Where Can You Find The Most Expensive McDonald's Big Mac In The Country?
Everyone who has walked into a grocery store recently is well aware of how expensive food can be. However, there are a number of innovators in the culinary sphere who have elevated the idea of luxury dining to absolutely absurd levels.
The Fleur Burger 5000, a towering stack of wagyu beef, foie gras, and truffles, costs $5,000, the Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata, filled with lobster meat and topped with a generous dollop of Sevruga caviar, will run you $1,000, and you can spoil your sweet tooth with the Golden Opulence Sundae also for a staggering $1,000 — the most expensive restaurant dishes in the country certainly don't skimp on luxury ingredients. The most expensive restaurant in America, meanwhile, is New York City's Masa, where a full meal of succulent sushi can set you back $1,000 or more.
Fortunately, meals that will leave you in financial ruin are unique to upscale establishments — or are they? Depending on where you are, a McDonald's Big Mac, which is generally considered to be a cheap choice for a quick meal, could cost you a pretty penny.
A tale of two Big Macs
The price of a burger and fries has been on the rise across the country. Fast-food chains increased their prices by a whopping 13% in 2022. The Big Mac itself has fallen victim to the plague of price increases and CNBC notes that it currently costs 40% more than it did just a decade ago. In fact, the fluctuation in the cost of a Big Mac has proven to be such a useful tool in tracking the effects of inflation that economists concocted the Big Mac index, which uses the price of the burger globally to compare the respective values of different currencies, in the 1980s.
As such, a lot of people have become accustomed to paying a decent chunk of change for the fast food titan's signature cheeseburger. However, exactly how much you'll be shelling out can vary wildly. At the time of publication, McCheapest – a website that constantly displays where you can find both the most and least expensive Big Mac sandwiches in the United States — lists the cheapest Big Mac price as $3.49. This bargain burger is available at a McDonald's in Stigler, Oklahoma. The most expensive Big Mac, meanwhile, can be found in Lee, Massachusetts. There, the sandwich costs a staggering $8.09 — but why?
Explaining the massive Big Mac price disparity
Several factors could help explain why the Lee, Massachusetts location is home to the most expensive Big Mac in the country. Lee is a pricey place to live, as payscale shows, with a cost of living that is 10% higher than the national average. Additionally, the particular McDonald's franchise that serves up the most expensive Big Mac exists at a toll road rest stop, which means that its customer base is far from flush with fast food options. The cost of living in Stigler, Oklahoma is over 17% lower than the national average according to Salary.com – Oklahoma overall is the second cheapest state to live in.
The Big Mac national price disparity tracking tool McCheapest was invented by the U.K.'s Sacha Fournier, who was surprised to find himself shelling out a different sum every time he bought a Big Mac at a new NYC McDonald's. Despite having created McCheapest to shed a light on the cost fluctuations, he wasn't prepared for just how wild the variations could be. The tool even revealed that a McDonald's operating only a few hundred feet from the location in Lee with the nation's most expensive Big Mac sells the signature sandwiches for $6.69, a far cry from the record-high $8.09 of its neighboring franchise.
Though you'd certainly be spending an excessive amount on these sandwiches, they're still nowhere near as expensive as the $12,500 gold "Bling Mac" ring that McDonald's gave away in 2018.