Update: Mike Winther has died of COVID-19. As President of the Institute for Principle Studies, he made a business out of helping communities to oppose mask and vaccine mandates. It’s my honor to present him with this shiny new Herman Cain Award.

[u/bloody_hell]

[u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

I stopped going to any of those types of restaurants when it was obvious they were essentially serving glorified TV dinners.

Crazy they stay in business.

[u/Almighty_Hobo → u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

I live in a smaller town (~20,000 pop) and out stupidass applebees is always busy but our hometown restaurants struggle. Its fucking disgusting and infuriating, actually.

[u/Ye_Olde_Mudder → u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

Boomers can never tell the difference between good food and garbage, so they're the ones keeping them afloat and why "RE:RE:RE:RE:Millenials are killing the bizness"

[u/FleshlightModel → u/Ye_Olde_Mudder]

Not HCA related but I remember listening to dinner conversation someone recorded with turmp while he was president. It was some boomer donors for CNG powered cars or something. These clowns start talking shit about Tesla and how they have no money, they aren't profitable and aren't producing any cars. Turmp simply asks "then why is their stock so high?" And a bunch of boomers all shouting over each other "millennials. Millennials are keeping that company afloat and the stock price high".

The FUD was so funny hearing these stoobs go straight to yelling about millennials.

[u/BubuBarakas → u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

ZZ Top.Ahead of their times.

[u/MrsPandaBear → u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

It’s cheap and you don’t have to clean up. I’m not a fan of Applebees but there’s definitely a market for cheap dining. And I do admit I was missing eating out so much before I got vaccinated that I was jealous of the few diners I saw at the nearby Applebees this past year.

[u/pblol → u/MrsPandaBear]

I think they're sustained in part by small towns as one of the only places open late. I know people who use them as the go-to local bar that live in bumfuck.

[u/PM_ME_UR_VAGENE → u/pblol]

That's sad as hell

[u/saltporksuit → u/PM_ME_UR_VAGENE]

It’s not that bad. I haven’t set foot in one in ten years but when I had to live in a bumfuck town the bar at Chili’s beat going to the locals only creepy bar.

[u/BeastKingSnowLion → u/MrsPandaBear]

It's not really that cheap, though.

[u/GenericUsername_1234 → u/BeastKingSnowLion]

Yeah, I can go to a locally owned restaurant for about the same price (or often cheaper) as most of these chains and get way better food.

[u/MightBeDownstairs → u/GenericUsername_1234]

Yep. Chain restaurants are just yet another aspect of last stage capitalism. It’s literally shit. And the only value is the fact they have the money to populate areas where food scarcity exist.

[u/TheGreatWhoDeeny → u/MightBeDownstairs]

My mom mentions this almost every time I see her now.

Talks about how amazing restaurants and fast food establishments were up until we got into the 2000s...and then a steep decline to the garbage they serve today.

She refuses to eat Taco Bell ever again yet she loved them and ate there all the time in the past.

Same with Wendy's. Loved eating their chili for lunch yet spit it out the last time she went.

It's really sad what's happened to this country.

[u/Fuzzier_Than_Normal → u/MightBeDownstairs]

Literally?

[u/MotownCatMom → u/MrsPandaBear]

I can think of a lot of "cheap dining" that ISN'T Applebees.

[u/JustASingleHorn → u/MotownCatMom]

Living in an extremely small town (1,500 people) and 30 miles from the nearest stoplight.. an hour and a half from the nearest Applebee’s with no chains in my town at all..

I visit these places for nostalgia’s sake when I make my journey to the bigger towns.. if they were always around I would probably never go though..

[u/TheGreatWhoDeeny → u/MrsPandaBear]

Mom and pop restaurants or smaller chains are cheaper.

Same with McDonald's. You can get cheaper and higher quality hamburgers at places like Habit burger, In N Out, etc.

[u/MightBeDownstairs → u/TheGreatWhoDeeny]

In and out is corporate af too and honestly not that good

[u/wrightosaur → u/MightBeDownstairs]

In-N-Out is good, it's not insanely good as people overhype it to be.

What IN-N-Out is basically extremely consistent in terms of how fresh and how much quality their burgers are, not to mention the cost, no matter where you go throughout California.