Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
😇 Be Nice!
🏘️ Community Standards
🧬 Keep it Real
📽️ Credit Where Credit is Due
📋 Post Formatting
📬 Post Frequency/SPAM
🏴☠️ Internationalization (i18n)
Sí, por favor [Spanish/Español]🍿 Moderation
The following artists are banned from the community.
It should be noted that when you make reports, it is your responsibility to provide rational reasoning why something should be removed. Saying it simply breaks community rules is not always good enough.
Note: This is not a rule, but a helpful suggestion.
When posting images, you should strive to add alt-text for screen readers to use to describe the image you're posting:
Another helpful thing to do is to provide a transcription of the text in your images, as well as brief descriptions of what's going on. (example)
Tommy Siegel | Bluesky
Transcript
Single panel comic
Illustration of a highway with 3 billboards for fast food chains. A bridge is visible in the background, as are power lines running along side of the service road.
Each billboard has a chain logo, with secondary text below.
Wendy’s
McDonald’s
Burger King
I'm never going to install an app for a fucking fast food restaurant lol
I've never seen a restaurant in the US or Europe that requires you to download an app to order. They bribe you with coupons and discounts to download the app, which is fair enough, I suppose, but you're not obligated to. You can still walk up to the counter, tell your order to a human, and then pay with cash. No algorithm will ever know who you were or what you ordered.
Sadly, you get forced to a digital kiosk most places in my city if you walk up to the counter and expect to order there… but at least you still can avoid downloading the app. It’s actually been helpful for me as I eat less fast food now, lost some weight.
.
They bribe you with coupons and discounts to download the app, which is fair enough, I suppose, but you’re not obligated to.
They jack up prices and then offer what their menu prices should be through the app. It isn't a discount and this deceptive pricing practice is not fair enough.
I was broke and in college and the app deals were so incredibly cheap then. I used to exploit a burger king coupon that was a free kids meal with a $1 purchase. At the time you could get a 10 count nugget for $1. That kept me fed for sure
Fast forward to today, and now you have to have the app to get a still expensive meal. It's a bit more expensive than full priced meals used to be. It's not even worth it anymore
I doubt the person who drew this comic has had the misfortune of trying to order food in China. It's basically a literal form of what the comic is poking fun of, and it's ubiquitous.
In China, you can go up to the counter, but you cannot place an order. Sometimes, you cannot even read a physical menu. Not even so much as a menu on the screen. You have to scan the QR code using the Panopticon app (also known as WeChat) and then get bombarded with advertisements. Like us and get a free drink! Click here for a random coupon! Join our WeChat group! No, no, no, no. Then click through their garbage UI to find the one thing you actually want. Make sure you don't accidentally replace your order with one of their "recommendations" that pop up! Then, try to check out. Do you want to join our WeChat group for exclusive deals? Do you want to create an account? Dismiss, dismiss, dismiss.
Click here to pay. Only WeChat Pay is accepted. No cash, you backwards peon. Enter your mobile number here. Required to order. Ha ha, nice try, 123456789 is not your mobile number. No worries, we got it from WeChat. You'll get 3 order confirmation texts and 2 advertisements a week for the next six months.
Mfw the "communist" country that can do no wrong according to the tankie instances out-enshittifies the home country of enshittification and capitalism in general 🤦🏻😄
Meanwhile, the best baseball player in the world is Japanese, the number one ranked player in the NBA is Serbian, and they've even been overtaken as the most obese people by the citizenship-deprived residents of American Samoa!
If not for Handegg and money hoarding, the US would hardly be #1 at ANYTHING anymore!
If not for Handegg and money hoarding, the US would hardly be #1 at ANYTHING anymore!
The US has ended like 40 wars this year alone!
they're the current leaders at global terror
I saw a post about this last night. Really scary stuff.
Fast food serves zero purpose now. It’s not cheap and it’s not good. So why on earth would I ever install an app for any of these ghoulish companies?
Because it's fast?
It isn't fast either.
It's Louisiana fast ... aka slow as paint peeling.
Basically every restaurant is fast now. The Sysco/US Foods duopoly has made it infeasible to prep/cook fresh in-house
It's mostly just heating up pre-made foods now (that I grudgingly admit have gotten a lot better over the past 10 years)
Chain ones maybe but there's absolutely still restaurants that cook food from scratch.
Last time I ate at McDonald's they had 1€ burguers. Last time I checked it was like almost 20€ for a shitty menu.
Not in your widest dreams. I rather make myself a quick burger at home.
Dropping all that garbage food for high prices they are doing you a favor for your Health and pocketbook
It's not getting out of control at all. Just stop eating at these places.
I had no idea they even had apps, because I don't eat at these places.
They used to have good deals. I was able to order meals with deals and points to get a combo for a dollar. You used to be able to customize better too. I was able to put fresh diced jalapenos on my beef n cheddar.
Now the customization options are worse and the deals are worse. I hardly go anymore. Just not worth it. I can get a better deal at the sit down restaurants.
That's classic enshitefication. First it is good to hook you, then it gets slightly worse but you still use it out of habit, then it gets terrible and there is no other option.
Agreed. Supposedly all the best deals are on the apps, and the food is reasonably priced like it used to be if you play your cards right. However, to use those apps, you're agreeing to binding arbitration in perpetuity should they fucking kill or maim you with their shitty food. That's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make. I'm also not fond of ever giving anyone my data unless it's absolutely necessary, so I just don't go to these places unless I'm desperate and it's the only thing open.
Stop buying fast food. The companies are scum, its terrible for you and you will save a lot of money.
Fucking hell fast food costs as much as a sit down meal these days, of far better food.
I just haven't done fast for for so long that I didn't know the prices had skyrocketed.
Have started carrying out from local restaurants by calling ahead instead of any fast food for this reason.
Your sit down meals must be incredibly cheap. In this area, they've gone up, too. We usually don't get out of a sit down meal for less than about $50 these days. And we're not ordering extravagant meals or any alcohol. Fast food will be $20-$30 for the two of us.
That Burger king one is legit by me. They cut their staff so much they have 2 people cooking and one kiosk you can self order at that's broken half the time. Half the time you to to the drive through and they have a sign that says "app orders only." It's insane.
First time I saw a restaurant with an app only menu (that obviously required your phone number too) I just froze in confusion, looked at the staff like they were stupid (they looked me the same) and left. It was in Tallinn, Estonia. Later when I checked the rewievs of the place, those implied that it was more of a money laundering place than an actual restaurant, but I won't go further into that. Suspicious anyways. Found great food in the next door restaurant, they had a normal menu as did most other restaurants except some take-away pizzerias.
Is it really apps that are getting out of control? I still get by just fine not using them.
Prices, on the other hand.... I'll just say sitting down at a proper restaurant is a viable alternative.
I knew a place where, during the day, I could get all-you-can-eat Sushi for the same price as a McDonalds menu.
Absolute no-brainer.
Yeah I remember the moment when I realised I could buy 3 full sized avocado and cucumber California rolls, for the price of one Big Mac or Whopper. The math was easy.
Plus, there was this thing where if I showed up at 6am, they would sell me the sushi literally hot off the presses before they officially opened (if I paid cash). Warm rice, cool vegetables, and crispy nori; God I want sushi now.
And each of these apps is no less than 500 MB
Okay, dumbass gen-X-er here. Why in the name of Zeus' butthole is there an app for any of these places? Let alone a compulsory one?
Brand recognition. Makes you more likely to patronize said brand if you are seeing their logo on your phone multiple times a day ... Likely hundreds. especially for iPhone where it's on the home screen
Data collection and tracking . lots of these fuckers run in the background, calling home to report back what apps you have, your location, phone number etc. They're using this info to market to you more efficiently and to sell to others for profit. My wife had a shit ton these and her battery was dying faster than usual. Got rid of the bastards and battery life improved.
Advertising. Direct. To you. If they have a deal or feel like you haven't opened the app enough, they send you notification spam. It's a corporations wet dream. Immediate visual direct to consumer advertising and they paid nothing to achieve it. You just simply gave your permission for them to do so
If you're ordering via app, this opens up the possibility of giving others different prices depending on if they think you'll bite or accept it. This is much easier to do on an app or mobile site.. But impossible if you order in person
There are many fast food chains that effectively require the app
McDonald's and Subway are examples. You'll be paying quite a bit more without the app exclusive deals
There are also many chains that don't require an app for the best deals. Burger Kind and Culvers being examples
I wish this comic had a bit of nuance, because Burger King shouldn't be getting lumped in because they're better than most others
screw em all. they just want all your personal info to sell for increased profits
For a while, you could get fries or a McChicken for free or nearly do with the app. Like 5 years ago.
If you’re getting a deal, it’s fine? People pay iPhone prices for Google Pixel phones and don’t care that Google makes like $1700 a year off their data, and they defend this.
If you’re not getting a deal, don’t use the app. If you used it before but you don’t use it now, that data isn’t still helping them. It’s stale. Like a lot of their food. And that Pixel phone.
Tbh, Google Pixels have an unlocked bootloader, which is pretty rare nowadays, and nothing stops you from installing an OS without Google services. And I highly doubt they are able to extract any meaningful data when you are using such OS, even if there are hardware backdoors installed. It's just extremely hard to do complicated* stuff, including data collection, while not being detected, and with just access to low level hardware; network packet analysis would give away any such attempts immediately. (*as in 'more complicated than a few hundred assembly instructions')
Nope, nope, and nope. My fiance stopped going to Wendy's because she hated the AI voice. I still go there on occasion, all you have to do is say give me a human being. It is annoying having to wait for the McDonald's drive-through to ask me if I'm using the mobile app. They're just doing their job but it's seriously annoying.
Although I did make a comment to the teenager work in the register when I went to pay at Wendy's once because I drove past their slogan that said something about never cutting corners in service, which is hilarious seeing as using an AI menu board is literally cutting corners in service.
I have fast food maybe once a year, closer to every 2 years. I don’t understand the appeal. Unless it’s Culver’s. Even then, rarely done.
Even the infamous McDonald’s French fry doesn’t taste like it’s worth the calories any more.
After I got kids it all makes sense to me. I.fucking.love.McD.
A happy meal with nuggets, let them tire them selves out in the play area.
I can sit there drinking one black coffee. Tried a chicken wrap and my god it was awfull. Way to expensive (even for Norway). Hoped for some saldad, tomato and a little chicken. Nope. Some shredded green stuff with some chicken and the awefull cheese square that for some reason was stuck outside the wrap to the cardboard, the most high quality item in the meal tbh.
Freshly brewed drip coffee was nice.
i have such a simmering nostalgia for the old days. on tuesdays there would be 39 cent hamburgers and on wed there's be 49 cent cheeseburgers. this was at the local micky d's. that's what we called mcdonalds in those days. we were beyond a first name basis.
this was around the time i started my first job, which paid $7.50 an hour. and no, this wasn't in 1970, it was 2001. i wasn't in the middle of a space odyssey, but an odyssey of the everyman; it was days filled with the aroma and flavor of savory fast food and nights spent with fit y2k hotties in low-rise jeans sipping strawberry shakes. neither of these things cost much and that was a mutual expectation.
I've tried some. You could save up points, but redeeming points didn't work properly. Then the points expire because they want to push you to go back. In the end its a big hassle and not worth the scraps you receive.