"People aren't buying things anymore and it's an absolute mystery as to why" is such a western media take
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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Economy is based around consumption
economy fast tracks giving all that money to those who spend the least percentage of their wealth
less stuff gets bought
How could this happen? Someone good at economics, pls help.
Every 5-10 years an economist rediscovers an aspect of Marxism and we all have to apllaud them for realising value and labour is connected or that people need money for things
Spend less on yachts (and "defense" budget)
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After opening in a tiny space without parking in 2018, the business went on to earn a nod on Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ list, in 2021, and a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s Top 100 restaurant list, the following year. In January 2023, Brett’s expanded to a much larger space, attracting lines out the door on the first day.
After that initial boost in customers, business leveled off. The owners increased the prices as the costs of goods went up, and Jackson said he noticed twice-a-week regulars cutting back to once a month.
Move to a more expensive location, increase prices, business fails, many such cases.
The old location was a 5 minute walk from the residential buildings.
The new location is still 200m from the closest residences but it's now a half hour walk.
I'm fascinated by American urban planning.
I am also constantly fascinated at the genuine lack of curiosity these bourgeois fucks have about their customer base. You know you can, like, talk to them? Find out where they live and how they get there and how they heard about your store. Stuff that every other successful business in the world does constantly. But you are a small business owner, people will give you that kind of shit for free because that shit is often the original para-social relationship.
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I'm patiently awaiting the day it's finally legal to beat a capitalist to death with a copy of Capital
When millions of workers complain about cost of living you get articles about how the economy is actually doing great and how it's all just in their head but one unsuccessful restauranteur says something after their failed restaurant expansion and you get articles how the economy is shit.
The rich are doing better than ever and the poor are doing worse than ever: here’s why the rich are the real victims.
Proletarinization? What's that, a new kind of protein powder?
Bbq has become trendy and most places in Texas expect $20/lb for brisket now. Even the shitty places, of which there are many. Some of the really overpriced places pull $30/lb or more.
Let em close. Idgaf.
I thought the whole point of brisket was it was a cheap cut of meat, so you did all that stuff to it to give it some zest
It used to be a very cheap cut. A packer brisket used to run $25-30 for a 15lb cut. That same thing can run $100 or more depending on where the beef comes from, now. And that is for select or choice grades. Prime runs $130 or more.
Combine that with the fact that every clown with a smoker thinks they're a gourmet chef that deserves $20/lb for brisket and here we are I guess.
I knew things were going sideways when oxtail started to go up in price.
The problem is that poor chefs looking to make money get really good at cooking cheap cuts of meat, which then increases the price because more people are buying it, so it is no longer cheap. Same thing happened with lobster.
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i'm glad beans and tofu will never be trendy
the thing is if you know how to cook it right pretty much any bit of meat can be made to taste like it's worth a lot more (even the 'waste' parts, people like soul food for a reason)
It was cheap because people didn't widely know how to cook it properly, now that people do there isn't really a reason for it to be cheap
$20 a pound is nuts though lol like let me just get some filet mignon instead, chief
It's the same thing with skirt steak, and even chicken wings. Wings used to be cheaper than dirt because nobody did anything with them. Back when I ran a small kitchen I remember them being not quite giveaway prices but pretty close.
But now that wing shacks are prevalent, and fajitas have become more popular, the price for those two items has gone up accordingly.
I'm sure there are tons of other examples, but those two come to mind.
When all those cooking shows started cooing over “sweetbread” when it just means a particular kind of organ meat. Consuming offal was associated with poverty. Then some jackass calls it “sweetbread” and it becomes a haute cuisine
I’ve done some nice briskets by sous vide them in a very large bag (can use sealable turkey brine bags) over 24 hours and then just a few hours on a smoker. It’s not even that hard.
Definitely cannot justify the prices out at these spots, doing stuff at home really isn’t that hard. If anything baked stuff always feels way more worth it in terms of doing it myself VRs buying
I hate eating out now that I'm a reasonably talented chef because it's always like "I could have done this way cheaper and had leftovers for a week"
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Brisket isn't hard to cook but it's challenging to cook for the purists. They will holler about the bark, or the smoke ring, or the fat cap, or the fact that you weren't up at four AM splitting mesquite for kindling.
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Good grief those prices are absurd.
My personal favorite is the 10$ potato.
"Ranch $0.50 extra"
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Common vegan W
For sure. I've been cutting meat and poultry from my diet the last six-eight months but not because of costs, but because my body seems to tolerate it less well as I age and I'm trying to be a bit more healthy to boot.
I haven't bought any bbq in ages, and it was because of costs back then, maybe two years ago. It hasn't gotten any cheaper since then.
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I’m curious what kind of BBQ joints they’re talking about. Those sort of roadside, dude with a giant smoker filling up takeout boxes BBQ joints have pretty low costs. Which makes me think these are fancier sit-down places whose owners don’t get that no one is going to work for minimum wage because $7.25 an hour (or $2.13 with tips) isn’t enough to live on and they don’t have a business plan to profitably that involves paying a livable wage.
i think you’re on to a core component (beyond everyone but the top 10% being pressed for disposable income). the us is structurally and culturally ordered around accepting exploitation to become the exploiter.
unless you become credentialed and make your way into the ever shrinking pmclasses your only hope to not only a semblance of financial security but also basic social respectability (personhood, really) is to suffer exploitation and privation until you can open your own shop and become the exploiter.
many jobs and even trades, basically anything not considered a “profession” encourages this “path” which of course logically cannot work for everyone in these jobs and also conditions new owners to a mindset of “i did it, why can’t they” ignoring any other factors and allowing capital interests and politicians to order governance around what become economic truisms.
conditions new owners to a mindset of “i did it, why can’t they”
The “I paid my dues” mantra is very powerful in s capitalist economy, both in getting lower rung workers, especially younger ones, to accept bad conditions and low pay, and as a rationale for ownership/upper management for implementing those conditions. Seems that cycle is breaking as the ossifying economy means those workers are now less likely to see an upwardly mobile path and this less likely to suffer through. No point in paying dues if there’s no middle management or petty bourgeois position waiting on the other side.
Literally my biggest erk about kids(ppl) when they get a job, so quickly they get so…. Proud? Like ‘oh must be nice to sleep in’ ‘oh they don’t know how hard it is’. Near instant loss of empathy. I feel like I worked hard but Never took myself seriously because of severe alcoholism. (Maybe libertarianism?) But also I worked in an agricultural area and drove thru fields of ppl really working, for bullshit wages. And when the economy got tough all my undocumented friends got screwed over badly. I just try remind ppl that they’re not the first person to work hard. And to remember to have empathy. (Rambling)
Not only that, people who haven’t had a pay rise in well over a decade (I’m from the UK and haven’t seen a meaningful pay rise since I started working, 20 years ago), aren’t spending money on stuff like a meal out.
Well yea all the BBQ places around me are so expensive it's basically the same price to go to Korean BBQ or a Chinese hotpot place and eat all the meat I want for the same price as a single plate, and it tastes better. Who would actually go to these places unless you just really want Texas BBQ
Everything's bigger in ~~Texas~~ Korea and China 😪
Bad food restaurants are failing.
Billions must die.
I'll take those unsold ribs off your hands champ.
if we have to have privately owned restaurants they should at least be like heavily subsidized by the state like farmers are, it's fucking ridiculous imo that institutions as important as places that fucking feed people are subject to such thin profit margins that a couple weeks of slow business could shut them down forever
I'm not saying this out of sympathy to the owners, but for the people who live in the area and eat there, it really sucks to have restaurants you like go out of business especially if it leaves you with very few options for meals you don't have to prepare yourself
Part of what puts me off from even trying to open my own restaurant (aside from feeling like an imposter pretending to be a chef, still) is knowing how easy it is for them to fail and just leave me with a bunch of debt. Or me and a bunch of people since I guess to not be a petty bourgeois fuck I'd need to have some sort of employee co op thing going
not having a landlord helps a lot
texas bbq was always doomed. it is a heretical breakaway sect.
real heads know that eastern carolina bbq is the one true path.
lol. Bbq is bbq.
It's just wine snobbery but with cows and pigs instead.
Turns out everything tastes better when you just drown it in sugar.
I agree but those Carolina heretics use vinegar instead
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The small business BBQ places have been closing in my area of the south for a couple of years now, and as much as I'd like to ve-goon over people gaining more empathy for animals, the truth is that vegan restaurants are also closing down at about the same rate.
Most specialty restaurants of all varieties have upped their prices while lowering their quality. Combine that with being expected to tip 20% if you eat in, and a lot of people would rather learn how to cook the more expensive items themselves as long as they can get their hands on the ingredients. And when it comes to BBQ your local grocery store will usually have a corpse slaughterer ready to go with custom cuts for those that ask. Hell, even if you consider the BBQ needs special equipment, almost all corporate apartment rentals have tiny grills outside (to reduce fire hazards, not out of generosity lmao) and when they don't small free parks typically have a couple. As a former carnist myself I know that corpse cooks itself half the time. Ok that sounds weird, what I'm trying to say It's generally low skill beginner cooking as long as the cuts aren't too thick. Chopped flesh will basically just cook in its own fat once the heat is high enough. Sure, it won't be cooked as nicely as a standard BBQ place, but for the average person it'll be good enough, especially once they get some practice in.
I think the places that are going to stay open in the near future are going to serve food that's either high labor / annoying to make (sushi, high-end gourmet meals, deep fried foods, pastries ect) or uses very specialized / expensive equipment (like hot pot, waffles, ice cream made from scratch). Maybe you'll have a few that also use ingredients that you can't find anywhere else (for example, some carnists still go out of their way for gator tail restaurants here in FL), but I doubt they'll be the majority.
Oh and btw
spoiler
You can BBQ mushrooms too 
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First they came for those that just wanna grill, and I did not speak up...
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