Went to Wendy’s for lunch. They have a “table” where you can get salt, pepper, ketchup, straws and cutlery. But they took away the serviettes. The manager said people were taking large piles of them, so they were just putting one on the tray. I’m sure some people take handfuls of whatever.
But I can remember when Wendy’s opened in Canada. The “table” had packages of saltines. Those disappeared a couple decades ago.
Got me wondering. What is the most expensive, solid “help yourself” item that still exists at any fast food restaurant?
If we’re talking “expensive” to the customer, soda, even though it costs the restaurant relatively little.
If we’re talking strictly self-serve, gratis items, probably condiments like ketchup and mustard and BBQ sauce. Surely they get a bulk wholesale price on those as well, but per oz I’m sure they must cost much more than soft drink syrup and carbonated water.
Roy Rogers used to (and in existing locations, still does) have a “fresh fixins bar” with fresh lettuce leaves, sliced onions, and tomato slices, and other condiments and sauces. That can’t be cheap to maintain. It’s technically, theoretically only for people purchasing a sandwich, but I can’t imagine an employee coming to stop you if you just walked in and took some of that stuff, any more than they would if you just came in for napkins or ketchup.
A local Taco Bell has a basket with breath mints (wrapped wintergreen hard candy) that anyone can take. It’s not expensive, but somewhat unusual. I can’t say if that’s common at other TB’s or not.
I haven’t been to Chik Fil A but once or twice but I remember feeling like their condiments area was very generous.
They definitely have mayo which seemed shi-shi to me. I see on Amazon 200 packets of Heinz ketchup is $10 and 200 packets of Heinz mayo is $56 (Duke’s is $46).
Not sure what else they have, maybe someone else knows.
At least in the past, different fast food restaurants had real honey packets, but the last time (pre-Covid, granted) I visited such (Popeyes specifically, although others had them as well) those were replaced with “Honey Sauce” which was a frankensweetner with some honey, HFCS, sugar, and a loooot of other “stuff”.
Unknown if other places still do pure honey, which looks to run $25-45 per 200 packets at food service companies.
I hate those little packets of ketchup. There’s so little ketchup in just one that it seems borderline pointless. Even 4 or 5 isn’t enough for a decent order of french fries. At 5 cents each, I wonder how much of that cost is for the ketchup, and how much is for the packaging.
In the 60s Winkies (a hamburger chain) had a fixings bar. There was a Winkies in Oakland near the University of Pittsburgh. We’d ride our bikes from Squirrel Hill, down Forbes Avenue to Winkies.
Hamburgers were around a quarter. We’d each buy one then head over to the fixings bar where we’d pile on dozens of pickle chips. Then we’d bike over to Schenley Park and eat like kings.
Five Guys has a big crate of peanuts (in their shells) and people can shovel as many of those into a tray as they want, as many times as they want.
I’ve only eaten there one time, but on the table next to me there was a family who had finished their meal and were filling up on peanuts (and judging by the volume of shells and empty peanut trays, they had been at it for maybe half an hour, and that’s apparently OK).
Yeah, we ordered a burger and fries each and the cashier, obviously realising it was our first time there, advised us that one order of fries would be enough for the two of us.
It seems like in the US quantity is the thing, with quality not even a consideration.
In other countries, an order of French fries is a small side dish of amazingly delicious seasoned fries with a bit of house-made exotic ketchup that leaves you desiring more.
I worked at a Roy Rogers forty years ago, when there were more of them. The fixins bar was not terribly expensive to maintain in those days - they also had a salad bar and the tomatoes and onions would have needed to be sliced even if they were put on the burgers in the kitchen. Because of the salad bar, someone worked their whole shift in the dining room, rather than a cashier cleaning tables like in most places. But in four years, I don’t remember anyone walking in and taking that stuff - but people absolutely used it to make a salad on their wrapper and we did stop them.
There was a Roy Rogers in the “basement” level of the Cathdral of Learning at Pitt. My Spanish teacher always offered to meet there for those needing extra help. She was Cuban and pronounced it Rrrrrrrroy Rrrrrrrrohers. . Meanwhile, I couldn’t roll an r to save my life.
Five guys makes a point of using fresh potatoes, never frozen. They Usually have a sign up in their store, indicating where the potatoes came from (typically someplace in Idaho). They then cook them in peanut oil (hence, the peanuts that you can eat while waiting for your food).
Then, they make it a point to overflow your fry cup when they put the fries in your bag. That’s why a small is more than enough for two people; you get an overflow of french fries.
The food is pricey, but it’s worth trying at least once.
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