Wednesday, December 07, 2022

The National Fast Food Index

If you buy a MacDonald's Big Mac in Lee, Massachuesetts you will have to pay a whopping $7.89. That is over twice as expensive as buying the very same burger at a MacDonald's in Eufaula, Oklahoma, where a Big Mac costs just £3.39.

The price of a MacDonald's Big Mac in the towns of Lee & Eufaula, and in the other 13,271 MacDonald's outlets in the United States can be explored on the Fast Food Index. The Fast Food Index is an interactive map which compares the differences in the prices of fast food across the United States. The map allows you to compare the prices charged by MacDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, Taco Bell and Chipotle across the whole of the US.

Select one of these four fast food chains and you can view a choropleth map comparing the price of the chain's signature dish at all its outlets across the country. On the map the United States is divided using a voronoi layer based on the nearest fast food outlet. This means that if you zoom in on your home on the map the choropleth layer shows the price at your nearest outlet. If you zoom-in on a fast food outlet you can view the actual price of its signature dish as a label on the map.

According to Statista the average price of a Big Mac in the United States is $5.15. In fact the $7.89 charged for a Big Mac in Lee is more expensive than the average price paid by the residents of Switzerland. Switzerland leads Statista's Big Mac Index. At an average price of $6.71 you will pay more for a Big Mac (on average) in Switzerland than in any other country in the world. According to Statista's analysis the cheapest country to buy a Big Mac is Venezuela, where the average cost of a Big Mac is just $1.76.

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