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B&Q and Five Guys among firms which paid staff below minimum wage (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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[–] 109 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Imagine charging like $50 for a fast food hamburger and then not fucking paying your employees

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    • [–] 82 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    $20 for a chain burger and they're not even paying minimum wage?! FUCK 5 guys

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    • [–] 45 points 1 week ago (9 children)

    Didn't the CEO of Five Guys literally say that he paid staff bonuses because he didn't want to get Luigi'd?!

    https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/26/five-guys-ceo-gives-bonus-to-employees/

    https://globemagazine.com/five-guys-ceo-appears-to-reference-luigi-mangione-shooting-as-to-why-he-doled-out-1-5-million-in-bonuses/

    Hope he has a spare 1-Up Mushroom on him, then.

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  • [–] 33 points 1 week ago*

    I'm not surprised. I was one of their first customers and they ended up being a client of mine. I had to fire them because they are so cheap and didn't want to pay the market rate for consulting services. They were so backward because of this mindset that the administrative staff at HQ ended up being tiny and overworked. Even the founders worked all the time because they didn't want to hire people to do the work and they didn't want to hire people to upgrade their processes to make them more efficient.

    They were still using faxes to communicate with their locations. This was in 2006 and things may have changed but the founders were all a bunch of people who weren't terribly bright, but hard workers. In the beginning their burgers and fries were the best.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    Murrell ended up sending a $1K bonus check to 1,500 stores

    Assuming each store averages 20 employees and the bonuses were split equally between all employees:

    $1000/20 = $50.

    So he was bragging about giving employees a bonus that wasn't even enough to buy a family of four dinner at Five Guys.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    Apparently not enough ot buy a family of two dinner at Five Guys if the other comments here are to be believed. I've never been there, I don't know the prices

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    They’re not that expensive unless you’re getting fries. One burger is enough to feed two people almost so you don’t really need fries, but the fries are good. I haven’t been back in like a year though so maybe prices went up.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Burgers and fries are cheap food. What the fuck is the point if you just get the burger? There is no defense of their crazy ass pricing.

    The burgers are 20% better for 80% higher cost. Fuck that.

    Their fries are ass, big mushy, wet floppy grosseness. Finish frying the damn things!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    I tried them a couple of weeks ago for the first time. A burger each for me and my mom and we split one order of fries and we each got a fountain drink. $44, so two orders of fries would have taken us over the $50 line. And the food was absolutely nothing special, although it was at least a small step up from McDonald's. For bonus points, my dementia-riddled brain couldn't figure out how to use the soda dispenser machine.

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    • [–] 45 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    That is a funny way to say stole. I'm going to underpay my local bank.

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    • [–] 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Just checked 5 guys prices: Cheeseburger fries and drink will cost AT LEAST 27 dollars.

    Imaging paying over 50 dollars for two people for less than 9 dollars worth of raw ingredients, and only pennies of it are going to the folks doing the very hard work behind the counter.

    I feel ill.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    But but but... all the peanuts you can eat while you wait for us to cook your food!

    It was a decent place over a decade ago when they hooked you up with tons of fries and prices were not as crazy. But yeah, I haven't been there in years.

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    • [–] 21 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    I have never understood how five guys stays in business, literally one of the worst cheeseburgers I have ever had in my life and it cost more than the place down the street from me that uses all local ingredients.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I love 5 guys burgers, but it's closer to a $6-8 burger than an $18 burger. The price doesn't meet the quality. I haven't been back in years because I can get a double at Culver's for half the price.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    culver's actually is one of the worst burgers i've ever had. maybe they're better in wisconsin, but the ones i've had elsewhere were bone dry and tasted burned every single time. and for being butter burgers, they sure are stingy with the butter. steak n shake had a butter burger before they went nazi that actually tasted like it had butter on it.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    The first few times I had Culver's I was very underwhelmed for the very reason you mentioned. I decided to try again and just go standard butter burger instead of the deluxe, and it's been better every time. It doesn't make sense because the only difference is the toppings, but it's been true for me every time.

    I'm near Wisconsin, so maybe there's something to that. What I like about Culver's is that they used to be the expensive option, but they seemingly haven't raised there prices like everyone else. It's reasonably priced for the quality imo.

    I'm near a Freddy's, but both times I've gone they've completely fucked up my order, and it's more expensive than Culver's that's very near to it. Other than the more typically fast food like McDs, BK, etc... it's the only real option for a quick burger around me.

    I do think their chicken is good too.

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    • [–] 18 points 1 week ago*

    Some of this is really egregious. The top firms on this list shorted their workers by over £1,000. That's not pocket change. It's almost enough to buy four burgers and a milkshake at Five Guys.

    This, however, is music to my ears:

    More than 600 employers were ordered to pay affected workers the outstanding wages, with £4m returned to workers, according to the Department for Business and Trade.

    The firms have also been issued penalties worth £7m.

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    [–] 15 points 1 week ago

    Based on the underpayment amounts and number of employees affected, this doesn't appear intentional. Still, this is how it's done: legislate, audit, enforce, consequences.

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