When Fast Food Was A Rare Treat…

I don’t know about you, but it seems we eat a lot of fast food today. When I was a kid, fast food was a rare treat – not a matter of habit. For us, it was McDonald’s or Washington, D.C.’s very own “Little Tavern Hamburgers,” which were on a par with White Castles in the Midwest.

Because I was a kid, I hated Little Tavern burgers because they were laced with onions, which any kid knows, are not from this planet. Few kids will eat them. I always had to scrape the onions off yet the onion flavor remained. Sometimes, the ol’ man would bring home burgers from the Club 602 on his way home from work on a Friday – which were on a par with good bowling alley cuisine.

What made McDonald’s America’s favorite in those days were the basics of fast food – burgers, fries, and a shake all for under a buck – food the average American family could afford. Such is not the way of McDonald’s today. For a family of four, for example, a trip to McDonald’s or any other fast food joint is at least $40 – unheard of a half century ago. In the 1960s, $40 was a grocery bill.

McDonald’s and Burger King grew way beyond their original intended markets and have taken a lot for granted in the years since, with menus so involved today it is an exhausting read at best. It takes a logistics manager to even begin to understand any of it.

This really isn’t having it your way.

The best fast food bargain out there remains Southern California born “In-N-Out Burger” – which is catching on across the country as people flee California for more affordable lifestyles in places like Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia. In-N-Out Burger never forgot what it is in business for. It never left its core consumer group – people who want a simple burger, fries, and a drink for under $10 – and that’s in the wake of significant recent inflationary price increases.

McDonald’s, Burger King and the other big guns are always conducting consumer product testing – products that come and go for “a limited time only…” You get used to a product and suddenly it is gone. Well, who the heck wants that? Certainly not me. I am a creature of habit. I have a hard enough time breaking in a new toilet seat let alone seeing a favorite vanish from the food menu.

In-N-Out as well as other regional burger chains, never abandoned their core market. Another good example is Sonic drive-ins, which was born in the American heartland. Sonic never abandoned its core customer – people who want a simple menu that’s easy to navigate. Dairy Queen is another terrific example of how to treat the consumer. It continues to offer a simple menu and there’s always plenty to choose from.

What baby boomers enjoyed long ago is something young people miss out on today because they’ve never lived it. What made our treks to drive-ins and fast food establishments was the rare nature of these terrific outings. They didn’t happen very often and, when they did, they were thrilling instead of us thinking of it as an entitlement.