Business @lemmy.world jeffw @lemmy.world 1mo ago

$15 Big Macs: As inflation drives up fast food prices, map shows how they differ nationwide

www.usatoday.com $15 Big Macs: As inflation drives up fast food prices, map shows how they differ nationwide

Here's how much prices for cheese burgers and signature meals at five fast-food restaurants increased between 2014 and 2024 amid inflation.

17 comments

“Inflation” aka price gouging
- Yoooo be cool man. They only made 9.61 billion last year. They gotta keep those margins up.
  
  Most of it from the rent they charge franchises. Yes, they own the land the restaurant is on, and they charge rent. On top of the franchise fees.
It’s not about a fair price. It’s “what the market will support.”

The reason they can charge $15 for a big mac is because people are still buying them at that price.
- The greatest lie the devil ever told is that ammoral is not immoral. profit seeking behavior is quite immoral and should be classified as a disease.
  
  It's not "immoral". It's just a crappy burger. You can go years or decades without eating one, believe me.
- yeah unless my wage increases by like 300% you won't find me paying this. heck its way less near me and my occasional trips are ended as it is.
Whoever designed the graphs on this report really doesn’t care about consistency or how people interpret on sight. Sometimes the highest price is red; sometimes yellow? Also orange? Now purple is a bad color? Just pick 1 style. /rant
These comparisons are losing efficacy as it becomes more and more about the apps.

And I’d guess it’ll become harder and harder to gauge discount pricing as deals are more and more often targeted. They can’t just download each app and put in different ZIP codes - price sensitive vs. price insensitive buyers will get different deals.

Believe we’ll have to look at receipts / order histories of large numbers of people across regions to get a good sense of how pricing is really working.

Edit: I can see a day when all fast food chains have “go fuck yourself” pricing on the menus. You’re a family on a rare road trip or a businessperson expensing a meal? Aight you might pay $20 for your McDouble just to get back on the highway, or while everything else in Podunk, Nowhere is closed. But anybody who actually wants to eat fast food monthly or more often? You better get the app, unless you wanna pay double for everything on the menu. That sweet sweet data and opportunity to price discriminate got the analysts salivating.
So are Big Macs are our gold standard now? Guess I'll stop paying attention to barrel prices of crude oil.
- I mean, the Big Mac index has been around since 1986, so not exactly a new concept
- As another commenter said, the Big Mac index has been used by economists.
  
  Not sure why you’d use crude oil in a discussion about fast food prices though?
The ONLY reason prices are so high is because Wages are going UP!
- It is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
  
  I mean keyboards and yada yada but you get the point.
- Did you look at the map?

17 comments