Originally published at: Map reveals the huge price difference between Big Macs around the United States | Boing Boing
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Still not worth it for 2 dollars.
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certainly some correlation with the minimum wage maps. so localized costs are being passed on, and that’s far better than countenancing such abundantly brutal minimum wages. “well you can’t afford a nutritious meal, but your kids can get this grease biscuit” -sigh-
(source)
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According to the McD’s website, the price of a Big Mac in Lee in $6.69.
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I still don’t get what the deal is with Arizona. Do they use a lot of extra electricity in refrigeration of their soy pucks* before cooking them?
(100% beef means the beef is beef…but how much beef is actually in the patty?)
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Or, as we say in my neck of the woods: “wouldn’t give yer nappence”.
Charging extra near the highway?
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Huh, I would have expected the most expensive to be in a very touristy area with high costs of living (e.g. Times Square, already known for everything being overpriced). I guess it’s too low-market for that to apply (i.e. people don’t go to Times Square to get overpriced McDonalds, but will pay too much for Olive Garden or Applebee’s or whatever).
Although not nearly as much as you’d expect. E.g. witness the difference between Arizona and California. (Or, hell, the difference between Montana and California.) There are clearly bigger factors, despite the claims of the fast food industry.
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Their egg price map is pretty wild too with very wide discrepancies. Those regional differences can’t possibly be explained by the same economic forces, right? Wholesale agricultural goods are very different from service costs.
I’d love to see an overlay of both, to see if the Big Mac prices are subsidizing the McMuffin costs…
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A lot of those are at rest stops, where other than the large gas station, you have just one or two food options.So it is both a captive customer base, but also the added costs of supplying and finding people to work in these little oasis.
I noticed the price hikes along I-70 in Kansas.
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Some alternate McD’s takes:
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That likely would also explain the high price in Lee. That’s a rest stop on the Massachusetts Turnpike headed westbound. That rest stop is about 20 miles after the last service plaza. The eastward rest stop is a little cheaper. The last rest stop in that direction was in New York, so it’s been at least 8.5 miles.
But Lee is not exactly an urban area, so getting supplies and workers is probably a consideration in why the prices in the rest area are so high.
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The one in Lee is in a rest area on the Mass. Turnpike, which always costs more than elsewhere. (This is true for gas too.) It’s just like food at an airport.
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Why quote BI like it isn’t a nakedly pro-capital rag? Labor costs, my ass. Explain the Big Mac cost in the Netherlands then.
It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was on social assistance and the reality at the time was, cheap fast food often was better value than grocery stores for subsistence living. When every cent counts in your food budget some very very interesting things come to light (like, using the calorie counters on menus not for healthy eating, but for stretching your food dollar to make sure you get enough food to begin with.) Those value menus are there for a reason.
I can only imagine this situation has become much more pronounced given the costs for groceries post-pandemic, too.
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It appears The Economist will have to do a finer-granularity index. They only use a single figure for each country.
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Yup. The price discrepancy can be attributed to what McDonalds thinks it can get away with.
I last visited the Grand Canyon in 1987. Even then, the McDonalds there had prices that were twice what they were any where else and they had to put up a sign explaining why.
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