Prices & Value
The FoodMenu Price Index, Explained
How we compare the same restaurant product across eleven countries, what the numbers mean, and the four things a dollar price can never tell you.
5 min read · 1,084 words
Prices & Value
What food actually costs, where it costs least, and why the gap is so wide.
The same burger can cost three times more across a single ocean. This hub is the editorial half of our global price index: the currency maths, the wage-adjusted comparisons, the combo arithmetic that decides whether a meal deal is a deal, and the reasons a market prices the way it does.
Prices & Value
The Cheapest Countries for Fast Food
Where the same branded burger, coffee and pizza cost least across the fourteen markets we track - And why the ranking is not the one most people expect.
3 min read · 768 words
Prices & Value
The Most Expensive Countries for Fast Food
Britain tops our price table for identical branded products, ahead of Singapore and Ireland. Here is what is actually driving the gap, and how much of it is a labelling illusion.
3 min read · 656 words
Prices & Value
Why the Same Burger Costs Five Times More in Another Country
Rent, wages, tax, tariffs, brand positioning and franchise structure all land on the menu board as one number. Here is how to read which is which.
4 min read · 773 words
Prices & Value
How to Spot a Bad Meal Deal
Combos are the most profitable thing on a menu board and the arithmetic is deliberately hard to do standing up. Four checks that take ten seconds each.
4 min read · 816 words
Prices & Value
Why Fast Food Has Outrun Inflation
Menu prices have risen faster than general inflation across most developed markets. The reasons are structural, and they show up clearly in what chains have done to their value ranges.
3 min read · 724 words
Prices & Value
The Cheapest Hot Meal in Every Country We Track
The lowest published prices across all 255 menus in our database, market by market - And why the answer is almost never a burger.
3 min read · 564 words
Prices & Value
Value Menus: How the Cheap End of the Board Is Engineered
Every chain runs a value range and none of them make much money on it. What it is for, why it keeps shrinking, and how to tell a real one from a decoy.
4 min read · 804 words