I needed food and decided to go to a Yards for a meal. I find an open bar seat and am told it’s happy hour for a few more minutes. I get a Pale Ale and review the menu. I select the Schwar-burger with Fries. The burger was a solid 6.5/10 and I got another beer. After an hour, I get the bill and see it’s $39 and the tip option on the bottom of the receipt are 20%, 22%, and 25%. I tip $8 and leave. I failed to mention the beer I selected, probably the most popular of them all, was not part of Happy Hour. The service was above average.

What Do I Expect?

I’m not complaining as I’m making the choices. As someone who can afford to pay $47 for a meal, and coming away saying I won’t be doing that again, that’s unfortunate for the establishment. I don’t blame the business either, they need to make a profit, and these are the prices they are determining keep them afloat. Funny enough, this brewery is usually packed so people are not leaving here with the same impression as me.

Remember back in the 2020 pandemic when I was ranting how the printing of money, and giving it away to the people willy nilly, will have negative consequences. I’m not smart enough to say they’re correlated, but it certainly feels like it. No doubt California raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour could create this as well.

Our Government enjoys kicking the can down the road. Solving the monetary issues seems pointless when money is made up. This strategy will fail however. It hasn’t failed yet? Perhaps with high mortgage rates, record credit card debt, little to no savings, paying for illegals, massive deficit that continues to get worse every year, and prices that are increasing at incredible rates, we’ll see them gain a conservative perspective on spending, but alas, I don’t think so. If this was a company, the entire brass would be fired.

I’m pointing out the disparity between the current value personally in 2024. How does a bag of Smartfood cost $2.59 or a 28 oz (it used to be 32) Gatorade costs $3.09 at Wawa. Those items should be $3 together, not more than what a fast food meal used to cost. Is it corporate greed? Hard to say as the liquid in that bottle costs a dime and the plastic probably costs a nickel. It’s just a disconnect of value. If I feel this way, I can only imagine who others feel.