I live in an exurb and eat 5 guys about 4 times per year. I had always found them to be expensive and hadn’t noticed the price increase. Perhaps the prices have not risen quite so much out here. Also we never get sodas which keeps the price down.

Anonymous wrote:Hello! Would love to hear from an actual finance DCUMer. Is there concern the restaurant industry is headed for a collapse? Did restaurants bounce back from covid by pivoting to all the takeout (after being clobbered when covid started), but now food price inflation plus staffing issues mean another crisis is ahead? I’m genuinely curious.
- DCUMer without a dog in this fight

I can't speak to the fancy sit-down restaurants (a lot of which closed in 2020) but it is concerning that the Five Guys at L'Enfant is gone. I walked past the Subway at Mcpherson and its also gone.

I ate there in 2019 and remember prices were incredibly high but imagine it’s worse now - luckily profits are sky high as well for big businesses.

Hello! Would love to hear from an actual finance DCUMer. Is there concern the restaurant industry is headed for a collapse? Did restaurants bounce back from covid by pivoting to all the takeout (after being clobbered when covid started), but now food price inflation plus staffing issues mean another crisis is ahead? I’m genuinely curious.
- DCUMer without a dog in this fight

Anonymous wrote:5 guys has gotten expensive. I paid 6.50 for a jar of Bon Maman raspberry jam at WF tonight.

Whole Foods? They mark up non house brands because they know you’ll pay. It’s Amazon they have all the data.

I have shopped at WF like 3 times since acquired. It’s $5/target.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess it’s time to learn to make hot dogs and hamburgers at home. You can do it!

It was a treat. Don't regret it but that meal would have cost maybe $14 bucks before 2020.

I just find it all surreal. Here's a receipt from a D.C. Five Guys in 2016. The Little Bacon Burger was $5.99. That same burger is $9.99 today.

What is happening now is unsustainable.

That 5 Guys location closed, so may not be a good comparison point.

Weird it was open all the way through December 2021...now what does that remind you of...it couldn't be the low foot traffic, sky-high food prices, and inflation is having consequences?

So funny story with five guys. I was in Rockville town center a couple years ago and there was a guy asking for money/food outside the Dawson’s market area. So I tell him I’ll go in with him and buy him lunch. They have a hot bar in there. So he thanks me but asks if I can get him five guys instead. I’m a vegetarian and I’ve never been in five guys. So I say sure and in we go. He asks if he can have a burger, fries and a coke…. Sure I say. So he’s all happy waiting for his food and I go to pay, thinking it’ll be less than $10 and the bill was like $18 or something…. I don’t remember the exact amount. I just remember it was way more than I thought it should have been.

That's why we don't ever go to places like that. We cook at home.

Anonymous wrote:5 guys has gotten expensive. I paid 6.50 for a jar of Bon Maman raspberry jam at WF tonight.

Wow! I bought the same on sale at HT yesterday for $3.99 and thought that was high.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love Five Guys, but never eat there. The first reason for not going there is food is so bad for you. Second, for what it is, it’s expensive. Family of four is probably $60 for a fast food meal. I rarely eat burgers, but when I do, it’s not hard to make a great burger at home. I could never duplicate Five Guys fries, but I try to avoid fries.

A family of four would be $100 bare minimum thanks to inflation.

DP. My family of 4 went to Five Guys yesterday and spent under $60. Two regular burgers for the adults, two little burgers for the kids, two orders of fries to share (because they are huge) and 4 fountain drinks. $54.

Duh. That’s not a bragging point. $54 bucks for basic burger and fries. Only someone who brags about spending $54 on this meal thinks it’s any better than Wendy’s. It’s not. And worse ii you get your fries to go you get them in a nasty brown paper bag dripping in grease. For $54 dollars people should start expecting them to drain them and present them better.

Inflation isn’t causing food prices to go up. The opportunity to make morning is though. The worst part of rising prices in the DMV is they will never come down but only continue to escalate while the majority of employers will not raise wages.

But you at least admit it’s untrue that a family of four would need to spend $100 to eat at Five Guys?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love Five Guys, but never eat there. The first reason for not going there is food is so bad for you. Second, for what it is, it’s expensive. Family of four is probably $60 for a fast food meal. I rarely eat burgers, but when I do, it’s not hard to make a great burger at home. I could never duplicate Five Guys fries, but I try to avoid fries.

A family of four would be $100 bare minimum thanks to inflation.

DP. My family of 4 went to Five Guys yesterday and spent under $60. Two regular burgers for the adults, two little burgers for the kids, two orders of fries to share (because they are huge) and 4 fountain drinks. $54.

Duh. That’s not a bragging point. $54 bucks for basic burger and fries. Only someone who brags about spending $54 on this meal thinks it’s any better than Wendy’s. It’s not. And worse ii you get your fries to go you get them in a nasty brown paper bag dripping in grease. For $54 dollars people should start expecting them to drain them and present them better.

Inflation isn’t causing food prices to go up. The opportunity to make morning is though. The worst part of rising prices in the DMV is they will never come down but only continue to escalate while the majority of employers will not raise wages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess it’s time to learn to make hot dogs and hamburgers at home. You can do it!

It was a treat. Don't regret it but that meal would have cost maybe $14 bucks before 2020.

I just find it all surreal. Here's a receipt from a D.C. Five Guys in 2016. The Little Bacon Burger was $5.99. That same burger is $9.99 today.

What is happening now is unsustainable.

That 5 Guys location closed, so may not be a good comparison point.

I was shocked by the price of 5 Guys in 2019. This isn’t news.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love Five Guys, but never eat there. The first reason for not going there is food is so bad for you. Second, for what it is, it’s expensive. Family of four is probably $60 for a fast food meal. I rarely eat burgers, but when I do, it’s not hard to make a great burger at home. I could never duplicate Five Guys fries, but I try to avoid fries.

A family of four would be $100 bare minimum thanks to inflation.

DP. My family of 4 went to Five Guys yesterday and spent under $60. Two regular burgers for the adults, two little burgers for the kids, two orders of fries to share (because they are huge) and 4 fountain drinks. $54.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess it’s time to learn to make hot dogs and hamburgers at home. You can do it!

It was a treat. Don't regret it but that meal would have cost maybe $14 bucks before 2020.

I just find it all surreal. Here's a receipt from a D.C. Five Guys in 2016. The Little Bacon Burger was $5.99. That same burger is $9.99 today.

What is happening now is unsustainable.

Why do you have a Five Guys receipt from six years ago?