Today officially marked the last time I’ll be visiting a Wendy’s fast food restaurant in Miami. Some might think this isn’t a big deal but for four years while in college, I ate at Wendy’s almost exclusively. Thousands of dollars went from my pocket to theirs every year and even though I only eat there a few times a year these days, that number has now dropped to zero. This last experience was all I needed to cut ties.
In a perfect world, I would be in and out of Wendy’s in five minutes. I could read the menu to you with my eyes closed, left to right or right to left … whatever you wanted. Order inside or through the drive-thru, pay and head home. Unfortunately over the last few years, the service and time I’ve spent at Wendy’s has increased and today, around 7pm, it took 32 minutes to order and receive a grilled chicken sandwich with a small chili and medium Coke. There were two cars in front of me in the drive-thru, none behind me and not a single person ordering or eating inside. How in the world did it take them 32 minutes to grill a piece of chicken, add a slice of tomato and lettuce and put it on a bun (no sauce!)?
Truthfully, it doesn’t matter. When you factor in the amount of time it took me to drive to Wendy’s, get my food and return home, the total trip took about an hour. Had I decided to eat at home, that’s an hour I would have used working. My time is pretty valuable, in upwards of $100 / hr so if you add the $7 I spent on the food to the $100 in time I wasted picking it up, this whole experience was a loss of $107. The sandwich was OK … but not worth that!
Few Americans fail to recognize the opportunity cost when making financial decisions and even though it’s a little more expensive to order food and have it delivered, it can be a money saver in the long run. Think about it … it takes a good amount of time to prepare and cook a meal at home, then do the dishes following the meal. If that time would have been used to do something productive, it’s probably not worth the effort and time loss. If that time would have been used to watch TV, then making dinner has it’s monetary benefits.
Working at McDonald’s for six years, our goal was to have customers in and out in under 90 seconds. Anything more than three minutes was seen as nothing short of a disaster and I couldn’t imagine keeping people waiting for 30+ minutes, especially when I was one of only three customers during dinner time. Fast food on the way home is a much better idea than making a special trip for it. Don’t be fooled into thinking there’s such a thing as the dollar menu because at the end of the day, it’s going to cost you a lot more than that if you’re the one in line.
- Featured in the Totally Money Carnival
- Featured in the Festival of Frugality
The Begging Line
Don't forget to factor in the opportunity cost of your financial decisions