https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2008?amount=4.75 About $7 today, for those curious.
No problem, as salaries also trippled in that time
Tap for spoiler
/s
Maybe not tripled, but making 7.25-10/hour was pretty common in 2008. The standard today is 15-20/hour at fast food.
I’m aware this doesn’t justify tripling the price. Even 3x wages would not triple the cost of the burger.
Yet $7.25 is still the federal minimum wage today
Yea pretty fucked up.
They created like 40% more money supply in the span of a single year. It then rises at about 10% a year on average, due to a CPI that does adjustments at the whims of some entity whose goal seems to be to understate inflation.
Consider me spoiled 😢
Wow, so I did tha math. The official inflation rate factors up to just over 1.5 (50% increase) over the past 16 years. But this meme suggests a factor of 3.58!!! (258% increase)
The official inflation rate doesn’t include food or energy. It’s ridiculous.
Food and products have 2.3x’d since just before covid started.
The most funny thing was the “I can’t eat an iPad” reply, when someone from the Fed tried to explain these mental gymnastics
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704893604576199113452719274
For those who don’t have a plugin to bypass WSJ paywall
It does include food and energy, but they also separately report a “core” inflation that excludes those items because food and energy tend to go up and down.
Or up and less up
Looking at beef in particular, a pound of ground beef has gone up from $2.10/lb in 2008 to $6.20 in 2025.
Chicken breast, on the other hand, has gone from $3.50/lb to about $4.10.
Beef has been getting more expensive faster than inflation basically my whole life, while stuff like chicken, milk, and eggs have been volatile, jumping up and down at times, and stuff like rice and flour have long periods of stability with the occasional big permanent jump.
That chicken price is indicative of the increasing size and density of factory farms, which caused the bird flu epidemic in the first place.
It was on a famous show.
It’s prepared food, so the price also depends on wage increase and changes to tip structure in that state. Several states began fair wage for servers after 2008, so the gratuity may now be included in the price of the meal.
I would like to say, California instituted a $20 fast food minimum wage which was estimated to cause an 8% increase in overall wages (they already trend high there) but a 1.5% increase in menu prices. To my mind this tracks as wages are kind of small (too small) against ingredients, building lease, etc.
Granted, increasing the wages of everybody in the agricultural supply chain would probably have a bigger effect, but overall I think businesses tend to mcfucking lie about the impact of wage increases on consumer prices.
I’m more getting at tipped worker vs fair wages for servers. The minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hr, but tipped worker minimum wage is $2.13/hr. States that have shifted to fair wages now must pay their workers standard minimum wage. Most eateries in those states have increased their prices 15-20%, and inform customers that the gratuity is now included in the meal price. It’s no different on your wallet, but could account for some of the increase in price point depending on the location of the establishment.
AI burger meat is my favorite.
That’s good, cause it’s all we’ll be able to afford in a few years.
You mean your cheese slices don’t have more than 4 points?
In Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta’s character freaks out over the “5$ milkshake”.
In 2025 a chocolate shake is 5.49 at the sonic near me. I thought that was expensive but compared to this thread apparently inflation on milkshakes hasn’t been to bad. Though I’m pretty sure you can get a $10 shake if you start asking them to add every kind of diabetes candy into it.
There’s a fast food chain where I live called Nifty Fifty’s ('50s themed of course). They have “dessert milkshakes” for $9.85 - basically shakes with a whole extra dessert blended in - and if you get it malted you’re at $10.50. TBF they’re really fucking good milkshakes, but $10 is ridiculous.
That would be about $10 today.
Gentrification came for flavortown.
Rent is now $4000/mth. No loitering.
LOL where can you find $4k/month? My dentist said her office rent in W. Seattle was $11k/mo.
For commercial rent that nearly seems reasonable. Especially considering what they’re charging for dentistry, that’s like… 3 people without insurance? 🥲
My rent was $8,000 a month in 2009 for a strip mall restaurant that sat 40 people. It wasn’t in an expensive area either.
One of my parents said that steaks were 35 cents when they were kids.
I am not looking forward to my Walmart cheese & breadstick snacks costing $70 bucks for a set of five.
Guess what will happen to food prices in the US when farmers cannot exploit cheap migrants anymore…
Not to worry - they’ll be replaced with children and prisoners and robots.
The CEO’s, shareholders and the 1% need to make more! There is no fucking way I am going to spend $17.00 for a fucking cheeseburger.
Yup. As soon as I see a fancy toothpick in the picture, I know I should just leave.
Being on a food TV show and becoming slightly famous therefor allows you to increase your prices and still keep all the seats filled. The best burger place near me has increased to $10 from $5 over roughly the same time period, in keeping with the increase in beef prices over that time.
When Bob’s Burgers started airing the burger of the day was $5.95. This used to be a reasonable price for a burger.
We’re not in flavor town anymore, Toto.
Do we really not see that being on that show might have something to do with that?
I mean, it probably had an impact, but even the 1/4 pounder with cheese meal at mcdonalds is 12 dollars here
Norway has been considered to be super-expensive among tourists and others looking in from abroad. However, Norwegians going to the US really have to mind their spending nowadays, especially when eating out. Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe, so the price we see on the menu is what we expect to pay.
If you go to a gas station near an airport in Western Norway, you can get a massive 300g burger (3/4 lb) with added cheese and bacon for about 200 kroner, which is $19. If you want something that normal people can finish, a regular 150g cheeseburger is about $12. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger is 43 kroner, or $4.12. If you order a burger at a restaurant or a pub, you’ll probably be spending about $25 for a bacon cheeseburger with included fries. You’re not expected to tip in Norway.
Considering that the prices Americans here refer to don’t include taxes and tips, I’m actually pretty sure it would be more expensive to eat out in the US than in Norway, and average pay for a waiter/waitress here is about $41 000 per year.
Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe
It is in England (which while not in the EU, it is in Europe). And unlike the US, they will try to guilt you into a big auto tip.
I’ve lived in London for seven years, never felt there was pressure or expectations of tips, though there were options to tip on the card terminal occasionally. But yes, wages in London are shit (unless you’re a banker), so if I could afford to leave 50p in the pub jar, I would.
$10 Aud gets you a proper burger in Oz at a bakery or takeaway spot, you’ll pay $20+ Aud inc chips/fries in a pub/bistro, but either way you have to tackle them to stop them putting fucking pickled beetroot on it first, dark times all round indeed…
Holy cow, where do you live that Burgers are still $10 anywhere.
Suburban fish and chip shops that have been around for 30 years and also sell either souvlaki or an assortment of chinese dishes.
Damn. I’m starting to really feel how expensive my city is.
I had a double smash cheeseburger for 9€ on friday in germany.
160g meat
Is that cheap, by current standards? I’m in Australia, and so is the commenter I asked, but where I am it’s unheard of for burgers to be much below $20.
10€ is ~18AUD
There’s cheaper burgers, but I wouldn’t really call them burgers with the cheap frozen patties and bread. It’s definitely on the cheaper side though, as i’ve paid 14€ for a burger in the past.
So I guess it’s pretty much the same.
Yeah local bakeries still do them for $10, proper fresh buns and salad, still do schnitzel rolls with proper chicken for that price too, not with a big processed chicken nugget pretending to be a schnitzel…
I am so curious what part of Oz you’re in, because absolutely nowhere is anything near those prices, where I am, but I am in an expensive city.
Central Coast NSW, there’s 2 Vietnamese bakeries and a tradies favourite all within 5mins from me…
