You can’t compare US restaurant prices to TW’s. Licensing “barriers” aside, a US restaurant is going to have a proper kitchen and at least a toilet for the employees to use, if not require a handicapped accessible toilet for customers (I think this varies by county, though the ADA might mean it’s required always?). The vast, vast majority of Taiwanese food places are not even large enough to have those things and still have room for anyone to sit down and eat. So they rely on taking over the sidewalk, the fire lane, even the road itself, to prepare food on and wash dishes in. Employees can hold it or walk to the nearest McDonalds, 7/FamilyMart with a toilet, etc. when nature calls. Customers know they will have to seek out their own toilet too. The exploitation of public spaces is a huge part of why it’s so cheap to eat out in Taiwan. In the US, you’re paying to rent a table for the time you sit there and it comes with space to actually sit, put your bag down, a place to poop if needed, unlimited napkins and salt packets, etc. Your NT$150 bowl of Pho (that’s what I see for two pieces of meat, broth, rice noodles, and onions/basil in Taipei these days) are getting you a single stool at a table that you’re expected to share with others if it’s the lunch rush. I suppose you can help yourself to unlimited hot sauce. You’re getting what you pay for. Which is fine, if you just want to sit at a stool and slurp your soup with strangers, but in the US, you’re paying for the experience and the fact that the owner didn’t just use everyone’s tax dollars to illegally multiply their retail space. If Taiwanese food places weren’t allowed to have their kitchens outside the clearly defined limits of the space they actually owned/rent, food prices would rival the US.
As for groceries, I shop at wholesale markets for my veggies and get my proteins from Costco. It’s about the same price per kilo/lb for proteins here as the US, though it depends on the meat. Alternative/veg meats are way cheaper in the US, as are beans and legumes. The veg is only cheap to me in TW compared to the US because it’s cheap compared to everywhere in Taiwan because I buy from wholesale markets. I could shop at Aldi and get similar produce prices in the US or I could shop at an organic farmers market in the US…and the prices would still be cheaper than the “organic markets” in Taiwan (where everything is triple wrapped in plastic. Great, just what I want, more landfill to lug home and then spend time disposing of). Carrefour and PX Mart have insane prices that constantly change — I saw two heads of broccoli for NT$180 a few weeks ago at Carrefour and it looked ready for the compost pile.
If you eat out all the time, TW can feel cheaper than the US, but the quality of your NT$200 delivery is not high. It’s usually quite garbage quality. The US has tons of “fresh, chef prepared meal” kits for around that price point that you can stock up on and keep in your fridge/freezer and heat yourself, without having to rely on some suicidal maniac on a scooter to deliver it to you. That stuff is way healthier and would be prepared in kitchens that actually follow some kind of heath code. I’ve worked in US food service. I know what goes on there. TW is still far worse from a health and safety standpoint.
In conclusion, only if you’re comparing apples and oranges has the US actually gotten more expensive than Taiwan. Otherwise, both places have their own version of prices going up and quality down.
