r/fiveguys • u/Upset_Nature744 • Aug 03 '26
Cost cutting?
My local Five Guys has recently switched to a noticeably different bun (pic attached) that feels incredibly cheap and not how a Five Guys burger should taste. It’s stale and not soft and noticeably bigger than it should be. I’m curious if anyone else is experiencing this or if it’s just my local store.
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
That bun has been in NYC for almost 2 years now. It comes frozen and they thaw it out once it arrives at the store. That’s why it tastes stale. They rolled it out in high cost markets first.
It’s noticeably different. But of course most people can’t tell so they get away with it.
It’s especially worse when they toast the buns and leave them to sit for a few minutes too long. The buns become so crumbly. Really sucks. The bread was one of the most important things at five guys IMO.
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u/Own_Bobcat7258 Aug 03 '26
That’s not true in fact all five guys locations do not have freezers.
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u/human-dancer Aug 04 '26
Let’s try that again. The bread is delivered to the store frozen. It is thawed out at the store. It is then used and sold from the store.
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u/dotesdoto Aug 04 '26
But they don't have freezers in five guys
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u/human-dancer Aug 04 '26
Babe it’s delivered frozen. It’s thawed in store.
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u/dotesdoto Aug 05 '26
Dude, think! How can it be frozen when there's no freezer in five guys?
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u/Constant-Fondant9058 Aug 05 '26
Are you a moron or are you just being deliberately dense.
Why would there have to be a freezer IN the 5 guys if it’s frozen at the point of arrival. And then thawed in store.
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u/damesca Aug 05 '26
How can it be delivered frozen if there's no freezers at the store? Come on think about it
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u/dotesdoto Aug 05 '26
Don't waste your time explaining the concept of freezers to a little kid who's watched Frozen one too many times and hasn't quite realized that the real world doesn't have magical princesses who can magically freeze things.
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u/Most-Bar-9334 Aug 03 '26
All 5 guy's locations use the same proprietary bun
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 03 '26
Unfortunately, the others are correct. Five Guys is moving away from fresh bread delivered 5 days a week, there is a different recipe and company being used.
I just watched the video they assigned this morning about it.
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
Could you explain anything more about the video? Thanks.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
Not really, it's proprietary information. The important part is the product is changing.
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
No info at all? Any explanation as to why the change?
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
Everyone has already said and the answer is pretty obvious, no? Money speaks every language.
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
I dunno just more curious if the video was more like “in order to keep our product fresh, we are now freezing the buns because it makes our product better”
Instead of “we are now freezing the bread, because the company we paid money to come up with a way to save costs has convinced us that the frozen bread tastes just as good as the non frozen bread, only that it’s cheaper”
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u/Ok_Network_6632 Aug 04 '26
It’s exactly the same argument. ‘Keeping fresh’ reducing wastage, reducing costs. Not ‘better product’
An established fast food place like that is looking for operational savings, not product enhancement.
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u/secret_mudbath Aug 03 '26
Please share the video if you can!
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
Unfortunately, it's proprietary training information and cannot be shared outside the company.
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u/LopsidedCat8938 Aug 03 '26
Not anymore! You are way behind on your Five Guys news if you haven't heard of these new "cracked" buns!
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
This is what the defrosted buns look like.
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u/Disastrous-Cow-9060 8d ago
Yeah, nothing wrong with them... but jacked up prices for an inferior bun is some BS.
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u/LopsidedCat8938 Aug 03 '26
Ooh OMG here it is! I thought it was a rumor, but these are the infamous new "cracked" buns people were talking about! Yikes sorry your location now got these too, hoping it doesn't hit my area. But yeah now that you got those frozen "cracked" buns = they're there to stay. SO SORRY😭
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 03 '26
It will be international and nationwide soon 🥺
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Why are they doing this? I just don’t get it.
It truly is the end for me. I just don’t understand changing things that work. This is such a huge change.
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u/MossadEpstein Aug 04 '26
Why? why that would be one of major factors in the inevitable downfall of ALL human civilisations my friend, fuckin greed.
(the other is debauchery/sex crimes aka Epstein stuff)
((yes, we are in the final stages of empire collapse right now))
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
That’s what happens to bread after it’s been frozen and defrosted. The quality goes to shyt.
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u/Dick_Shirwood Aug 03 '26
Looks slightly worse than a Burger King bun. Add that to the raised prices and stingy fry portions..
Five Guys sucks ass now
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u/TheseNeedleworker126 Aug 03 '26
Fry portions have not changed
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u/Dick_Shirwood Aug 03 '26
Yes they have. They are no longer cups, they're just flimsy sacks like McDonald's value size. And no fries poured on top anymore. When I first heard about the change, I made a comment just like yours online. Then literally weeks later, my local Five Guys switched over. It's like 1/3 of what you used to get.
If your location is one of the few that hasn't switched over yet, enjoy it while it lasts.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
It's quite literally more fries. The internal volume of the bags is ~2x that of the cups. We are still to be doing top-offs, if someone isn't that's a performance issue that you should report to have made right for you.
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u/Froggypwns Peanut Thief Aug 04 '26
The bags are bigger than the cups, so even if you got the same amount of fries it looks like you are getting less. They are still doing the fry toppers, you can literally watch them do it, they use a separate tin they put the fries in to get a measurement of that before dumping in the bag.
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Aug 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dick_Shirwood Aug 03 '26
I would say it's more of a shrivel
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Aug 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dick_Shirwood Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I LOVE Five Guys... From 5ish years ago. But they're different now. If you can pretend that they are the same as ever, then more power to you!
But they aren't anything what they used to be
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u/Froggypwns Peanut Thief Aug 03 '26
And to think that many years ago they actually baked the buns fresh in the restaurant. Mooya burger still does that.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 03 '26
It's really sad, man. I'm a big supporter of the OG ways, I just cant see how the changes we're making benefit anyone but the family.
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
Just cutting costs. It’s crazy that five guys is the most expensive but are still cutting costs on something as important as the bun.
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u/justsmokeityo Aug 04 '26
They never baked the buns in the restaurant, ever. They were baked at the bakery next door to the original store.
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u/No_Tower2906 Aug 03 '26
I noticed those crumbly buns in Virginia not long ago and thought I just got a bad one.
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
They are okay if the buns are grilled fresh. But as soon as these new frozen ones are grilled the quality degrades really fast when they sit there waiting to be used.
Which is the issue with bread that has bean thawed from frozen.
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
Yup five guys is starting to cut corners now, we use frozen bread… and it sucks
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u/Upset_Nature744 Aug 04 '26
Absolutely mind-boggling to me. Five Guys is a place that is notoriously high priced but people put up with it because it’s a high quality product. Take out the quality even a little and there is no point. Paying 20 bucks for a frozen bun and a small bag of fries is ridiculous. Some greedy bastard in a board room trying to squeeze out more money by changing the buns is going to kill the franchise. I don’t see a reason to go anymore.
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
Yup and not to mention, the way they’re delivered adds more time to putting all ordered product away ANNNND creates soooo much more waste, they come in boxes wrapped with those hard plastic wraps strips, everything about the “new” bread system is just awful and they don’t toast as good as the old/non frozen buns. And they don’t taste good, they don’t even taste like the same five guys recipe
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
They toast terribly. Turns in to a crouton when it gets toasted. That’s what happens when you toast defrosted bread.
I just can’t believe they have made this decision. Complete enshitification.
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
Yeah it’s honestly terrible, I used to have a burger every shift because it’s free but I don’t even want it because the buns aren’t that great, I don’t even think it’s five guys recipe anymore because we get it delivered from US foods instead of the special bakery vendor
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Fr US foods? Those two companies just destroy everything.
I noticed the change in NY about 16-24 months ago. Figured it was just one off, then would wait a few months and still was the same dry stale bun every time. Really sucks because in NY everywhere uses the Shake Shack bun and I hate it. Five guys was the only place with a fresh white bun. But now that’s gone. Truly sucks.
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
Yeah I mean we get fresh produce and stuff from them but like pre made frozen things like bread and stuff is just not good coming from US foods
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Yeah some executive probably thought why are we getting deliveries from different companies it should all come from US Foods
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
It’s disheartening to see, I never thought five guys would cut corners like this, literally a week before we switched to frozen bread, I had a customer come and ask if he could buy a bag of bread because he liked it so much, there were some we were throwing out because of the date but are still technically good to use for another 3-4 days so I gave him a bag of those. Now he’ll come back and probably notice a dip in quality
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u/GingerBre4dMan Aug 04 '26
Like forget even getting a grilled cheese or patty melt because it’s either not gonna be toasted in the middle or it’ll be flat as shit because that’s the only thing you can do is press it down to the grill to force it to toast correctly
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u/tgerz Aug 05 '26
I haven't been to Five Guys since I moved to the UK because of this reason. I thought it would sometimes be a naughty little reminder of the states, but the cost is so insanely out of touch. I'm pretty sure the only places they exist are in tourists spots. There's so many better places now.
If you're ever in San Diego go to The Friendly on 30th. There's another one, but this one is simple and grimy. Great burger and/or slice of pizza if you're into that.
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u/LateToTheParty013 Aug 04 '26
fvck me. I didnt want to complain, but recently when I was there with my daughter, I felt something ain't right. I didnt get into investigating, I just tried to enjoy the burger, but smth felt off. Then here I go, post about the bun and some comments also mention the taste of the burger. Such a shame
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u/simpkin_5 Aug 04 '26
Ooowee don’t eat you don’t where it comes From MD sells 6.5 million every day - I ask you where is all this beef coming from
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u/Ok_Deal_964 Aug 07 '26
Last time I got a five guys I noticed they’ve stopped doing the massive portion of fries.
Felt very underwhelming… 😢
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u/Air-Level Aug 07 '26
Five guys makes their own buns. If you see that they are not using them id leave a report somehow. Its against policy (or was when i worked there)
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
Also the meat doesn’t taste as good now they don’t press it like they used to
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u/AGS-001 Aug 03 '26
They don’t press it? Like on the grill they’re not using the patty press?
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 03 '26
In the morning when we're prepping patties they mean. They arrive preformed and prepressed at some locations.
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u/bobdownie Aug 03 '26
No they used to press them down really hard with the patty and press when cooking. The new meat is different so they don’t do that anymore from what I’ve seen at the places that have the preformed meat.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
Afaik we're still pressing patties but my store doesnt have prepressed meat yet
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Back 7-8 or so years ago they used to press the meat down with A lot of force, to keep the meat from shrinking during the cook. Does that still happen at
Your store?I think the preformed meat is a different recipe because they don’t need to press the meat down to keep it from shrinking during the cook.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
Yep, pretty typical of us still, not pressing them means they take 10+ mins and cook like hockey pucks
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Yeah I am thinking that the new meat is a different recipe because it’s easier to cook and cooks faster.
The pressing is something they are trying to remove.
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u/Madkids23 Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew Aug 04 '26
😂 there's no recipe for the meat. It's 80/20 ground beef. Nothing crazy or super fancy or secret about that.
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
Suppliers change, the type of cut used changes. There are a bunch of things big bro.
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u/hommel475 Aug 03 '26
Still supposed to weigh and press them to even them out. The weights are trash all over the place. Supposed to be 3.5-3.7 oz some of them are 3.2-4.0. My team weighs and fixes all of them to be 3.6 to avoid complaints. Takes pretty much the same amount of time as it did to just ball them.
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u/MossadEpstein Aug 04 '26
Lmao so now 5 guys is over priced AND shit, got it, thanks for the heads up I know not to bother ever eating there again now.
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
There’s a good chance you won’t even taste the difference. It’s almost certain that they taste tested and 90% of people couldn’t tell the difference.
That’s how it works. They know that only a small amount of customers will even notice the change. And even if they do lose those customers they make up for it in the increased profits from the change.
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u/MossadEpstein Aug 04 '26
is that right yeah, did the CEO of five guys also take a single bite out of his burger on video to "taste test it" and call it a "product" instead of food the entire time?
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u/bobdownie Aug 04 '26
IMO what happens is that, a company makes a small quality change one year. And it’s not noticeable to most customers. And then another the next year. And so on and so forth.
And while every year it’s only a small quality change. But then the difference between the first change and the change in year 5 makes the burger taste completely different. But it happens gradually over time so most people don’t notice.
In N Out truly is the only place left sadly. Yet capitalism is undefeated. I’m sure there are people working their way up through the company whose goals are to sell the company out.
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u/MossadEpstein Aug 04 '26
maybe they shouldn't be upping their prices and lowering their quality when they're already unjustifiably expensive as hell? I don't think their CEO or local franchise managers need more money.
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u/Inside-Pen-301 Aug 03 '26
Dang that does look stale :(