Tuesday, May 6, 2014

McDonalds menu board from 1974. Nice lesson on prices and selection change over time.

I saw this photo of an aged McDonald's menu on Twitter.  I spent about 2 minutes trying to confirm and the best I can find it is from 1974.

According the Bureau of Labors Statistics inflation calculator, $1.00 in 1974 is equivalent to $4.79 in today's dollars.  So, multiply the numbers you see below by 4.79 and you will get those prices in today's money.

For instance, a $.65 Big Mac would be $3.11 today.

Using pricing information HERE, a Big Mac today is priced at $3.99 (not as part of a combo meal). This means the price of the Big Mac has increased 28% over the general rate of inflation for the past 40 years.

A fun-ish class excercise could be to do like I just did above and look at how, after adjusting for inflation, prices have changed over time.

Questions to ask would be how has portion size changed?  Quality and composition of the food? Competition in the marketplace?

Embedded image permalink


Here is a recent one. Big difference, eh?  The simple life no more.



3 comments:

  1. Scary, when you see how much the dollar's value has fallen.

    I remember 10 cent beer (in one bar only, unfortunately). And 15 cent burgers in a place that later became a Burger King.

    If you bought a house back when a Big Mac cost 65 cents, you were in good shape ten years later. The paycheck went up, but the mortgage payment didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am using one of your pictures for a paper in my English class and I am trying to do a works cited. Could I get you full name please?
    Thank You

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even figuring the conversion of the $ in
    1974 to the $ in 2022 the price increases at all McDonald's is a
    complete outrage. A 5.00 order
    of McDonald's french fries? What
    kind of world is this? It's like
    actually living in a dystopian movie.

    ReplyDelete

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