Inflation has been on everyone’s mind since it began to spike in 2021, negatively impacting prices across many industries. For some reason, fast food restaurants Higher inflation rate than the national average Compare that to grocery stores and many sit-down restaurant chains.
While some restaurants, like McDonald’s and Chipotle, seem to receive more hate than others on social media, there have been several posts about Panda Express, with many shoppers questioning whether the chain should be venting its anger over the lack of value it provides to customers.
A TikToker named Jay@jayasuriyafamily) shared a video showing a Panda Express food container. At the beginning of the video, he informs viewers that there’s a “problem” with what the restaurant served them before revealing what was inside the container.
Panda Express disappointed its customers
“Okay… I have a little problem. This is dinner I bought from Panda Express,” he says. “I noticed, there’s not much food in it.”
He opened the top of the package to see some breaded fried chicken pieces, along with some rice, vegetables, and noodles.
“For what they always gave us. So we were, oh, I wasn’t sure about it, but I ended up being sure,” he said, and then he paused, grabbed a fork, and stuck it into the food container.
“Look how deep this fork goes in,” he said, shifting the camera position to show the outline of the container, suggesting the package’s depth had changed.
“It’s less than an inch and a half deep. They changed the box to something much shallower,” he claims. “When you look at it from the side it looks tall, but when you look underneath it’s not that deep.”
He held up another food container over the camera lens to emphasize his point: “Even more shallow. Look at this… This is corporate America. Okay. Well done, Panda. Well done.”
Customers are not satisfied
Jay isn’t the only one to point out the size of Panda Express’s containers. Reddit users also expressed concerns The woman is unhappy with the small boxes, saying that previously she and her husband were able to share a plate for three people, but now neither of them are happy.
“The box looks… different. My husband and I used to be happy sharing 3 plates but now we both feel like we are still super hungry. What happened? Did they do this to make the price the same?” they wrote.
In April 2020, as COVID-19 was raging, Panda Express Linked mash Facebook Page Article About how we can help during the pandemic.
One commenter wrote that the restaurant reduced the size of its packaging four years ago: “If you’ve visited a Panda Express recently, you’ll notice they’ve changed the containers they use. The plastic containers have a smaller volume than the old PE cartons, meaning the price has gone up because of the reduced volume. I took this to PE’s headquarters and received an apologetic response saying the old cartons are gone and the new plastic cartons are similar.”
Another person who responded to the post also complained about the restaurant’s portions: “I ordered the family meal with my sons last Saturday, but unfortunately the portions were so small that it was barely enough for the three of us. We don’t eat that much.”
TikTok users who responded to Jay’s video also offered some suggestions on how Jay could enjoy American-Chinese food without feeling cheated.
“Go to Trader Joe’s and buy some frozen orange chicken. It’s so good! Give it a try,” they said.
Another wrote, “Panda Express isn’t bad but the local restaurants are much better,” suggesting they go to a local Chinese restaurant instead.
Some people are nostalgic for the old days, like this user: “I remember back in 2018 the packages were bigger and cost $7.85 a serving.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Panda Express via email and Jay via TikTok comment.
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Jack Alban
Jack Alban is a freelance journalist for the Daily Dot, covering trending human interest/social media stories and real people’s reactions to them. He always strives to create not-so-ordinary viral posts by incorporating evidence-based research, current events, and facts relevant to these stories.
