Tony Hall GreenBizCheck Blog

A $28 Burger!

Who would believe a simple burger could cost $28?

This weekend we visited Byron Bay – Australia’s Bali equivalent without the pollution. At dinner time we needed something fast and simple. We recoiled in horror when we noticed our hotel menu proudly displayed “The Byron Burger” for the princely sum of $28!

Normally I avoid meat because of the massive carbon footprint and deforestation associated with cattle production, but in the interest of consumer research I was curious as to how good a $28 burger could taste.

The ingredients boasted swiss cheese, roma tomato, beetroot, lettuce, twice cooked fat chips, homemade tomato sauce and aioli (whatever that is, even the spell-checker is confused). Call me cynical but unless all the ingredients are organic, hand-grown, hand-fed and delivered by three nubile dancing girls – how can a burger possibly cost this much?

Well, the big test is in the eating. How good did the burger taste? Was it so good that we would have paid $50? $40? or $15? Sadly you will be disappointed to hear that our expectations we very high and maybe $20 was a fairer price – especially since it wasn’t even organic. Don’t you just love how hotels are still charging boom-time prices even though the world economy has contracted by a good 30%! My home insurance company has actually raised its premiums for absolutely no reason, but that is another story…

August 21, 2009 - Posted by tonyhall66 | What irks me