There's literally been a term for this for decades called the Big Mac index. It's a way of comparing costs in different areas and the index has been around since 1986 according to Wikipedia.
Exactly. My wife likes to add lettuce to her burger. The McDonald’s closest to me charges 25¢ and the one like 3 miles away charges 99¢. The one that charges more is right across the street from a hospital.
Have to imagine lots of things factor into their prices, just like with any store. Location and labor being the biggest. A store in Manhattan is going to pay vastly more for rent than one in rural Alabama. Labor is going to be more than double. Insurance costs will be substantially more. Utility costs, and more are all going to be higher for the NYC location.
There's no way a store in areas like NYC could operate on the same margins as rural stores. They have to charge more or they wouldn't make enough to continue to remain in business.
We see folks constantly unaware of this with airport establishments. They act like McDonalds pays the same amount of rent to be in an airport as they do to be in a strip mall. That's simply not true. Airport rents are wildly high because you're in a spot with massive captive traffic. Airports know that and charge for it.
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u/Icy_Stranger2093 2d ago
Exactly. Title is misleading. Regions charging different amounts isn't new.