Yes this actually happened. I watched a man purchase nearly pounds of deli buffet food at a price of $7.99/lb. It’s beyond me why someone would spend this much on some of the worst food you could possibly get for your buck. The deli guys seemed equally flabbergasted and gave him his bags of potato chips for free.
I remember one time I had deli buffet macaroni and cheese because I was curious and it looked good. My experience was similar to the first time I had tasti-d-lite which was that the food had all the texture of food, but the flavor was like eating air.
I think people feel better by spending more money on food. Gives them a sense of richness maybe? Who knows.
It’s kind of like how fancy restaurants serve such tiny portions at super sized prices. Why do people still eat there?
I haven’t eaten at many fancy restaurants, but whenever I ate at one which had tiny portions that tiny portion was the most amazing concentration of potent flavors I’ve ever tasted. That situation is a quality vs quantity, but deli buffet is more like being a sucker for paying so much for really really awful food. I think this guy just had horrible taste in food