Living in Hard Times...Buy Whole Sandwich from Chick-fil-A...or ANYWHERE

[KoKo]

and split it between the two of you or one of you. Pay the price and eat one half and add a 1/2 can of Organic Soup and have a great LUNCH FOR TWO DAYS.

Eat Out? Then Order Full Portion...and take out what you don't eat. It makes a Great Lunch or with added Veggies a nice Dinner.

You can "Eat Out" and keep your Fave Restaurants in Business by just using their "Over Portions" to suit your needs. You don't even need to know how to cook to learn how the prices you pay in Restaurants are jacked up to give you TWO MEALS AT A TIME.

Who needs to eat all that stuff these days? :shrug:

[customerserviceguy]

1. Don't patronize the big chains

I try to eat at restaurants that are locally owned and operated. Besides, they usually use better food, often from local producers.

[patrice]

3. Yes! Yes!

What little discretionary money we have should help Us as much as possible. Local. Local. Local!

[KoKo]

4. Lots of DU'ers really DO eat at Big Chains...for Lunch or just to Get out from Stress At Night...

But...you can Eat TWO-FER's that make it all worthwhile by just "taking home" what you didn't eat and filling in with store bought cheaper veggies, salad.

We are doing that in our house. It's amazing the portions that one can split up and get a "two-fer."

[customerserviceguy]

8. Well, there's a social price to pay

back when I lived in the Portland, Oregon area, I'd have my burgers at the Burgerville USA chain. They were strictly a local chain, and they paid decent wages and healthcare for their workers. They also featured specialties of Northwest products, I always looked forward to the Walla Walla onion burgers, and the blackberry shakes.

Every meal you eat at McDonalds is a meal you didn't eat at someplace that keeps your money in your local economy as much as possible.

[elocs]

12. Somebody here at DU needs to compile a comprehensive list of everything and everywhere

we are not supposed to eat, shop, patronize, or walk past the building because I sure as hell can't keep track of every damn one of them.

[misanthrope]

14. LOL! I used to work in restaurants...

...and even the locally owned guys use big suppliers like SYSCO these days. Some of the produce might be local, but most everything else is shipped in.

[KoKo]

15. Tell me about it...I've often wondered where SYSCO get's their "cloned food"

because so much these days tastes all the same. Still..we are lucky we don't live in many nations where there is very little to eat because of war...or other unrest. It's amazing how little many folks live on every day...it's just sad that so much of US food is so processed and cloned that flavor is either bred out or destroyed.

Still..one has to eat to live...and we can be very resourceful with Vegan or other Methods.

[customerserviceguy]

26. Well, I don't expect a local restaurant

to grow its own trees to make its own paper napkins! I would expect that small restaurants would have at least a few ways of efficiently getting the things that are time consuming and otherwise expensive if shopped for individually. I may get all my kitchen's ingredients from Stop N Shop, but does that mean what I make is not home cooking?

I would also submit that any profits generated from the big chain go to well off people outside your area. Even if you're making a local businessperson successful, he or she keeps that money in your region, generally.

[ecstatic]

17. I see your point, but the bigger chains are probably the safer option

these days. The smaller ones are going to be forced to cut costs any way possible.

[customerserviceguy]

25. That's true

especially if they don't get support from locals. The big chains thrive on people who are travelling, and don't want to take a chance on maybe tasting something different. The big chains are also willing to use their dollar menus to undercut local restaurants.

Look, it's just like what happens when WalMart moves into an area, they use massive buying power to undercut the mom and pop stores that have been the backbone of a community for generations. After driving them out of business, they become the only game in town, and can charge whatever they want. It's the same thing with the restaurant chains, nobody ever heard of a McDonalds until the interstate highway system got going. It's just another way that the automobile has fucked daily life in America.

It's your choices, people. Stand with your neighbors, or stand with Hamburgler.

[earth mom]

33. I disagree. Many of the local restaurants around here use sub par food & are absolutely disgusting

We like Claim Jumper, Chilis, Outback and PF Changs-all chain restaurants.

All of them serve quality food, not to mention the people working there are "local" employees and need their jobs too.

[SoCalDem]

2. We always have enough left over for a meal the next day..

It's a Two-fer for us every time we eat out..

[KoKo]

10. I hope we don't get to the point where those kitties in sink look "tempting."

Ayyyyyyy ...Cat Stew? NOOOOOO!!!!! My kitties would kill me for this post. BETRAYAL!

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Another great picture!

Is that parent/kidlett?

Sorry. Didn't mean to hijack another thread talking about kitty pictures.

[SoCalDem]

23. I don;t know.. The little one looks like our Sarah when she was a baby

Here's sarah:

[blue_onyx]

28. Cute kitty

I have a calico cat and that's my favorite fur pattern for cats.

[davidinalameda]

5. don't eat at Chick-fil-a

the founders support a whole host of right wing groups

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A#Religious_connections

[snooper2]

30. I don't eat there- because they are closed on Sundays...

Stupid sign on door "Since we opened in 1208AD we have never been open on Sunday" - "Cause' we are family business" :puke:

My religion says I must eat chicken 3 times on Sunday so fuck you chick-fil-crap....


Besides- the food tastes like shit and is way overpriced :)

[slampoet]

35. They are also GOOD to their Workers. They also let their people Work their way up in the company.

Chick-fil-a walks the walk when it comes to treating their workers in a christian manner and my feeling is that they are one of the few companies that has earned the right to be rightist if they please, because when it come to worker rights they are PROGRESSIVE.

[supernova]

38. And a guaranteed day off every week

Not many retail outlets can say that.

They are a local NC company so I do patronize them whenever I want fast food. I don't care that they are fundies. They treat their workers well and that matters more to me.

edit: spelling

[bertman]

6. Thanks for the idea, KoKo. But I'm glad Davidinalameda brought up Chick-fil-A's politics.

[KoKo]

7. You don't have to eat at places that are bad for Dems...most restaurants give TOO MUCH FOOD...

But many of us have to eat out for lunch for social reasons and need a break sometimes for Dinner. I'm just saying they always give TOO MUCH FOOD and we have found that we can take HALF HOME and supplement...and it makes "Eating Out" as economical as bringing lunch from home (ham sandwich) or Cooking at Home...if one's lifestyle just isn't into eating "Beans and Rice" at home and feeling like you are sacrificing EVERYTHING.

Sometimes folks need to GET OUT! or they "HAVE TO EAT OUT!" How can one STRETCH IT...and FEEL GOOD..is what I'm trying to say!

[Berry Cool]

19. Yeah, because then they can feel all righteous boycotting them

and if my sister still worked there, she could suffer accordingly, despite the fact that she herself is not a wingnut and was doing it just because she couldn't find another job at the time.

[bertman]

24. So, support the companies that are not pushing the fascist agenda so they open more

restaurants. Then your sister and others can work for a more progressive-minded company.

Every dollar of income in Chick-fil-A's coffers is going to fund anti-progressive causes.

Pay attention to where your money goes. It matters.

[donco6]

32. Nothing wrong with boycotting a RW fundie corporate chain.

It's not out of a sense of "righteousness". It's just a wise decision.

I won't shop at Hobby Lobby for the same reason.

[razors edge]

9. I killed the Wendy's Super Bar.

Homeless in the late 80's, one meal a day for me, the wife and a black lab.

Turn the tall lid upside down, load it up, and ignore the looks from the manager.

I always made sure I could close the container and flip it upright before I left, but they shut three of them down in four months.

Sleeping in my car and working 50 hours a week, the good old Regan/Bush years. Hear we go again.

[KoKo]

11. I used to LOVE their Baked Potato with all the Fixings...but last time I had one

it just wasn't the same. Don't know what it was. Potato was puny...and the fixings were kind of flat...but still...there's other stuff there that maybe one can fill in with. Not enough to take home, though...for second meal, I would think from my experience. :shrug:

[Jane Austin]

13. I was in Big Lots today

and they have some amazing bargains on canned and packaged food.

[Berry Cool]

18. I would be careful about buying that if I were you.

Some of it is from China and who knows what's in it. Remember, at Christmastime, they were selling gift sets of cocoa and mugs, and the cocoa was cut with melamine.

[RebelOne]

20. I have bought a lot of foods from Big Lots with no problems. n/t

[Lorien]

34. It's the same stuff you find at the big grocery chains

it's just overstock or discontinued items.

[ecstatic]

16. I've become wary of the safety of fast food during these times

Has anyone else noticed a decrease in quality? Especially at the not so big, not so fast neighborhood places that specialize in wings, ethnic foods (Chinese, Soul), pizza, etc. I imagine that those establishments are trying to cut costs any way they can which could equal disaster for some unlucky soul.

[BlooInBloo]

21. I heard "ethnic food" has leprosy. And don't get me started on "soul food".

DUers really slay me.

[slampoet]

36. Wings ARE ethnic you fool. Pizza is Ethnic. Even DOUGHNUTS are ethnic.

Why is it that racists don't like ethnic people but like their ethnic food

yet liberals say they like ethnic people but often say racist things about ethnic food?



Ethnic food is food from an other culture NOT food made by people with different colored skin.

[ecstatic]

37. Wow you completely missed the point

I'm saying the smaller, less fast neighborhood stores have decreased in quality. The smaller neighborhood stores usually specialize in a specific menu. My own mother is from Guyana, but at this time I would not feel comfortable eating Guyanese food at a local restaurant because of the economy. I don't feel comfortable eating at Pizza Hut or Dominos. Last attempts to do so were disastrous! Get over yourself!

[NNN0LHI]

27. My mother in-law was so worried about her doggy bag once she left her purse behind

I think there was a few hundred dollars cash in it?

We kid her about it all the time.

Don

[supernova]

29. That's true at any restaurant anymore

Portion sizes re ridiculously large!

Even appetizers are more like entrees anymore. :P

[EstimatedProphet]

31. Who doesn't do this?

I've never heard of anyone having a meal out who doesn't take the unfinished portion with them.