This Viral TikTok Reveals How You're Paying Too Much For McDonald's Chicken Nuggets
Seasoned shoppers know that as a general rule, you can save money by buying in bulk. As far as the consumer is concerned, that's pretty much the whole reason Costco exists. But in the world of fast food, buying more of something does not always mean a better deal, as one New York TikToker found out.
The TikTok user @mattterz, who calls himself "Matt," says on his Tiktok bio that he has a master's degree in "nuggenomics" while also being a "frynance bro." He applied some of that nuggenomics education in a TikTok he posted just a couple days ago. His analysis of how to find the best deal on McDonald's McNuggets has already been viewed 1.3 million times.
"Chances are you're paying too much for your McNuggets," Matt says, to start off his video. "And I'm here to show you why." Matt's TikTok shows him scrolling through his Uber Eats app until he lands on the page with McNugget options, from the four-piece box all the way up to the 40-piece one. Then he applies some serious nuggenomics by calculating the CPN, or cost per nugget, for each order. You'll notice that he's ordering from a McDonald's restaurant in Brooklyn — so your results may vary.
Sometimes, McDonald's four-piece chicken nuggets are the best deal
The McDonald's in TikTok user Matt's neighborhood was violating the good ol' buy-in-bulk rule. It offered four-piece McNuggets for $1.29, or 33 cents per nugget. The six-piece nuggets sold for $3.49, which is a "CPN" of 58 cents each — way more expensive than the four-piece. "You should literally never order this," Matt says. "That's another dollar for two less nuggets. It makes absolutely no sense."
As it turns out, no McNuggets order at Matt's McDonald's was a better deal than the four-piece. The 10-piece had a CPN of 53 cents. Even the 20- and 40-piece orders cost more on a per-nugget basis. What threw a wrench in the nuggenomics in this case was the super-good deal either Uber Eats or this particular McDonald's was offering: four-piece nuggets for only $1.29. We conducted the same test at our local McDonald's, where the four-piece was priced on the McDonald's app at $2.29.
Our own cost-per-nugget breakdown made more sense from the buy-in-bulk perspective. Our prices started at 57 cents per nugget for the four-piece and went down from there — all the way to 30 cents per nugget for 20- and 40-piece orders.
Switching to the Uber Eats app, we found everything was more expensive: $2.51 for the four-piece and 10 percent higher for all McNuggets orders. So here's some nuggenomics for you: When ordering through an app, get the best deal by picking up the order yourself.