What happened to cheap food? Diners, Automats, and affordable eating 

Absolutely charmed by your dad calling this your “show”

It's also important to discuss the role these eateries play as "third spaces", crucial for community and personal mental health. I used to look forward to a cup of coffee and a matzo ball soup when I'd commute home at all hours. I'd finally get to relax, enjoy good food, and nobody bothered me to leave so I could catch up on some reading and forget about the world for a while.

Even in cafeterias, someone is still clearing the tables. Fun fact about automats, a lot of people really believed these places were fully automatic futurism, so when people in the back of house stopped refilling the compartments to protest their absymal wages, there was a great public confusion. It was called "The Strike Invisible" by the New York Sun

As a jersey girl it's absolutely horrible how expensive diners have gotten. One that my friends and I used to go to used to have a plate of mozzarella sticks for like $5... but now it's around $15. it's crazy

I live in the Netherlands and they have automats here! It’s so nice being able to grab food from the little cubby holes when I’m in a rush at the train station. And I don’t have to wait in line or interact with anybody. You literally tap your card right at the food item to open the door and go!

Those places seemed like it made it easier to build community. Now it’s like, if you don’t have at least a +1 with you at a restaurant you feel out of place 🫤 great video ❤

One of the interesting things about diners is that a big part of their decline was from the change in the way their suppliers worked. In a traditional diner, you can have a large number of meals made from the same few ingredients andf you'd reuse whatever didn't sell during the day. For instance, unsold home fries and hashbrowns from breakfast could get turned into mashed potatoes for lunch, unsold meat and veggies could go into stews and soups and so on, so they had very little waste. Then in the 50s, food wholesalers started pushing frozen premade foods that just needed to be dropped in a fryer. It was advertised as convenient because it reduced cooking time, but it meant that diners had to use their limited space to store all this frozen stuff and need to invest in walk-in-freezers, they also had more garbage to deal with and if you're making frozen hash browns, you can't make them into home fries or take today's roast chicken and make tomorrow's chicken salad and chicken noodle soup if you have frozen chicken tenders. So it increased costs massively and reduced what diners were capable of. Another big part is immigration. A lot of diners today are owned by Greek families, but that wasn't always the case. When they started they would be Jewish or Italian or Irish, but then the third or even second generations of these families don't want to get up at 3 am and spend all day over a hot grill, they want to work in factories and go to college, so in the 70s a lot of diners were sold to Greeks who were jhust establishing themselves in America, but now their children and grandchildren are reaching the point where they can't pass on their businesses to the next generation, and there isn't really a new group of immigrants ready to take them over.

On the topic of "why is this so hard for me humanity's been doing this forever" - we really haven't - ROMANS had fast food. It'd be unrecognizable to us as fast food now, but there were places for laborers to come and get cheap quickly-prepared food, socialize, etc for reasonable prices, where these places would take up a substantial part of their diet. I liked Invicta's video on it, but anyways my point is just how weird the moment we're in is. There's always been equivalents to things like the diner and automat, except now. On a similar if a bit unrelated topic - "why is it so hard to maintain a home" - for most of history, half the home could focus on maintaining that home, and work itself was often integrated into the home already, so it was possible to maintain the home as part of one's regular labor. Now both partners are gone for the majority of their waking hours, home is a transient place left empty all day. I'm not suggesting we should go back to the same gendered labor divisions - but every household is working twice as much as they would have at any point in history. We should be working less.

I love the ikea cafeteria. I genuinely don't feel rushed and the food is filling, good, and affordable. I really wouldn't mind if it was a standalone diner or something

I watch a lot of Japan content and it seems like they still have this eating culture, the kitchens in major urban area apartments are just big enough to let you cook some basics but then you walk out your door and you can grab cheap, filling, tasty food from a convenience store all the way up to a sit down restaurant. In North America we live in a work culture where it would almost seem more likely to see these kinds of places *now* and yet they’ve become almost all but a memory. I definitely feel like it’s a reflection on the capitalist zeitgeist we are currently experiencing.

Finally someone doing a video essay about how dinners WERE affordable. That’s how Gilmore Girls could afford to go out. So many forget that when doing how did Lorelai able to afford the house. I grew up near a train dinner.

There used to be a diner in my town that was open 24 hours and had a menu like you showed in the video where some meals were typical for pricing today, but they also had cheap meals like a HUGE plate of biscuits and gravy was $2, a cup of coffee was $1.50, and eggs al a carte were $1.25 each. When I was living on my own, working poverty wages that place plus my one staff meal a day at work was how I survived. Unfortunately, the stopped being 24 hours, and raised all their prices like crazy after covid.

Just before the pandemic, I ate an old diner in Arlington Heights Illinois that my grandmother used to eat at. I sat down and had a giant BLT with massive fries for less than $6. The owners, who were elderly, refused to raise pieces. They were about service, not profits. THAT'S the kind of place where Seinfeld ate. Meanwhile, Denny's is currently charging $3.89 for a cup of joe.

I'm interning at a company that has a cafe for its employees, and realizing how sustainable and affordable it would be for me to get lunch everyday there was eye opening for what food should be like

i think this is part of why so many people idolize the college experience, because you’re in a community and you have those cafeterias, yea you pay an ungodly amount for them but in the moment it just feels like coming home to as much food as you need

I almost never take lunch to work anymore because I can get a gourmet lunch optolion at my work cafeteria for $6. This week's options include poached fish with polenta cakes, curry with rice and stir fry, and braised lamb shank with potatoes and squash. It's cheaper and tastier than I can make at home and I don't have to worry about any mess. More places should be available like that

I feel like another example of these kinds of cafeterias and how much easier they can make your life is dining halls on campuses! I’m about to graduate college and the ability to just go eat whenever is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Gonna miss it

two words in your piece stands out for me: regulars and communal eating. This is significant in terms of a lost culture of a third place people would gather regularly if not daily and eat communally as opposed to limiting to circle of friends or families that is so prevalent now. A distinctive element of restaurants is dividing patrons into tables of familiar people, as if that table temporarily is that group's property. Earlier, there was a culture where tables were shared with strangers, yet few were totally strangers because they were seen regularly in same place. The establishments you list evolved out of an earlier saloon culture (generalized) that existed prior to prohibition, a place where people in neighborhood gathered at meal time, drawn to the location primarily because it was in the neighborhood, instead of being known for some specialty cuisine or atmosphere. The goal is more than just satiating hunger affordably, the goal is what comes from being a regular in a communal eating setting: making connections with the neighborhood one lives in instead of with shared interests, careers, or family relations.

It's funny nobody here mentioned the mall food court. It was a good size area with a dozen places to buy food and an area of tables. You could get a burger, german food, sushi, mexican food, pretzels, chinese food, greek food,, ice cream, hotdogs, you name it.

We as a society kinda forgot how to go some spend time at some small restaurant/ cafe with out spending a lot or needing a reason to even be there

This is so fascinating to me, seeing the rise of even the lowest priced foods. $1 menu items at fast food places are shortening, heck the Dollar Tree is now $1.25 tree. It just seems like it's getting harder and harder to even be on a budget for working class people. I also wonder how much corporate consolidation/money consolidation contributes to these trends?

Let’s not forget about the department store lunch counter. Getting something to eat at Woolworth’s was a major treat when I was a child.

It's interesting how the view on eating out as a common daily thing in the early 1900s varies between countries and size of cities. I've been told my old relatives from a mid sized town in Sweden pretty much only ate at restaurants once per year. It was a huge deal. They couldn't even imagine someone eating at a diner several times per week.

I hate cooking and I live alone. I ALWAYS fall into the "why can everyone else do it but I can't seem to?" mindset. I never knew anything like this existed until this video, this is the coolest thing ever. In an alternate universe where I don't have a million food allergies and I'm not limited to the 5 same options every day, this would be my haven. I love your line delivery style, this video was informative and also fun to watch, and no, those two things don't always go together :) You have a new house member!

My mother would have been 93 years old of she was alive. I remember her talking about taking my older siblings to Horn and Hadart. She said they would be so excited to put the coins in the machines. Thanks for a nice memory of her. ❤

I just visited Japan recently, and I was blown away with how 1)cheap and 2) accessible to single eaters their dining options were. I was convinced they were eons ahead, but it’s surprising and honestly sad to know America was right there with them at a time.

I’m moving to Hong Kong from Australia and it’s crazy because I’m Australia it is so expensive to eat out - 30 dollars a head minimum, but in Hong Kong there are places designed for people who don’t have kitchens, and often that’s cheaper than getting a larger apartment with kitchen space. It’s such a mind bend.

Edit to add: cafeteria experience! I have a friend who grew up in a small town, so small that they didn't have many places to eat out. The college campus there was mixed in with the town itself, so it was normal for people of all ages to pass through on the way to work or class. A lot of people would buy meal plans with the school so that they could eat in the cafeteria without paying tax, and she told me that many elderly people would purchase the all-inclusive meal plan with unlimited access and eat every single meal there as a way to maintain their ability to live unassisted. It's much easier on them to walk to the cafeteria for breakfast, sit in the university park all morning, then eat lunch there and take a box home for dinner than it every would be to get to the store and back, deal with dishes and trash, even using the fridge that they had to bend down to access. Having a cafeteria (for elders who could walk there) meant staying out of nursing homes until they went crazy, had a major injury, or passed away. Cafeterias can serve the specialized needs of almost anyone using a generalized approach specifically because the solution to these individualized problems is almost always cheap, readily accessible, somewhat variable food. For the most part I also struggle to find prepared food worth buying. Even something prepared at the grocery store tends to cost enough that I'd rather make 10x the amount for myself and just eat it for a week. Everything is so much cheaper in bulk, even ground beef is more than a dollar per pound cheaper if you can handle a 3.5-4lb pack instead of 1-1.5lb one. There is one place that keeps decent prices near me. It's a deli and the sandwiches are big enough to be half your food for the day, and come out to $6.50-7.50 each including tax. They can sustain this despite being in a very desirable area by having a tiny footprint and being packed. There is a line out the door from 11:30am to 2pm, with a constant trickle of customers in between. They can even justify staying open late into the night because of college students using a nearby library until 2am. Although it's limited, they do have a decent amount of seating jammed in there, and outside of the lunch rush you'd have no issue staying there for hours (this is how I know how many people they serve). Since they're basically selling sandwiches constantly, it seems to be enough to keep the doors open. The quality is usually consistent as well, though since the manager retired it has gone downhill. I sincerely hope that more places like this appear, as I can't eat a sandwich every day but would love more options at this price range.

I ate at diners in NYC all the time and really miss it. I'll never forget going to one in Queens for breakfast. The cook was making eggs and hash browns while smoking a cigarette with an ash a mile long. And no one cared.

One of the many good surprises I got when I moved to Spain was discovering the "menú del día": every bar/restaurant/cafeteria/whatever has a kitchen offers a choice of starter, main course, drink and dessert for between €9 and €12 on working days. There is plenty of choice so you can find the place you like best and also a wide variety of customers: from a single person on a lunch break to a table of 6+ tourists or business people.

Great discussion on restaurants being less of a place to get together and more of an overpriced experience. In my town, you are not getting away from spending $60 minimum for two people to sit down or $30 to drive through breakfast from McDonald's. Now we are being asked to pay sit down prices for food delivered to our homes so we aren't even getting the experience we paid for.

I lived in Manhattan in the 1990s. My kitchen was miniscule. But there were dozens of restaurants within a few minutes walk where you could grab a cheap meal for under $5. Not anymore.

It's not mentioned as much as I was expecting, but it seems obvious that it was fast food that crowded out the diners and automats, filling a similiar niche with the working class. They might not have been as nutrious or interesting, but the franchise model allowed for economy of scale that made them cheaper and more "reliable" - in the sense that no matter where you went you knew exactly what you would get. Also to be mentioned is that the move to the suburbs didn't only include the middle class - the poor also frequently ended up on the outskirts, where there were no diners, but plenty of fast food.

this is great!! i was just thinking about how the common person in probably any city used to rely on prepared food. all those early apartments relied on a service part of the apartment where the kitchens were and the STAFF worked. the Chelsea Hotel, like other such places, had a common dining room for their tenants. in London, the streets were crowded with all kinds of food and beverage carts to feed all the workers and residents. cooking at home yourself was just not that common in big cities until relatively recently. it's so fascinating!

I am fascinated by the automat. It’s such a simple idea, but genius.

Those pie charts on spending categories blew me away. The other thing i noticed any the old vs new menus: the old menus sound a lot like what we're always being told we should eat. Also what fast food places are always telling us can't be made at scale.

I'm in Australia and have a chronic illness. I think the current equivalent for single, time-poor people are frozen meals. Depending on the brand, they cost 4-10 AUD. I love cooking, but often i just don't have the energy for it. Many years ago i did the calculations, and figured that even when i batch cooked, what i spent per serve on making dinner myself was about the same. I still try to batch cook when I'm able to, but if i can't, there's still an easy, affordable meal for me.

We need to bring back automats. High quality food at a cheap price, with the convenience of a fast food restaurant? Sign me up!

Once upon a time (back in the 70s), my father worked for an insurance company. The building had an entire floor devoted to a cafeteria, conference rooms, a game room with comfortable chairs, and a theater (yes, I'm serious; this was before you could cut a ten-minute training video and send the link to everyone). Business realized staff ate, rested, and were people. Kinda puts the current business mindset of people as resources that cannot be trusted, doesn't it? Superb video.

don’t know why this video is just being shown in my recommended although it’s almost a year old, but i really liked this video and the format. wasn’t overloaded with visuals and tidbits of information but rather the real, important details, and things i’ve never even thought about as someone born in 2001

There are a lot of factors involved in this. A lot of them involve governments messing things up. I've travelled to 20 countries and almost everywhere I go, there are affordable options for food. Here in Mexico, everyone knows they can go to a taco stand or "economical kitchen" to get a cheap meal. it'll cost about $3-7 USD, about 50-120 pesos. now I'm a vegetarian, but there's still an option to go to a stand that sells boiled vegetables and eggs with chilli similarly in Thailand I would order pad Thai from a little stand. I can't remember how much it cost but it was probably around 2 dollars. in Vietnam, banh mi. in Paraguay I went to Mercado Cuatro and ate pork kebabs for about a dollar a piece. I know you'd be very interested in the "Strong Towns" movement, if you're not already. They focus on trying to change zoning laws to get these kinds of things to happen There was a case, I think in Canada. One potential food truck owner wanted to set up shop, but the current zoning and business code didn't allow for it. 50 restaurateurs showed up to protest, and it resulted in a food truck code so cumbersome that nobody could follow it It's similar with corner stores and hardware stores. Here in Mexico, you will find them in almost every neighborhood, except gated communities. In my native Australia, it is rarer and rarer to find them. likewise in Canada and the US. This is mostly because zoning laws for new developments declare that it will be a residential only area. Older parts of town are generally grandfathered in, so they have more freedom. I don't know if something like an automat would be viable today. it's possible it would be more viable, because of advances in technology. but there is surely a place for taco stands, sandwich stands, food trucks and other things, as long as the little guy has the freedom to set up shop

In Staten Island/NJ- there were loads of cheap diners with yummy food. While there seems to be enough left, the numbers are dwindling fast, the prices in these diners are skyrocketing, and they are selling pre-processed/pre-made food. It's depressing for locals. Now, food trucks are popping up. I'm starting to frequent those. Food trucks are our future.

I only just came across this video, thank you for producing it! These cafeterias and diners were also acting as 'third places', where communal activity occurs. And as you mentioned, people are lonelier than ever, these sorts of places I believe are more important than ever.

Diving into the first menu you shared has been so depressed. Some of the prices on the menu adjusted for inflation would be a steal today, and many of these items would cost 2x the adjusted for inflation price even at a cheap-ish diner where I am. I’m def getting old enough now where I see and feel the inflation, shrinkflation, and gouging. Across the board I’ve seen prices at least double in my lifetime so far, some things have gone up more like 3-5x other things maybe only 1.5, but I’m mentally averaging it to at least double. My income over the same timeframe has doubled, but only doubled, so things feel tighter now than when I was a fresh adult.

Add to that dinners being places of socialization and third spaces. The closest equivalent to that type of atmosphere are bars, but it is kind of insidious that that social sphere requires alcohol consumption and spending on non-essential categories, which excludes such a large percentage of people

I love this topic! I have fond memories of going to eat lunch with my Grandmother in the 80's at "Luby's Cafeteria." I always thought an automat looked so cool and futuristic.

This was really interesting. I'd had some similar feelings after watching Seinfeld and other 90s shows/movies. The idea of meeting up with friends for an inexpensive drink or meal has almost totally disappeared. And especially in cities where people's studio apartments are not suitable for hosting guests, these cheap eateries also acted as a key social space.

Good point about the bulk food pricing. Diners making large pots of soup/stew, big pans of casseroles and other large volume servings, they could save money by paying a butcher for large cuts several times a week, paying for large bags of flour, etc. So by the time they spend money on preparing and serving the food, it should still be reasonably priced. YET, today a basic diner meal (and tip) costs 4 to 5 times what it would cost to make at home.

I need to eat a lot and I have horrible executive dysfunction when it comes to making and packing food. Finding affordable half healthy food is a gauntlet. It's so hard to find a place that will sell food with fruits or vegetables. The hospital I work at has a cafeteria that makes me feel like I got bang for my buck 9/10 times. My fast food/restaurant/everywhere else batting average is like. 1 in 5 tops. I rarely get a meal that I feel like it was worth the price.

The Dutch still have automats and they’re great. It’s mostly snacks in the Netherlands, but if you need a bite, nothing beats a hot order of bitterballen for €2-3

This is what makes anthropology so damn interesting. I LOVE this. And now I really want a diner BLT and coffee.

I didn’t even go to an Applebees, or Olive Garden or anything like that until I was 14 and it was with a friends family. And the fact that they had money to feed another person while eating out at a restaurant was surprising to me. the only time anyone went out to eat in my family is when my parents when out for their anniversary and it was at a local restaurant where prices were still lower then chain restaurants

i don't know why but i just started to tear up a little bit.. People tell you get a degree and study then get a job and yet these days the income from that isn't even enough...heck one meal at a restaurant is one hour of our work...

another banger!! as a new yorker im sad there arent more diners and frankly crushed that theres no automat equivalent. bring back automats!

Hahaha!! I laughed out loud at the "Who can't relate to not keeping a diary when you're going through a manic episode?" Such a great video! Well done!!

These very much remind me of how in the eastern block, canteens were not just limited to closed facilities (like factories etc). Some were also just public access, sort of filling the same niche as a fast food restaurant today. There were usually a 3-4 meals each day to pick from, they were cooked fresh, just in massive batches, and so it was pretty cheap and pretty much instant.

In the southern part of Germany (Bavaria) we have something like this at the so called Biergarten´s. Restaurants where you eat outside (under chestnut trees), cheap, and you can even take something to eat with you and just buy drinks there (that´s an old tradition). And you don´t have waiters, you can take your food and pay it and take it with you to free tables. I like this, because you can stay as long as you want, because space isn´t a problem outside and eating there can be cheaper, when you don´t need waiters. And everybody goes to this places, because they are beautiful, with the chestnut trees and you can spend hours with your friends and family at this places. It´s just sad, that you don´t have something like this in the winter.

I live in Michigan and when I think of diners, I think of our (many) Coney Island restaurants. Originally created by Greek immigrants, they usually have an extensive breakfast and lunch menu and a large amount of Greek/Mediterranean dishes. Like Gyros and lentil soup and Greek salad and spinach feta pie. The rest of the menu is typical American diner food-sandwiches, burgers, pancakes, omelette, etc. It’s all incredibly affordable and you could definitely eat there alone without getting side eyed. In the Detroit metro area, you’re never more than a few miles from a Coney. It’s extraordinary-but I don’t think I appreciated how much until right now. (I would still give my right arm to visit an automat though 😂)

I’ve been lamenting the loss of local coffee shops and diners since the 1990s. Dropping in at regular spots with friends on a night out. Or just grabbing a bite and coffee with a book and notebook when I wanted to be around people without having to be with people. I especially miss being called “hon” by the motherly waitresses.

I’m so happy I found your channel. As an urban planning enthusiast I learn so much from you! Please keep making more content ❤☺️.

i literally read about utopian communities in the US that had meal halls and meal plans for local families that did this, and they also had communal work schedules for their different farms so it wouldn't just be one family on their ass if someone got injured or something and couldn't help maintain the farm. they also had shared childcare and I think education and some lived in apartments together in groups. it was wild since we never learn about this stuff in school either!! omg

I remember learning about this when I was in like 3rd grade. It was a core memory because I was impressed with how cheap and how cool automats were! Really missed out on something good

I've learned to sniff out diner-style food anywhere I go. Any time I'm traveling, I'd much rather get a hearty soup or meaty sandwich than McDonald's, so almost like a sixth sense I can figure out where the remaining counter service cheap food businesses are. Typically it's the older part of town but not its main core where you might expect a new immigrant family to move to. Land rent is low there, so low margin diners have an easier time staying open. Mexican restaurants are probably the most common form I see in my part of the country. Some are sit down, waiter places, but most taquerias are scaled up taco trucks. As long as you don't drink your calories, you can leave full and nourished for less than $10.

I can remember visiting a local hospital when I was still tiny, probably five, and getting food out of an automat wall in the cafeteria while we were visiting my grandmother who was a patient there. That would have been in the early 90's. This sort of thing limped along for a long time and has seemingly only completely disappeared VERY recently.

This might sound dumb, but when I was much younger and working at Steak and Shake, I always thought it would be awesome to be that one weird person trying to bring the concept of the Automat back. Thank you for this video! I haven't got there yet, but I haven't given it up entirely.

I think the first place I saw an automat was in the movie Dark City, and I thought it looked so neat. I also worked at a restaurant that had a diner vibe and I once served a guy who just ordered a coffee, then he loaded it up with cream, sugar, butter, jam, and ketchup and basically made a soup in a cup. I pretended not to see that, but made sure I was by often to warm up his cup for as long as he cared to stay. Life is tough.

I'm old enough to have actually eaten in what I think was the last Horn & Hardart Automat in the ground floor of a building I worked in (fresh out of college in 1977) at 42nd St & Third Ave in NYC. Meatloaf with gravy, soup, pie - were behind glass doors you could open by depositing the appropriate coins. It didn't last much longer than that: pizzerias, burger places, and other fast food drove 'em out.

This was so interesting! And I loved the cameo of your dad, he sounds very sweet.

I am loving this channel, it’s so educational and informative. So glad I found it.

i'm from a huge diner hotspot in the us northeast. while they're still common here in general (i live within 5 miles of 6 separate diners, one of them having been on DDD, and i grew up going to one that's been featured in a cult classic movie) and I lament frequently over the loss of the 24 hr diner. there's only one within 40 miles of me anymore, and they upcharge your bill 10% if it's past 10pm or before 5am - it's in a major us city, too. even in big diner areas, restructuring after lockdown destroyed late night diners, and as someone who works odd hours it means if i'm hungry past 10, it's a convenience store or cooking at home, when this is the exact time i'd go to the diner back when they were open that late.

we didnt have automats in russia, but we used to have public canteens which worked as a conveyor, so 2-3 workers could feed hundreds of people. nowdays you can easily find those canteens only in saint-petersburg (very popular tourism on a budget destination) and in churches. the food there is pretty tasty and costs very cheap.

I was in awe of the Hawker Centres of Singapore for the history and concept but also largely for the food itself! I truly miss finding a meal including a drink and dessert or snack for under $10 and it was made to order. A fresh juice would cost your $2. Sadly never happening in the USA not sure what they think will happen when people cant afford bare minimum it's so gross

This covers so much of what I've been experiencing, thinking, and feeling over the past couple years since graduating. How can anyone survive!!! There's no welcoming-feeling space for people of all classes to eat somewhat well, somewhat affordably. It's either high end and $20, or trash like a $14 meal from a fast food corporation.

This is the first of your videos I’ve seen, subscribed, after only a few minutes! As someone who’s worked in the service industry for almost my whole life (and got a business minor in college) i’ve always been fascinated with the history of how we eat, both at home and out on the town. It’s also interesting how much of our eating and sleeping habits are dictated by capitalism and societal pressures of the time. Funny that I work at a restaurant now has a layout very similar to the classic diner, and also an isolated, enclosed feeling but in a basement.

In the early 1950's my girlfriend and I would be taken by our mothers to watch the Radio City Christmas and Easter shows. After the shows we were treated to dinner at a nearby Horn and Hardart. cafeteria. Fun times

I went into this video with no clue what an automat was. I think I heard the term before, but I don't think I would have even been able to tell you it was a place people could eat. I was blown away by the footage of what it was like to be inside one of them. What a magical place! And what a tragedy that we don't have them anymore.

Eating out is nuts now a days. A bowl of noodles w/ my lady always comes out to damn near 50 bucks after tips etc. I'm an old cranky cheap guy, so I try to cut back on this sort of thing.

It's really crazy how fast the cost of dining out shot up. Late 1990's into 2000's where I'm from me and a few others did the math and it was better to eat out at small cafes for food than cook at home. Now, can't even compare the two. Can eat for a week at home compared to dining out just once.

This is so interesting! I live in Japan and have been to a few restaurants that operate this way, you punch in what you want and pay at the vending machine (or now sometimes a fancy touchpad) and it spits out your ticket which you hand to the chef. Then they cal your order after you’ve found a table and you go grab it. You also take your tray back to the counter at the end. They typically have menus with a range of incomes in mind like you can (usually) get maybe soba with no toppings for ¥700, the most basic toppings for ¥800 and a bigger meal for ¥1000. I had no idea what these were called, thanks for enlightening me and yes they are great lol.

My day job is as an engineer but after hours I am a public transit activist in the Boston area. What you are saying totally fits. Keep up the good work.

just commenting for the engagement cuz you deserve to have a bigger channel!

I live in the upper Ohio valley and we still have a good bit of diners here. Being an industrial area with a large rural community instead of being attracted to neighborhoods they popped up around factories and transportation hubs. Some used to also accept "meal tickets" and company script from the mills, mines and railroads.

Your videos are great. Thanks for making them. I have been discussing this for years now as a native New Yorker who worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years. When I was a kid in the 80’s Bronx and Queens, we had cheap neighborhood restaurants, diners and even Irish pubs that’s served families. It felt like a community in most neighborhoods. Now rent is too expensive, apartments are smaller, roommate style living has exploded, and there are far less long term residents. NYC has become a college campus essentially. To make things worse and ironically, more disconnected socially, social media and smart phones seem to have taken away the intimacy of a space. Instead of being in the moment with people, environment have become stages where everyone cosplays city living in a New York themed amusement park. I don’t think you can have 3rd spaces when everyone is on their laptop or phone. Things will continue to stay expensive as long as it’s all just a content contest for people who don’t want to commune and be part of a real neighborhood. It’s all too meta, self aware, aesthetic deep and fleeting.

I feel too broke to consistently eat out anywhere enough to become a regular but I would love to be able to afford to regularly patron some of my favorite places.

"you don't have to speak English to get a meal" That's such a lovely sales pitch. I just...I love it so much

Nice report! It's sad that Automats, cafeterias, and diners are not more prevalent today. For a while, the food courts in shopping malls served a similar purpose providing lower cost meals. But, with the decline/closing of many malls and "brick and mortar" store fronts, these food courts are now slowly disappearing too. There are several business and social reasons why malls are closing and why Automats and cafeterias won't work on a large scale today. One big economic reason is the rise of online shopping. A big social reason why malls are closing and people are choosing online shopping is rising crime and the lack of safety in many of these public places. It's getting to a point where you only go out to expensive restaurants and buy things online because either they are much safer, in the case of dining options, or much cheaper and safer, in the case of online shopping. Our cities are in decline for other reasons too, like remote work, heavy taxes, constant traffic jams, unreasonable costs of housing/apartments, etc.

The algorithm placed this video in my feed and I’m glad it did! My dad was born in Los Angeles in the 50s and he says he misses the automat, cafeteria, style food. It’s interesting that the rise of car budgets is correlated with the decline of most cheap eats. Diners, cafeterias, and automats have been replaced by fast food places and those are becoming less and less pedestrian friendly. The newest models for Taco Bell and Burger King don’t even have dining rooms but instead lockers where you pick up food to go.

Horn and Hardart was such an icon that P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) wrote and recorded a funny symphony using one as a musical instrument. Jean Shepherd's Duel in the Snow or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid (the baseline story for a Christmas Story) started in one ("Disarm the toy industry!").

Haven't even watched this video yet, but I've been wondering this for years!!! You read books from the 40s/50s/60s and going to a diner or automat is just a normal thing, while making a home cooked meal isn't - even if you're married, you may go to a diner while on a business trip or for lunch.

Febo, in the Netherlands is a popular Automat that sells burgers, fries, chicken, desserts. etc. from walls of heated receptacles with glass doors. They used to be strictly cash operated vending machines, but now accept tap payments via card or smartphone. Every Dutch person secretly loves Febo... denies this to their colleagues... but eats there after a big night of drinking (possible followed by a morning of regret)

Yeah, I’ve realized Panera has a value menu awhile ago. It’s simple combos of popular soups and salads you can’t customize. It’s $7 with no drink, but it’s better than the $15 you-pick-two that’s pretty much the same thing. I kinda wonder if it’s to ensure the staples sell throughout the day.

I forgot I was obsessed with automats as a kid

I feel so old watching this video because I remember my dad taking me sometimes to cafeteria style places to eat. I am 41 years old. I look at those moments with fondness.

Wow Kendra, you've hit on a few quirky obsessions of mine--the automat, old menus and prices adjusted for inflation. Thank you for touching on the housing relation. I once read that 2 cars in the 1950s cost more than the average 3 bedroom detached house and the average income to housing ratio in 1960 was 2.1 in contrast to 3.5 in 2019 (and I swear it's higher where I live). I think we can talk about lower prices existing now due to higher efficiencies leading to higher output and both tech and offshoring leading to cheaper labor costs but the automat and the decline of the diner are perfect examples of where we've gone backwards. People seem to value artisanal at the expense of efficiency. Even Subway gives you the illusion that your sandwich is made to order, though we all know the animals that made the meat were slaughtered ages ago. But yes, I just want a decent place to have a cup of coffee and a good slice of pie without worrying about going over my budget. I subscribed after this one.

I’m sure others have mentioned this, but as someone who frequently travels to the US with work, I stay in cities and I just want to straightforward meal so I actually use Whole Foods like this and the cost is pretty cheap. if I think about the Whole Foods, that’s in downtown New York, they have tables where you bus your own tray and usually the cost is under a 10 or $12 for dinner with a drink

You just encapsulated like the main source of my anxiety these days as a broke grad student in 17 minutes. Thank you

Reminds me of my college cafeteria. Every swipe in on your card was a flat rate of $9.00 regardless of what you ate. It was crazy expensive and I couldn’t afford it after the first semester. No one I knew paid for it themselves, always their parents. And guess who couldn’t eat there? People paying for their own college, international students, working students, basically people who usually needed a quick cheap place to eat on campus the most.

Wonderful article, and the transition from the death of diners to the increase in transportation and housing costs was amazing. You have a very NPR voice too.

This speaks to why i really like the IKEA cafeterias even though I dont care for IKEA furniture. As a grad student i could go there and for $5 get a satisfying meal and coffee and wifi to work with

So good! I spent a lot time in diners in my 20s! My city has several 24 hour diners and they were perfect after a night of drinking and bars closed down at 2am. Realizing how lucky I got to experience it. To my knowledge they’re all still open