@Niner wrote:
Considering how inexpensive potatoes are abd how expensive ($4) their smallest fry costs, I can't see this working out for them. People will be annoyed. It's $15 for a burger, fry, and drink. I don't know how anyone eats there outside of mystery shopping.
Here in NYC, I've looked at customers and what they order while waiting for mine to be ready. Pre-Covid. People who come in and order together will get one cup of fries (little or regular) to share among themselves along with their sandwiches. Lots of people come in for one item--a shake, a cheese dog, an order of fries.
One of the Five Guys I've shopped is near a high school. I've seen three or four teenagers get one order of regular fries (which are enough to feed an entire family) and share them, making that their entire after-school meal/snack. Since drinks come with free refills, they'll order one drink and get three or four straws, taking turns refilling the same cup and using their own straw. (Still unsanitary.) If the teenagers order a burger, it's the big one, with two patties and everything on it--and they split it among themselves (sometimes with lots of argumentation). So in the end, the $20 double burger, regular fries, and drink will be enough for four people to eat and drink, average $5 apiece. That's actually cheaper than McDonald's.
I've also seen people picking up orders made on the account of the company they work for, sort of like a reward at the end of a rough day of work. (And they look like it, too--at 1:00 PM, they will look as if they've already fallen off a roller coaster.)
The price of a Five Guys burger, shake, or hot dog are in line with what those foods cost generally in NYC for Fast Casual cooked-to-order. Sometimes Five Guys is cheaper. The shake is cheaper than Shake Shack. Their single burgers are about the same or cheaper than Shake Shack. (I'm ignoring the crust Shake Shack's special grill puts on the meat, their special smoky flavors, all the chicken variations, and unique vegetarian mushroom burgers--and the shakes with homemade pies and cakes mixed in... because Five Guys doesn't have any of these.)
It's the fries that are most out of line, because they are fresh and unproccessed (so they have to go through all the stages of cooking in the restaurant, rather than rely on frozen processed potatoes, which have already gone through a couple of frying stages before they arrive frozen at the restaurant. and so many are loaded in the bag. Also at Five Guys, a burger costs the same whether it's just the patty (and cheese if a cheeseburger) and plain bun, or if it's the patty, bun, and ten toppings (fifteen if you count all the condiments). They only charge extra for bacon and cheese. If they charged for burgers based on the numbers of toppings, the average price would probably be much less.
Whatever the case, the MSP should reimburse in full for the order. If in NYC a little cheeseburger, little fries, and a regular drink costs $17, they should reimburse $17.