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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

And it has no US comparison. The tesco meal deal concept, the literal wall of choices, just doesnt exist in north america.

I did a big work trip to the UK a couple years back with over 100 people. I tried to explain meal deals and nobody believed me. Then our people basically stripped the meal deal shelves of the tesco express beside our hotel.

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Meal deals are in every supermarket in the UK. Petrol stations even do them.

Also, as a foreigner who lives over there, I think they are... sad? I'm surprised they got a positive reception from your coworkers. For me they are a backup and a failure to do something more interesting.

What people don't realise is the startups here in the UK run on miserable sandwiches, tasteless crisps and energy drinks. Middle management lives on slightly more expensive platters from Pret.

Local food markets offer much better options than Pret to be fair

It varies. They have cranked the prices up in the last couple of years.

True, but it avoids any unknowns when the office manager is organising a senior leadership lunch meeting. "Nobody ever got fired for buying Pret".

A great Pret baguette is like £5. Food from a food market is £10 or more these days. They massively increased in price after covid.

Fortnum and Mason were cheaper than food markets for quite a while.

Everything massively increased in price. Also you won’t get anything for less than a fiver jn pret. A regular baguette is 6.25 and add a coffee it’s now £10

Unless you live in bumfuck nowhere theres zero reason to be subjecting yourself to a supermarket meal deal, we've got an overabundance of independent food places in towns in the uk.

This is one of those things that varies by cultural cachet rather than actual quality. It's not that different from people living off Japanese konbini, but those are perceived as much cooler.

Most cities will have local sandwich options as well near major office districts, but they might not be as cheap.

No, Konbini, and Japanese food in general, is much much healthier than the equivalents in the West. Especially the Anglo West.

Konbini have more unhealthy stuff than you'll find in the ready-to-eat section of Tesco, although the sushi is better in Japan.

Both are way ahead of the USA.

I wouldn't say they are sad. They're a handy option when you're in a pinch. Sad if you're having a meal deal every day of course.

I imagine the positive reception is because the US doesn't have them so it's kind of novel.

Not M&S though

The meal deal was a Boots invention around the turn of the century. It's amazing that now it's a thing in every supermarket and petrol station.

What's so unbelievable about meal deals? It seems like a really straightforward bundle purchase.

A sandwich, bag of crisps and a drink for £5 is an actual deal. Sandwich alone in U.S. would be $10 and the “$15 Meal Deal” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Incorrect. Maybe you familiar with the high cost of living areas. There are similar $5 deals in the United States. The US is a big place and has many, many businesses offering very similar deals.

Thing is, the meal deals are _everywhere_ in the UK. There is no "high cost of living" priced Tesco. Or Sainsbury's. Or 5 other supermarkets.

Meal deal prices are higher in certain places, like motorway service stations. If there's a captive market, they'll sneak the price up just like every other company. If there's competition they'll use lower pricing.

Mmh, you can get 3 el cheapo sandwiches for 1.99€, a 100g bag of chips for 0.99€ and a liter of water for 0.90€ or flavoured /coke for 1.99€ in Germany

Considering a £ is more then a €, supposedly at last - it doesn't sound like a good deal to me

I don't think I could find a sandwich anywhere around here in Canada save maybe one of those awful gas station ones for under $6

The ones being discussed in the UK are in the triangular box like that, but there's so much competition between the shops that they're ok.

It's also a dense enough country that they will be at most a day or two old.

Can you give an example, as I'm not sure it's a fair comparison?

https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/262308005

honestly, they depend on the store you chose to go to. they always taste the same. and the last time i ate one of the sandwidches in the UK they tasted the same there too - but it's been a pretty long time, admittedly (like 20 years or so)

eg https://www.rewe.de/shop/p/ja-bacon-ei-sandwich-160g/7878218 cheap sandwidches (2€)

https://www.rewe.de/shop/p/lay-s-chips-red-paprika-150g/8940... chips 150g (99c)

https://www.rewe.de/shop/p/coca-cola-1-5l/6730574 cola, 1.25l (1.19€)

personally i'd skip the sandwiches in all cases - the wraps, baguettes or ready to eat salads are way better and cost the same. and i'd skip the chips too. i mean thats just pure calories. rather eat a great salad for 3€ instead of the el cheapo sandwidches and chips :)

Then I misunderstood, I thought you meant you could buy 3 sandwiches for €1.99, 67¢ each.

Tesco also have four choices for £1.50 each (€1.73), several 100-200g bags of crisps/tortilla chips for less than £1, and 2 litres of cola for 49p. This would be cheaper than the "Meal Deal".

https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/browse/fresh-food/chilled-s...

https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/browse/treats-and-snacks/cr...

https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/browse/drinks/fizzy-and-sof...

Aldi-Nord often has packages with 3 in them for 2€, I was just unable to find them through the website, but I frequently see them as I often buy the 3€ salad right next to them - but they're not separately packaged if that was the misunderstanding

If you want a shitty sandwich you can find it for $5 in the US no problem. Plus some variation of the sausage roll that will clean you out just as well.

And by "clean you out" you mean financially or both?

Oh, you'll be able to afford it... but you may end up having to spend some time instead

Gosh, it used to be £3 not that long ago. About £5 for a wrap at Prêt if I couldn't be bothered to go fight with the tourists to cross the road down Kingsway.

It's £3.85. Not that much more.

£5.50+ is for the better “main” options, some of which used to be in the base deal, in most places that do a meal deal.

Costco sells really good hotdogs with a large coke for $1.50.

Mechanically reclaimed meat and a half gallon of high fructose corn water isn't much of a comparison.

I honestly can’t understand why not wasting meat is such a bad thing?

Sure from an efficiency point of view its fantastic, personally i like some texture from my meal deal.

Meal deal = main + snack/side + drink

The "main" has expanded to Huel, salads, wraps, sushi, even hot food

The "snack" can be more than crisps: small bags of fresh chicken, 2 boiled eggs, small sushi pack, gyozas etc

The "drink" includes quality smoothies, acceptable vending machine coffee etc

Meal deal value maximizing is the whole game lol. There are also lots of healthier options if you choose carefully

In certain Sainsbury's you can get hot food as the main such as a small green curry or chicken goujons, and wedges or hash browns as the side

But the price creeps up £0.50 practically yearly. I think it's £5.50 already in Sainsbury's

It's better to view it as a cheaper alternative to eating at a restaurant rather than somehow saving money compared to bringing in leftovers. People who think £5.50 a day for lunch is saving money versus cooking themselves are delusional

£3.85 in my nearest central-London Tesco, it even includes some premium energy drinks like Tenzing that alone would get close to the cost of the deal.

Ah thanks I haven't been paying close enough attention. That's good

There's a lot to complain about in the UK, but food price/quality is actually pretty good. Not the absolute best, but far from the worst and certainly not Scandinavian prices.

$6.5 is about what you'd spend to get a bag of chips, hot or cold sandwich and drink from any Walmart that's been renovated recently enough to have a "Grab and go" or whatever they're calling it.

A sandwich, a bag of crisps, and a drink at the grocer near me is $8. I don't exactly live in a super low cost of living area, nor is it one of the most expensive in the US.

I've seen 'Close enough' locally.

One supermarket close to me, has a wall of various pre-prepared lunch items and I think there's a deal if you get the soup as well.

Another chain shop has a smaller selection of items... But does have the '5$ cluck' on thursdays, i.e. a pre-cooked hen for 5 USD. Grab a bag of good add-water mashed potatoes or some corn and/or perhaps a veggie, and you can get a proper dinner for at least 2, maybe 3 people out of it for under 15$.

Not ashamed to say that visiting the UK again for the first time in about 12 years, getting some Boots/Tesco/Greggs meal deals was on my to-do list. Something I missed moving to Australia. Not that they are _good_, just that they are so readily available, cheap, and have a lot of choices. Woolworths in AU have started doing premade sandwiches, but they are just bad, and don't come in a deal. I doubt they would even try to hit the A$10 price range if they ever did introduce deals.

Garment section is also amazing, british ppl are so classy while having timeless thick pieces

I ended up flying back home with some oxford shirt from the Tesco, and it's really cool (vneck pull over - tie - shirt sets were sold out with my size unfortunately)

you will wet yourself in an M&S

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