Why are trays in fast food restaurants so heavy?

[bandit957]

Why?????

Every time I go to a fast food or cafeteria-style restaurant, the trays are always ridiculously heavy. When I lug my meal from the counter to my seat, I have to walk at a snail's pace, and I'm afraid of dropping the whole thing because it's so heavy. One of these days, it'll happen, I'm sure. Just you watch!

Why are the trays so heavy? Is it really necessary?

[Scott5114]

How much do they weigh? Have you ever weighed them? Have you noticed any difference between Kentucky and Ohio?

I can't remember ever having this problem in fast food restaurants in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, or Nevada. I don't eat at cafeterias, so I'm not sure if I would have a problem there.

[J N Winkler]

I've personally noticed some variation in weight.  Fast-food restaurants tend to favor lightweight trays, but the dining facilities at my undergraduate university served food cafeteria-style and used fairly heavy trays.  As they cleaned them with heat as well as moisture (using either a commercial-grade dishwasher or a specialized autoclave), the added weight might have had to do with improving their tolerance to repeated harsh cleaning.

[Scott5114]

A durability thing seems likely—fast food trays are generally kept stationary and the food is brought to them, whereas cafeteria trays move from station to station as they're being loaded, so there's a greater risk of being smacked against a hard surface. Fast food trays can take a little bit of abuse, but I have seen them snap in half if abused.

[tmoore952]

I worked in fast food (McDonald's circa 1983-88) and the trays there were very light (brown plastic).
Come to think of it, I'm not sure how they got cleaned (except for wiping them off), but since I was a grill person that really wasn't in my task list. The counter people (people who took orders etc.) took care of that.

I haven't eaten in a fast food place, or a cafeteria, for a long time now, so I'm not familiar with what kind of trays get used nowadays. I would hope they are large enough to hold everything.

[1995hoo]

Maybe the OP needs to buy less food?

[kphoger]

I'm afraid of dropping the whole thing because it's so heavy.

Maybe the OP needs to buy less food?

[bugo]

Back in the '70s, Sonic used aluminum trays instead of the red plastic ones they use now. They also used to put little plastic animals on the edge of the cup when you ordered a drink. They also had the #3 burger, which came with hickory sauce and lettuce (I always ordered it with no lettuce because I don't eat grass) which was the best thing on the menu. Now you can order a burger and put Sonic BBQ sauce on it, but it isn't the same.

[Road Hog]

Ever since Covid, a lot of fast food places don't even use trays anymore, but instead give out dine-in food in to-go bags at the counter. In-n-Out Burger does still use trays. Our local Sonics never use trays.

[SectorZ]

Ever since Covid, a lot of fast food places don't even use trays anymore, but instead give out dine-in food in to-go bags at the counter. In-n-Out Burger does still use trays. Our local Sonics never use trays.

Or Five Guys, that never used trays in the first place.