 bucks for some fast food. Preferably Whataburger or JIB.