California Pricing Higher
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Meh, check out some of the chain restaurants in NYC, especially when you get near Times Square.
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I’ve lived in Northern California for 19 years and can tell you this is not a new thing at all. Same thing happens with $5 McDonald’s meals, which are $6 here, and $5 footlongs from Subway. It varies from city to city and is usually because franchisees refuse to honor the nationally advertised prices, a refusal these chains should not tolerate, IMHO. I used to really enjoy Round Table Pizza, but when the franchisee in my city stopped participating in any of the advertised promotions, that’s when I stopped buying their pizza. Domino’s where I live usually honors the nationally advertised deals.
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I saw today that Subway is starting a new promotion; but you can get it only if you use the app; $6.99 footlongs. That part seemed bad enough, but according to the report I read, that’s less than half the price in some markets, where they charge up to $14.99!!!
As for regionality, I remember back in the 80s, when Taco Bell became the fasted growing chain in the country; they knocked their prices down, with a catchy ad saying “39,59,79 (cents)” showing various items. Then I drove north, and in Virginia it was suddenly “49,69,89”, then closer to DC, it became “59,79,99”. So variations are nothing new.
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Still a pretty good deal. 1lb of Deli turkey is $18 here.
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I checked out an Italian Restaurant on Times Square after seeing it featured on a TV show.
The prices on the menu were similar to current prices at a red sauce Italian restaurant we used to go to before Covid. It is located in a strip mall on Rt. 1 in North Hampton NH.
Whatever business one is in might prove to be easier than being in the restaurant business.
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LIterally every single family Italian restaurant around us in Queens NY has shut down over the last 3 years. Sad.
Some of these restaurants were 30+ years in business.
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Bamonte’s the oldest Italian restaurant in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) is going strong, but I hate to tell you what it cost me for dinner for 10 people when last I went.
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First of all, you’re getting maybe a couple of ounces on a Subway.
And second, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re getting better quality
Although I will say that one of my biggest sticker-shocks was going to a deli on Long Island after working in Manhattan for so long; maybe it’s less competition, or the fact that grabbing a sandwich at a deli is not the norm on LI, but prices were WAY higher than I was used to paying in Manhattan (although I’m sure those prices have gone up since I quit my sales job to concentrate on this business. I can’t even recall how long ago that was!)
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I’ve worked in restaurants quite a bit. The common wisdom is that you don’t work there for the money; it’s for the love of the action. Rare for one to last long; even rarer for anyone to get rich doing it (unless they have something else going on; the amount of illicit drug use in the industry is mind-boggling).
That sounds like you might be hitting a generation change. Restaurant work is HARD. Many people don’t want to follow in their parent’s footsteps; especially true when the parents were immigrant or 1st gen Americans; much more lucrative opportunities for most people.
(I once worked in a chain restaurant; sit-down full serve, not a fast food place. Management was promised big bonuses if turnover was below 400%/year. AFAIK, they never earned it, but I wasn’t around long enough to know for sure).
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I’ve read a few stories on Subway franchisees, and the problem is Subway would advertise prices below what it costs to make the sandwiches, and they either had to honor the prices or face backlash from customers.
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There’s always a higher price to pay when people flock to paradise…no matter what they think that is, once a critical mass is reached, prices - across the board in all industries & endeavours - will tend to be higher than obtains elsewhere.
There’s simply no escaping that paradigm, short of tyranny - which, as Recorded History likes to teach us, is even worse.
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Is Petrossian your deli?
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Nooooooo! We live in New York City! You could not possibly even visit, let alone eat in all the restaurants that exist right now before some are forced to close due to rent being “too damn high”. So you NEVER NEED TO EAT AT THE SAME PLACE TWICE IN THIS LIFETIME!!!
Why the googlygoop would you eat in a CHAIN, worse yet go anywhere near Times Square? What are you - a TOURIST??? 
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No, I wouldn’t eat there; just pointing it out as what prices are like depending on location. I think that the Red Lobster was something like $10 higher on their 'All-you-can-eat" deal a few years back, might have been even more.
The only time I’ve eaten in that area at a big chain or corporate restaurant was when I was meeting people who decided where we would eat.
If you know what you are doing, it’s amazingly easy to eat really inexpensively in NYC (at least Manhattan). Although I’ve not eaten there since pre-COVID, so don’t know what it might be like now; but I remember at one point being able to get decent sushi for lunch for less than a trip to any fast food joint in NJ would have cost.
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Oh yeah Manhattan hinatown down by the Courthouse (not the 2nd Chinatown in Queens) has all kinds of great deals. Lunch for $5, and you leave well-fed.
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I used to love the Malaysian place on the west end of Chinatown; was rather bummed when they closed.
And with Nisha, we can’t eat Chinese due to her food allergies, as almost everything contains cornstarch (and the places worth eating are generally run by people whose English is not the greatest).
And at the other end of town, on Broadway at Thayer is the best hamburger I think I’ve had anywhere, and still quite reasonable. (Tryon Public House).
Of course, when I was working in the city, it was generally lunch I was buying, and usually bought a gyro or similar to eat as I walked from one client to the next. I’m guessing that the $4 one on 6th Ave at 44 (45?) has probably gone up a bit since then…
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stop and shop. LOL
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People there wanted fast food workers to get paid more. They got that. Now they get higher prices as a result. It’s really simple economics. If a business’s cost goes up they need to pass that increase on to the consumer.
There’s also other costs of doing business in california that are higher than other states besides this that are being passed on.
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Yep
The why behind us leaving there …
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