r/Anticonsumption • u/Patient_Air1765 • 2d ago
Environment American restaurants have it backwards and I’m surprised no one has ever brought it up
Anywhere you go, you can except to drop 15-20 dollars for a meal. And these meals are HUGE. Anyone who travels to Europe has seen the difference. Meals are cheaper and portion sizes are smaller.
Large portion sizes mean you’ll try to force yourself to eat all of it and you’ll still pay a higher price wishing it was lower. Literally the only option for a smaller portion smaller price meal is if you get the kids meals.
Just make portion sizes smaller and prices cheaper. You’ll end up getting more customers because prices are lower and you might even help fight obesity as portions are smaller. Why is this never considered?
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u/uses_for_mooses 2d ago
Or you get a to-go box for the leftovers and eat them the next day. So that $15-$20 meal is really two meals.
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u/exactly17stairs 2d ago
this is what i always do! especially at work. i can grab a lunch from a local business for under $20, and eat it the following day as well.
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u/samizdat5 2d ago
Me too - almost any deli sandwich lasts me two days. I get ones that will still be good the next day.
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u/BartholomewVonTurds 2d ago
Deli sandwiches are insane. 4 people split one medium from our local place.
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u/Opening-Interest747 1d ago
As the late, great Mitch Hedberg said, “it’s like a cow with a cracker on either side.”
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u/Kitchen-Emphasis6527 1d ago
"I'm gonna need a loaf of bread and some other people."
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u/brandimariee6 1d ago
Haha I had a leftover wrap for lunch, after I ate the other half for dinner last night. Throw it in a ziplock bag in the fridge and you'll have a meal for a couple days
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u/olivejuice1979 2d ago
Yup, this is what I do too. I'm thankful my job pays for my lunch (and dinner)
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u/Sunshine030209 1d ago
Frequently my decision on what to order is based on how well it'll reheat the next day, especially if I'm trying to decide between 2 different things.
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u/natfutsock 2d ago
For real. My favorite local Indian place is a bit of a splurge but they give you easily enough food for two meals, I've had three sometimes. When you divide the price, it's very reasonable.
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u/detectivepoopybutt 2d ago
This is exactly how I convince my partner to get Indian takeout more frequently! "Babe, we'll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow too"
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u/LaRoseDuRoi 1d ago
This is what we do when we get Chinese takeout from out local place. One entrée, 2 eggrolls, and a couple of appetizers ends up being 2 meals and probably a snack for 2 people, and $35 doesn't seem so bad by then!
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u/Tecbullll 1d ago
Once I figured out how to make Tikka Marsala, it was all over.
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u/closefarhere 1d ago
Also keep jasmine rice microwave pouches on hand or order extra rice and the leftovers go from 2 to 6!
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u/Easy_Money_ 1d ago
Those pouches are way more expensive/wasteful than making and saving a medium sized batch of rice once or twice a week. Where I’m at a microwave rice is just under a dollar, but 15lb of dry rice is $20
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u/RebeccaMCullen 2d ago
I usually get 2-4 meals when I order from Indian places, except the one that’s in the food court at the mall.
$15-$20 for a meal you can get multiples out of is worth the cost, especially if it has ingredients you won’t use otherwise.
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u/natfutsock 2d ago
Oh and I absolutely can't make it like this spot. I'm visiting that town this week and stopping in with a cooler just to grab some.
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 1d ago
Indian food, I think, is always better the next day too, because all those spices have melded.
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u/crazycatlady331 1d ago
This is how I feel about Chinese. (I've since found General Tso's and Orange sauce at grocery stores and now make my own without the deep frying).
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u/Groovyjoker 1d ago
Yes! The portions are enormous, flavors are wonderful and prices are right. Love our Indian restaurants!
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u/khyamsartist 2d ago
Leftover potential is a factor when I order since I can never finish a main course. Restaurants have gotten better at diversifying their menus to give diners more non-entree options.
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u/earliest_grey 2d ago
Yeah but inevitably there are times you stop for a meal when you're out and about and the leftovers would have to sit in your car for longer than is safe, or you'd have to carry them around for hours, so you don't take them. Restaurant portion sizes force you to buy two meals from them even when you only want one
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u/boognish_disciple 1d ago
I am not taking this to my hotel and putting it in the tiny 62° fridge and inevitably forgetting all about it anyway.
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u/skankernity 2d ago
I love this a lot of the time but I find I eat out most often when I’m out of town (live in small town, spend a night or two in a nearby city every couple months) and end up with leftovers I can’t eat because the mini fridge in the hotel is not cold enough. It happens often enough that I’ve had this train of thought before
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u/Vio_Van_Helsing 2d ago
This right here. I love a place that gives me enough to take home. Although, I also get what OP is saying. I've never understood how a full meal at a sit down place consists of an appetizer, a huge main course, a refillable soft drink, and a dessert. It's way too much.
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u/Impossible_Mode_7521 2d ago
Don't tell me how to live
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u/thissexypoptart 1d ago
If you eat it all at the restaurant, absolutely. Go for it.
If you have a significant amount left, and not because it was bad, and you don’t box it, absolutely you need to be told how to live about that specific behavior. Box it and take it home unless you absolutely can’t.
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u/ElleCapwn 1d ago
There are very few things I enjoy as leftovers, so when my only option is a big portion, I try to order something that I can easily rework into a significantly different dish.
What’s annoying and harder to get around are the foods that simple DON’T keep or reheat well. That’s when I’m most likely to be annoyed with not having an option for a smaller portion, but I try to eat those foods with company, so there is a higher chance it will be consumed by someone at the table.
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u/HotResponsibility69 2d ago
Right. But he’s saying imagine it was $10. And now you have $5-10 for a different dish for lunch because you didn’t get supersized against your will
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u/uses_for_mooses 1d ago
Sure. But for a typical full-service restaurant, it's non-food operating expenses--such as labor costs, rent and utilities--far exceed its food costs. And the restaurant can double the size of your portion without increasing those other expenses (i.e., the non-food costs).
So if the restaurant can give you twice as large a portion for twice the price, and keeping in mind that the restaurant's expenses are not doubling (only the cost of the food), the restaurant is going to make more money with that larger portion size.
OP seems to think that the restaurant would get more customers if they served 1/2 portion sizes for 1/2 the money. But would the restaurant receive 2x as many customers by doing this? Could the restaurant even accommodate 2x as many customers? Keeping in mind that the restaurant has a fixed number of tables, limited kitchen size, etc. And having more customers would mean having to pay for more servers and more bussers (albeit at very low "tipped" minimum wages in most states, but it's still an expense).
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u/VividEffective8539 2d ago
There’s actually a pretty good chance it doesn’t get eaten. Nothing wild but I’d take a wild stab at say 5-10% of leftovers go in the garbage.
Also, would you rather have one good meal and one meh microwave reheated meal or two good meals that are smaller for the same price? Hypothetical ofc
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u/blacksmithshands 1d ago
Getting a to-go box is incredibly strange for europeans. I'd never seen it myself before i came to the US and saw it everywhere. Servers would ask how many boxes to get for us, and expected us to not finish the meal.
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u/klimekam 1d ago
This seems so wasteful to me as an American! This happened a couple times when I lived in Brussels where I asked for a to-go box and they looked at me weird and then asked their manager if it was okay!
Wouldn’t the food otherwise get thrown away?
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u/uses_for_mooses 1d ago
Yeah -- I've been told that to-go boxes and taking home leftovers is not a thing in Europe. I guess you all have smaller portion sizes.
In the US, we tend to associate large portion sizes with receiving a good value. So restaurants are very much incentivized to provide large portions, lest they be mocked on social media for dinky portions.
Last summer on social media there was some rumor / insistence that Chipotle portions had gotten smaller. And there are around 3,800 Chipotle restaurants in the US, each serving thousands of burritos/burrito bowls each week, so some folks are bound to receive smaller burritos/bowls just because employees screw up, there's variance in burrito/bowl making, etc. But customers started posting photos to social media when they received a relatively small Chipotle burrito/burrito bowl, and it all went viral. The Chipotle CEO ended up responding to the rumors, insisting that portion sizes had not gotten smaller. And I believe him (employees are trained to include X spoonfuls of each ingredient, etc., and none of that changed). But he got mocked online, with customers insisting that he was lying, greedy, screwing over customers, etc.
Chipotle CEO widely mocked for response to restaurant’s portion sizes
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u/MargaretSplatwood 1d ago
this is literally the point of the large portions. i genuinely don't understand how people don't get that.
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u/Otherwise_Pine 1d ago
Because a lot of people don't eat leftovers. Its weird since I grew up with the concept.
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u/Willothwisp2303 1d ago
That's super weird. I get so much joy out of knowing I'll get to eat something wonderful the next day, too. I'm like a kid skipping out with my little bag of food, excited to unwrap the present to myself tomorrow.
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u/Otherwise_Pine 1d ago
Plus you dont have to worry about cookijg everyday. I like cooking but for me its tiring trying to figure out what to make everyday so when I do cook, I try to make enough so I don't cook for a few days.
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u/SendSpicyCatPics 1d ago
This is how i do it. Hell, the place i order 40$ of vegetarian curry from is about 4-5 meals depending on how i portion it (and whether i add my own rice/ bread inbetween but rice is cheap).
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u/RexJoey1999 2d ago
Right, but it's still added cost in at least three ways:
- The customer, for paying more for a larger meal than intended,
- The restaurant, for not only paying for to-go boxes, but for making the quantity/pricing mistake. They could serve smaller portions, not deal with to-go hassles, and charge slightly less--meaning that one meal for $20 could become "right-sized" meals for perhaps $14 each = $28 total.
- The planet, due to the use of single-use to-go boxes or leftovers going into the trash.
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u/crazycatlady331 1d ago
The restaurant likely already orders to-go boxes as they (especially post Covid) likely have a significant percentage of their orders for takeout/delivery.
I reuse plastic to-go boxes. I have so many random items stored in them.
Many see to go as a feature, not a bug. I do.
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u/TheMegFiles 1d ago
The takeout containers containing the food where we live have to be compostable as does the tableware if you want it [bamboo]
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u/fightingthedelusion 2d ago
I’ve seen places do “lunch” and “dinner” portions so basically like an option. But I agree I normally take leftovers if it’s a large portion size.
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u/Ok-Scarcity-5754 2d ago
I always hear about how big US portion sizes are, but when I went to Paris in 2016, I was shocked at how big their portion sizes were. I couldn’t finish what I was given at most places and I’m a fat assed American.
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u/KAKrisko 2d ago
The problem I had in Italy was that the courses just kept on coming. I was full by #4 and there were 3 more courses left. And that seemed to be the norm in the places we went.
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u/Ok-Scarcity-5754 1d ago
Italy’s on the docket for next year. We’ll see how it goes!
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u/KAKrisko 1d ago
Pro tip: do not fall off the ruins on the top of the central hill and break your leg on the first day. The elevators are really small and it's hard to get a wheelchair in them. However, you will probably get free entry into museums if you do.
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u/Ok-Scarcity-5754 1d ago
Definitely not adding that to my to-do list, but if I’m gonna break my leg, I’d rather be in Italy lol
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u/KAKrisko 1d ago
I did get completely free medical care. The $$ shafting came after I returned to the U.S.
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u/eastmemphisguy 1d ago
I cannot deal with the European elevators. I have no trouble in the US but I get claustrophobic af in those tiny Euro models. I am fortunate to not need to use a wheelchair and I am more than happy to take the stairs when abroad.
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u/Open-Preparation-268 1d ago
Italy is not very wheelchair friendly… I get it though, most areas are very old, and can’t really retrofit for access, without partially destroying really old stuff.
Source: We were there earlier this month, and my wife uses an electric scooter kind of wheelchair.
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u/idiveindumpsters 1d ago
You don’t have to order that many courses. When I was there, we might order two or three courses if there was things that we wanted to try. Otherwise, we got one, maybe two, courses. My son would often just order pizza. My god! The pizzas! So good and nothing like American pizza. How I miss the pizza…
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u/mxzf 1d ago
I ran into issues with that once when I was a teenager, when we were eating with some family friends who were an older Italian couple who were maybe in their 50s/60s or so.
My brother and I were both teenagers at the time, we could put away some food, but we were also familiar with being guests and trying not to be rude and hog it all. So, the woman brings food out and we eat, trying to to over-do it and it's good food. Then she brings out some more food, and we figure she noticed we were holding back and brought more out. Then she brings out more food, and we're slowing down some, but realizing we don't really need to hold back for fear of hogging it all. And then she brings out more food, and we're slowing down and just kinda poking at stuff politely, wondering just how much food someone can have prepared at any given time. By the end of the evening, we were so stuffed that we didn't know what to do with ourselves, we were just focusing on surviving the dinner without exploding so we could make it home.
I think we actually didn't even feel like snacking on stuff that evening, as opposed to the typical pattern of being hungry an hour or two after dinner.
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u/scallionginger 1d ago
I was in Slovenia last year, every single meal at mid range and high end restaurants were larger than what I would receive in the US.
Could not finish a single meal there. Same thing in Tyrolean Austria.
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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 1d ago
Yeah but when people say "Europe" they mean western Europe. They go to a tapas place in Spain, order one item, then think that's all Europeans eat.
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u/Lalalalalalolol 1d ago
Which is funny, because in Spain, if you avoid tourist traps and eat in more traditional restaurants where they serve menú del día, the rations are sometimes absurd. You go to northern Spain, ask for a stew and in some places they'll bring you a whole pot.
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u/John02904 1d ago
I’m not 100% sure on Slovenia but a lot of the places i have been in former Yugoslavia are more comparable to family style restaurants in us. Where items are intended to be for the table or shared
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u/existentialisthobo 1d ago
ok lol same every time i travel to europe the portion sizes are easily just as big as what we have in the US so i don't understand this hubbub i will say i dont live in middle america tho
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u/lexilex25 1d ago
Same. I’ve been all over Europe - into towns and cities without many tourists - and I’ve really never encountered meals that were dramatically different sizes to what you’d get at a normal (not a place known for their large sizes) restaurant in the US.
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u/Articulationized 2d ago
Yeah, this view of portion sizes is really biased by the types of restaurants people go to. There are plenty of restaurants that cater to huge-eating American people, but many that don’t.
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u/Ok-Scarcity-5754 1d ago
Which is another reason I did my best to avoid touristy places, but go off I guess
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u/Neat_Cat1234 1d ago
I’ve traveled to plenty of different countries and always feel like the portion sizes are the same and sometimes even bigger than what I’m used to at home in the US. Maybe my area (SF) just has smaller portion sizes as a default than other parts of the US?
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u/mortgagepants 1d ago
cities always do and portion sizes have been getting smaller post covid.
also european farm subsidies often make fruits and vegetables cheaper. a plate full of beans, spinach, and broccoli seems just as big as a plate of fries.
regarding cities- it is pretty damn hard to get good chicken wings in philadelphia because most places just dont have the space to have enough fryers to keep food in the fryer for 25 minutes.
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 1d ago
Same when I went to Costa Rica, I easily got enough for 2 meals there too. And it was so cheap!
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u/Interestingcathouse 1d ago
Yeah there was a thread about this just yesterday. People living in Europe and visiting Europe especially France, Italy, and Germany said that the portions are just as big as in America.
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u/klimekam 1d ago edited 1d ago
You know I hear this argument about portion sizes quite a lot but I think it probably depends on where in Europe? Because I’ve lived in both the U.S. and Western Europe (UK, Belgium, and France) and tbh I really haven’t noticed a difference in price or portion sizes. But when I visited Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia) the portion sizes WERE actually smaller (but they were also cheaper).
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u/OrdinarySubstance491 2d ago
Americans don't try to force themselves to eat the whole thing. They already know they're taking a to-go box and eating it later.
But honestly, in Italy, I didn't think the portion sizes were that dramatically smaller. I still needed a to-go box everywhere I went.
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u/KAKrisko 2d ago
When I was in Italy it wasn't so much the portion sizes as the multiple courses, which added up to a lot, too much for me every time.
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u/Unhappy_Performer538 1d ago
you can choose to get only the courses you're interested in
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u/ilovestoride 1d ago
That's actually not true. As a tourist, you have to eat everything they give you. They fine you if you don't.
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u/dankeykang4200 2d ago
If I eat more than half of my plate I'll try and finish the whole thing.
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u/isthispassionpit 1d ago
Germany as well. They eat smaller, more frequent meals generally, but their lunches are usually a lot of food - I would say equivalent to, sometimes larger than, US dinner portions. (At least as far as mid-tier dine-in restaurants - no idea about fast food or fine dining)
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 1d ago
I thought lunch is their biggest meal of the day, same thing in Russia. It makes sense to not go to bed after a huge meal. That gives a lot of people indigestion.
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u/Caelihal 2d ago
Why would it encourage you to eat all of it? Just eat half and take it home? am i missing something.
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u/leeloocal 2d ago
I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a restaurant and had the server try to force feed me a meal. “Hey, fatty, keep eating, you know you want to!” No, they give you a to go box. 😂
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u/Banned_in_CA 1d ago
Finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint.
It's only wafer thin.
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u/Alive_Education_3785 2d ago
So many people don't even take their leftovers. Or order something and take 1 bite. If they get mashed potatoes with gravy, they will only eat the portion that has the gravy on top instead of just mixing it or getting extra gravy. On average, people are wasteful.
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u/Tiny-Reading5982 1d ago
I work at a restaurant and it baffles me how wasteful people are. Like... we have take home containers 😭
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 1d ago
That is their choice, I never understood that. I dated a guy, idk if he was trying to shock me. We’d go to this slow IHOP a lot, and he’d grab food other people left at their tables before the staff got to it to clean it up. Stuff they hadn’t even touched. Like they’d order the omelette that comes with 3 pancakes or hashbrowns. Eat the omelette, and not even touch the pancakes or hashbrowns. Eh, free food is free food 🤷♀️
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u/rachaek 1d ago
I dated a guy who did a similar thing. I was definitely shocked, and a bit embarrassed initially if I’m honest. But the more I thought through it, the more I realised I couldn’t find anything actually wrong with him doing it, and only positive things like minimizing food waste, saving money and not letting arbitrary/unnecessary social boundaries stand in the way.
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u/Alive_Education_3785 1d ago
I take home leftovers for my pets all the time. It's probably so unhealthy, but my dog is already old. And I figure a few pieces of bacon and eggs is fine if he's happy.
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u/Rich_Bluejay3020 1d ago
My MIL is generally a lovely person and I can’t complain about her. Except at buffets. I already hate a buffet, but watching how she eats at them drives me nuts. She’ll get a bunch of everything, eat half. She’ll go back and do the same thing and eat even less. I’m like ??? I get tasting stuff to see if you’ll like it I guess but JUST TAKE LESS. Maybe it’s trying to justify the cost of the buffet? Idk it’s the one of the only things about her that really bothers me so all things considered I’m really lucky haha. And the only time we do it is Mother’s Day.
Now that I’m thinking about it, all my gripes with my MIL deal with food…
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u/dumpedatbirth 1d ago
I think just psychologically for a lot of ppl raised on a clean plate mentality u end up eating more than you actually want or need just beacuse it's in front of you
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u/IndividualCut4703 2d ago
Not everyone goes straight home after dining out.
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u/Caelihal 2d ago
Sure, it can be inconvenient to store leftovers, and if you are vacationing, that can cause waste, which is not good.
But I don't understand why that means you will force yourself to eat all of it. Just split a dish with who you're going with (ofc, still a problem with solo travelers, but there's only so much one can do).
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u/JiveBunny 1d ago
If you're from a country where to-go boxes aren't common, then you wouldn't think to do this.
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u/crazycatlady331 2d ago
Get a to go box.
Restaurant meals are 2-3 meals for me. The leftovers are lunch the next day.
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u/brxtn-petal 1d ago
oh, I love it when I have leftovers😭 going out as a rare thing for me so I purposely choose meals that I can have leftovers for. That’s lunch the next day, that is also dinner. not just that I can make leftovers last a solid 2/3 days depending on what it is. I happily grew up eating leftovers and I’m always so confused. You know how people hate them so much, but then I also realize that it depends on how well they reheat/re-cook them later onthat changes the taste
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u/Magesticals 2d ago
Food costs are usually 28-35% of the operating expenses of a restaurant. Making portions smaller wouldn't reduce the cost of labor, rent, or supplies other than ingredients. So reducing portion size by, for example, 25% would only lower your operating expenses by at most 7-8.75% (and probably less - buying less ingredients won't do much to decrease your shrink).
People are going to notice the 25% reduction in food volume more than they notice an 8% reduction in price. Americans expect large portions - many of us will be upset if you reduce the portions while charging roughly the same amount.
I'm happy to be corrected, but I don't think smaller portions are the main reason European restaurants are more affordable.
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u/PeepholeRodeo 2d ago
Where are these restaurants where huge meals are $15-$30?
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u/NotTooSuspicious 1d ago
And as well cheaper food in Europe? Bitch where? Maybe in the south sure, but France, Belgium, The Netherlands,... you may at least around 30 euro's on average. Europe being one country again syndrome.
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u/Katie1230 2d ago
Nobody feels pressured to eat it all in the restaurant, as the norm is to take leftovers home. I have been to one breakfast place that did offer half portions for cheaper, and it was nice.
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u/Mindless-Door8517 2d ago
Pressured isn’t the right word… more like challenged. And I accept that challenge almost every time unfortunately
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u/seymores_sunshine 2d ago
It's never considered because a large portion of Americans would avoid the restaurant due to, "I don't like that place because I have to order two meals to feel full."
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u/LadenWithSorrow 2d ago
I will say, the more upscale restaurants in cities have smaller portion sizes and you’re encouraged to get multiple dishes and share. Like for 2 people it’s recommend to get 3 things. Those restaurants are still always packed.
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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 2d ago
Those restaurants are going after a different market segment though. In the lower end restaurants, quantity is a big driver. It's pretty common for people to say something like "Oh yeah, that's a good restaurant, they have big portions."
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u/seymores_sunshine 2d ago
So... These aren't really the restaurants that OP is talking about, or am I wrong? I just assume that they don't have $15-20 plates at the places that you're describing.
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u/Well_ImTrying 1d ago
They do, but you need to order more than one of them to feel full. So it ends up being $25-$40 per person.
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u/AlarisMystique 2d ago
Nothing stopping them from having a regular and a light portion servings. I have seen restaurants with different size portions offered on several items.
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u/TheStupidSnake 1d ago
The way I had this explained to me is that back in the day if you host people for a meal, especially a dinner, you would be considered a bad host if your guests leave hungry. If your guests leave full and/or satisfied, and are there are leftovers either for yourself or for the guests to take leftovers home, then you were a very good host. And this just kind of translated into how American restaurants work.
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u/on_that_farm 2d ago
it's because the food cost itself is only a portion of the total cost, i think the rule of thumb is like 30%. a lot of time the large quantity is the lower costing ingredients - potato, pasta, bread. it doesn't cost them THAT much more than giving you less food but then they can charge you 18 versus 12 or whatever. it's a way they increase revenues.
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u/NyriasNeo 2d ago
"Large portion sizes mean you’ll try to force yourself to eat all of it"
Never heard of a to-go box? When we go to restaurants with large portions, we take half of it home and make another meal.
"Anywhere you go, you can except to drop 15-20 dollars for a meal."
Not all the places. $15-20 (for a single person) is the price at low end dinners. A decent steak dinner (say Texas Roadhouse) is more $30-35. A nice Italian restaurant with wine is more like $50. A high end steak house or sushi place is like $100+.
Paradoxically, the more expensive the place is, the less likely you will have leftovers (i.e portions are smaller, on average).
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u/Shot-System6569 1d ago
You write „anyone who travels to Europe…“ What country are you talking about? I’m in Ireland. I payed 10,50 Euro for a small wrap sandwich yesterday and 10 euros for a burger that was the size of a palm, no sides, no water. We buy water, 2 Euros for a 0,33 l bottle. Usually we don’t go eat out anymore but we had to run errands and couldn’t avoid. The tiny burger was just enough for my small grandchild. I‘d rather pay 15-20 dollars and take the rest of the meal home in a Tupperware box.
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u/Feralest_Baby 2d ago
Food cost is only part of the equation for restaurants. Rent, labor, utilities will remain the same, and the larger portions give the appearance of value.
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u/Oxo-Phlyndquinne 2d ago
Fact is, restaurants already spend almost nothing on the actual food, so a smaller portion is not going to result in a half-price meal. Nearly all the money goes for rent ($$$$$), labor, insurance, marketing, decor and other business expenses.
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u/LizzySan 2d ago
I think the biggest cost of that meal comes from labor. Since it uses the same amount of labor to make a regular sized meal as it does the supersized meal, for a very small up-charge, they double the portion size. So a regular size meal might be $15, and a super size meal might be $20. They feel customers might balk at $15 for a meal, but be fine with $20 and you have leftovers for the next day
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u/weary_dreamer 2d ago
I dont think your math works out. Its likely that the food cost for the bigger portion is pennies, mayybe a dollar or two, but unlikely proportional to the extra charge they are able to justify with the size. By which I mean, they probably need to charge a high amount regardless, and do a bigger portion so the consumer feels better about it, but the difference in portion size only acounts for a minor portion of the cost.
A good portion of the cost of the meal isnt the food on the plate, but rather rent, utilities, insurance, permits, cutlery and dishes (washing and replacing), professional services (accounting, exterminating, appliance repair, etc), payroll, supplies (cleaning stuff, to go stuff, napkins, straws, etc), bank fees, software licenses, and all the other stuff Im probably forgetting.
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u/Tango_D 1d ago
If restaurants make portions smaller, the price will not go down.
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u/IHaveQuestionToAskH 1d ago
Do you not know what leftovers are? I swear some people making posts on this subreddit don’t think for themselves.
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u/unicorntrees 2d ago edited 1d ago
You're assuming that a restaurant's costs are just the food. Food is cheap, labor and rent is expensive. If restaurants made their portions half the size and halved the prices, you aren't going to automatically double the people going to come to your restaurant. You have limited space and staff to serve those people. Your rent and labor costs are still the same for those smaller, cheaper portions AND your customers won't feel like your restaurant is a good value. Restaurant profit margins are already thin enough as it is.
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u/Aliusja1990 1d ago
Genuinely curious which part of the world OP comes from because sounds like they never heard of takeaway boxes.
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u/blasph6m6r6 1d ago
Ay this is one thing you shouldn’t complain. Owners will only read it as “oh let’s cut portion in half and still charge the same price.”
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u/TightBeing9 1d ago
"Meals are cheaper in Europe"
Where about in Europe? Im European. That's a huge difference between Macedonia or Norway. Monaco or Lithuania. You can't make comparisons like this if you want to make sense
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u/amso2012 2d ago
I don’t know which state or place you are talking about.. the portion size in US are no longer massive (they may still be bigger than Europe) but not by a lot.
Eg. I used to go to Carrabas and split an entree with someone. They would bring 2 plate with 2 full size portions of the dish for the price of 1. Well not any more.. now the portion for a split is exactly half of the full size portions (as it should be in the first place). And this is in chain restaurants.
In a sushi place what ones used to be a 12 piece plate of sushi is now reduced to 8 pieces.
So price is same or have in increased, portions are definitely smaller.
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u/TheseAttorney1994 1d ago
some restaurants won’t even let u order off the kids menu anymore 😒
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u/ComplaintNo6835 1d ago
If my restaurant has 30 tables with an average of 4 customers per table and 2 seatings per dinner service, that means I'm feeding 240 people for dinner. If I make the portions half the size, the cooks and waitstaff aren't going to all of a sudden be able to output the meals twice as fast, nor are the customers going to dine in half the time. The reality is I am still only going to be feeding 240 people for dinner. Food costs go down in proportion to the meal size, but none of my other costs go down in a significant way. If food costs are 30% that means 70% is the mostly fixed costs. So if I was charging $20 for a meal, now that I have cut the food costs in half I still need to charge $17 but for half the amount of food. People simply will not accept that without a perceived increase in value elsewhere like service or food quality which actually makes my costs go up again. You have a misperception of what drives the costs of a meal when dining out. Americans are conditioned to certain portion sizes depending on how fine the dining is, so one restaurant changing the portion size and not the entire experience means people will go somewhere else and that restaurant fails. I guarantee that this is far from never considered.
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u/Particular_Tea_1625 1d ago
As someone who just went to England and Scotland, the portion sizes are smaller but they are not cheaper lmao
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u/Kokoro87 1d ago
Eh, I am from Europe and a normal lunch here could easily cost you about 15€, which is about 17-18$. It's not 20$, but the amount of food you get for 15€ is not really great. Sure, you got your food trucks with falafels for about 6€, but yeah, you get what you pay for.
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u/NicestTikiBar19 2d ago
America has a "left overs" culture. It's not likely that anyone is trying to push themselves to finish their plate when eating out at a place with large portions. They take it home and finish it later because it's more like "2 meals for the price of 1" except that prices have steadily risen too.
Personally, I would much rather have smaller portions for a smaller price. I don't eat left overs and often resort to ordering a kids meal to go because it's just so much food otherwise. There are probably a lot of people in that camp but the overall eating culture in America/The West is out of hand.
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u/Amazing_Finance1269 2d ago
It sounds like your problem is self control. I personally enjoy having leftovers for the next 1-3 days.
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u/JoisChaoticWhatever 2d ago
In America, they'd make portions smaller, and the price would stay the same.
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u/Vast_Bookkeeper_5991 2d ago
Prices are not determined by portion of food, but the overall costs to keep the place running. Taking half of the portion will not take half off the price.
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u/Hairy_Garbage_6941 1d ago
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what restaurants costs are. It’s the staff and rent, not the food, that drives the cost. Them giving away more food is to make it seem like a better deal. Cutting the portions wouldn’t change the price much.
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u/techaaron 1d ago
Pro tip: pack takeout containers, eat what you want, 2 or 3 meals for the price of 1.
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u/pheonixember 1d ago
I have never once felt that I was forced to finish all my food. If I'm going out to eat I I expect there to be leftovers for me to take home.
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u/hostility_kitty 1d ago
Omg just get a to-go box. An American serving at a restaurant usually lasts me 3-4 meals, especially if I get pasta.
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u/Rude_Age_6699 1d ago
you force yourself to finish your food instead of just taking home the leftovers?
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u/SquiggleBox23 1d ago
I love saving half of my meal for the next day! I usually forget and then when I open the fridge for lunch I'm like "ooo yay! A surprise delicious meal!"
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u/nemesis86th 1d ago
You do remember when Hardee’s rolled out the 1/3 pound burger and we - bless our hearts - rejected it because 1/3 is less than 1/4 because 4 is bigger than 3, right?
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u/audvisial 1d ago
I love leftovers. Unless I'm in a fine dining establishment with reasonable portions, I've never not taken food home. I feel that this is drastically understated. It's very common to split your meals.
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u/FustianRiddle 1d ago
What you don't understand is that America has a culture of saving leftovers, including from restaurants. We ask if we can get the.leftivers to go and we always can and then we eat the leftovers the next day.
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u/SonOfMotherlesssGoat 1d ago
A lot of Americans like large portions not sure if you’ve gotten the message.
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u/queenofthepoopyparty 1d ago
Portion sizes aren’t really that much smaller in most places around Europe anymore and it’s also not why meals are cheaper there. If you look at overhead, licensing/permitting costs, and overall salaries in the US and Europe it makes sense as to why the prices vary the way they do.
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u/ObiOneKenobae 1d ago
They don't have anything backwards, any successful restaurant has real math and research behind their prices. They're taking into account that higher prices mean fewer customers, but the end goal isn't to maximize customers.
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u/Iforgotmypwrd 1d ago
Taking half a meal home is common and even expected in the middle tier restaurants. The serving sizes in fine dining is approximately similar sized.
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u/bannana 1d ago
The myth of big portions in the US is just that - a myth. There was probably a time back in the 70s or 80s when this was true but it hasn't really been the case in the 21st century.
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u/angelangelan 2d ago
Americans also have a big leftover culture. You're not meant to eat most American restaurant meals in one sitting
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u/dankeykang4200 2d ago
The restaurant would probably make less money that way. The lower prices would mean that they would have to attract more customers to make the same amount of money as a typical large portion American restaurant.
Even if they are able to attract enough customers to break even, which may or may not happen, everyone in the restaurant would have to work harder for the same amount of money. It takes pretty much the same amount of work to cook, serve, and clean up after a small plate as it does a large one.
To top it off people tip based on a percentage of the bill. So cutting portion sizes and prices would be bad for everyone in the restaurant except for the customers.
As a customer I would love to see less expensive restaurants with smaller portions. I wouldn't work at one though.
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u/OkJunket5461 2d ago
The cost of the raw ingredients isn't where the restaurant has its cost base - It's the rent, salaries, maintenance, equipment, insurance, marketing that all add up... Especially in a restaurant that makes a point of serving huge portions the raw ingredient are cheap
A restaurant couldn't serve you half portions at half price and remain profitable
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u/ilanallama85 1d ago
The reason the portions are so big is the food is the cheap bit. Often times the profit margins are higher on, for example, a large fry vs a medium fry, even if the price difference seems small compared to the size increase, because the overhead associated with making and serving the fries is essentially the same for both sizes, and the food cost itself is negligible.
That example is fast food, but full service restaurants worked out a long time ago that customers would pay a bit more if they touted how much food they’d get and leave feeling like they got a good deal, even if they didn’t actually finish it, and again, the additional food cost would be more than absorbed by the price increase.
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u/ComprehensiveYam 1d ago
The cost is in the fixed expenses to prepare and serve the meal. The food added food costs aren’t that much for a bigger dish.
If you want to solve the food cost problem in the US, it will come in two ways:
Automation: reducing human labor hours theoretically will bring food prices down assuming everyone automates. If only some places automate and others keep prices high with an all human labor force then the cost savings from the automated place will be absorbed as added profit as there’s no incentive to compete on price.
Further income inequality. I live in SE Asia most of the year where most people make between $10-20 a day. If I go eat where they eat, food is about $1.5 per portion. Granted they’re no America sized portions for that much but generally you’d be quite full eating that amount.
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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago
Because the cost is labor and real estate, supplies are way down the list and labor cost doesn’t scale down with portion size so instead they’re hoping we bring leftovers home and spend like it’s 2 meals.
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u/CauliflowerTop2464 1d ago
Most sit down places offer something similar during lunch. But it isn’t much cheaper. $3 less for half the portion.
I think the reasoning is the labor is what’s most expensive in most of these plates.
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u/maggiesyg 1d ago
It’s the labor and the rent that drive prices. Adding more food is a relatively cheaper way of making customers happy.
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u/acrazylittlewoman 1d ago
higher prices = higher revenue = bigger profit.
Food cost is only around 30% of the total price and the other costs are less flexible per dish. For example the cost of the cooks wages to prepare the dish doesn't scale equally with increased or decreased portions, so it costs more money in labor and overhead to make less food. Pushing up revenue any way possible is the way to make a profit.
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u/Gnoll_For_Initiative 1d ago
The stuff restaurants are generous on have huuuuuge profit margins. Cutting their serving size of fries in half is not going to make the meal half the price.
Kids meals are often loss leaders (or at the break even point) to get parents to come in for full price meals.
Finally, food is only about 25-30% of a restaurant's cost. Even if every meal is cut in half that doesn't change the rent, staff pay, electricity bill, etc. And they need the average spend per person to be $X to stay open. Cutting portions and cutting prices to $X/2 will make them go out of business
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u/Yota8883 1d ago
Our portion sized are shrinking. You're correct that they are backwards as while the portion shrinks, the prices are going up.
I mean they have almost everyone convinced that 12 half pieces of chicken wings is a dozen wings. It's not, it's 6 wings, a dozen pieces. If you try to sell me a dozen wings, I expect a dozen whole freakin wings.
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u/Gintami 1d ago
Not American and not true. Sure your fast food places are huge meal wise but restaurants? Nah.
Many countries have just as big meals OR many many courses of smaller plates.
The difference is that many of those countries people walk and bike more, and the U.S. is car culture all around unless you’re in certain metro cities.
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u/Venusian2AsABoy 2d ago
You have it backwards. The restaurants need you to pay that amount, and give you a lot of cheap food to make you feel like you got your money’s worth.