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    [OC] The Real Happy Meal Inequality – The Poor Pay More $
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    [OC] The Real Happy Meal Inequality – The Poor Pay More $

    Discovered that Happy Meals actually cost more in low-income neighborhoods, even though household incomes there can be just 1/3 of the richest areas. California is one of the worst. Maybe low-income areas have lower elasticity, so franchise owners can get away with charging higher prices.

    • We compared the price of a 6-piece Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal in the richest and poorest neighborhoods.
    • Method: Used zip codes to identify the top and bottom 10% of household income areas in the U.S., then sampled McDonald’s location and checked Happy Meal prices. Price Inequality = (Poor Area Price – Rich Area Price )/ Rich Area Price.
      -Data Source: https://mconomics.com/agents/happy-meal-inequality

    Hope kids can have an equal happy meal price 🍔

    Posted by Negative-Archer-3807

    View 6 Comments

    6 Comments

    1. Illiander on

      At first I thought this would be about Vimes Shoe Economics.

      Turns out it’s about predatory pricing 🙁

    2. SuperSonicFire on

      This may not be how it works, don’t “poor” people in “richer” states earn (slightly) more than “poor” people in “poorer” states?

    3. VehaMeursault on

      Hypothesis: poor people have fewer options to eat out than rich people, and there are more poor than rich people, so there is more demand for fast food.

      I’m not saying fast food is cheap; I’m saying it’s cheaper than most restaurants, let alone the ones wealthier folks frequent.

      No clue if this holds, but it’s at least plausible.

      Your thoughts?

    4. eveniwontremember on

      Or poor people buy childrens meals but get nothing for themselves so store owner needs more return on the happy meals to stay in business.

    5. IMovedYourCheese on

      The data doesn’t say what you think it does. I checked a few cities in California, and all the low-income/high-price McDonalds are in highway stops in the middle of nowhere, while the low-price/high-income ones are in the middle of dense cities. The economics of the two sets of locations are completely different.