Has anyone else noticed the proliferation of $5.99 lunch deal offers.....

[marmar]

.... from those ersatz chain restaurants like Chili's, Applebees and Bennigans? .....
Are they suddenly more customer-friendly...or are they just getting desperate? :think:

[Duke Newcombe]

1. Yes. n/t

Duke

[glowing]

2. Hopefully, they go away.. and real restraunts, with real chefs, and real

food will re-emerge as the thing we want to spend money on.. all those places suck.. best restraunt, my kitchen.

[napi21]

4. It's really hard to find a real restaurant with a real chef anymore.

There are 2 fairly close to us, but the prices are really high! I understand though. The food is very good & the chef sure makes a lot more than minimum wage!

[glowing]

8. And its the type of thing people should save for and take themselves out to.

We gave those chains up a long time ago. I guess if your on vacation there is a need for a cheeper meal.. but there are better ways to create a cheaper meal and still have it taste really good. Size portions for one. The use of spices and herbs to bring out taste. Less micro-packaged foods. More than 2 or 3 distributers of foods. Using local markets to save on costs of veggies and meats. There are a few little places that we have found that have good food and decent costs (of course these are rest. that have been in business for a long time).

[JDPriestly]

10. Who could afford to eat in a restaurant that paid a real chef

a decent wage? Most of us are far too poor for that. My husband and I do not eat out.

[napi21]

12. I bought a discount coupon at restaurant.com for $3.00 that was for

$35.00 off a dinner for 2 at one of the "real restaurants" here. http://www.restaurant.com/ offers special sales quite often where they offer the coupons at 60% and 70% off. That's the way we could afford to go to this very nice restaurant for our aniversary.(43 years) Without the coupon, our bill would have been $78.00!

[JDPriestly]

30. Good for you! That's the way to manage in life.

[midnight]

32. Happy anniversary.

I will have to check this site out. Maybe I can find something to treat myself to. Thanks.

[glowing]

22. If people in service industry could be paid "real" wages, then they

could support the jobs of other people... And in turn the other people could make more money. Round and round it goes.

[Warpy]

3. One more outcome of huge inflation in food prices

might be a little better portion control at these prole restaurants.

In order to offer these lunch deals, they have to cut down on portion size, something that might eventually be reflected in the waistlines of their customers.

[leftofthedial]

5. they figure the "stimulus" package will provide 100 lunches for each of us

they are DESPERATE.

[Auggie]

6. Does that include food?

[lonestarnot]

17. If you want to believe cardboard with sauce on it food.

:)

[liberal N proud]

7. I would think they have to be getting desperate

I know we have severely curtailed our dining habits.

[Donnachaidh]

9. They are getting desperate

People are NOT going about their usual shopping with lunch or dinner thing in my area. Some of the most popular restaurants in our local shopping area have had virtually EMPTY parking lots during their rush hours. These places had lines waiting for seats just a few short months ago.

The only place that seems to be doing big business is a locally owned greek diner that is renowned for it's HUGE dinners at reasonable prices (reasonable for the actual amount of food you get). And even THEY are making the portions smaller, in comparison to the usual mountains of food they used to bring out.

Times are tough all around.

[Frustratedlady]

We have the same for Mexican food and the Chinese takeout at the grocery...

Both are excellent, and both serve large quantities of food. With the Chinese takeout, you can actually get two meals out of one.

Their traffic hasn't slowed down.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. Every fast food chain pushes value and combo meals

That want to steal back that crowd by advertising a better meal than one out of a wrapper.

[edhopper]

13. Why would anyone go to one of these

restaurants that do nothing more than reheat TV Dinners and serve them to you. You can save money by going to the frozen food isle and heat them yourself. Save your eat-out money for real food.

[Mind_your_head]

14. All of those chain restaurants suck

And I can make a better tasting, healthier lunch for my family and myself for a LOT cheaper than $5.99/person (and I do, daily).

When we do go out to eat it's at a locally owned place - with a real chef, who cooks real food. We're lucky that there are a few of those places around here, but as someone else upthread pointed out, those places have been around for a LONG time. You don't see any young chef's starting any new places like these...I'm sure there are several reasons for that though.

We've got one sandwich shop here, the chef/owner makes EVERYTHING from scratch...soups, sauces, bread, grinds his own meat for burgers, he even makes his own ice cream which you can buy in quart containers to take home. It's really heavenly :-) Hmmmm....I just realized that I haven't been there in awhile, maybe lunch tomorrow. Gotta support those local independent shops & restaurants if you want to keep them, ya know!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. There ARE locally owned restaurants that charge the same as the chains

Quite often they're ethnic, but not always. If I want good old-fashioned, home-made burgers and fries and shakes (an impulse that strikes maybe twice a year), there's such a restaurant just eight blocks from my apartment, and it costs no more than Applebees. There's a little breakfast and lunch place nearly across the street from me.

You just have to learn not to automatically gravitate toward the places you've heard of before. For example, in a nearby strip mall, there's an Applebee's. But in the same strip mall is a little Middle Eastern restaurant owned by Israeli immigrants that serves not only the standard felafels and hummuses but also things you've never heard of, all very reasonably priced.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. And yet there are so many chain restaurants

They must be doing something right.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. They offer predictability, sort of like TV

and Top 40 radio.

[Mind_your_head]

33. Yep - very 'vanilla'

Variety is the spice of life it's been said (and tis true)! One shouldn't settle for plain 'vanilla' when there is so much more.

[lpbk2713]

15. I tend to stay away from restaurants that have really low prices.

It makes me think of what they sacrifice to get their prices so low. Things like cleanliness, food quality, maintenance and reliable employees.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. unlike the 'real restaurant' elistist snobs here, I am

perfectly capable of enjoying a burger for lunch for $5.99 at one of these 'ersatz chains.' It's fucking food, not a goddamned pretense competition, assholes.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. The point is supporting local business owners instead of chains

not being a food snob. My example upthread is of a burger and fries place that makes it's own food from scratch.

[timtom]

24. Let me reinforce your position, LL

I can get a SUPERB hamburger deluxe with fries, burger cooked on a good old-fashioned griddle, made with 100% ground chuck for $4.75 (under $5 out the door) at a local and very popular breakfast/lunch spot within a mile of my house.

When I want a burger I:

a)Make it myself

b)Go to the Northwood Diner

Quality is about the same (except I don't make fries).

[BigDaddy44]

25. Don't you think the people who work there are local?

The manager. The wait staff. The cooks. They don't bus them in from corporate every day. They're local.

[Mind_your_head]

26. Which brings up ANOTHER point about chains...

Go to a local sports field in your area when the kids from the park district, for instance, are having a game. Take a look at the back of the player's shirts .... there you will see who "sponsors" the team.

I GUARANTEE you that you're not gonna see Applebees, Olive Garden, Chilis, Macys, Walmart, Home Depot, Bank of America, or Citibank on any of those shirts. You're gonna see the LOCAL dentist/orthodontist, privately owned pizzeria/restaurant, a local cloths boutique, the community bank, hardware store, etc. sponsoring the kids in the community. It's the same with the ads in your weekly church "bulletin" which isn't so much "good advertising" as it is a way to help your church publish & print the thing - all of those advertisers are all LOCAL.

The big corporate chains want absolutely NOTHING to do with supporting/giving back to the community in which they have 'planted a store'. The local populace GLADLY walks thru the 'big chains' doors every stinking day and hands their good money over to them, which the chain then GLADLY takes and spreads your local money out all over the world - to it's overpaid upper management and shareholders (whose only concern, by-the-way, is the "bottom line of THEIR portfolio"). If the town that the chain is in turns into a big sh*thole, the chain just shutters it's doors and walks away. It doesn't care that the town became a dump.

I've on occassion, through the years, worked fundraisers for church, school, the local performing arts school, etc. calling to ask for donations of items for fashion shows, silent auctions, asking if they'd just buy ad space in our booklet to help the fundraiser. The MANAGERs at the chains don't have the authority to give stuff away like that. A few will say, "that's a good question" and then they supposedly "ask corporate" who then says, "NO". We don't even bother asking the chains to support any local community group anymore - it's a waste of our precious time. Locally owned businesses are generous and 'come through' every time.

And as for giving the managers, cooks, wait staff, cooks a JOB. Well, a minimum wage - or even less than minimum wage job if you're wait staff (they make it up in tips, ya know ;-) ) is slightly better than 'no job at all'....but just barely. Managers of chain places are just worker bees like everybody else in 'the house'. They get moved around alot from store-to-store and most often don't even live in the same town that the 'store' is in! They often communte fairly long distances. The rest of 'the house' is just barely squeaking by. They're too tired to contribute too much to the community and they're wondering if they'll be able to afford to pay the small park district fee so that their son/daughter can play on the local softball team this year (with the shirt that has the name of the local diner on the back)!

[Ignis]

23. It's not a pissing contest over status.

It's about supporting locally-owned businesses, local food suppliers, and local economies...and getting some good food at the same time.

Need a ladder for that horse?

[edhopper]

27. It's not fucking food

it a mass of chemicals and preservatives masquerading as food.

[Mind_your_head]

28. I KNEW it! I could've guessed this about you!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3089596&mesg_id=3089749

;-)

Peace,
M_Y_H

[JANdad]

35. THANK YOU!

eom

[dembotoz]

18. I welcome 5.99 specials

I welcome footlong sub for 5 bucks
I welcome combo meals.

My disposable income went into the gas tank and the food bill.

We are looking at bad times my friends.

Am I wrong to buy the special????

If someone want to offer me a discount or a coupon or a special deal I am all for it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. One sign of the tanking economy will be restaurants

the chains will drop prices, the small ones will close... watch for closing restaurants

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. It's already happening in Minneapolis

While two of my favorite restaurants in the Uptown area closed because they were kicked out of their buildings to make room for new construction, two others have closed for no discernible reason at all.