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u/Superory_16 29d ago
79c tacos, 89c Burritos...
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u/KaizerVonLoopy 1988 Millennial 29d ago
bro the 99 cent bean burrito especial kept me (well) fed in my late teens.
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u/MidgetGordonRamsey 29d ago
99 cent cheesey bean and rice burrito got me through my first year of community college
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u/lotuskid731 ‘88 Millennial 29d ago
I still love the cheesy bean and rice burrito! But they’re $2.59 now. 😫
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u/Tsmart 28d ago
Who's your cheesy bean and rice burrito dealer? I can get you them for 1.50 flat
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u/Joulmaster 28d ago
they are still pretty cheap. Make them supreme and have them grill it like grilled stuffed burritos and you can be coma full with like 3 of um.
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u/M1sfit_Jammer 29d ago
I was fancy and got the 1.29 beefy five layers... those hit differently after a long day... now it's like $6 each, oh well, guess I'll just keep my dollary-doos
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u/KaizerVonLoopy 1988 Millennial 29d ago
A bean burrito and a cheesy gordita crunch cost me $15 recently. I think I'm probably never going back even though TB is one of my favorite guilty pleasures and comfort foods.
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u/M1sfit_Jammer 29d ago
Oh I'll be back... just maybe once or twice a year... $15 is a burger and fries at most sit down places and I can order that to-go.
My local chinese joint serves up 2lbs of lo mein for $15, add meat $2.
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u/DaedalusHydron 28d ago
thankfully you can make gordita crunches at home pretty easily. Particularly with those shell packs that have half soft and half hard. You just need to melt the soft shell to the hard shell with cheese as glue. I think my gf bakes it to get them stuck together?
Taco Bell even sells their sauces and spices in stores now
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u/Powerlevel-9000 28d ago
Those started out at .89. And they were bigger too. Or at least stuffed fuller.
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u/heptyne 28d ago
Those Bean Burritos and $5 Footlongs got me through some hard times.
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u/coryhill66 28d ago
I went to college counting out change to buy two tacos. I even started dating the manager so I could get a free soda.
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u/MasterRanger7494 28d ago
I remember when Big Macs were $ .99. My mom bought a rewards card from the high school foot all team so you could buy one get one. It was 30ish years ago.
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u/Skuzzle_bug 28d ago
Burrito and a cup of ice water for dinner kept me going through my first job. That water was likely leaded but damn it was fresh
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u/iamseandavid10 29d ago
$0.99 Chicken Quesadillas 😭😭
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u/VolumeOn30 29d ago
Two mini shredded chicken quesadillas and a bean and cheese burrito was $3.24. Used to get that all the time on my way to my retail job back in the day 🥲
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u/Putzinator 1992 29d ago
I had a buddy who would buy an 89 cent burrito, they added 7c of tax, and he kept the 4c of change every single day. 24 days later and he had a free burrito... Much simpler times.
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u/bentreflection 28d ago
29c hamburgers and 39c cheeseburgers at mcDonalds on tues/wed
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u/cumulonimubus ‘87 Seconds In Heaven 29d ago
The Half Pound Beef & Potato Burrito from Taco Bell ™️ was both delicious and affordable. I have woken people in the drive-thru at 2:30am more times than I care to admit.
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u/DoggieDMB 29d ago
4 spicy chicken burritos for 4:20... God damnit I miss the spicy chicken so much. Used to work Tbell and you could make some bomb ass quesadillas with that stuff
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u/joshdoereddit Millennial 28d ago
Bro, the way the price on the beefy 5-layer just kept creeping up was salt in a wound.
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u/Mechanik_J 29d ago
And five dollar footlongs at subway...
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u/Mostly_Afloat Millennial '86 28d ago
I had a friend eat two subway footlongs to stretch his stomach out so he could beat the record on $.50 tacos at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
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u/Brave-Turnover-522 28d ago
Wait, eating 2 subway footlongs at once is considered not normal?
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u/history_is_my_crack 28d ago
Five dollar hot n ready pizzas too if Little Caesar's was a thing in your state.
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u/Mediocre_Scott 28d ago
Not great pizza but great for $5
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u/prodigalAvian 28d ago
Caesar only promised us two things:
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u/Healthy-Chef-2723 28d ago
those were the best pizzas to grab wasted. tasted amazing and we could all get one each
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u/phaser125 28d ago
I remember that joke . “But is it good” … “it’s hot, and it’s ready “ … “ yeah but is it GOOD”
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u/NoobensMcarthur 28d ago
I miss Arby’s 5 for $5 the most. Back when you could get 5 full size roast beef sandwiches. Those things carried me through baseball season every year of high school.
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u/Sophisticated-Crow Older Millennial 28d ago
And $5 for 5 whoppers at BK. You could deal hop for cheap food all over the place. Now you have to get every coupon and deal to keep a family fast food treat at a half reasonable price.
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u/atln00b12 28d ago
This is what I was looking for. They were roast beef WITH cheddar too. And it was that way for a long time too because my mom would get it when I was in middle school and then ~10/12 years later I was still getting them. I think you had to use a coupon that came in the mail at the later time, and it may have gone up to 5 for $5.95, but still, so legit. Now the "deal" is like 2 for 7 without Cheddar.
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u/phoenix25 28d ago
I can still hear the commercials
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u/bell37 Millennial 28d ago
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u/Mediocre_Scott 28d ago
This is picture is from long before 2008 the date on the corner makes it seem like 1996. The BMT did not have bologna on it when five dollar footlongs were being marketed. Not to mention the chicken sandwiches oven roasted chicken sweet onion chicken teriyaki and chicken bacon ranch are nowhere on the menu. Bread options are more limited than what they were during 5 dollar footlongs. Where is the Italian herbs and cheese, honey oat, or hearty Italian.
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u/atln00b12 28d ago
Yeah this is really old. When $5 footlong started most footlongs were $5-6 and the BMT was closer to $7.
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u/Talent310 29d ago
I remember a 24 hour Starbucks that would unofficially host impromptu car meets like every night.
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u/Blueknightsoul47 29d ago
That was big when I still lived in Houston around early 2000s. Whole parking lot would be full of tricked out civics.
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u/Hips_of_Death 28d ago
I was not a part of that community but I was aware of them lol
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u/Blueknightsoul47 28d ago
Sipping my caramel macchiato outside, ricers burning tires. Oh that’s neat. Go back to reading my book.
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u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) 29d ago
I really do miss when stuff was open 24 hour. Walmart, CVS. So convenient and easy when you don’t necessarily want to go during the day or you’re just having a night where you can’t sleep and need to get out of the house.
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u/Affectionate-Ad-4174 29d ago
I worked a lot of closing shifts in retail when I was younger and it was so peaceful grocery shopping at midnight after a shift.
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u/Tyinath 28d ago
Midnight/a little later became my go-to hours for shopping. Almost never anyone else in the store. Got to browse without moving out of the way or feeling rushed. Quiet as could be.
Crazy how it just never came back
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u/WindOfWinterNever 28d ago
In college when I lived within walking distance of a 24 hour grocery store was the best. Did my grocery shopping when there were like 3 customers in the entire store, it was great. A few of my summers I spent working the night shift at a place, and on my days off I could still go out and get something to eat for lunch at 1am without trouble.
Post-Covid and none of those places are open after 10pm anymore.
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u/Little_Yesterday_705 28d ago
I miss grocery shopping at 3am when i was in college. It was the absolute best.
I'm a staunch believer that everything should be open 24/7.
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u/Hips_of_Death 28d ago
Agreed! I believe some doctors offices should aim to be night shift and support people at weird hours. Not urgent care. General care doctors. Car mechanics, etc. available when people are off work. No more of this 9-5p BS where I have to work my schedule around theirs
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u/Guilty_Rain3864 28d ago
There'll be like three other people in the whole store and you'll feel a spiritual kinship with them, despite the unspoken rule to absolutely not interact with each other in any way
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u/critiqu3 29d ago
Fuck 3rd shifters I guess. I used to have a late job where me and my coworkers would all go shopping after work when the local Walmart looked like a ghost town. I miss those days.
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u/asevans48 28d ago
Yeah, was closing out a papa johns as a driver to get a down payment for my own place on the weekends. Grocery shopping got hard af with the change.
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u/Thoraxe474 29d ago
Burger King in my area is open 24 hours again. Literally the only place that is
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u/brownbearks 28d ago
Wawa in my area is a god send
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u/bwaredapenguin Millennial 28d ago
I used to work the 11pm-7am shift at a Wawa in Deptford, NJ 21 years ago and that was some fun fucking madness! After the drunks and psychos stopped coming after 4am in I loved getting like 20 pots of coffee and all the breakfast sandwiches set up because that meant I could drink and munch as much as I wanted without scrutiny!
I did love my psychos though as this was my second job at the time after an 8 hour shift at the Pathmark deli and they perked me up a good bit.
I only quit because I was moving 8 hours away and I've missed Wawa ever since. Supposedly my little town in NC is getting one next year though and I couldn't be more excited for a gas station!
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u/memekid2007 28d ago
I worked overnight at a convenience/liquor store next to downtown/campus for a couple of years in college. It was super cozy outside of the friday/saturday night booze rushes. The downtown bar and restaurant workers would come by after closing up and chat, you'd already know what they were getting (Light Blue American Spirits and two Jim Beam shooters, Camel Crush Menthols and Bacardi and orange juice etc) and you'd swap stories about drunk weirdos and parking lot fights or whatever, then get coffee and newspapers ready for the oldtimers coming by early early before the sun came up. The restaurant guys would bring leftover pizza, the oldtimers would bring breakfast every now and then, and maybe you rang their drinks and coffee up as ice to look out for them too.
The pay was absolute hot garbage but that was the most genuinely peaceful job I've ever had in my life.
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u/DangerActiveRobots 29d ago
Every time I go to Walmart now, any time of the day, there are at least two employees stocking shelves in every aisle. You have to work around them to get anything. They have to constantly worry if they're in someone's way. It sucks.
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u/bipbophil 29d ago
We use to pay those people nothing and they didn't know any better
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u/386U0Kh24i1cx89qpFB1 28d ago
08 unemployment fucked people up. 24 Walmart is an abomination against the unfortunate. I understand it's convenient for people who have over night shifts that are actually necessary like nurses but damn is it a scam. I used to work retail and people would show up on Labor Day and say "I can't believe they are making you work today". Fuck off lol.
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u/WindOfWinterNever 28d ago
When I worked the overnight shift at a store it paid a few bucks more per hour than the day shift and you dealt with a tiny fraction of the customers. It was amazing.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
I ran to a gas station in the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep and Google said it was 24 hours. When I arrived, well Google was wrong. I just kept driving and eventually found one but it’s too far from my house to be a regular thing.
And I live in a big city.
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u/BigBaws92 1992 29d ago
I live in LA there’s a lot of shit open 24 hours
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u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) 29d ago
LA is like its whole own world lmao. The rules don’t apply
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u/EddieVanzetti 28d ago
"I live in the 2nd largest city in the US, idk what you guys are talking about when you say there is a lack of convenience and opportunity?"
Spoken like a true angeleno
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u/possitive-ion 28d ago
The CVS in my city is still 24/7. It came in clutch for me recently too cause my wife was released from the hospital with some prescriptions that needed filled ASAP and it was like 1 or 2 AM.
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u/etherealsmog 29d ago
I have a distinct memory of being at a Walmart at like 2am around high school / college timeframe and seeing some weird guy there who I’m pretty sure in hindsight was TJ Miller, as it was definitely a Walmart I know he would have visited (he had family in the area).
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u/fishking92 1992 29d ago
"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." - The Office, Andy Bernard
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u/Reasonable-Song-4681 Older Millennial 29d ago
As someone who works overnights I miss 24 hour stores. Sucks having to rush through my "morning" to get stuff done.
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u/Agreeable-Nobody1863 28d ago
Getting off at 3am and making a grocery trip to Walmart was both convenient and pleasant because it was quiet and nobody blocked your path reading all the fucking mustard bottles.
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u/thisistherevolt 29d ago
And you can have it all, my empire of dirt.
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u/Ballsofpoo 28d ago
Reznor or Cash? Different vibes. One's mad one's sad
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u/One-Inch-Punch 28d ago
Reznor is really good but that's a Cash song now
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u/Catch_22_ 28d ago
I love Cash, and Trent said it belongs to Cash after that, but to me it's always Trent. His delivery hits me in a more meaningful way. Just a personal preference.
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u/Ballsofpoo 28d ago
And isn't that what music is for?
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u/Catch_22_ 28d ago
Yes but I never know if people are going to flip out because I think Trent's version is better. Like how dare someone not agree Cash is better.
The crown of thorns change bothers me too. But again, that was his artistic touch.
I'm high and defensive I guess.
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u/MeatballUser 28d ago
It's just cliche that people think Cash's version is better. It's what people think they're supposed to say, so they say it. The original is incredible
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u/URAQTPI69 28d ago edited 28d ago
It's a Cash song in the same light that 'With a Little Help from My Friends' is a Joe Cocker song.
It just feels right.
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u/Karhak Older Millennial 29d ago
I've still not recovered from them taking $.25 Little Debbies from us
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u/Windir666 28d ago
i still get a box here and there, they dont hit the same way as they used to, idk if they changed the recipe but i bet they did.
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u/Bubba_Jones44 29d ago
Covid killed the vibe. I don’t know that it’s ever gonna recover.
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u/AsinineArchon 28d ago
Shit was going downhill before that
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u/Ballsofpoo 28d ago
Not unlike 9/11. Shit wasn't great. Dotcom had seen its end.
In '08+ there was confidence in a triage from the housing crisis. In '16 we laughed at the joke of a president because we felt recovered...
Covid. January 6th.
I know there are ebbs and flows. But this tide went out long ago. Deep Impact.
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u/creampop_ 28d ago
who could have known that post-WWII economic imperialism and MIC would ever run out of gas and hurt the public?
Except, you know, that Eisenhower guy.
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u/SaltKick2 28d ago
It wont, COVID gave them an excuse to prevent people from getting upset so they could increase profits. There are no 24 hour walmarts (or similar) in the US, there are a handful of grocery stores and Walgreens/CVS. As far as I know all Walmarts close at 11:00 PM local time.
Not sure if people actually enjoyed working the night shift though, considering it messing up their sleep schedule compared to most of the rest of the world. They did get higher pay though.
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u/thesoulfield 28d ago
the thing i missed most when working nights was the sun. you do feel like a vampire sometimes.
what i loved the most is how nice and quiet everything is. the world is asleep, you can take a breath and work a little slower. days are so busy and it feels like you can't get a moment alone sometimes.
and yeah, higher pay was nice too. it's good to be young and flexible.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
I’ve been an insomniac lately so sometimes I’ll drive out to a gas station or whatever. It’s a pleasant drive at 4-5am. At 7am I’m cursing all the traffic. I love how peaceful the world is at night.
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u/One-Inch-Punch 28d ago
2016 killed the vibe. We lost Lemmy and Bowie and it's been a freefall ever since
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u/brainshell123 29d ago
Wal-Mart used to have lobsters
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u/MeanYesterday7012 29d ago
People who shopped at Walmart used to be able to afford lobster
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u/LemonButterRum 29d ago
Red Lobster had unlimited shrimp
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u/JoeRogansNipple 29d ago
Red lobster existed
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u/Mediocre_Scott 28d ago
Remember Boston Market
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u/monkeyman80 28d ago
I had a boss who his wife was an exec at Boston Market. Every single catered meal was from them. It's not bad food but it got old quick.
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u/Ninja_Grizzly1122 29d ago
Midnight Walmart runs were the best; whether it was a late night snack/beer run or going there two weeks before Christmas trying to get some last minute presents without any crowds.
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u/AlarmingStop 29d ago
Life was FUN. My mom used to wake me up after her night shift so we could grocery shop at 4 am. The internet was still novel and wasn't inundated with bots and ads yet. I miss it.
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u/odysseyofocelots 28d ago
There’s since been this umbrella of like sadness and oppression that seems to cover you everywhere you go now :(
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u/One-Inch-Punch 28d ago
It really feels like things are going to get a lot worse and we're just waiting for the other shoe to hit
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
Yeah at the time the trend seemed at least neutral. Now I feel like every day is a little worse than the last one.
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u/DescriptionBitter332 28d ago
It's just impossible not to feel ripped off everywhere you turn anymore. There's no such thing as good value anymore outside of the Costco hotdog. Long live the $1.50 glizzy!!
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u/miked5122 29d ago
My wife and I talk about this often. We used to go to Walmart at 1 in the morning in our newlywed days when we were bord. $1 mcchickens and mcdoubles were clutch for grabbing a bite when out longer than anticipated. Now there are more expensive and taste worse.
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u/flipnitch 28d ago edited 28d ago
The $1 mcchickens and mcdoubles kept me alive in the early-mid 2000’s…one for lunch, one for dinner. Other than that I’d buy a carton of eggs for 79¢ or whatever and go to the bread outlet store on Wednesdays so I could get 2 for 1 loaves of wheat for $1.49…used roommates butter for egg sandwiches..
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
When they were $1 I would go weekly, at least. Now it’s a once every few months thing. Just making the world a bit more depressing. If I’m hungry at night now I’ll make a sandwich at home rather than go out and be in the world a bit.
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u/BigSwordLady 29d ago
I miss it when my dad picked me up from school on Friday and got us a bag of burgers on the way home.
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u/Early-Chemistry-8769 29d ago
A social network website where you just planned parties and outings, wished eachother happy birthday and shared photos.
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u/LumpyBuy8447 29d ago
I was telling the story about how my apartments ac was out in college and I woke up at like 3 am one day and drove to Walmart and bought an ac so I could sleep. Mid convo it hit me that that is not a thing you can do anymore and it’s so strange.
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u/DarkLordKohan 29d ago
Two beef and potato burritos from Taco Bell was $2.98 and I went through the drive thru every weekend at midnight for it. Good times
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
Yeah some people are so rich they are really getting creative with places to park their money. Like vets? Really? Bowling alleys??
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u/Wheresmyarcpaulie69 29d ago
Nowadays, you order spaghetti and marinara sauce, you get egg noodles + ketchup, for the beautiful price of (unaffordable)
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u/Delicious_Pain_1 1994 29d ago
I remember being 17yo going to Walmart at 3am for strawberry and buying my first pair of underwear without my mom getting it for me. Now my wife buys those things for me.
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u/Quantum_Corvid 28d ago edited 28d ago
40 here, I remember going to the corner store when I was 12 and buying a 2 liter of Coke for $1.06 after tax.
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u/ConvictedConvict 28d ago
36 here. I remember when most grocery stores would have a ‘generic’ soda vending machine. 25 cents for a 12oz can of Shasta Cola or Dr K
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28d ago
I was in an independent grocery store the other day and a 2L of Coke was $7 😢
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u/mvigs 29d ago
Fuck Walmart.
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u/Eldres 29d ago
I mean yes... But that's not the point OP is making. I think they're making the claim that before private equity, and rampant late-stage capitalism, life was better. Could just be nostalgia, but we also have data to support the claim outside of just nostalgia.
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u/LiterallyZeroChance 28d ago
Fuck Walmart.
Yeah, say that when you're in a small town and you really need a box fan or some ibuprofen late at night.
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u/Clean-Technology1465 29d ago
We were having a lan party when we were like 18-19 and one of my boys got pissed at league and punched his monitor. Went to Walmart at 1 am and got a new one lmao
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u/Downtown-Campaign536 29d ago
I remember buying a whopper jr for $1 that was bigger than the current whopper....
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u/Rice_Eater483 29d ago
Seems like the only thing holding the line is pizza from big Pizza chains. Yeah Little Caesar's doesn't have $5 Hot and Ready's anymore, but it's still just $5.99 everywhere I've seen. Pizza Hut still has daily deals on 2 or 3 topping large's for $10. Which I think was the same price I was paying pre-covid.
Feels like everything has doubled or tripled while the big Pizza chains have only gone up like 20-30%.
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u/TherionEater 28d ago
I remember the $1 McChicken, but I never saw a Walmart until I was around 30.
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u/sault_ste_marie420 28d ago
I used to work third shift at Walmart. I’d have lunch outside and it was so peaceful. Shitty job though.
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u/cherrie7 28d ago edited 28d ago
As a non-American, we've never had this and sadly, we never will.
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u/Gideon_Lovet 29d ago
As someone who worked retail, I'm kinda glad we don't have 24 hour Walmarts. I wouldn't want anyone to feel the need to work overnight retail, and I can't imagine the people you would have to deal with who needed to shop at Walmart at 4 AM.
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u/johnmadden18 28d ago
IIRC when my relatively small-town Walmart used to be open 24 hours, after about 11pm there were no employees at any of the checkout lines and you had to use the self-checkout with no one around. The only employees in the store were re-stocking shelves or cleaning or whatever.
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u/Paraxom 29d ago
when i was working nights there was many a 2 am trip to walmart to get random spices i forgot to get for cooking, it also beat sitting alone in the dark watching TV and playing games all night(im aware i didn't need to sit in the dark, but in case people were scouting my apartment i didn't want the lights to give a tell for when i was and wasn't home)
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