I remember my dad telling me about how in his family they would go out to eat four times/year (once on each kid’s birthday) and he felt so proud we could go out to eat a few times a month

@Austen To your point, past generations ate out 4 times a year, now it’s multiple times per day including coffee or other drinks. Gen Z is so heavily marketed to on all fronts.

@Austen My parents would take us to Skipper's once/month on a Friday Later, we would get Papa Murphy's every Friday and bake it at home They were both white collar professionals and did fine

@Austen my grandfather counted the sugar cubes for tea. my father counted the kids he could send to university. each generation gets to count something bigger because the one before refused to complain about what they had to count.

Static landing pages = lost money? Stop losing customers.

That was every family though. My parents both came from money and they never went out to eat. We should place the blame on the over marketing, overconsumption society. There’s probably 20 starbucks in a 2 mile radius these days. There were 0 starbucks in my town until I reached high school.

Going out to eat will never be economical unless food is made without human labor. The economics just don't work to have everyone eating out while also making enough money to live in a US city. Yes it's some amount of work to make your own food, but semi-skilled labor aint cheap.

@Austen Old man shouts at cloud

@Austen just boomer hero complex. my dad told us that growing up they didn’t get birthday present, their presents was the cake and the party was inviting the neighbors over. ok cool, the world has changed and no one gives a fuck

@Austen Our family went to dinner on Friday night. Usually Shakey’s or Pizza Hut or Ponderosa. Every meal otherwise was cooked at home. Affordability has gotten worse but GenZ are also spending like idiots.

@Austen Eating out too much is a real problem, I struggle with it

@Austen We went to Bill Knapp’s or Steak & Ale or Chinese when it was someone’s birthday. Usually Bill Knapp’s, I think, and I think because they gave you free cake.

@Austen Boomer kids felt rich on a Sizzler trip because the comparison was their parents' Depression-era pantry. Today's kids feel poor on DoorDash because the comparison is the rich kid's TikTok. Goalposts always move.

@Austen Love this perspective, really puts things in perspective on how quickly living standards shift across generations. The real question is what habits we're building now that will seem unthinkably lavish to kids 30 years from now.

@Austen I grew up in upper middle class family We too went out to eat only on special occasions ..

@Austen The US has almost 4x the number of restaurants per capita now as we had in the 1950s I wonder how much ZIRP created a glut of restaurants and lulled us into the belief that eating out a was something close to a “human right”

@Austen Bingo

@Austen I think people should eat once a day