The main problem is that since wages haven't kept up the proportional value to the paycheck doesn't follow inflation which is why it isn't actually as simple as just looking at inflation.
Depends on the type of sandwich and how good it is. I'm thinking of a full sized sub.
Yellow Sub has fantastic sandwiches and full size was around $5 back in the 90's and around $14 today. Back then the half was like 75% the cost of a full (twice the size) so I always got the full and had leftovers.
Dude I'm always so stunned by comments like this. I'm in aus and a zoomer, even after converting to USD decent sandwiches have cost more than this my entire life
I mean, if you're going out to sit down restaurant and getting a good sandwich, I don't think that's unacceptable at all. That said, my local sub shop has amazing subs for $6-8
That sounds like a dream to me in Germany. Subway for two was around 20€ last year and the average Döner is at least 7-8€, though in my area it’s closer to 10€
With or without drinks, and footlong or half-footlong? Been a while since I've been to subway, but I'd be very surprised to learn that the cheaper half-footlongs are already at 10€ (assuming your area's taxes, wages and raw material prices are similar to mine, which is not a given). IMO the footlongs are too big to count as "one sandwich".
Without drinks and foot long. Even if I don’t finish it in one sitting, I’ll basically always go for a bigger sandwich and have leftovers later, unless it’s something really saucy or likely to get super soggy.
It’s about the size of a dürüm, at least around me. If they stuffed it really full, it might feel bigger, but subway was never even close to as full as any Döner place makes theirs. I tend to judge the size of food by my companions because I have a bird stomach (I would be happiest having three bites of food every half hour all day long, because otherwise I get really full), and I’m the only one who saves part of it for later.
Yes, but they probably don’t mean a sandwich using the standard size of bread slices that you find in a store. Something like Jimmy John’s Favorites subs or my local gyro place (technically not a sandwich but similar) are around that price and contain a lot more volume of food than a basic sandwich. Subway’s footlongs are about that size/volume but their quality is not worth $11 by any means. I think hamburgers also would be an exception to that price-quality-volume metric for sandwiches.
I withdrew $11 dollars from the ATM machine using my PIN number to buy some DC comics which I converted to a PDF format to view on my LCD display e-reader.
There’s a really popular sandwich shop in my hometown. It regularly has a line out the door. I just checked their prices and it’s 10.75 for most options so I’d say this is spot on.
This is probably perfectly true if you live near Mike ginn and eat at the same shops he does. I paid $13.50 for a chicken sandwich today and it was pretty crap.
Generally find that there isn't really much good on the menu. I would rather make my own food because I can probably do it better. I know my tastes better than they do.
What kind of a sandwich are we talking about? A monsteous long ass sandwich that would feed me for a week, or something to eat at lunch in its entirety to hold me over until dinner?
I guess you could interpret those as being the same thing. To further clarify, the second sandwich in my inquiry would be eaten in its entirety during lunch.
Yes, you can save a bit of money and make something better at home, it may well be recommended.
But, that $11 doesn't cover just the ingredients. It covers the time and effort you spent planning groceries, getting the groceries, 15 min making the hoagie, and perhaps packing it and bringing it to where you are. Consider how much you think your current job should be paying you and apply it to that whole process. All of that is what you're spending instead of the $11. And for a lot of people that's time well spent for sure, but it's still time and effort that's worth more than most give credit.
I get whatcha saying, but there was this place I used to go that would make this awesome Torta Oaxaqueña (various Mexican food in a hamburger-like bun) that I don't think I coulda ever made myself.
aw yeah true, I miss the Subway of the 90s, the food was noticeably better and worth the money. Over the past 20 years they just kept taking shortcut after shortcut and now it takes like stuff you could take out of the freezer yourself.
Yeah, sandwiches at a decent Mexican restaurant are a whole nother level. Cemitas and tortas have basically ruined all other sandwiches for me at this point.
When it was more affordable, some of those paid sandwiches were pretty good. I'd rarely get as intricate with the ingredients when making a sandwich at home, I'd especially skip the salad almost always because it's way too wasteful to buy a head of salad for one person.
Well, first of all, it’s a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with a Hawaiian name and it doesn’t even have pineapples or spam on it. I’d say that definitely counts as foolish.
If you enjoy the big kahuna, try it with the chipotle mayo they put on the 43. I think everyone actually knows this but I still recommend it every chance I get.
This is around right. It's about $11 for a generous half sub at the beat sandwich shop I know, $20ish for the full sub, but it varies a bit depending on what's in the sandwich.
Have you? Do you want a sandwich, or something proper? For a sandwich, four bucks is generous. If you want something with rye, sourdough, and a crispy crust, well, that is a Butterbrot, not just a sandwich.
Are you in the US? If you are I hate to break it to you, but the cost of meat(yes cold cuts) alone will put you at close to $10. Cheese is right behind that.
I pay about 3.50 a lb for turkey at costco. Another 3 a lb for cheese and a 3 dollar loaf of bread from a local bakery will make me about 6-10 sandwiches. I also use slices of onions which I always have around to cook with dinner. Maybe some lettuce and mayo.... still talking like 4 bucks a sando
The nearest Costco is 20 miles from me. Walmart would be the next cheapest thing. A lb of meat there is close to $7. Then there's Shoprite which is usually around $8-$10 a lb. They've been sneaking up the last few times I've been there. Prices around me are cooked. With a family of 5, a lb of anything that isn't frozen is gone in 3 days.
I'm in A Philly suburb. Philly itself is cheaper than a lot of big cities but it's still a big city. My area is solidly middle class. Houses aren't that bad where I live but they're starting to average 500k for 2 stories which is insane to me. CORRECTION: My parents paid 85k for the first house we lived in back in the beginning of the 90s. They sold it for 183k. The second house we rented was $1700 a month but is up to $2600 a month. Single story 3 bed 1 bath ranchers are going for 350k which is also insane.
Oh and here's a receipt from my shopping for today. Just the old cuts are marked.
Technically, a half pound of shitty cold cuts and a half pound of low quality cheese and a loaf of basic ass bread, they could probably 3/4 it for sandwiches if they were degenerates and added no vegetables or condiments further than the packets that they guilt saved from their last visit to Arby's/Taco Bell.
I like those simple Tesco (UK grocery store) ham sandwiches. They're nice. Fluffy bread, ham nice and fresh. They're £1.50. I have to be fair! They do what it says on the box! Haha
this man has never gave an honest attempt at making a good homemade sandwich on a budget. Seriously just getting any kind if fresh bread (you can get those at wal mart and i bet any local cafe that bakes their bread will sell loaves) and cheese is halfway there. Any basic condiment selection will be good enough. All of that is so cheap compared to the protein most likely.
So there's a place I'd go to that used to sell these real big chicken sandos and at some point they raised the price like a buck or 2. Inflation happened and it's like what to them would be a kids meal portion size and for other places would be the normal. Price hasn't gone down. Flavor is still good. 🤷♂️
In my small little town, the local shyster opened up a deli on main street just before the start of covid. The least expensive sandwich on the menu was a $14 grilled cheese sandwich. Next step up were the $16 - $18 burgers. At the time, there was nothing in town to attract people to come here to eat, and those prices pretty much excluded the vast majority of the locals from being able to afford to eat there regularly. Anyway, my family and I went one time, just to give it a chance since we like to support local business as much as we can. Needless to say we weren't surprised when the place close down within the year.
So, I'm thinking that completely randomly chosen number probably doesn't specifically hold up universally everywhere.
Does nobody here find it a bit insane that 11 dollars is seen as an acceptable price for a sandwich these days?
Pretty sure a potato is going to cost $11 soon at this rate
We're going to have to put the Arrested Development banana meme out to pasture soon.
We were supposed to get another ~100 years out of that meme. Thanks, Trump.
I didn't know there was an xkcd for this. Nice! Thanks for sharing.
There is an xkcd for everything!
There really is holy shit, I wasn't fully convinced until this
https://thomaspark.co/2017/01/relevant-xkcd/
I expected to pay $5 for a good sandwich in 1995 and with inflation $11 sounds about right.
Double checked and yup: https://www.calculateme.com/inflation/5.00-dollars/from-1995/to-now
The main problem is that since wages haven't kept up the proportional value to the paycheck doesn't follow inflation which is why it isn't actually as simple as just looking at inflation.
I paid 2€ for a sandwich up to 2020. How is $5 expected in 95...
Now it's more like 4-5€ for a good one.
Depends on the type of sandwich and how good it is. I'm thinking of a full sized sub.
Yellow Sub has fantastic sandwiches and full size was around $5 back in the 90's and around $14 today. Back then the half was like 75% the cost of a full (twice the size) so I always got the full and had leftovers.
http://www.yellosublawrence.net/menu
I believe you mean "eleven dollars dollars".
You mean “dollars eleven dollars”.
Me. I think it's outrageous 😳
Dude I'm always so stunned by comments like this. I'm in aus and a zoomer, even after converting to USD decent sandwiches have cost more than this my entire life
Australia was a model for the rest of the world...
Even worse, it is half the size it was 5 years ago.
it's not even a foot long
I mean, if you're going out to sit down restaurant and getting a good sandwich, I don't think that's unacceptable at all. That said, my local sub shop has amazing subs for $6-8
Going to a sit down restaurant for a sandwich is very suspicious behavior. Like going to a bar and ordering a glass of milk.
Yeah same in the EU, every local sub place will be €5 at most
That sounds like a dream to me in Germany. Subway for two was around 20€ last year and the average Döner is at least 7-8€, though in my area it’s closer to 10€
If you're eating at Subway you're doing it wrong
That’s why my last price point is last year
Laughs in Eastern Europe's 20$/week spendings on food.
While making sandwiches for myself every day.
Oh, I pay about that in the grocery store, I just can’t get restaurant food for that cheap.
With or without drinks, and footlong or half-footlong? Been a while since I've been to subway, but I'd be very surprised to learn that the cheaper half-footlongs are already at 10€ (assuming your area's taxes, wages and raw material prices are similar to mine, which is not a given). IMO the footlongs are too big to count as "one sandwich".
Without drinks and foot long. Even if I don’t finish it in one sitting, I’ll basically always go for a bigger sandwich and have leftovers later, unless it’s something really saucy or likely to get super soggy.
Yeah, but that's one big sandwich. 10€ for a big sandwich is different from 10€ for a normal-sized sandwich.
It’s about the size of a dürüm, at least around me. If they stuffed it really full, it might feel bigger, but subway was never even close to as full as any Döner place makes theirs. I tend to judge the size of food by my companions because I have a bird stomach (I would be happiest having three bites of food every half hour all day long, because otherwise I get really full), and I’m the only one who saves part of it for later.
Yes, but they probably don’t mean a sandwich using the standard size of bread slices that you find in a store. Something like Jimmy John’s Favorites subs or my local gyro place (technically not a sandwich but similar) are around that price and contain a lot more volume of food than a basic sandwich. Subway’s footlongs are about that size/volume but their quality is not worth $11 by any means. I think hamburgers also would be an exception to that price-quality-volume metric for sandwiches.
If I'm going to be spending eleven dollars for a sandwimch it better be two.
nah that's a reasonable price for a quality sandwich in Canada
now if you convert that $11 USD to CAD, then no, that's high
This must be old; it’s $15 everywhere near me now.
I remember when I thought $8 was steep. It wasn't even that long ago.
$11 dollars
Eleven dollars dollars?
I withdrew $11 dollars from the ATM machine using my PIN number to buy some DC comics which I converted to a PDF format to view on my LCD display e-reader.
Yes, but apparently it's quite demanding so I'll need some more DDR RAM Memory.
What kind of ATM lets you withdraw exactly $11?
I remember back when ATMs had $5 bills. Don't know if they ever had singles.
I haven't seen anything less than $20's in one for a long time.
This is definitely big city language. 11$ is an expensive sandwich.
$²11
No, “dollars eleven dollars”.
Must be the Dairy Queen "$5 Buck Lunch" people
There’s a really popular sandwich shop in my hometown. It regularly has a line out the door. I just checked their prices and it’s 10.75 for most options so I’d say this is spot on.
Reminder that if you make minimum wage in the US that sandwich cost a quarter of your daily income.
This is probably perfectly true if you live near Mike ginn and eat at the same shops he does. I paid $13.50 for a chicken sandwich today and it was pretty crap.
Are you suggesting that it was not foolish to pay $13.50 for that sandwich?
Foolish does not imply bad
But it would be foolish to spend that much, especially on a bad sandwich
As they say, hindsight always knows what’s good in the menu.
But in Australia all you’ll get for $11 is something pre-made in plastic.
Generally find that there isn't really much good on the menu. I would rather make my own food because I can probably do it better. I know my tastes better than they do.
Are you claiming to live near Mike then? The man said $11 was peak.
Foolish does not imply bad
£8.36 for a sandwich? Fuck off.
The best sandwich costs $1.50 but it exists in Vietnam so you need to factor in travel costs. The longer you stay, the less it costs.
2 - 8€ range contains bangers
2-4€ at the butcher's
5-8€ at the bakery
Different style, all delicious
The fact that this number has crept up without meaningful wage increases is what I'm pissed about.
What kind of a sandwich are we talking about? A monsteous long ass sandwich that would feed me for a week, or something to eat at lunch in its entirety to hold me over until dinner?
They are the same thing.
I guess you could interpret those as being the same thing. To further clarify, the second sandwich in my inquiry would be eaten in its entirety during lunch.
I can spend less than $11 and make a giant hoagie at home that's the ssme or better quality than the shop selling me a 6 inch sub for $11.
Yes, you can save a bit of money and make something better at home, it may well be recommended.
But, that $11 doesn't cover just the ingredients. It covers the time and effort you spent planning groceries, getting the groceries, 15 min making the hoagie, and perhaps packing it and bringing it to where you are. Consider how much you think your current job should be paying you and apply it to that whole process. All of that is what you're spending instead of the $11. And for a lot of people that's time well spent for sure, but it's still time and effort that's worth more than most give credit.
So you're the asshole extorting people for sandwiches at $11 a pop!
That gets me a loaf of bread, a smoked sausage, cheese and I'll even have money to spare for tomatoes.
I can have several sandwiches.
11 dollars for a sandwich? what are you putting in it? a ten dollar bill?
Big assumption I'm going to regularly pay someone else to put fillings inside of bread for me.
If I'm paying for food out, it's gonna be something I can't or really don't want to make myself. Not a fucking sandwich.
I get whatcha saying, but there was this place I used to go that would make this awesome Torta Oaxaqueña (various Mexican food in a hamburger-like bun) that I don't think I coulda ever made myself.
That's fair. My mind just went to Subway as the extreme example
Most people aren't thinking of subs when they say "sandwich".
Well, that definitely explains why some people do think of subs when they say "sandwich"!
aw yeah true, I miss the Subway of the 90s, the food was noticeably better and worth the money. Over the past 20 years they just kept taking shortcut after shortcut and now it takes like stuff you could take out of the freezer yourself.
Yeah, sandwiches at a decent Mexican restaurant are a whole nother level. Cemitas and tortas have basically ruined all other sandwiches for me at this point.
When you work every day, it is easier to just order a sandwich.
I refuse to make those every day
Bahn mi
Philly cheese steak
Toasted Reuben
When it was more affordable, some of those paid sandwiches were pretty good. I'd rarely get as intricate with the ingredients when making a sandwich at home, I'd especially skip the salad almost always because it's way too wasteful to buy a head of salad for one person.
Jersey Mike's Big Kahuna Cheese Steak is $13.49 so this is demonstrably false
Well, first of all, it’s a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with a Hawaiian name and it doesn’t even have pineapples or spam on it. I’d say that definitely counts as foolish.
Yoooo, does anyone make a spam pineapple cheesesteak? Asking for a friend that is also me that would destroy that.
You could be the pineapple spam cheese steak slinger
I'm fixin' to here in a minute. Spam musubi is one of my very guilty pleasures.
I’ve never heard of such a thing so you could be the first, I guess.
Please don’t forget to name your firstborn after me if it works out.
Sure, you bet. 100% guarantee.
Ayooo good point
Jersey Mike’s seems to be the pinnacle of sandwichsmithing these days.
Firehouse is also decent.
If you enjoy the big kahuna, try it with the chipotle mayo they put on the 43. I think everyone actually knows this but I still recommend it every chance I get.
This is around right. It's about $11 for a generous half sub at the beat sandwich shop I know, $20ish for the full sub, but it varies a bit depending on what's in the sandwich.
And if you do them yourself, you can get a perfect sandwich for four dollars or less easily.
Yeah, but you better be ready to eat the same sandwich for every meal for the next 10 days or else your bread and lunch meats will go bad.
We have toast bags with eight slices. Which is four sandwiches. For two people it's two meals each.
The world is not America, where food seems to come in ginormus sizes.
Are we talking about real bread with hard crust, or mass-produced packaged stuff?
The industrial product, not the real bread which we normally have. The packaged stuff is for sandwiches only.
Right. So I'm gonna have to call shenanigans on that $4 perfect sandwich claim.
Have you? Do you want a sandwich, or something proper? For a sandwich, four bucks is generous. If you want something with rye, sourdough, and a crispy crust, well, that is a Butterbrot, not just a sandwich.
I will not pay 11 dollars for a sandwich ever. I have bread, i have meat and cheese... i'll be fine
Are you in the US? If you are I hate to break it to you, but the cost of meat(yes cold cuts) alone will put you at close to $10. Cheese is right behind that.
I pay about 3.50 a lb for turkey at costco. Another 3 a lb for cheese and a 3 dollar loaf of bread from a local bakery will make me about 6-10 sandwiches. I also use slices of onions which I always have around to cook with dinner. Maybe some lettuce and mayo.... still talking like 4 bucks a sando
The nearest Costco is 20 miles from me. Walmart would be the next cheapest thing. A lb of meat there is close to $7. Then there's Shoprite which is usually around $8-$10 a lb. They've been sneaking up the last few times I've been there. Prices around me are cooked. With a family of 5, a lb of anything that isn't frozen is gone in 3 days.
yeesh, is the cost of living really high in general where you are? My wage is shit but at least I can (barely) afford groceries.
I'm in A Philly suburb. Philly itself is cheaper than a lot of big cities but it's still a big city. My area is solidly middle class. Houses aren't that bad where I live but they're starting to average 500k for 2 stories which is insane to me. CORRECTION: My parents paid 85k for the first house we lived in back in the beginning of the 90s. They sold it for 183k. The second house we rented was $1700 a month but is up to $2600 a month. Single story 3 bed 1 bath ranchers are going for 350k which is also insane.
Oh and here's a receipt from my shopping for today. Just the old cuts are marked.
This is about half of what I see it for. At best.
Technically, a half pound of shitty cold cuts and a half pound of low quality cheese and a loaf of basic ass bread, they could probably 3/4 it for sandwiches if they were degenerates and added no vegetables or condiments further than the packets that they guilt saved from their last visit to Arby's/Taco Bell.
*in America.
Divide by 4-5 for asia.
Counterpoint: good bahn mi in SF is around 6 dollars
I like those simple Tesco (UK grocery store) ham sandwiches. They're nice. Fluffy bread, ham nice and fresh. They're £1.50. I have to be fair! They do what it says on the box! Haha
this man has never gave an honest attempt at making a good homemade sandwich on a budget. Seriously just getting any kind if fresh bread (you can get those at wal mart and i bet any local cafe that bakes their bread will sell loaves) and cheese is halfway there. Any basic condiment selection will be good enough. All of that is so cheap compared to the protein most likely.
In my mind a large "smos", as is the ubiquitous sandwich variety here, is 2,70.
They're now up to 5 or 6, depending on place, plus shrinkflation reduced it to a third of a baguette instead of half.
Nonsense!
Yea, we often discuss at work how expensive they've become.
But $11 in the US is insane, and that's probably not counting tips they're also expecting nowadays
It used to be like $5
Salt Hank sells a $40 French dip, sells out by noon
So there's a place I'd go to that used to sell these real big chicken sandos and at some point they raised the price like a buck or 2. Inflation happened and it's like what to them would be a kids meal portion size and for other places would be the normal. Price hasn't gone down. Flavor is still good. 🤷♂️
In my small little town, the local shyster opened up a deli on main street just before the start of covid. The least expensive sandwich on the menu was a $14 grilled cheese sandwich. Next step up were the $16 - $18 burgers. At the time, there was nothing in town to attract people to come here to eat, and those prices pretty much excluded the vast majority of the locals from being able to afford to eat there regularly. Anyway, my family and I went one time, just to give it a chance since we like to support local business as much as we can. Needless to say we weren't surprised when the place close down within the year.
So, I'm thinking that completely randomly chosen number probably doesn't specifically hold up universally everywhere.