A site that tracks the price of a Big Mac in every US McDonald's
pantryandlarder.com
pantryandlarder.com
Even if you used a 1 USD = 100 JPY exchange rate instead of the real one, I could get nicer breakfasts than McDonald's for much cheaper somewhere like Sukiya, and they're open 24/7 to boot! Fully open, not just a drive through sometimes like in the states. Ordering experience was great too, they have these tablets where you can switch the language to English so it's easy.
Anyway, it kinda feels like McDonald's in the US isn't actually that cheap anymore? When I order breakfast there sometimes, it always feels like the food is kind of pricey considering they're just keeping it warm or warming up premade food.
Edit: looks like I'm not just imagining it, Big Mac prices have outpaced inflation over the last couple decades - https://www.axios.com/2022/04/17/mcdonalds-big-mac-inflation...
I wonder why?
US McDonalds has extreme price discrimination akin to what you see with grocery store memberships like Ralphs where they have a "regular" price that almost no one is expected to pay because everyone has a free membership that just requires your (or Jenny's) phone number . If you download their app, it has a bunch of coupons that lower the price of (almost) the entire menu.
It used to be the same prices for everyone.
Now prices have gone up, but if you use the app you basically always get either free medium fries (normally $4), buy-one-get-one-free for a Big Mac or QPC, or a few other promos, or accumulated points (that basically give you 10% off everything in the long run).
Generally speaking I'll pay $8 for a meal that would be $12 otherwise, basically every single time.
(Not to mention that you also skip the line, and if you use the app a few minutes before you arrive, your food will be waiting for you when you do.)
Where I live the one closest always has a BOGO breakfast sandwich while the one closer to my parents (3hrs away) will do a “buy one, get $1 off another”.
It’s crazy how much cheaper things are when using the apps for fast food places. I regularly save $3-5 using some $1-item/BOGO/%-off type of coupon.
I don't know why you would have given it always-on (background) location permission. iPhones don't ever grant that by default, you always have to opt in. Nor does the app require it -- when it asks the first time you run the app, just pick "only while using the app". Or turn it off in Location settings if you picked the wrong setting initially.
Sure, but that's intentional and incredibly obvious in the status bar. It tracks your location between when you place an order and when you're close to the restaurant so that you can confirm for them to start the order.
It's not like it keeps tracking you for hours or days afterwards or anything. Same as Uber -- it turns off after your ride is done. The status bar message disappears.
Point is, the app doesn't seem designed to harvest location data. If you pick up an order at the restaurant, they know you were there anyways. Your phone isn't telling them something they don't already know.
For such apps I prefer to manually terminate them when not using, instead of merely moving them to the background.
Leaving a food app installed seems unnecessary in the first place.
The app isn't tracking your location except between ordering your food and picking it up. As discussed elsewhere in this thread, your Location privacy settings in iOS ensure that.
One issue is that this system (that many places now use) of only giving you the best prices on the app vastly discriminates against many poor and/or homeless people who often neither have a debit card nor a phone (or no data).
buy-one-get-one-free for a Big Mac or QPC
They also have the excellent "menu4you" meal here in Spain that gets you a double cheeseburger (basically a big Mac) medium meal for 4,50€. Previously it was even 4€.
They are really trying to promote their app with free goodies though. I tried to install it but it refused to work because I didn't install it through the play store. I don't use a Google account so I use aurora store to install apps. I do have the basic Google play services installed for eg push messages, i just don't use a Google account to minimise tracking.
For some reason the McDonald's app is the single one I have tried that complains about it. Not sure what their issue is with that.
I use McDonald's if I need a known quality food quick. Not great quality but consistent. And I actually like their breakfast muffins once in a while.
For whatever reason the coupons very seldom work for my meal preferences so I don't bother with them.
In Spain the main reason I've gone to McDs is for the cheap affogato in summer.
I often end up in an McD off the Autobahn due to a long road trip I take regularly. Reviews matter. McDs are not consistently run. Many stockpile and serve stale fries, and the attention to detail on burger assembly varies wildly.
I eat at US McDonald's frequently. It's easy to observe how many people use their app, place mobile orders, or have a code to use at the ordering kiosks, and that percentage is quite small.
That's why McDonald's does it. It's the same thing grocery stores have always done with coupons in the weekly flyer -- customers who are price-sensitive cut them out and use them, while people with money to spare don't bother. Or with clothing sales -- people who want the trendiest clothes at the start of the season buy them full-price, while people who wait until the end of the season get them at a steep discount.
That's the whole point. Customers willing to sell their privacy for the lower prices use the app to order, while people unwilling to sell their privacy are subject to 'privacy tax'.
Slight /s but only slight.
Yeah, they know my name and what I ordered at each location. I'm OK with that.
You can also use a throwaway email address to sign up and use the app to order, get the discounts, but pay in cash when you arrive. If you're determined to keep your identity secret from McDonald's.
Always running, internet connected app is surely reveals a bit more of you/your habits than a CC number.
> throwaway email address to sign up
They are okay with that, data matters more than an ability to match your email.
> keep your identity secret from McDonald's.
I'm not okay with any corporation having an identity info on me. It's not an equal exchange.
Extreme price discrimination against people who don't know better/don't bother/etc.
McD has the most generous coupons in their apps among fast food chain and there is basically no limit.
Note that the price was $6.69 at that McDonald's and the one at Stanford Shopping Center. But it was $6.09 at the locations on El Camino Real in Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View.
Chipotle was great when it was a filling Mexican-ish meal for $5-6. Today the same food is $13-16. It makes no sense for them to stay in business when you can get a burrito for the same price from a much nicer Mexican restaurant across the street, but the people going there specifically want Chipotle burritos and are willing to pay $16 for it.
Edit: ouch, just saw it jumped to 10.10 since my last monthly Chipotle order.
I don't know if my tastes have changed or the food has or both, but I can't stand McDonalds now. I may have eaten there once or twice in the past 5 years.
The food is bad, the french fries in particular are awful (they used to be great), the employees are indifferent and act like customers are an interruption, and it's expensive.
IMHO, tallow/lard fried fries taste way better, and McD's really messed up here.
[1] https://www.thedailymeal.com/1020277/the-mcdonalds-fries-sca...
It's also not that popular with poor people in the US because it's more expensive than grocery shopping.
And from my personal experience, certain things like eating out and hotels are particularly more expensive in the US than the baseline.
> Even if you used a 1 USD = 100 JPY exchange rate instead of the real one
Well, if we use this.. their website currently lists Big Mac as 450 yen, which isn't that different from 4.x USD price that covers majority of the US.
So even if increasing price might lower total number of sales the total dollar amount might actually be bigger than before.
Prices rising are usually a sign that either input costs have risen in a way in which all parties have to deal with them, or the market is becoming less competitive somehow so incumbents can get away with higher prices.
this is where price discrimination, aka charging a different price to each customer, comes in.
By finding out the maximum a customer would be willing to pay, you can get more profit than a static price for all customers. The only thing is that another customer would not like to see themselves pay a higher price for the same good.
Coupons, apps, etc, are the modern way to get around the customers seeing the "real" price others are paying.
I'll also point out that Japan McDonald's food is nicer than US McDonald's food.
Yes, I'm serious. Even the buns are so much nicer over there, let alone the stuff between them.
(In the US I usually get whichever burger has the most burger for the least bread, ask for extra vegetables, get the mango smoothie, and don't eat the fries.)
Gregg's in England has entered the chat
McDonald's blocked my scraper when it went viral the first time
Any plans to add other countries?
I feel they’ve shrunk too but ymmv.
AFAIK UK pricing is national?
It also illustrates a fundamental problem with the Economist's famous Big Mac Index [1] -- I've never understood how they choose the price of a Big Mac per-country, when it's so extremely variable locally. Even if they tried to choose "major metropolitan city prices", Big Mac prices vary a ton even within New York City, for example. There's more variation within NYC than the Economist reports between many countries. I've never understood it.
Edit: their GitHub page [2] reports:
> In July 2022 we updated the Big Mac index to use a McDonalds-provided price for the United States (previously, we averaged the price from four major US cities).
Which again, gives me no confidence. How is McDonald's providing a single price? That's a black box. And even averaging the cost between four major cities, there's a meaningful difference between a McDonald's in Times Square vs. in the Bronx. So how did they even used to pick a price per-city?
So just thanks for this McCheapest site. Pretty awesome to have actually accurate data.
https://github.com/TheEconomist/big-mac-data#methodology-cha...
What's interesting here is how there's barely any pattern visible to me at all, besides lower manhattan = stay away. The most expensive McDonalds there for instance (besides airports), 1540 Westchester Ave is not affluent at all, the streetview is even covered in garbage.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/09/1210494331/trash-problem-nyc-...
I just assumed that, other than airports and other special cases like that, the prices were set nationally.
An extreme case is the McDonalds at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is a small town, obviously catering to the tourist trade. But, it's also, essentially, in the middle of nowhere. Plus, they have to truck water in, as there's no ground water or wells.
The prices of sodas and beer were about the same, and they have to pay more labor to attract folks to make the drive out to the town to work.
At the time, this was early 90's, it was almost $6.00 for the quarter pounder/fries/coke, which was an "outrageous" price, especially for McDonalds.
Similarly, not McDonalds related, but there's another gas station in the middle of the desert with signs around the store to essentially tell folks "Yes, we know everything is expensive here. We're in the middle of the desert."
They can't change decoration, they often can't add an extra employee on a shift, they can't opt out of promotions, and they often can't set prices at all, or are allowed to change them only within a very narrow range.
They run the restaurant exactly the way corporate decides. This is standard for franchising. It's just how it works.
(If you want to do things your way, you start your own independent restaurant -- you don't franchise.)
I suppose they could just leave all the prices off national advertising, though.
- Maverik stations in the western U.S. are about the nicest convenience stores I've ever visited, and their onsite kitchens prepare pretty decent gas-station food. Lately, they've rolled out premium pizzas in their larger locations; I had a thick-crust Detroit-style slice recently and it was absolutely restaurant quality.
- I understand Wawa stations in the eastern U.S. are known for their food; can anyone here comment?
They recently rolled out pizza in my area (northern NJ), and while I haven’t personally tried it, friends say it doesn’t hold up to what local pizza places can do, but it’s better than big chain pizza.
But Lykens Markets and Ingrams Fuel in the center “centre” of PA both have surprisingly good food for gas stations. Made fresh. Usually they’ll stock some surprising items from Local dairies too.
The only thing that Wawa food has going for it is that it's prepared hot at any hour; the quality of the food itself is quite mediocre.
Different story for Buc-ee's, which I thought was of exceptional quality and value.
I haven’t seen anything even remotely comparable in other countries I’ve visited.
The Valley Fair mall in the bay area is in both San Jose and Santa Clara, and the minimum wage is different at different locations in the mall.
> Under a 25-year deal brokered two years ago, [the year 2000] McDonald's has spent more than $25 million to overhaul the Pike's 11 service plazas. In return, the Pike receives at least $9.3 million annually in rent, plus a percentage of food sales.
https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/2002/08/17/havin...
(Unlike the freeways elsewhere in the US, where you can easily get on/off, so there's a bit more options for food and gas.)
For comparison, Boston (and immediate surroundings) Big Mac prices are $5.89 - $6.79 depending on the location, and that includes one of the city’s largest train and subway stations/bus terminals, in some extremely expensive to rent real estate within the financial district because of how many potential customers go through it every day.
Note that is not by road, that is taking a helicopter.
I always take that to be proximate to electricity, a gas station, grocery store, parts store, etc.
The lower 48 is really developed.
http://www.datapointed.net/2009/09/distance-to-nearest-mcdon...
(see update)
http://www.datapointed.net/2010/10/the-farthest-place-from-m...
And yes there is also a lot of variation around the region, but the above was at a single location.
Just like the high prices of soda ($2.50 for a 20oz bottle?) it's had the effect of making me stop consuming the stuff, so overall it's a win for me.
I think the mcdouble is $3.50 or so out here now.
It would be neat if it tracked the delivery version of the price too. At my local McDonald's a Big Mac is $6.39 for pickup and $7.79 for delivery. That's not me including a delivery fee in the price, the menu prices are just higher if you select Delivery in the app. There's also a
Okay everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the Big Mac has 2 menu prices. 6.39 for pickup and 7.79 for delivery. So I'm just going to delete the part where I list the other fees that are separate from the hidden menu price adjustment.
Seriously, get in your time machine and go check what it would cost for a law firm in Manhattan[1] c. 1930 to get a document across town on that schedule. That it's down to the same scale as the burger you crave to sate your grumbling tummy is an amazing innovation of our modern techno-whizgig society, not something to whine about in a throwaway comment on HN!
[1] Because needless to say, no one would think to have applied that kind of service to mere burgers.
Besides do what every other restaurant historically has done and say "$20 order minimum for delivery". Also it's not 3 miles, it's 2000ft. The restaurant is literally 3 blocks away from me.
There's no need to be such an asshole just because you misunderstood my comment. You could also get in your time machine to 2010 when every pizza chain or Chinese restaurant could do this for $2.99 plus tip.
But again if you want to argue about delivery prices, delivery is far more expensive than it was a decade ago. I know firsthand, I put myself through college delivering pizza and Burger King.
https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/8324-burger-king-expand...
Burger King used to deliver for a $2 fee in major cities from around 2012-2015. $10 order minimum. No secret menu pricing changes.
Even if you did understand my comment correctly, there's still no need to be an ass.
Especially the person complaining about the dishonesty, that wants an easier way to track the dishonest numbers.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gWFtn5PRmzHtYq3D9
It's not what you would think a McDonald's looks like; it actually looks basically like every other rest stop on the Mass Pike, which looks like most of the commercial real estate in the area.
There are probably extra costs associated with making the outside of a building look just like every other building, while making the inside conform to McDonald's franchise specifications. Also you lose some of the branding benefit that the nationwide chain has, and the local populace tends to be a bit more hostile toward fast food.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/beautiful-mcdona...
Three of the five factors used by a corporation like McDonald's to mandate the maximum price are oriented toward the kinds of advantages you get by maintaining a presence, regardless of a boutique facade. Only one (bundle pricing) is even indirectly related to cost.
>> THE BIG MAC index was invented by The Economist in 1986 as a lighthearted guide to whether currencies are at their “correct” level. It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries.
Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible. Yet the Big Mac index has become a global standard, included in several economic textbooks and the subject of dozens of academic studies. For those who take their fast food more seriously, we also calculate a gourmet version of the index.
I see what you did there.
If anything I’d expect McDonalds to block API access for this user and implement controls to limit data aggregation.
Even without cooperation that isn’t allowed, let’s say 5Guys comes in and see that the market will bear higher prices. Why wouldn’t they take advantage of that?
That's how downwards price pressure in capitalism works -- by reducing price you gain market share and increase profit overall. Otherwise, under capitalism, all our prices would be sky-high!
I wonder why?
My guess is different franchise owners - I notice some lower cost ones cluster near each other and then another cluster in next city over will be more expensive
Higher rent means higher prices, but higher volume allows lower prices to a certain extent. Which is why downtown locations aren't always the most expensive.
Do you mean the "Royale with Cheese"? :)
The McD I worked at regularly sent someone to get the prices off the Wendys, Burger King, and Hardees menus.
There appears to be a pretty weak correlation. Although there could be other offsetting factors (maybe fewer employees in the high wage areas, more use of the order-yourself screens or something).
https://www.axios.com/2022/04/17/mcdonalds-big-mac-inflation...
According to this site a Big Mac costs $5.19 at my local McDonalds and I know from driving past it that the starting wage is $15+ per hour.
I don't think hourly wage is connected much to price given how high up the US is on that list compared to other countries.
Couldn't figure out the security/certificate pinning in their internal API so just went with what worked.
I'll update it soon and try again at cracking the API security.
Anyone know if this has roots in specific tax rate differences or other city/county rules?
But...
It's in an extremely high traffic area and still to this day regularly has lines at the drive through. Even though there are two other McDonald's within 5 miles with sane prices.
Not that I go to McDonald's a lot and am upset about it, but more upset that this guy is shamelessly ripping people off and no one seems to care.
I don’t really eat at McDonalds but surely people who do would notice these kinds of differences right away.
I've lived here my entire life and I didn't have a fucking clue where "Lee" MA is.., but I have learned now, it's somewhere out in the Berkshires.
If you already passed through the Lee Toll Gantry by MM 10, you'll have to drive all the way to exit 3 to turn around, go to the cheaper McD's, then pass through the toll readers around MM 10 to turn back around at exit 10, then incur another toll after getting back on the highway.
You're better off exiting the highway to eat at the McD's off exit 10, which is still $0.40 more expensive than the eastbound service plaza location, but still $1.00 cheaper than the westbound service plaza location.
Edit: Turns out I was wrong. I calculated the difference, and paying the toll thrice would cost $0.75-$1.80 (vs. paying $0.25-$0.60 once), depending on if you have E-Z Pass MA, E-Z Pass (other states), or pay by mail.
Depending on how you pay the toll, you'll save $0.20-$0.70 paying thrice to visit the eastbound McD's vs. paying once to visit westbound McD's, but the cost of gas might make it a wash. If you're paying by mail, the best choice is exiting the highway, paying $7.09, then re-entering. (That said, if you're going eastbound, stopping at the service plaza wins every time.)
And taxes, labor rules, insurance rates, operating hour limits, ...
In my country, the price is same across all the states
Land taxes, shipping costs, utility costs, average local salary pushing up (or down) the wage floor they hire at, all influence the minimum amount of money any particular restaurant needs to make to break even or be profitable.
Since they're all owned independently and merely rent the name (and sometimes the land) from the McDonald's corporate entity, they have some leeway on setting their prices. There's a whole lot of rules they have to follow, of course, but that's the jist.
Usually, prices don't vary much, if at all, when looking at a smaller area or among locations owned by the same person.
The exceptions are if a particular location is especially expensive or high demand, such as interstate highway rest stops or when the location is attached to a highly trafficked gas station. The rents and taxes on those locations alone are enough to push prices up.
But most of the chains like Chili's/Applebees have a basic burger for $8.99 and even a combo or two for $20 where you get a fries and soft drink. That's hard to beat even when you throw in a tip.
Fast food has become incredibly expensive if you don't have a coupon or use the app to get a "deal". Burger King has a two whopper meal for $13.99 with drinks/fries, and two Whopper jr meal for $7.99 with fries but no drinks.
My suspicion is, like Whataburger, it’s a bit of a “having grown up with it” sort of thing that makes people recommend it so highly.
Kind of like beans on toast.... ;-)
They will collect orders throughout the week and on the weekend drive to Texas and pick up the burgers. I think they have a deal with a local whataburger because they pick the burgers disassembled.
The heat and reassemble them here in Monterrey. No fries, though.
They sell for 3x, I believe.
If we're going to rank fast food, Waffle House is the champion, followed by Chick-fil-A and Chipotle. Burgers are mostly fungible.
Can't speak for Whataburger but Five Guys is usually messier and the "little cheeseburger" is huge. Maybe the patties are better and the fries are objectively better but I wish they had a "little little cheeseburger" or something
And yeah, Five Guys is the best.
Very high quality burgers though.
If you asked my kids what the best burger place is, they’d say Culver’s without a second thought. They’re pretty rare unless you’re within 100 miles of Wisconsin, except there’s a bunch of them in Florida.
I'll admit the burgers are a lot better than McDonald's, although still not as good as something half-assedly home made with bottom-shelf Safeway ingredients
https://www.google.com/search?q=dave%27s%20giant%20hamburger
I don't usually eat fries but theirs are terrible as well, because "fresh" isn't how you make fries good.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mcdonalds-ceo-boycott-support-i...
Starbucks even less as the idea they're related to Israel is a complete fiction made up by TikTok posters.