23 Feb Capitalism fails again

I drove up to the ordering kiosk, ignored the robot voice urging me to go ahead with my order, and waited for a human to come on the line.

“Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”

“I’ll have a cheeseburger meal with iced tea for a beverage, please.”

“Will there be anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”

“Your order comes to $7.05. Drive through to the second window, please.”

I think of the cheeseburger as the cheapest non-pastry item you can get at McD’s, the thing to order when you just want a snack. How did it get to $7.05, I wondered. But then, I’m old enough to remember the 99¢ Blue Plate Special, so restaurant food always seems pricey to me.

The clerk greeted me cheerfully at the second window.

“Doesn’t $7.05 seem like a lot for a cheeseburger meal?” I asked.

“I know.” She paused. “It’s weird, because a double-cheeseburger meal is only $5.15.”

“Oh!” My turn to pause. “Well then, can you change my order to a double cheeseburger meal?”

“Sure.”

Jeff Campbell, my Grade 9 English teacher and the first avowed socialist I ever knew, had a stock response to such events.

“Capitalism fails again,” he would say with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Of course, Jeff probably wouldn’t eat at McDonald’s.