neoswhiterabbitt
46325
936
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Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) dir. Danny Leiner
How much that order is today
Seanspeed
I dunno, the fact that you can still get a slider for $1 seems pretty reasonable by any standard. There's so many *far* worse examples of overpriced food/fast food nowadays than this.
Rignak
Ordered a good semi custom machete in 2017 was $103 dollars. They announced another run of them this month. $250. Had to dig through emails to find the price. That's more than double the price. Everything went up like crazy the last few years alone. They're trying to squeeze us dry.
johnnyrokit4
Damn Biden and them Demacrats!
starkeclipse
I remember when White Castle was good. Miss those days.
rudejohn
And McDonald's single hamburger is now $1.89, also about 3x what I was paying for them back then. US median income in 2004 when that movie came out was $44,334. Now it's $78,171. So not as big of an increase, but still crazy huge. And they were paying $5.15/hour to workers then; now White Castle has a sign up saying they're starting people at $14/hr in my town.
QuitLookinAtMineAim
And then they spin the screen around for you to answer a couple of questions...
Would you like to pay an additional 25, 30, or 35 dollars?
Emuc64
It's been a LOOOONG time since I had any WC. I remember liking the onion chips. They were like onion rings, but petals dipped in batter and fried.
fredhoffman1968
still worth it
Daemencer
Welcome to capitalism where everything has to infinitely grow and increase.
heyimjephph
Also white castle is absolutely vile
ziph3326
I tried White Castle near by recently. It had to be one of the worst meals I’ve ever had!
EroticZombiePants
I'm a little saddened they didn't get an order of onion rings/chips.
MyOldUserNameMeantUndeadCocaineButNowItsThis
Pffft. armature stoner move. You order 1 meal, eat it warm. Go smoke a doob, order your second meal, rinse and repeat. That way you you're always eating something warm and if you can't finish that last burger, just don't buy it.
TwiceBurnt
Harold and Kumar had to go through quite a lot to get to that White Castle. They earned whatever they wanted.
Widgetboy
When I was in high school a 10-sack was $4.20. They knew their audience.
CarbyD
Et tu, White Castle?
BarkingBlackbird
PeaceBaby
Spare a thought for corporate greed
Quixus
A burger costing less than a third of the fries? That can't be right.
astrangehop
They're sliders. It's a 1.5 oz burger.
astrangehop
Slight correction: whitecastle sliders are 1oz a piece (albeit with onions) and a very small bun. Two of them comparable to the 89¢ hamburger in the 1990s
powwerbottom
Wait till you tally this one
merxman
Inflation equivalent $46.75 would be $77.62 (Sep 2004 to Sep 2024).
theyallwenttoMexico
20 years difference
philmoregraves
Yeah I've eaten that before
IAmGodot
Per IMDB, it would actually be lower if ordered properly: "The slider special (as shown on the TV commercial at the beginning) is $2.99 for 6 burgers, fries and a drink. If they ordered 5 specials each, their bill should be just under $30 before tax, and yet they are charged almost $50."
Jbelkin
They are stoned and had an evening ... they were not doing the math, just GIMME FOOD ...
candar
plus Neil paid for it all so what do they care!
Subsound
JasonThorn
"Thank you, for information I hope never to need."
Subsound
They're called sliders for a reason...and not cause they're small
Volpe42
The little sliders are $1? The McDonald's hamburger is around that and bigger
DongleDingler
Have you been to McDonald's lately? I doubt the price of their cheapest hamburger starts with a 1 anymore
Volpe42
It does here
BigRedTX
Do they not do drink refills there?
Froggirl26
A lot of fast food chains are eliminating free drink refills. McDonalds included, they are slowly removing all of their self-serve fountain machines. I haven't eaten at one in years, though, too many dietary restrictions.
kahlas
Remember that the question applies to 2004 White Castle.
deletable
I dunno…. there seems to be a lot of those Serve Yourself fountains that have close to 60 different flavors around…..
GrandChampion
I can verify, I had a craving for a fillet-o-fish the other day. They don’t even have soda fountains anymore.
NooPogodi
You deserve that for craving a filet-o-fish
IAmGodot
They do. But they're supposed to be ordering five specials ($2.99 for 6 sliders, fries and a drink - it's the ad they see at the beginning of the movie). They probably thought it was funnier ordering them as individual items rather than saying "5 specials."
BigRedTX
Okay this adds a new layer of issues because they each got 4 drinks, not five. Unless the captioning is wrong.
dbbbbs
Count the drinks. 8
IAmGodot
Maybe that's why they didn't get the combo price.
squishybaker
This is too much thought spent on a stoner film, but would do the same when high.
Leucienweaver
No, the captioning is right. Because they're ordering 30 sliders and 5 fries, which would math out. They straight up forgot to get a drink.
malachilenomade
Man, haven't seen that movie in years.
HuruinaInu
Best use of the song "Hold On"
Snooj
It was soooo good and completely ruined by the sequel.
EroticZombiePants
Then there was that weird 3D Christmas movie they did.
malachilenomade
I haven't seen the sequel. I guess that's a good thing then.
Snooj
Yeah, don't. Most of it is rehashed jokes from the first one. The rest of it isn't funny.
EroticZombiePants
Yeah, I couldn't even watch the sequel. The Homeland Security head was just such an unlikable unfunny douchebag I quickly grew to dread seeing him on screen to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the end.
Snooj
And so many of the jokes were just a repeat from the first movie when they were fresh and hilarious.
relsky
This movie made me want to try white castle. I learned that white castle must taste good ONLY if you're high. Because I had it normally and it was absolute fucking garbage.
rudejohn
I really enjoy White Castle burgers and chicken rings from time to time. They need some good yellow mustard for dipping, though, in order to go from good to great, and I always ask for extra pickles (which they don't upcharge for).
downrightmike
They sell them frozen in the supermarket and those are good. I'm a couple time zones away from the restaurant
IceWeaselX
I had those quite a lot in the past. They were pretty much identical to the restaurant flavor most of the time, but there have been months-long periods where every package has a sickeningly sweet flavor infusion like they changed the plastic packing and it leached into the food. They were super repulsive and I couldn't swallow them. Then months later they were back to normal. There were 2 periods of inedible WC boxes during the 2010s.
sambaah05
Doesn't help that ground beef is almost 3 times as expensive as it was back then. And pretty much everything else I buy at the grocery store is more expensive too. Would need to see their financials to know if this is mainly them just passing on their increased costs, or if it's just for profit. It's probably a mix. Unfortunately they are private so we can't see the numbers.
ZookyPooky
But the money always has to go somewhere. Follow the money for the answer.
lucasmacdonald81101
Well, I can't tell you about beef, but I work at a pork processing plant, and our higher ups have been absolutely ecstatic that they have been able to sell our hogs far above market value and claim inflation as the cause. They have been making record profits.
MechanicalRomance
Its always the second. A business can not make a decision with any motivation other than profit. Its literally illegal for a publicly traded business to prioritize anything above shareholder returns.
There isnt such a thing as "passing costs on to consumers"
Businesses say that because it lets them deflect responsibility for raising prices.
Which in turn increases profits, if it didnt they wouldnt care. They couldnt. Theyre a business. They arent human.
sadurdaynight
Plus, if it's a franchise, it's the corporation screwing over the franchise over just as much as the customer.
zombiebatman
We need a guy on the inside
martineb72
It is $5/pound for 80/20 right now in Texas. It was $3/pound 30 years ago. I am sure there might have been some wholesalers for that if you bought in bulk, but for buying 1 pound at a time it was $3.
KrebstarCorporation
I just don’t buy it anymore, it’s not worth it at the price they want and I can find both cheaper and healthier alternatives
noot519308
Just to be clear, we burned down the Amazon rainforest and orchestrated drone strikes in papua new guinea just to farm more beef, and the beef STILL tripled in price.
OliverOtter
That's because we're eating less of it. Capacity was scaled to peak demand for beef, so now farmers (plus processors) who invested at that time are paying for land and facilities they can't fully use. They had to cut heads of cattle to reduce their total costs, and charge more per head to make up the difference. Scarcity then raises prices even more.
(As lucasmacdonald81101 below points out, that doesn't hit all parts of the industry equally.)
imaynotbeasmartmanjenny
Kind of what happens when a couple regions that depend on grain from areas embroiled in war… stock grain ends up costing more because less surplus is going towards that end and is instead going to fill in the voids
imaynotbeasmartmanjenny
They charge more for less grain
Lassannn
I confess that I routinely steal my ground beef from food lion because their security is shit.
sambaah05
It doesn't really hurt the company. They just increase prices to make up for theft. So it's really everyone else that's paying for it. And if theft is really bad, they'll just close the location. Again, the company will be fine. It's other customers that get impacted really.
criticalmassdriver
Considering they typically steal on average about 10 times that amount from their employees via wage theft.
GoddessPurpleFrost
Since they no longer do anything but self checkouts, a giant bag of cat food or litter hides a pretty good chunk of things under them. Hand scanner the bag, oops I forgot the stuff underneath. I'm not trained enough to not forget :)
sambaah05
Do you know how retailers deal with theft? They just raise prices to make up for the loss or close the location. It's pretty simple math for them. So it's really other customers that get impacted. These huge chains don't care if they need to close a location due to theft, or raise prices to make up for it.
Lassannn
Precisely.
PowerOfChoice
That's just called trickle down economics.
impotence
Holy shit where can I get getting beef at under $6/lb? Even the 70/30 trash meat at Walmart is more than that. Bison used to be the expensive ground meat at $8 and now it's like $13 at least.
SomeDetroitGuy
Here in Michigan.
bhobby1212
Sam’s club but you have to buy 10 lbs at a time for 3.50 per
bhobby1212
80/20
Snushine
I buy straight from a rancher and I still am paying about $8.60 a pound.
impotence
Unfortunately where I live we have to buy a year in advance to get any part of an animal from the local ranchers. Not enough of them. Butchers get Castle from Wyoming but it's $10/lb minimum, though it's grass fed so a bit justified.
Just going by regular grocery stores though.. there's nothing cheap there at all. Even the crappy stuff.
Badprenup
Isn't buying direct often more expensive on some things because it is usually higher quality, is fresher, and doesn't necessarily benefit from cost reductions associated with mass production?
I have no idea if that's true for beef, let alone ground beef, but Wal-Mart ground beef near me is like $4 per lb
kizzle69
Yep and most stores these days are screwing customers over on beef by shorting them an ounce or two. I make smash burgers often and I weigh them to make them perfectly even. A 1lb package of beef used to weigh between 16 and 16.5 ounces. Now I rarely even get 15oz per package unless I buy from an actual butcher.
gypsyspot
I mean. grocery stores pretty much all have a butcher in which you can get an exact weight. It's not like you need a local specialty butcher.
DongleDingler
If you're in the US, the weight you see on the package is required to match the actual weight. Grocery store scales are certified by the state, so if the grocery store ignores your concern, then contact your state's weights and measures program
LastHoplite
I know your right, however personal experience says no one checks those scales unless there are enough complaints. At which point the inspector notifies the company before showing up. Not a great situation.
rivitingone
What store do you work at?
LastHoplite
Worked at a wegmans back in the early 00's for about a decade. I was in the deli, kosher deli, prepared foods, and helped when needed with the seafood and butcher shop. But most of my time was deli. I would also note that to my best knowledge they did keep scales as close to accurate as possible. Just remember inspectors always see the best stages version, not the day to day.
jgrowley31337
Not inflation, it's greed pure and simple greed.
Tychodin
Ok but inflation is greed. When people have more money to spend, sellers raise prices, which requires that ppl get paid more to afford things, so sellers raise prices.
Seanspeed
Inflation just means prices have gone up. Greed is the mechanism by which inflation has happened(to the extent that it has, at least).
deadmansshoes861
Spidey209
White Castle putting their prices up IS inflation.
Shewy92
Well partially inflation.
DVSBSTrD
Necessities need to be nationalized.
rudejohn
It's fun to blame "corporate greed" and "capitalism" if you're ignorant - but most of these fast food chains operate on VERY thin margins.
kaarbaakimgr
NPR did a deep-dive into “greedflation” and found it to be a myth of dubious origin. But whoever started the story sure does appreciate your perpetuation of it. Probably some dude in Russia.
gesel
Assuming you're commenting in good faith and not, as is far more likely in the run up to an election that will decide Putin's fate, a fascist troll exploiting Economic Voting to enervate liberal voters, you're making a lot of assumptions including that the price in a movie script was accurate and current, the cost structure of the goods hasn't changed, and if true, the presumptive increase in profits was allocated in a way you believe unjust.
Sipmonsnsn
This is an incorrect Statement which should be removed.
somf
greed at every level of the supply/manufacturing chain
umbrellamaker
With inflation alone it's just under $78
SLCtechie
Greedflation
AtleastIvegotthatgoingforme0
But, Sir, this is a Wendy's.
SnakesInBowties
Eomund521
I mean... Is there really a difference?
SnakesInBowties
an0therthr0waway
Yes, there damn well is! A can of Arizona is still 99c in some stores. The company caved to reseller demand and stopped pre-pricing the cans
Eomund521
Hence inflation being greed. Which is exactly what I said
Raikupath
So no there isn't because one person in a capitalist system who doesn't go by the set up rules doesn't change anything about the fact that capitalism is a system made by and for the greedy rich upper class and no one else.
sambaah05
It's definitely partially inflation. Ground beef is almost 3x what it was back then. And nearly everything else at the grocery store is more expensive. So their costs would go up to... Would need to see their financials to know how much is inflation and how much is greed.
baals
That why big macs are unavailable and try the new chicken big Mac? I can't get beef at my local McDonald's right now
thebluegolem
The film was released twenty years ago. Average inflation was about 3% per year. 60% price increases over those twenty years, so inflation is responsible for a fifth of the 300% increase?
drbwaa
Surely the grocery stores are immune to greed, so this comparison works, right?
TripleDane
Thee beff is up due mainly to greedflation not inflation. its not just one layer... it has multiple layers. like an ogre.
The price increment are not mainly due to increased wages which is the ONLY cost for any product when you look at a full productionline.
Strangedays2024
We probably need more complex language than just saying "inflation" in situations like this. What you're trying to justify would be a more natural "growth" that economic systems should expect. The unnatural exaggerated greed driven expansion here has always fit the term "inflation" better to me.
Asadsadsadclown
Harold and Kumar came out in 2004. Adjusting $46.75 for inflation the current price should be $78.03. The rest is greed. Often compounded by every step along the supply chain.
mjperk
You just cite rising prices as if they are inflation, yet you provide no actual objective proof/data. Ground beef could still be 3x more expensive due to greed, not inflation. Your last sentence is more on point to the truth of the matter...
sambaah05
Huh? I never said it is definitively or thing or another. You guys are the ones claiming it is greed, without numbers to back it up. Do you have proof/data that White Castles burgers are more expensive due to greed?
PoopiesEverywhere
Greed can be across the board
Asadsadsadclown
Especially with 4 companies control 85% of the meat market.
2graves
The price of beef is also get, and an interesting and long story of corruption
2graves
*greed
SnakesInBowties
Ialwayslookhungover
Well, since it hasn't any beefier or groundy, it seems the price went up mostly because they knew people would still buy ground beef regardless of the cost because it's a staple of low cost cooking.
sambaah05
We'd need to see the numbers. But the producers face inflation as well. If the cost of feed goes up etc. They also need fuel and electricity, and those costs have gone up too. This is all inter related. Diesel is up almost 2x, gas up almost 3x since the early 2000s.
TheForgewright
Again, that company can charge more because it wants to, not because of inflation. We can continue up the chain to the people who produce machinery for refineries and the steel industry that supplies them. Inflation would follow growth with the value of labor rising as well, but we are seeing wage stagnation.
DrFlukeHawkins
If the system is working properly as minimum wage was supposed to fix, then buying power and inflation move in relation to each other so they don't alter.
The discrepancy is because of greed
sambaah05
Huh? White Castle has no control over minimum wage. But they have to pay their higher prices. To say specifically for White Castle this is greed, we'd have to see how much their costs went up. Also, minimum wage was never chained to prices nationally, so what you described was never really put into place. But again, that's not at all in White Castles control.
Totters
It's not about White Castle's control over minimum wage. It's about providers' greed and charging more than what inflation has done. That is not an opinion, that's quite literally a fact. Remember the arbitrary inflation on eggs during the pandemic and the years leading after? Sure, farmers had to kill something like 101mil chickens... about of their 1.5 bil chickens. 1.2bil are "broiler" chickens, and 375mil are egg-laying. It was not exclusively egg-laying chickens though.
Asadsadsadclown
That is not inflation, that is companies protecting profit margins over paying a livable wage and selling an affordable product. In-n-Out sold a Double cheese burger for $2.50 in 2001, adjusting for inflation it should be $4.45, the current price is $5.55. THAT is inflation. The white castle order should be $83.28 with inflation. It is $128.99 because of greed.
sambaah05
Thats not how inflation works. No economic principle says every price should rise at the same rate. Inflation is a blend of prices - with some actually going down, and others going up. Industries have unique factors, that cause their prices to go up and down, often with no relation to overall inflation. Your logic and application of inflation is just fundamentally flawed.
Taalii
My brother in imgur. The greedflation is not ONLY at the front end you see. Costs have not gone up, prices have, because all the way up the chain ‘oh we pay more, well, pass cost along to our customer and mark it up more so we get extra profit’
sambaah05
Overall that's true. But my point is it's not true in every single case. Thats why I said we need to look at the numbers.