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I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida. In Japan, there's a big issue when a snack raises its price 2 cents (3
by epsteingpt 3mo ago
I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida.
In Japan, there's a big issue when a snack raises its price 2 cents (3 yen - source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/japanese-snack-company-apologizes-0-194415480.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/japanese-snack-company-apolog...)
The country for better or worse seems to be frozen in time - salaries have not caught up with the heady levels of SV (or even Europe) but neither have rents or prices for common goods.
This is not a judgment either way - but it does make Japanese exports a significantly more lucrative business - if only they could figure out how to sell more of their stuff abroad!
- dartharva 3mo agoPopeye's for 3 costs ~$10 in India unless you're trying to make a full-course meal out of it.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Anon1096 3mo ago> In Japan, there's a big issue when a snack raises its price 2 cents No, there really isn't. You're looking at one company that "apologized" as a marketing play but outside of that prices have been increasing with no fanfare for years now. The annual inflation rate has been 2-3% for the past 4 years. It's a lot less interesting to write a news article about that though. https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/cpi/158c.html https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/cpi/158c.html
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Pooge 3mo agoYeah, and the price of rice has increased way more than that. Heat is making me too lazy to look it up so I wonder if it's gotten better in the past year. But Japanese people are very used to price increases. Granted, accommodation is not one of them. Especially if you compare Tokyo to London, Paris or even Geneva.
- decimalenough 3mo agoHave you checked Tokyo hotel prices lately? Thanks to the travel boom they're through the roof as well: the business hotel that was Y10,000 before COVID is now twice that, and Western branded hotels that were Y30,000 or so are now Y100,000+.
- Vaslo 3mo agoFor the 98% of people on here that have no idea of the Yen conversion rates, we are talking about 60 usd to 184-600 usd, or 55 euro to 162-550 euro
- sillysaurusx 3mo agoJinx personal jinx no jinxback.
- decimalenough 3mo agoWell, yes and no, because that 10000 yen room was US$100 back then, not $60.
- Vaslo 3mo agoSo you're saying we understand it even less than todays rates lol. But your comment is definitely understood, it's crazy how things (particularly prices!) changed pre and post covid.
- sillysaurusx 3mo agoFor western reference, ¥100,000+ is $615+, or €540+. Not cheap. I managed to find a room in SF for like $250 when I was looking, though you’d have to reserve it a week in advance. Is Tokyo really that expensive now?
- decimalenough 3mo agoYou can still get a shoebox-sized business hotel for less, but if you want a room with enough space to open your suitcase, yes.
- famouswaffles 3mo agoI think this is a bit disingenuous. Japan spent nearly all of the last 30 years needling deflation. If you take a look at the highest grossing movies of all time in Japan with and without adjusting for inflation, it barely changes. Do that for the US and it's an entirely different list. Normal inflation for the last 4 years is basically still nothing in the grand scheme of things.
- missedthecue 3mo agoIn Japan, inflation adjusted wages are down 2% over the last 20 years. In the same time frame in the US, they're up 20% and even for the bottom quartile, earnings are up 15%.
- weikju 3mo ago> but neither have rents or prices for common goods. All the price increases over the last few years disagree.
- woodruffw 3mo agoI can't say I've ever been to Popeye's, but $68 for 3 people seems unlikely based on their online prices: I picked a random one in Orlando, Florida and the "family meal" (which appears to be a very large amount of chicken) is $20. The closest thing would be the "16Pc Classic Signature Chicken Family Meal," which is $55.69 at that location and is described as feeding between 6 and 8 people. So you'd need to tip a bit to get to $68 from there.
- Retric 3mo agoDid you include tax? Also, that meal doesn’t include drinks. Poppies is significantly cheaper if you’re taking it home and supplementing with your own drinks.
- 1123581321 3mo agoFlorida sales tax is around 8%. Drinks are $2-3.
- woodruffw 3mo agoYes, but that meal is for 6-8 people. I don't think you can get to $68 for half as many people, even with drinks and tax. I just tried it with the "8pc meal" and 3 fountain drinks for the same location, and it came to $39.36, including tax. (If you want to try for yourself, I picked the Popeye's at 45 N Orange Blossom in Orlando, FL.)
- Retric 3mo agoDepends on the family. I’ve seen 2 active teens at healthy body weights split that 8pc meal + a side of biscuits. Obviously if you’re talking about a 6 year old the numbers are different.
- woodruffw 3mo agoI can probably eat an 18” pizza alone, but you would rightly accuse me of misrepresentation for claiming that a “pizza for lunch for one” costs me $25+.
- isakmarr 3mo ago> In Japan, there's a big issue when a snack raises its price 2 cents That can't be true. So inflation just doesn't exist in Japan?
- rjh29 3mo agoHistorically, no. Prices were basically flat for a long time until covid.
- chrischen 3mo agoThey've also been making things smaller. Some would argue that it's a cultural thing, but being poor also means you have to start adopting austere cultural habits as a coping mechanism.
- rjh29 3mo agoThere's shrinkflation for sure. Take Torikizoku for example. One plate = 280yen from 1985 until 2017. Now it's risen to 337yen while also reducing in size by 30%.
- ForHackernews 3mo agoPopulation is flat or declining so that's one of the main drivers of inflation. Japan could be a pioneer in steady-state economics.
- nxm 3mo agoOver the long run, population decline it is associated with disinflation or deflation. Deflationary forces often become strong because overall demand and economic growth slow.
- corford 3mo agoFor decades after the 1989 crash they were in deflation. Only in the last 3-4 years has any meaningful inflation returned. Some context here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades
- pavlov 3mo agoJapan had decades of deflation after 1990. There’s a generation of people who got used to prices staying flat or going down.
- WarmWash 3mo agoJapan gets an economic pass because they have such a strict monoculture. In the same way you can "break" the laws of thermodynamics by getting every atom to move in the same direction at the same time, you can "break" the laws of economics by getting every person to make the same illogical choice at the same time.
- kuhsaft 3mo agoYes, the laws of thermodynamics and laws of economics are empirical laws. But, the laws of economics are derived from human values, which are inherently subjective. You state the choices as “illogical”, but those choices can be logical based off a different set of values. Similarly, if you have a different set of axioms, you can build a different reasonable system on it. It's like Euclidean geometry and Non-Euclidian geometry. They are both valid systems based off of different axioms. Similarly, the different economic systems are valid based off of different set of societal values. You can also compare it to the ideal gas law. It's a law, but is based of a hypothetical ideal gas. Similarly, the economic laws are based off of a hypothetical society. The ideal gas law does not hold in all conditions, and economic laws do not hold in all conditions. The economic laws are meant as tools to predict behavior. But ironically, we end up modifying our behaviors to fit the laws, and we weaponize the usage of "economic laws" to control the behavior of others. We have economists complain how "that economic system doesn't work". Yes, it doesn't work with the laws that define your economic system, but it works with a different set of laws. We have people say, "that doesn't make sense because of X law". It's the other way around. The "law" doesn't make sense, because I value something different.
- 8note 3mo agois it similar? to break the laws of thermodynamics locally, you need to have an open system where the tally is made up elsewhere is japan following a unified culture of choices the result of other people doing extra outside of japan?
- WarmWash 3mo agoYou can't really break the laws of thermodynamics because they are statistical laws, not absolute ones. When you have 10 atoms bouncing around you can pretty easily "break" the laws because you don't have the statistical mass for aggregate behaviors (what we call the laws) to arise. So it's not really a law that entropy must increase, it's more a 99.999...% (envision a lot of 9's there) chance it will, and the number of 9's is proportionate to the number of energy points in the system.
- bilkow 3mo agoNote that the snack price was increased "from 12 yen ($0.08) to 15 yen ($0.10)". That's a 25% increase.
- keiferski 3mo agoI watch one of those “apartments for rent in Japan” channels and I’m consistently shocked how inexpensive apartments are in lower tier cities / not Tokyo. Like a studio in an inconvenient part of Fukuoka for $200-250 a month. I guess the salaries are lower, but it’s hard to imagine such cheap rent in the equivalent American city.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- brandall10 3mo agoIt's hard to compare to the US as a big part of this is the very weak yen. I spent a couple years traveling the world and punctuated my travels with a 2 week stop in Japan (Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto) in May '24. I was not prepared for how inexpensive everything was... much less than several eastern European cities I had just come from, more on par with places like Mexico City.
- mitthrowaway2 3mo agoIt was still very affordable in 2009 - 2014 when the yen was not weak.
- taeric 3mo agoI mean... You are looking at a place that is about 250 square feet? There isn't an appetite for offering units that small in the US.
- keiferski 3mo agoI don’t agree at all — plenty of college students, 20-30s somethings would love a space like this in NYC, SF, etc. at a lower price point than what’s currently available. The limits seem to be from legal restrictions on minimum apartment size, not market demand.
- gabriel-uribe 3mo ago
- akerl_ 3mo ago> I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida. Does it?
- Sparkle-san 3mo agono, a combo meal (entree, side, drink) there is ~$10.
- eloisant 3mo agoComparing prices between Japan and Europe or US is strongly skewed by the weak yen. The fact that the JPY has lost a lot of value compared to the US dollar has nothing to do with how prices or salaries in Japan evolve.
- jacobr1 3mo agoWouldn't that be covered by using PPP comparisons rather than just market currency conversion rates?
- Sateeshm 3mo agoAs a kid, I always wondered why prices HAVE to keep going up. Seemed like a vicious cycle.
- eloisant 3mo agoIt's a vicious cycle if we get in an "inflationary spiral", but most of the time a small inflation is pretty healthy.
- namblooc 3mo agoA capitalist society needs inflation in order to produce a desirable outcome. It is a driver of consumption, as opposed to people and organizations hoarding their money in a deflationary environment, as well as investments, because inflation leads to the devaluation of loans over time.
- toomuchtodo 3mo agoPopulation growth is ending globally, so I suppose the strategy is to issue debt for clean tech, affordable housing, and similar at the lowest yield for the longest duration you can and let those loans devalue over time as the population declines. China is the closest model I can put forth in this regard: their property sector is imploding for investors, but housing is affordable, for example. China Home Prices Fall at Faster Pace in Setback to Revival - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/china-home-prices-fall-at-faster-pace-in-setback-to-revival https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/china-hom... - June 15th, 2026 China Housing Demand to Stay at 75% Below Peak, Goldman Says - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-17/china-housing-demand-to-stay-at-75-below-peak-goldman-says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-17/china-hou... | https://archive.today/LkbCF https://archive.today/LkbCF - June 16th, 2025
- ifyoubuildit 3mo agoThis is the gospel that is taught. It seems to help people tolerate the fruits of their labor being quietly separated from them over time. Just another tax, except the people have even less of a say in this one.
- segmondy 3mo agoWhy should salaries catch up to heady levels of SV? There are very few places in US that can match SV in salary.
- Tade0 3mo agoFor the longest time their strategy was to: 1. Issue bonds at near zero or even negative yield. 2. Buy US bonds. The country is still one of the largest foreign US debt holders at $1.191T, and interest from this debt pays for a significant fraction of the interest on their own debt.
- fhn 3mo agoI don't understand. Why would anyone buy their bonds when the US bonds yield more?
- d4ng 3mo agoThe issuer of debt is the seller of the bond.
- sokoloff 3mo agoThat doesn't the answer the question of "who is buying these bonds instead of US Treasuries?"
- d4ng 3mo agoSomeone who is betting that the negative yield changes favourably. The bet is the same in positive yield regimes as well. This could happen due to a combination of deflation forecasts increasing and expectations of interest rates being lowered even further.
- d4ng 3mo agoIf you issue debt at non-positive yield, then there is no interest on your debt to offset with the yield from US bonds.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 3mo ago[flagged]
- b40d-48b2-979e 3mo agoSounds like you don't pay for a family of people. I went out to dinner last night at a low/mid tier restaurant and it was over $100.
- jagged-chisel 3mo agoGonna need more info. How many people did that feed? What is your definition of “mid tier restaurant?”
- sjsdaiuasgdia 3mo agoDid you spend $68 to feed 3 at Popeye's? If not, your comment is pretty irrelevant to this thread.
- b40d-48b2-979e 3mo agoDining prices are up to an extraordinary amount compared to pre-COVID. Prices never went back down despite inflation being "reigned in". Being surprised at a $68 bill at Popeyes just expresses you don't have a family to provide for, which is probably the default position of most of the posters on this forum.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 3mo agoI eat a lot of fast food, including Popeye's. I buy for myself sometimes, other times I'm buying for groups of various sizes. It has gotten more expensive. But if you're spending $68 for 3 people at Popeye's, someone in that group is eating at levels that will eventually win them a spot on "My 600lb Life".
- vel0city 3mo ago> Being surprised at a $68 bill at Popeyes just expresses you don't have a family to provide for I have a family to provide for. I'm surprised at a $68 bill at Popeyes. Taking my family there is normally a good bit less than that. Maybe if it was in some tourist trap area or something, but generally that would be quite high.
- mempko 3mo agoPeople forget that prices don't rise automatically. Businesses decide to raise prices. There isn't some magical force called inflation cuasing prices to go up. It's human decision-making all the way down.
- senordevnyc 3mo agoPeople forget that high prices aren't paid automatically. Consumers decide to purchase things at the higher prices, it's human decision-making all the way down.
- eloisant 3mo agoHuman decisions but usually with external factors: increasing costs, pressure to grow, etc. If they could get away with raising price just because they feel like it they would do it earlier and more often.
- mempko 3mo agoPost COVID is a great example of this in action. They DID raise prices because they could. What keeps prices low is competition. But again, it's not automatic. Look at Arizona Ice Tea as an example. All price rises are business decisions with a person behind it.
- fhn 3mo agoHave you ever run a business?
- mempko 3mo agoYes and all the price decisions are done by a person. Lowering prices, increasing prices, these are all decisions. Nothing is automatic.
- mempko 3mo agoHave you ever run a business? I have and still do. I make the pricing decisions, nobody makes them for me. Have to factor in a lot and repricing is always a hard choice in either direction. It's never automatic or some mystical force.
- chasd00 3mo ago> I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida. That’s $22 per person. Would like to see what they ordered. Not saying I don’t believe it but that’s pretty high. My family of 4 can eat chilfila for that and chikfila is kind of pricey for fast food where Popeyes is pretty much trash.
- throwaway27448 3mo agoI don't think chick-fil-a is any less trash than Popeyes, personally, and the fried chicken itself is lower quality—too sweet and moist. The fries are dry and unseasoned. The biggest selling point is the lemonade. Granted, I don't eat at either because better value fried chicken than both is not terribly difficult to find.
- micromacrofoot 3mo agoto be fair, it's all trash
- bityard 3mo agoNo, that's about right in my (very limited) recent experience. It's _very_ easy to spend as much at a fast food restaurant these days as you would at a sit-down restaurant, especially if you don't do one of their combo meals, or add one or two extra items to your order The crazy high prices and general unhealthiness aside, my main beef (if you'll pardon the pun) with fast food places is that more and more of them are taking orders via AI and/or requiring you to download and install their app to place an order.
- ryukafalz 3mo agoWhere is this happening? I think I would walk out and never come back if I walked into a fast food place and couldn't order until I downloaded an app.
- thewebguyd 3mo agoYou aren't required to but you will pay substantially more by not using the app and creating an account. They offer "exclusive" deals that usually amounts to roughly ~20% off menu price, while they raised all their base prices that much or more so you are subjected to data harvesting in order to pay the normal pirces.
- socalgal2 3mo agoPrices in California seem out of control to me. Recent examples, BLT + Coffee = $36, Plate of broccoli, plate of peas, small pizza, tap water = $95. Plate of 2 tacos, burger, 2 drinks = $120. 2 sandwiches = $60 As for Japan. ATM food is often cheaper. If you want cheap though, there are plenty of much cheaper places in the world. For rent, there are cheap options I wish existed in the states. As many point out tho, size is small. I'm happy to pay less for a smaller place but the price per square meter is comparable, maybe not to SF but at least to LA. Note that like any city, there is a vast range from downtown to less popular parts of the city. "Tokyo" even includes mountains and farmlands on it's far west side
- bpt3 3mo agoOr you can eat much better food all around for much less in other establishments. Businesses charge what they can get away with, and you're actively wasting money if you're referencing prices you actually paid for those meals recently.
- socalgal2 3mo agoYou are correct I can find places that charge less. The point is, I used to go out to lunch and not have to worry about it. Now I go and get price shock.
- bpt3 3mo agoIt's interesting that some restaurants (and businesses in general) seemed to figured out within the last few years that a surprising (to me) number of people don't want to make any effort to comparison shop at all. The only way to stop it is to stop giving them money.
- skybrian 3mo agoWhere in California is that?
- red-iron-pine 3mo ago
- rafram 3mo agoThat's 10 cents for a single 35-calorie corn puff, to be clear, and it was a 25% price increase. 10 cents for one corn puff is not actually a good price.
- bamboozled 3mo agoWrong.
- maxrecursion 3mo agoPopeyes has always been ridiculously over-priced. I stopped going there over a decade ago when I realized they charge at least 2x any other fast food place that exists. They are the same as Five Guys, but at least Five Guys puts some effort into appearing like you are getting quality food. Both are way over-priced though.
- senordevnyc 3mo agoAwesome news! Please let me know which chain I can go to for fried chicken at half the price that Popeye’s charges.
- jancsika 3mo ago> I recently heard that a trip to Popeye's for a family of 3 recently cost $68 in Florida. Just checked online. 8pc family meal of spicy white meat with large mash potatoes and gravy, one sweet tea, one purple lemonade, one chilled premium mango lemonade = $41.05 @ 1501 NW 20th St, Miami, FL 33142 Bring-your-own-liquids = $30.38 Either ordering at the counter is criminally expensive, or you were listening to someone who wanted to spend $68 at Popeye's in Florida so they could complain about spending $68 at Popeye's in Florida.
- dymk 3mo agoThat 8pc 'family meal' feeds 2 people. The sweet teas don't count as food - they may as well be dumped down the sink. Feeding a family of four would need 2 of those 8 piece meals, so $60.
- oogali 3mo agoLooking at the Popeyes menu, the 8pc family meal is $32.99 and feeds 3-4 people (3218-3738 calories) If that’s not enough, you order the larger portion, not double your quantity. 12pc family meal: $42.99 for 4-6 people (4992-6032 calories) 16pc family meal: $52.99 for 6-8 people (6766-8326 calories) Have you folks seen a Popeyes family meal? They’re not tiny… eating that many calories in one sitting is not the best idea.
- phyzix5761 3mo agoWe Americans are used to overeating. In Asia 1 piece of chicken and a small side (kids size) is enough for 1 person.
- fuzzy_lumpkins 3mo ago$20 used to feed a whole family at KFC/Popeyes.