How 10 McDonald’s Menu Items Prices Have Changed Over the Years
Americans’ financial distress has them feeling more crunched than a Crunchwrap Supreme. While the down-and-out once had the Dollar Menu to get them through, we can no longer rely on fast-food drive-thrus as affordable avenues to drown our sorrows in cheap, greasy meals.
Some of our countrymen and women have witnessed the severity of inflation when house hunting. Others have had their eyes forced open when they glimpsed the Taco Bell menu to find a five-dollar Cheesy Gordita Crunch staring back at them. It’s important to know which fast-food institutions are ripping you off the hardest, and it’s time to reveal the ugly truth about America’s most beloved burger chain: McDonald’s.
Since 2014, McDonald’s average menu prices have inflated more drastically than any other American fast-food chain. A deeper dive into item-by-item price increases reveals once and for all that it’s time to ditch the Golden Arches for a better-tasting, more affordable alternative.
4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal: 67% Increase
“Happy Meal” has become a cruelly ironic name as customers hand over larger percentages of their paychecks for four-piece McNuggets. More precisely, customers are now paying $4.99 for nuggets that cost $2.99 a decade ago. Discounting the add-ons, that’s more than a dollar per nugget.
The cost has probably gone up even more by the time this is published, and it’s time you take a stand. While McDonald’s representatives swear these nuggets are 100% chicken, they’re also coated in a concoction of flours and additives that make them anything but healthy. Just say no.
McChicken: 199% Increase
With alternatives like Chick-fil-A and Popeye’s in the world, it’s a wonder that McDonald’s sells any McChickens. The sandwich has all the quality you’d expect from a McDonald’s chicken sandwich, packing potassium chloride and modified corn starch into chicken whose origins are questionable at best.
The one-dollar price tag we saw in 2014 seems right for a McChicken. Now that the price has tripled to $2.99, brave the long lines at Chick-fil-A and get a chicken sandwich you can be proud of (or, at least, not depressed about).
McDouble: 168% Increase
Does “McDouble” refer to the two beef patties or the burger’s price behavior in the past decade (it’s McDoubled, and then some)? We expect it to McTriple shortly, as the trend from $1.19 in 2014 to $3.19 in 2024 is not promising.
Considering that a Big Mac runs $5.19, we’re assuming many McDonald’s customers have ordered the less-expensive McDouble without realizing the latter has become a lesser value than the Big Mac. McDonald’s even shorts you a slice of cheese when you order the McDouble instead of the double cheeseburger, adding insult to rampant inflation.
Medium Fries: 138% Increase
Thomas Jefferson once said, “Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.” One of the only things that cost us more than pride is a medium fry from McDonald’s in 2024.
Jefferson also said “We never repent of having eaten too little.” In other words, our Founding Father would advise us to skip the fries, which have more than doubled in price from $1.59 to $3.79 in ten years. A man who was always wary of central banks running amok would say, “I told you so” if he saw what printing dollars has done to the McDonald’s menu.” Fourscore and two bucks ago, a modest-sized carton of fries was affordable — but no longer.
Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal: 122% Increase
Got a pound of flesh for a quarter pounder?
A 122% price increase from $5.39 to $11.99 has Mickey D’s customers wondering if they’ve accidentally stumbled into a Ruth’s Chris. Rumor has it that the Quarter Pounder patties aren’t frozen like many of the burgers at McDonald’s, so a premium is to be expected. Jacking up the price by 122% seems like a bad joke, though. We wouldn’t put it past that clown Ronald McDonald.
Oreo McFlurry: 88% Increase
A Canadian McDonald’s franchisee concocted the original McFlurry in 1995, unleashing a frozen sensation from the Frozen North on the fast-food-loving American public. The Oreo McFlurry reigns supreme of all the flavor options, being dubbed a “fast-food icon” by one fawning culinary analyst.
Just as you’d pay handsomely to see an icon like Billy Joel in concert, McDonald’s management is squeezing all the juice out of its beloved soft-serve ice cream dish. An 88% price bump has taken the Oreo McFlurry from $2.39 to $4.49 in the span of ten years. You don’t have to worry about this one, though. As always, the McFlurry machine is broken.
10-Piece McNugget Meal: 83% Increase
You’d be right to ask: What has changed so drastically about the McNugget that would warrant a price hike from $5.99 in 2014 to $10.99 in 2024?
We know the exploding money supply (and not the McNugget itself) is driving the rising prices. Still, fans of ten-piece McNuggets might not care for any explanation at all—they just know the price-per-nugget is out of control. Leah Shutkever, who once scarfed down a world-record 19 McNuggets in a minute, might be in real financial trouble if this trend continues.
Filet-O-Fish: 57% Increase
“I’m craving Alaskan pollock, let’s go to McDonald’s!” – One sick, sick puppy. Three hundred million of these monstrosities reach McDonald’s customers’ hands per year, though that figure may decline with the sandwich’s rising price tag.
The only thing more gut-wrenching than paying 57% more for a fish sandwich is paying 57% more for a “fish” sandwich containing over 50 ingredients. The “fish” comes with hydrogenated soybean oil, artificial coloring, bleached wheat flour, and who knows what else. The price hike from $3.49 to $5.49 is God’s way of telling you to end your twisted tryst with artificial fish.
Big Mac: 50% Increase
Ronald McDonald’s signature creation, the Big Mac, calculated half its cost and stuck it on top of the original price point. You’re not getting an extra patty despite paying $5.99 today for the burger you paid $3.99 for in 2014.
2018 marked the Big Mac’s 50th anniversary. Apparently, the burger celebrated its half-century mark by giving itself a hefty pay raise. Pittsburgh franchisee Jim Delligatti designed the Big Mac as a burger “geared towards adults,” but in the past few years, it has become a burger geared towards the upper-middle class.
Medium Drink: 25% Increase
In 2014, a medium drink at McDonald’s would have run you $1.29. Today, that same drink costs $1.61. That’s a 25% jump, which may have been palatable if every other menu item hadn’t undergone an even more drastic price leap.
Every cent adds up when you’re pinching pennies, which many McDonald’s customers are. You should thank the price-setters at McDonald’s corporate, though. A medium Coke has 210 calories, 56 grams of carbohydrates, and a healthy dose of regret. You’re not at McDonald’s to eat healthy, but foregoing a medium soda won’t ruin your day.
McDonald’s Is Not the Only Fast Food Chain Boosting Prices
McDonald’s is not the first choice for many Americans looking for a quick, guilt-filled meal. You won’t find any solace in the prices at your fast food chain of choice, whether it is Popeye’s, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Taco Bell, or Long John Silver’s. You haven’t seen the worst of it. Wendy’s will implement dynamic pricing in 2025, a mysterious and dystopian move in which artificial intelligence will have some (again, mysterious) role in updating digital menus in real-time.
For now, we have several other examples of fast-food chains inflating their prices faster than Violet Beauregarde.
Chick-fil-A: Southwest Salad: 70% Increase
Of all the fast-food chains that can justify a price hike, Chick-fil-A tops the list. Lines consistently run from the drive-thru window to Timbuktu, the customer service is almost creepily impeccable, and the food is — for lack of a better word — straight fire.
Yet, it’s a bit disturbing that a customer-focused brand like Chick-fil-A has increased prices by as much as 70%. The pandemic-era “supply chain disturbance” excuse shouldn’t fly anymore, should it? So, what’s with the endless price hikes?
Taco Bell Beefy Five-Layer Burrito: 132% Increase
Long-term Taco Bell loyalists have found it increasingly difficult to frequent the ‘Bell. A Cheesy Gordita Crunch costs you 100% more than it did in 2014, while a Chalupa Supreme costs 110% more. All you need is common sense and a pair of eyeballs to know these tacos have less meat than ever.
A customer once sued Taco Bell for exaggerating the amount of meat it uses in its Crunchwraps and Mexican Pizzas. Let’s collectively say, “Yo quiero a better deal,” refuse to buy a burrito whose price has increased by 132%. We’ll make our own tacos.
Popeye’s Regular Mashed Potatoes with Gravy: 134% Increase
Several beloved Popeye’s classics have undergone drastic price changes since 2014, including the two-piece chicken combo (76%), popcorn shrimp combo (94%), and four-piece chicken dinner (97%). No item has become more expensive than the mashed potatoes and gravy, which was $1.79 in 2014 and $4.19 today.
Gravy is costing Popeye’s customers more of their precious gravy, mashing their wallets without mercy. There’s no better time to embrace red beans and rice.