Hacker News Reader

Comment by guenthert | Hacker News Reader

"‘I just had a burrito for $6. It was amazing.’

The last burrito he had in San Francisco cost $15."

I remember burritos going for $2.50 in San Francisco in '96 ($4 got you a monster burrito, I never could have finished one of those).

Now burritos is not where most money goes, but I can't help to wonder if the absurdly increased cost of living in the S.F. Bay Area in the last 25 years isn't an impediment for start-ups. Most of those won't be able to pay 'competitive' salaries, but feed their employees promises and hope instead. FAANG employees can afford to live in S.F., but how do those living on a shoe-string budget and working for a start-up manage?

View on HN

I think all that will be left in Bay-Area are FAANG type companies, and the 0.1% type people.

The remaining companies that are pre-IPO or pre-exit will be "go big or go home" types.

SF and Bay-Area at that point is basically a status indicator.

This is what I don't get about the (former?) SF / Bay Area startup scene. VCs tell startups "keep your cash burn rate as low as possible, to give yourself a long runway." But then they also want startups to move to SF -- the most expensive city in the country! Don't these 2 things conflict?

Investors for the most part no longer ask / want startups to move to SF. This was a trend even before COVID.

Not to take away from the main point about cost of living, but I have severe doubt about that quote being representative. Burritos at the local truck that I'm partial to are around $9, which seems par for the course around here. I literally don't know where it's even possible to pay $15 for a burrito in SF, even at the fancier brick and mortar restaurants. I'm sure there's one somewhere, but I'm also sure that the size weighted burrito cost in SF isn't anywhere near 2.5x that of SD. I'd be pretty surprised if it was even 1.5x.

Not an expert on the SD burrito scene, but looking at a random survey (https://sandiego.eater.com/2018/8/8/17660256/california-burr... ) suggests that most of them are in the $6-8 range, for a smaller burrito than the SF Mission ones that are my point of comparison. (Amusingly, that article actually does include a $15 burrito.)

Super burrito is $13 at La Taqueria but you get an amazing burrito. After tax that’s about $15.

I bought an Al Pastor super burrito at Little Chihuahua on Polk a few days ago for $15.32 after tax.

Papalote burritos can easily cost $15 inc tax if you order them super. They even have a $20 burrito on the menu, before tax. Although they're all amazing

>Now burritos is not where most money goes

Speak for yourself!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com