Why has fast food gotten insanely pricey?

I’ve been wondering the same. The quality of fast food is actually far worse now post-pandemic, but the price delta between fast food and a far higher-quality restaurant meal is much diminished compared to what it was four years ago. Sometimes for lunch (where restaurants have lunch prices and portions), fast food is actually more expensive.

This all makes no sense and I have no insight into it at all. But I do miss in the army where I could get an ok meal (Whopper value meal, to be specific) at Burger King for $2.99 — that’d be $5.54 in today’s money. Now the price is higher and the quality is much, much worse.

Here’s proof; this ad is from 1995 but this price held until the early 2000s — in fact, often just the Whopper itself was only $0.99, which was a frequent sale price. Sometimes I’d buy two Whoppers for that amount and call it good. Anyway, the ad: