How economical is your local Taco Bell? • Hacker News Board

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#341

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 11:51 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #337

lotsofpulp wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should re-read your comments. You made falsifiable claims, which were shown to be false. Has nothing to do with empathy or other feelings nonsense. The small proportion of Americans for whom it is unfeasible to cook were already addressed, specifically that they are a small proportion based on data regarding how far most people commute and how close they live to a proper grocery store. https://www.census.gov/topi…

> Has nothing to do with empathy or other feelings nonsense Nonsense? Are you Spock? The way you write makes me feel you're a participant of the LessWrong community or idealogically aligned, maybe you'll appreciate this article: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5g5TkQTe9rmPS5vvM/p/SqF8cHjJv43m... > So is rationality orthogonal to feeling? No; our emotions arise from our models of reality. > Becoming more rational—arriving…

[deleted]

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#342

Post by xandrius » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:53 PM UTC

ljf wrote: post #87

forgotusername6 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to battle the psychological aspect which says that they are different even if they smell, taste, feel the same. It really isn't that easy, if it was, parents of autistic kids would be doing it. There is also a reason why McDonald's nuggets are the go to for autistic kids the world over. They have been engineered over many decades to be the most acceptable taste and texture for children.

A friend of mine (with an autistic child) explained it as: If you give your kid a strawberry - even within the punnet the tastes and textures will vary - even mid summer some will be unpleasantly tart. If I make a sandwich it will be mildly different one day to the next, depending on the freshness of the items I put in, the brand of the ham, the spread, the bread. But junk food will ALWAYS BE THE SAME. If surprise an…

But say, one goes to get McDonald's nuggets and lightly and secretly messes up with it (adds a bit of lime one day, vinegar another, etc.) before giving it to the obsessed child. Wouldn't that remove the "always the same" aspect and thus decreasing the appeal of junk food over other foods?

Also I'm sure cheese, avocado, a carrot, zucchini or pumpkin from the supermarket are going to taste extremely similar across the months unless they are hyper tasters (in that case they'd definitely notice a change in taste across nuggets).

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#343

Post by xandrius » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:56 PM UTC

SapporoChris wrote: post #70

crooked-v wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framing it as "being picky" is really not helpful. As somebody on the spectrum, my (fortunately very few) food sensitivities aren't a mere matter of preference... they're the result of me experiencing visceral, nauseating revulsion at specific tastes/textures/smells. If it's the only option, I will absolutely skip a meal entirely rather than deal with it. I would probably have to be at the point of literally (not fig…

Not giving them junk food doesn't equate to ignoring food sensitivities. If someone is tolerating chicken nuggets, there's a whole host of healthier food with similar textures, tastes and smells.

Same to me. I might not understand it but I'm not sure any kid is going to go starving with some homemade food in front of them.

The biggest red flag is why on earth are kids fed junk food to begin with? Maybe their parents also love it, making it harder to set a better example at home? Hard to say.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#344

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 1:36 PM UTC

sgerenser wrote: post #306

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIUC, virtually all of the crazy airport prices come from management companies like HMS Host, Sodexo, etc - which manage most of the restaurants and stores in airports. Their business model is - they big up the price of all the available spots such that no one can make money unless they charge exorbitant prices. After they capture the majority of the market, they're free to charge a ton of money. How they haven't bee…

The Starbucks in airports are usually still franchised (which otherwise is rare for Starbucks), and at least a few I’ve encountered are definitely operated by HMS Host.

Yes, but if you're Starbucks, you'll make an agreement with HMS not to overcharge too much.

It looks bad for you to be a >$100B company and trying to price gouge your loyal customers at the airport.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#345

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 1:38 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #315

PaulHoule wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain airports (Salt Lake City, NY metro airports) make a choice to enforce pricing that is representative of outside pricing because the perception of gouging is so bad.

The last time I flew JFK - pre-pandemic, the prices were insane. $16 for a sub sandwich (not Subway). Tasted terrible. I've never been to NYC, so I don't know if this is what they charged outside. Portland, as another commenter said, tends to have the same price in the airport as their restaurants outside.

> $16 for a sub sandwich (not Subway). Tasted terrible. I've never been to NYC, so I don't know if this is what they charged outside.

Definitely not normal. In most of Manhattan, you can get a quite good sandwich for less $14 or less.

The rest of NYC is going to be cheaper.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#346

Post by hunter2_ » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

im3w1l wrote: post #340

hunter2_ wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The friction of playing the game is how price discrimination has always worked, whether clipping coupons or fiddling with apps. You either spend time to pay less (and perhaps brag about it to make smalltalk just like this, which is like volunteer advertising) or you spend more to save time. It's weird, but it's actually an incredible way for the more well-off to subsidize the less well-off (at the risk of enticing so…

> at the risk of enticing some folks, who have the means but love a deal, to be penny-wise pound-foolish at everyone's expense including their own If no one did this, wouldn't that just mean that the price discrepancy kept rising and rising?

That's an interesting point! For simplicity, let's divide into 3 segments: poor, middle, rich. Poor can only pay with coupons, rich can't be bothered/seen and only pay full price, middle can pay in full but some of them decide to use coupons because it's deemed worthwhile (so really 4 segments). Suppose middle doesn't exist, and prices are set in a way where tons of poor people are fed while also maximizing profit from rich people; perhaps this means giving the poor a 50% discount.

Now introduce the middle. The portion of them paying with coupons is anywhere from 0% to 100%. The restaurant makes massive profits from them at 0%, and makes no profits from them (but covers all costs) at 100%. Let's say it starts near 0% because initially nobody knows about coupons and over time rises near 100% once the information has spread around. Profits decrease so something must be done to counter that. Shallower discounts (say, 25% off instead of 50% off) is a possibility, keeping the discrepancy tight, as you suggest. But increasing menu prices, while leaving the huge discrepancy, is also a possibility!

Either method will get the profits to the desired level. But only one method -- maintaining the large discrepancy -- sustains the goal of maximizing the number of poor people fed. Therefore, a restaurant with that goal will choose that method; a restaurant without that goal simply won't issue coupons. The discrepancy, if one exists, is therefore constant regardless of how many penny-wise pound-foolish people are in the middle.

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#347

Post by mhuffman » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

eonwe wrote: post #67

mhuffman wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally I would agree with you, but I just checked where I am at and it appears that the less the competition the higher the price. I compared a few small relatively poor towns that I am familiar with to larger ones that I know charge between 4 and 7 times as much per sqft for commercial real estate, and the more expensive tacos are in the poorer towns! Up to $0.40 cheaper in the larger more bougie towns. My only g…

Could there be other explanations here? Like marginal cost of one taco when there might be less customers?

Wouldn't that also apply in places like NYC and LA? Where the enormous traffic volume offers lower marginal costs?

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#348

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 3:44 PM UTC

astrange wrote: post #339

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher productivity in this environment pretty much universally translates to fewer staff on shift. It’s just another way to lower costs at the expense of non wealthy people. Why do you think it’s so hard to find help in any big box store nowadays? Or why most of them only have one or two cashiers working when lines get longer and longer? PS: $18 an hour in the bay in 2024 might as well be under minimum wage. It’s un…

> Higher productivity in this environment pretty much universally translates to fewer staff on shift. Depends on demand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox > PS: $18 an hour in the bay in 2024 might as well be under minimum wage. It’s unconscionably low if one wants to maintain any standard of living. That wasn't in 2024. It's $20 now. https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Fast-Food-Minimum-Wage-FAQ.htm

[deleted]

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#349

Post by autoexec » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

astrange wrote: post #324

autoexec wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disposable income is still available. Durable goods spending exploded after COVID. Only for some. Household debt is at an all time high, and evictions and utility disconnections are skyrocketing. Homelessness is at record highs. Hunger in the US is soaring too. 18 million households last year struggled at some point to secure enough food, the worst its been in nearly a decade. Many people are suffering under the ou…

> Household debt is at an all time high That's because people have more money than ever so they're using credit cards more. It's also partly due to inflation. Household debt-to-income ratios are not high. > evictions and utility disconnections are skyrocketing I don't believe this is true. > Hunger in the US is soaring too. This is true, but it's because the extended child tax credit from 2020 expired - so we can fix…

> I don't believe this is true.

The evidence isn't hard to find.

examples:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/whos-getting-evicted-america-...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-foreclosures-highest-lev...

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183408490/evictions-are-incr...

https://denverite.com/2024/09/12/denver-eviction-cases-incre...

https://www.azfamily.com/2023/11/02/maricopa-county-breaks-2...

https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-increase-rent-hud-co...

As for utilities things would be even worse except for states working to prevent disconnections during heat waves

https://www.power-grid.com/customer-service/customer-shutoff...

https://cordcuttersnews.com/1-in-5-u-s-households-struggle-t...

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/05/31/oregon-electric-utili...

https://energyjustice.indiana.edu/our-work/_news/20240822-be...

Re: How economical is your local Taco Bell?

#350

Post by darkwizard42 » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 6:56 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #278

darkwizard42 wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only issue with that Cantina is it has a really crap crowd and the quality is mixed on their prep.

I'm curious what kind of crowd one looks for at a Taco Bell bar?

Taco Bell in SoMa and the one in Tenderloin tended to have a lot of strung out, mentally ill, or homeless persons. It was nice that they were allowed to take a seat and enjoy water or whatever food they purchased, but it also affects the cleanliness of the restaurant.

I once had someone while eating stand up and just take their pants off in the KFC/Taco Bell in Tenderloin...

When I get to a Taco Bell, I look for how clean the tables are, how well-arranged the sauce/napkin station is, and how clean the fountain drink area is. If any of those are actively a disaster, it tells me the food quality is probably going to be worse (yes yes, its already terrible)