If You Live In Oklahoma, You Have Access To The Cheapest McDonald's Big Mac In America
Considering it has an entire museum dedicated to it, McDonald's Big Mac clearly has a dominating history and popularity. Created by McDonald's franchisee Jim Delligatti in 1967, the famous double-patty burger is without a doubt one of the most recognizable food items in existence, and it's estimated that the chain sells 550 million of them every year.
Such popularity and massive sales figures translate into equally enormous revenue for McDonald's: a little over $23 billion in 2022, the company's own financial data reveals. However, research suggests that certain parts of America pay a whole lot more for their Big Macs than others. This isn't a total shock, considering prices for other goods also fluctuate depending on where in America you are. But, how do these decisions get made when it comes to big chain restaurants?
Looking at McDonald's prices across the 50 states, it's clear that Oklahoma is fortunate enough to have one of the cheapest Big Mac burgers in the country. We've investigated why this might be the case, and where people are paying the most to indulge in a Big Mac.
The most expensive Big Mac is more than twice the price of Oklahoma's
A Reddit user by the name of wise_genesis is the brain behind McCheapest, a site that compiles comprehensive data about U.S. Big Mac prices. According to a Reddit post that explains this venture, Big Mac price information is harvested from the McDonald's app for 13,000 of the company's restaurants, which then allows people to see where the costliest and cheapest burgers can be found.
Ultimately, the data revealed that the cheapest Big Mac in the country can be found in Stigler, Oklahoma, and is priced at $3.49. At the other end of the spectrum you've got Lee, Massachusetts: There, a single Big Mac costs $8.09, more than twice as much as it does in Oklahoma. The creator of McCheapest explained on Reddit that they were inspired by The Economists Big Mac Index, the McBroken ice cream machine app, and a simple affection for Big Macs.
There are a couple of reasons why Big Mac prices could vary between states. Restaurant Business reports that franchisees have control of pricing in their locations, and thus could choose to make Big Macs more or less expensive depending on demand. It also found that states with higher minimum wage laws have higher Big Mac prices — Massachusetts enforces a $15 hourly pay rate, whereas Oklahoma uses the federal minimum pay rate of $7.25 an hour.