My guess is that most folks eating casual like this back then didn’t base the tip on a percentage of the tab, but simply what denomination of coinage they had left over and the quality of the service. It’s only with the advent of credit cards and the recent encouragement by casual/fast food restaurants to tip, that we have converted to the same percentage scheme used by fancier restaurants. A good example of this is how we used to tip bartenders. $1 a drink during most of my lifetime, and 50, 25, 10, 5 cents the further back you go in time. It is only recently with the predominance of cashless payment that we now base our bartender tips on a percentage of the tab.
Good observation. Okay, in an effort to answer the OP’s question, let’s call it 1968, and assume we have a family of four: Dad, Mom, and two kids.
Dad: Big Mac (0.49), fries (0.20), large Coke (0.18).
Mom: Double hamburger, fries (0.20), large Coke (0.18).
Kid A: Hamburger (0.20), fries (0.20), milkshake (0.25).
Kid B: Cheeseburger (0.25), fries (0.20), milkshake (0.25).
That all adds up to $2.99, not including sales taxes, which vary among jurisdictions.
I’m basing that on my family, for whom McDonald’s was a once-a-week treat in the late 1960s. But it does go a ways towards answering the OP’s question, even if it’s a few years after the cutoff date of 1965.
In Seattle, we’ve got Dick’s, which is pretty much what McDonald’s was 60 years ago. The menu hasn’t changed since the early '70s. They don’t do special orders and the burgers are made in advance and handed you within seconds of you paying for them. Fries come in one size. The largest drink size is equivalent to a small at most places nowadays. It’s strictly a walk-up counter business where you’re served through a sliding glass window. There’s nary a tomato to be found. Up until a few years ago, they only took cash. They reluctantly started doing Doordash a few years ago but they’ll only serve you if you’re within a 12-minute drive of one of their locations.
Definitely pricier than it used to be, but it’s the cheapest eats in Seattle by a long shot.
Thanks for doing the research. I took it a step further and extrapolated to Ontario. In 1968, the sales tax in Ontario was 5% (up from 3% when it was first introduced in 1961) and there was no federal sales tax until 1991. So the total after tax would have been $3.14. That’s about $28.36 adjusted for inflation. Still a good deal when you consider that today, Dad’s meal alone would be around $16.
Here’s how you get to $16 (Canadian prices in CAD$):
Big Mac $8.69 (Quarter Pounder w/cheese $9.99)
Medium fries $3.09
Medium Coke $3.29
Taking the Big Mac as an example, that totals $15.07, and $17.03 after adding 13% HST (combined provincial and federal sales tax). Ordering all three as a combo is less, hence my recollection that it’s close to $16.
There are at least three reasons that it would be lower in the US: the lower value of the Canadian dollar, higher sales taxes, and higher minimum wage (currently $17.60/hr in Ontario, going up to $17.95 in October; $16.60 an hour for students under 18 working less than 28 hours per week). Plus, the cost of ingredients is likely higher because of higher transportation costs.
Up until COVID we regularly had a coupon for two Whopper Value Meals (Whopper, small fries, soda) for about $9 (That’s total not each). By regularly I mean more than once a week, though we certainly didn’t use them all.
Certainly portion inflation has grown substantially. Look at the original green-ish coke bottles, that was a normal serving for an adult. they might drink two. I recall in the 1960’s, a 12 oz. bottle was “medium” and the “king size” was 16oz. It’s amazing how little we really need to eat (not that I eat anywhere near that little).
I see videos occasionally on sites like Instagram or Tik-tok with street scenes “this is New York in the 1940’s” or some such… and nobody is overweight.
All this talk of burgers gave me an urge for a McD’s Quarter Pounder, so now I have a receipt with specific numbers. The net amount for the combo is $14.99, so slightly less than the $16.37 total for the individual items. After 13% in taxes, the total was $16.94. A pretty hefty total compared to the price of even ready-to-eat prepared dinners at the grocery store.
I remember carhops at Steak-n-Shake in the 70s (as well as table service if you went inside). I managed to find this menu from sometime in the 50s or 60s.
You’ll certainly see more overweight people on the streets of New York these days, but obese New Yorkers are still a relative rarity.
In 1957 at Lexington, KY’s iconic drive-in, the Parkette, you could get a 1/4 fried chicken box (that included cole slaw and fries), plus a “jumbo giant” milkshake for $1.30.
According to the Federal Reserve inflation calculator, $1.30 in 1957 would be $15.30 today. That’s about the same level of ripoff as the Quarter Pounder I had today ($16.94 after tax). By contrast, the supermarket right next door to McD’s has all kinds of tasty prepared foods for less than half that price that are far healthier! Yet the drive-through line-up at this McD’s location never ceases. That place is like a gold mine for whoever owns that franchise.
I live about 15 miles from the beach.
When I was young my parents would often take us 4 kids to the beach, good way to tire us out. We usually stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way and got a barrel, I think it was called, 21 pieces of chicken, the real original flavor and big pieces, real mashed potatoes & gravy, cole slaw, and I think some dinner rolls for less than 10 bucks.
I think it was called a “bucket”, if we’re talking about the same thing. And if you were young a sufficient number of years ago, it’s likely that the KFC gravy was probably actually the original recipe that was quite good, and got totally enshittified in later years. It’s not just prices that have been going up – for many fast food operations, quality has been declining at the same time.
The good news is that today we have more variety and interesting ethnic options than we ever did in the 50s. But a lot of the traditional fare is not what it used to be as everybody struggles to cut costs.
Imagine going to a fast food restaurant for an egg salad sandwich, baked beans, and a glass of buttermilk. How tastes have changed.
Perhaps not. Restaurants of any sort are notoriously low profit margin; fast food franchises probably couldn’t exist if the fountain drinks weren’t outrageously marked up from what they cost the seller.
I’m sticking with my “gold mine” theory. Other locations manage to thrive just fine with much lesser traffic, and given the cost of a typical McDonald’s franchise (high 6 figures in even the worst locations, millions in others) they must be turning a good profit.
This particular McDonald’s franchise owner had the foresight to establish himself in a new neighbourhood that was still sparsely populated but poised for growth. And grow it did – not just grow, but practically exploded! And heavily populated by a typical young fast-food-loving demographic. It’s a freaking gold mine where the traffic never stops.
There was food rationing then, and America just came off the worst Depression, meaning many didnt have enough to eat.
But yes, America- and most of the industrialized world has gotten fatter. Fewer physical jobs. Less smoking (people are living longer and looking better despite more weight), and i think HFCS. We were a Pepsi family (12oz) and yes, Mother was right that if you drank one before dinner, you’d ruin your appetite. But not today, even with 32oz of HFCS colas. I read some studies in the past that said Sugar had a higher satiety rating than HFCS- but all the studies nowadays say different- except all that i saw were funded or sponsored by soda or HFCS agencies. Hmm.
Mind you, people started packing on the pounds in the Fabulous 50’s the time when America was Great. America had more food than anyone, more factories, more good stuff- cars, appliances, etc.
Looking at crowd pictures of Disneyland in 1955+ era, you start to see men getting hefty.
Yeah the gravy back then was the real thing, like the OG fries from McDs.
I’ve never bought that. You can buy Pepsi or Coke with real sugar at any grocery store these days and I don’t find it any more filling than the corn syrup variety or the zero-sugar variety.
Dick’s actually came to mind with this topic, because it has a reputation of being affordable, extremely fast, and you always know exactly what you’re going to get.
I did look at a menu and was surprised at how much more expensive it is than I remember. I shouldn’t be surprised, as everything is more expensive, but still.
I think the last time I ate at Dick’s was more than 15 years ago.
To me they are the Little Caesars of burgers. Food is not great, it’s just “fine” but certainly not bad at all (I am not slamming on it at all), but it’s pretty cheap and you can just walk up and get your food fast and leave. Faster than your average fast food place for sure.
A barrel equaled two buckets. The only time I remember us getting a barrel was once when we had company. I don’t know if it was usually a really big bucket, but that time they gave us two buckets.