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The Classic American Diner

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Re: The Classic American Diner

#111

Post by userbinator »

goosejuice wrote: post #96
userbinator wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, I think they've probably decreased ("shrinkflation").

Not in the US. See "portion distortion". https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1447051/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8667835/ Edit: hamburgers and hotdogs are pretty standardized though

Unfortunately no mention of prices, so increase in portion sizes might be below inflation; and I suspect the former could be a strategy of compensation for inflation by making it seem less drastic ("yes it costs more, but we also made it bigger!")

Re: The Classic American Diner

#113

Post by listenallyall »

watersb wrote: post #83
hackingonempty wrote: post #22

One of my hobbies is looking up old prices in the BLS CPI calculator to see what they would cost today (March 2026 is the latest data.) The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34). The Feb 1959 photograph from the NYC diner advertises a $0.45 burger ($5.14) and probably a $0.75 steak sandwich ($8.57)

I wonder if portion size is comparable. We may have inflation in more than one sense: prices have gone up, and perhaps the size of burgers and hot dogs have also increased. No doubt I can find portion size clues if I look around. Haven't done so yet.

Restaurant portion sizes have definitely increased - a lot - since the 1940s-50s. Maybe some minor pullback the last few years but still way larger than back then. A McDonald's Quarter-pounder was considered very large, that was in 1971, many sit-down restaurant burgers today are 5-8 oz.

Re: The Classic American Diner

#114

Post by mauvehaus »

armadsen wrote: post #57
MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun to see all that, but curious why I haven't seen any on any of my trips across the UK and Ireland. I even asked some locals and they did not know of any diners anywhere in the country. I would've thought they would've been all over it.

Eddie Rocket's is an Irish chain of American diners. I've eaten there in Dublin. Although at least that location is downtown, and in a bigger building, not a classic diner style building. The inside is very much American Diner themed with vinyl seats, chrome, jukebox controls at the table, and of course the menu of burgers, fries, shakes, etc. https://www.eddierockets.ie

It's reassuring in a vague, indescribable way to know that while the Irish are exporting Irish pubs to the USA, we're exporting diners to Ireland.

Like, maybe they're passing each other somewhere over the Atlantic, and giving each other a friendly nod as they go along their respective journeys.

Re: The Classic American Diner

#115

Post by [deleted] »

trhway wrote: post #77
gyomu wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things just don’t really convert neatly because the shape of what people spend money on in life hasn’t evolved uniformly. Food appears somewhat cheaper, housing much cheaper; but clothing and tools/appliances were much more expensive. Things like student debt and healthcare costs are also interesting to compare and wildly differ over time & place. Also common for the average middle class person to spend a sizable per…

I use "super-baskets" like say US GDP per capita >The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34). 1940 $779 to today's $94K GDP per capita gives $6 for the 1940 $0.05 hotdog.

[deleted]

Re: The Classic American Diner

#116

Post by yulker »

trhway wrote: post #77
gyomu wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things just don’t really convert neatly because the shape of what people spend money on in life hasn’t evolved uniformly. Food appears somewhat cheaper, housing much cheaper; but clothing and tools/appliances were much more expensive. Things like student debt and healthcare costs are also interesting to compare and wildly differ over time & place. Also common for the average middle class person to spend a sizable per…

I use "super-baskets" like say US GDP per capita >The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34). 1940 $779 to today's $94K GDP per capita gives $6 for the 1940 $0.05 hotdog.

GDP is not distributed equally by any means, so meaningless as a per capita figure in this context

Re: The Classic American Diner

#117

Post by bryanlarsen »

userbinator wrote: post #111
goosejuice wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the US. See "portion distortion". https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1447051/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8667835/ Edit: hamburgers and hotdogs are pretty standardized though

Unfortunately no mention of prices, so increase in portion sizes might be below inflation; and I suspect the former could be a strategy of compensation for inflation by making it seem less drastic ("yes it costs more, but we also made it bigger!")

The cost of labor has gone up faster than the cost of food ingredients so portion size inflation is a rational response by restaurants.

Re: The Classic American Diner

#118

Post by cco »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #80
dylan604 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These prices adjusted for today's value seem off though. I'm guessing you'd be hard pressed to find a diner burger for $5.14 anywhere. No, fast food joints are not the same here and not part of this discussion. Where is the discrepancy? I've never really trusted these "adjusted for inflation" type numbers. I'm not an economist so I have no idea how they are calculated, but they've always just felt off to me. Usually,…

A good rule of thumb is to ask "are you paying mostly for human labor or for machine labor"? The former is likely to be more expensive now than it was in the past and the latter is likely to be less expensive, all relative to general inflation prices. A hot dog / hamburger at a diner is mostly human labor, so you'd expect it to be cheaper in the past.

Labor is typically around 30% of the final cost of prepared food in a restaurant.

Remaining 70% is 30% food costs (which has dropped drastically since the 50s), then 20-30% operations. Profit is whatever is left.

So a diner burger is not mostly labor but I honestly have no idea what these costs were 70 years ago. I'd love to know, seems like something is missing.

Likely everything in the chain going up 1-10%.

Re: The Classic American Diner

#120

Post by bryanlarsen »

cco wrote: post #118
bryanlarsen wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good rule of thumb is to ask "are you paying mostly for human labor or for machine labor"? The former is likely to be more expensive now than it was in the past and the latter is likely to be less expensive, all relative to general inflation prices. A hot dog / hamburger at a diner is mostly human labor, so you'd expect it to be cheaper in the past.

Labor is typically around 30% of the final cost of prepared food in a restaurant. Remaining 70% is 30% food costs (which has dropped drastically since the 50s), then 20-30% operations. Profit is whatever is left. So a diner burger is not mostly labor but I honestly have no idea what these costs were 70 years ago. I'd love to know, seems like something is missing. Likely everything in the chain going up 1-10%.

Much of the 30% food costs is labour further up the chain, and much of the 20-30% operations is also labour.
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