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It was a time when prices weren’t fry-way robbery.
Once an oasis where the cash-strapped could eat on the cheap, fast food is rapidly becoming a luxury that people splash out on for special occasions.
McDonald’s has been called out for selling a $18 Big Mac combo in Connecticut, while Danny Meyer’s upmarket burger monger Shake Shack was grilled on social media for reportedly charging $50 for two sandwiches and a drink — the price of a sit-down meal in many fast-casual spots.
According to the limited-service meals and snacks category in the Consumer Price Index Report, which captures fast food, prices have risen by around 38% from the 2020 pandemic through 2025, outpacing inflation for the same period by around 56%.
“The pattern I observe is that the pace of price increases since 2020 has been historically substantially larger than normal,” Jason Miller, an Eli Broad Professor in Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University, told The Post.
Jacked-up prices were instituted to offset soaring costs of food, supplies and labor amid inflation, especially in states including New York with its newly-implemented $17 minimum wage.
One doesn’t need to be a burgernomics major to see fast food’s shift from sustenance to splurge. Just look at a menu of yore, when the dollar menu was an actual dollar, and special deals allowed a whole family to feast on the cheap.
As a service to nosh-talgists, here are several grease depots’ old-school lineups that show just how far prices have soared.
Take it on the arches
The 1970s were a golden age for the Golden Arches.
Take a gander at a menu from a McDonald’s in 1970, where every edible was under a dollar — with a Big Mac clocking in at a breathtakingly frugal 49 cents.
Of course, in the Big Apple, where everything gets a markup, that price would run customers 85 cents in 1974. However, that’s still a steal when compared to the Grimace-worthy $7.29 the iconic double-decker hamburger runs customers today — with combo prices over $10 — at the McDonald’s at 14 E. 47th St.
One doesn’t have to go back 50 years to avoid getting Hamburgled, either. McFans have been salivating over a menu from 2009, which showed a standard six-piece chicken nugget Happy Meal cost $4.39, including a drink, a side and a toy — nearly $3 less than the $7.19 charged for the same meal today.
Other casualties of McFlation include the small fries, whose price soared from $1 to $2.49 between 2009 and now; the McFlurry, supersized from $2.39 to about $4.39; and apple pies, which cost $1 for two in 2009 — now $3.39 for a pair in Midtown Manhattan.
It got to the point where even company CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted that McDonald’s was a luxury fewer could afford, declaring that “eating at home has become more affordable. The battleground is certainly with that low-income consumer.”
A real Shake-down
Shake Shack never pretended to be cheap, instead flipping the script on the traditional burger chain by slinging premium Angus beef and hailing from — rather than invading — New York City.
Despite its more boutique reputation, the prices when Danny Meyer’s opus opened as a permanent kiosk in 2004 were relatively reasonable at $5.95 for a Double Shack Burger and $2.45 for cheese fries. Two decades later, those items set customers back $10.99 and $5.99, respectively.
In 2024, a study by Preply named the upmarket meat merchant the most overpriced fast-food chain in the nation after Shake Shack raised its prices by 3%.
Taco about a discount
For whom does the Bell toll? Not the low-income customer anymore, apparently.
Any ravenous child growing up in the ’90s fondly remembers nabbing four soft taco Supremes for 99 cents each — which, combined, is close to how much you would be set back for just one today ($3.99 at the Taco Bell on 321 First Ave. in Manhattan).
Today, the cheapest item on the value menu is the $1.29 Cheesy Roll Up, essentially a Tex-Mexified grilled cheese in a wrap. In the 1990s, that amount would’ve gotten customers a Spicy Chicken Taco on the value menu that came with spicy shredded chicken, rice, creamy jalapeño sauce and salsa.
The elephant in the room is that minimum wage has increased substantially since Taco Bell’s so-called halcyon days. However, the numbers are still not proportional to the national minimum wage, clocking in at $3.80 per hour in 1990 versus $7.25 today, per the Department of Labor, the Tasting Table reported.
That’s approximately a 91% increase — far less than the 220% uptick affecting items like the Nachos BellGrande, which soared from $2.49 in the 1990s to $7.99 in 2026.
Prices were agreeable as recently as 2012, according to a TikTok content creator’s 2024 video, which revealed a receipt that she claimed showed her shelling out just $2.59 for two beefy, five-layer burritos — just one costs $4.99 today.
“Can you even get anything from Taco Bell for $2.59?” she asked. Sure — but you’re limited.
When affordability was King
In a move that would ignite the nostalgic burger wars of 1982, Burger King poured $20 million into a series of commercials — featuring future “Buffy” star Sarah Michelle Gellar — which emphasized that BK’s flame-broiled burgers packed more meat than McDonald’s skimpier fried patties.
However, it also saw more full-bodied costs.
At the time, the meatier, stacked Whopper ran just $1.39; now, it’s around $6.99 at the 106 Fulton St. location in New York — a whopping increase of more than 400%.
Go figure: In 2024, BK sales tanked as wallet-weary customers ate out less to save money amid inflation.
Not hip to be square
As recently as 2005, Wendy’s was unknowingly helping fast-food fans brace for the upcoming recession with an affordable menu featuring a Classic Single for $2.19 and Spicy Chicken Filet for $3.19, according to a nostalgic menu in Glenview, Illinois.
Flash forward to today, and those items both run $6.99 — with the latter rebranded as the Spicy Chicken Sandwich — at the square-burger depot at 111 Fulton Street in Manhattan.
As one disillusioned Facebook commenter lamented, “This [early 2000s] was peak Wendy’s. Dave ran a tight ship,” referencing the late brand founder, Dave Thomas.
“I miss this version of Wendy’s, the food was much better!!!” rued another, while a third weighed in, “Too bad the current state of affairs in the fast food industry would never allow for a return to this!”
