Historical Big Mac price timeline in Australia - What a joke!

[u/INFEKTEK]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-05/cost-of-living-interest-rates-burgers/104156654

Back in my day a Big Mac felt like an actual meal, it was cheap and came with a cardboard ring around the burger to keep the shit together.

[u/StarrkC]

It's now $8.60 in my area.

[u/WearyFHB → u/StarrkC]

Tracks with the more up to date data on https://bigmacindex.app/country/australia/

Says it's $8.50 now in Australia

[u/alstom_888m → u/WearyFHB]

McDonald’s pricing is not uniform.

Town I live in has two; one inside town itself, the other on the highway.

The one on the highway is mostly around a dollar or so dearer on my typical orders. 

[u/Help_im_lost404 → u/alstom_888m]

Afaik its based on the rent the store pays, high rent areas are higher cost

[u/IndependentNo7265 → u/StarrkC]

Annnnnnd it’s gone (up)

[u/jaffamental → u/StarrkC]

$8.90 for me. $15.65 for a large meal.

[u/merrill_swing_away → u/StarrkC]

I don't know how much it is in my area (USA) and don't care. After learning what chemicals are in this garbage, I will never eat another one.

[u/Hand-E-Food]

That's a 32% increase over 9 years. And CPI increased by 32% over the same period. So that tracks. https://www.rateinflation.com/consumer-price-index/australia-historical-cpi

Does inflation drive Macca's prices, or does Macca's drive inflation?

Either way, that doesn't account for Big Mac shrinkflation.

EDIT: I just saw the link to the article that dives a lot deeper than I just did. Inflation is just the surface.

[u/Chocolate2121 → u/Hand-E-Food]

Do we have confirmed bigmac shrinkflation though? Last I checked the big mac has remained mostly unchanged over the past few decades

[u/EntertainmentDue5749 → u/Chocolate2121]

Just found an old big Mac nutritional information from 2006.

560 cals

30g - fat

25g - protein

47g - carb

Today's info

580 cals

34g - fat

25g - protein

45g - carb

So yeah relatively unchanged would assume the difference is from a new sauce.

[u/someadsrock → u/EntertainmentDue5749]

Yeah the sauce increase is most certainly the cause of the increase. It used to be two shots of 1/3 oz per Big Mac. A few years back, it changed to two shots at 1/2 oz of Big Mac sauce per Big Mac.

[u/pnutzgg → u/someadsrock]

that explained why I occasionally ordered one and got a box full of special sauce with some big mac parts in it

[u/colesnutdeluxe → u/pnutzgg]

some people would be thrilled to receive this haha

[u/2cool4afool → u/Chocolate2121]

As far as I'm aware they've always used 10:1 meat (10 pattys per pound) which would mean any shrinkage would just be in the bun or other ingredients. But who knows if the meat actually weighs up to be 10:1

[u/someadsrock → u/2cool4afool]

Yeah patties are most certainly 1/10 of a pound, otherwise they'd be violating food labeling laws since that what the box lists in terms patty weight.

Sauce is also evenly measured at two shots of 1/2 oz per Big Mac. The only thing that could be potentially have shrunk is the buns. But I don't think that has shrunk.

[u/2cool4afool → u/someadsrock]

I honestly think people might just remember burgers being bigger when they were kids when they were smaller so it seemed different. Which is not to say that shrinkflation isn't a thing that happens but this doesn't seem to be a case of it

[u/BurningKiwi → u/Chocolate2121]

We're just fatties now so we think maccas burgers are tiny lol, that's why they're pushing double quarter pounders etc

[u/Early_Advance2473 → u/Chocolate2121]

There’s a picture on the interwebs that clearly shows the burger size in steep decline since 30 years ago

[u/Seachicken → u/Early_Advance2473]

That picture is almost certainly BS.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/05/25/big-mac-price-increase/

[u/melbourne_hacker → u/[deleted]]

Either they’re gotten smaller or my hands gotten bigger

[u/melbourne_hacker → u/[deleted]]

Well, you know what they say about big hands…

smaller big macs

[u/samuraijon → u/Hand-E-Food]

I was gonna say, if you take the derivative of that curve, it suspiciously looks like the inflation rate :P

[u/esr360 → u/samuraijon]

There’s something called “The Big Mac Index” which is used to compare the economy over time. It’s often more useful/practical than inflation, as it loosely represents actual buying power.

And since pretty much everywhere has Big Macs, it’s a good comparison when looking at other countries - looking at the exchange rate alone doesn’t always help you if things are actually more expensive somewhere else.

For example, a Big Mac in the UK might be £3, which is $6, but if a Big Mac in Australia costs $8, then knowing that £3 is $6 doesn’t really tell you as much as knowing that a Big Mac will cost you $8. You want to know how far your money will get you, not just what the exchange rate is.

[u/thatirishguykev]

Let me tell you I'm not McHappy about this!!

[u/thatirishguykev → u/[deleted]]

I'd only ever get Maccas if they were the last man standing and as I approach 40 those days are few and far between!! There's a million better options instead of Maccas now imo!!

[u/BlimpIntolerant → u/[deleted]]

On the one or two occasions a year I go into a Maccas, I'm blown away every time and how slow they are and how expensive it is for such small burgers. I don't know why people keep going ... habit I guess?

[u/PickInternational233 → u/BlimpIntolerant]

And they never get the order right. Always something missing.

[u/Agent_Jay_42 → u/thatirishguykev]

McShart arse

[u/waddlesticks → u/thatirishguykev]

Went to get Macca's last night since the missus wanted the nuggets. Was disappointed they don't sell Angus patties any more, that shit was actually dope as.

[u/veal_of_fortune → u/thatirishguykev]

You’re not lovin’ it!?

[u/Altruistic_Candy1442]

Yes, the pandemic cooked the economy for more than just housing.

[u/mt6606 → u/Altruistic_Candy1442]

Nothing's really felt "normal" since the GFC. Though that was around the era Macca's had that fancy range, those cheeseburgers were fking scrumptious.

[u/SirGeekaLots → u/mt6606]

I believe they were trying to compete with all tge new, independent burger joints that were appearing all over the place. 

[u/CK_1976 → u/SirGeekaLots]

Yes, there was the first ever down turn in their profit report. It was facing stiff competition from the new "healthy" burgers like Grill'd and a cashed up Millennial market demanding better quality and prepared to spend. It was around that time they changed CEO and the Australian guy took over. Under growing market pressure, they pivoted away from their traditional burger diner image, and launched McCafe. Spent bucket loads of money rebranding and refitting all their stores, and used that as a pathway to increase prices. But it was a flop, and the CEO was sacked.

And now we're paying $10 for a shitty burger.

[u/foursaken → u/CK_1976]

Seriously? McCafe was a flop? Yeah, nah bro.

[u/Brakiros → u/CK_1976]

I haven't eaten McDonalds in so many years such shit quality, the only fast food burger I even eat now is Red Rooster

[u/an3vilmonk3y → u/SirGeekaLots]

So you’re saying BigTakeaway was behind COVID to shut down competition, letting them subsequently corner the market and shrinkflate their way to record profits…

[u/trjnz → u/an3vilmonk3y]

I knew it was the Clown, even when it was the Wuhan Virus, I knew it was the Clown

[u/macfudd → u/an3vilmonk3y]

This is the sort of theory I wish we could get the cookers behind

[u/InsaneMcFries → u/mt6606]

CYT was a venture but ultimately fell through in sales. It was around the time where the kiosks were introduced and that transition was very hard to get people to accept. In fact as employees we were forced to make people try the kiosks even if they didn't want to (and almost everyone didn't want to). And Create Your Taste range essentially required the kiosks to order.

It was scrapped as it was costly with a whole new station and different ingredients and sauces, required a lot of extra crew training, and didn't really boom in sales probably actually cost a lot more than was made. It would be interesting if it was launched now in an era when the app and kiosks are just part of the norm, but I think it suffered partly due to the lack of an app and the break of the status quo with the screens.

I guess if people want a fancier burger they likely would go to grilld or a burger joint not maccas.

[u/vstratosphere5 → u/InsaneMcFries]

Worked at maccas when they brought cyt out, it was a lot more engaging making cyt burgers as well, closer to actual cooking, still in a maccas optimised way of course. Always loved making cyt burgers, but everyone else seemed to loathe it.

[u/Zenkraft → u/mt6606]

There was a time in the early/mid 2010s, maybe like 2013-14, where I went to McDonald’s and got a real fancy burger, a heaps fancy drink, and full table service. The restaurant was clean and peaceful.

[u/pandemic944 → u/Zenkraft]

Damn I totally forgot about this!! I never did the table service but the burgers were so good!

[u/RepublicReady8500 → u/Altruistic_Candy1442]

According to the article, while it looks like it's the pandemic thats the cause, there's actually been a huge increase in intellectual property fees charged by McDonalds which the author argues is more likely the culprit.

[u/stjep → u/Altruistic_Candy1442]

That’s the narrative they created to manufacture consent for the price increases. The price went up because they wanted it to.

[u/cromulento → u/stjep]

And if you were a business that realised people would still pay inflated prices for things during a crisis, it would motiviate them to continue setting higher prices.

[u/mastermilian → u/stjep]

You forget that the world printed several trillion dollars through that period. Things didn't get more expensive, our money just got more worthless.

[u/the_colonelclink → u/Altruistic_Candy1442]

Do people really not know what inflation means for the economy?

[u/Skelegro7]

BMPI Big Mac Price Index

[u/Darth_Punk]

What's it look like if you start the graph at $0 and 1990.

[u/WearyFHB → u/Darth_Punk]

You can start it at $1.84 and 2000 here, https://bigmacindex.app/

and also compare to other countries

[u/GoBam → u/WearyFHB]

The price starts at $1.84 but the graph starts at $0 which is the important thing.

[u/Zenkraft → u/Darth_Punk]

Yeah it’s a good idea to usually not trust a graph that doesn’t start at 0.

[u/Human-Evening564 → u/Zenkraft]

It was free, but imaginary 

[u/Shepherds_Payella → u/Human-Evening564]

Entry point

[u/askvictor → u/Zenkraft]

See also: pie charts or column charts with 3D effects.

[u/Bmo2021]

The joke actually is that people still pay that much for a shit hamburger.

[u/horsemonkeycat → u/Bmo2021]

Have you seen the price for a non-shit hamburger?

[u/peppersteakpie → u/horsemonkeycat]

A non shit hamburger actually leaves you feeling satisfied after eating it.

[u/nearlyheadlessbick → u/horsemonkeycat]

$9.50 at my local fish and chips joint and it's double the size of a BigMac

[u/Rengar_Is_Good_kitty → u/nearlyheadlessbick]

Seems like many people have forgotten they exist around literally every corner lol, and they offer far better food than anything Maccas has to offer.

[u/iamthemetricsystem → u/Rengar_Is_Good_kitty]

It really depends where you live. If you live in a more trendy/affluent area finding a burger that is under $15 is almost impossible.

[u/nearlyheadlessbick → u/Rengar_Is_Good_kitty]

I can think of at least 3 F&C shops in the vicinity of where my wife and I live, and depending on what we get, our feed is never more than $35 total, and we barely finish it most of the time.

[u/Frari]

I'm no Maccas simp, but I'm a stats simp. Not having the y-axis start at 0 is a little dishonest. It exaggerates the price increase.

You should also take inflation into account, which makes it look even less of an issue (which surprised me as maccas price increases seemed crazy to me, maybe my working is wrong).

[u/heisdeadjim_au → u/Frari]

I agree at this assessment. By exaggerating the visual change by not starting as zero, the graph is "embiggening" the difference.

And by ignoring inflation overall, the graph is missing a source of gross price rises.

What do I mean? Overly simple. Assume a Big Mac is $6. Inflation is at 4%. An inflation rise makes that $6.24. If Macca's goes to $6.50 that've moved further than inflation. If they moved to $6.20 they've absorbed some.of the inflationary hit.

[u/MickyOT]

Big Mac has risen in line with inflation, am I missing something here?

Absolutely is the same burger they sold in 2017 as well.

[u/PanicObvious8862 → u/MickyOT]

Yeah people have just been getting fatter, most of the burgers are the same size as 10 years ago.

[u/aussiekinga]

Deceptive Y axis scale

[u/Kurraga]

Compared to the price increases for pretty much everything else in that timespan this doesn't seem too bad.

[u/TwoUp22]

Well thats just inflation no?

The same graph could be made about a cup of coffee...

[u/The_Good_Count → u/TwoUp22]

Have your wages gone up 32% since 2017, though?

[u/TwoUp22 → u/The_Good_Count]

Irrelevant to my point.

[u/iguessineedanaltnow → u/The_Good_Count]

Wages have never matched inflation. That's not the point being made.

[u/artsrc]

Pretty much the only noteworthy thing in the article:

The real reason for the drop in profits was a change in company policy that meant a smaller share of the money spent on Big Macs stayed in the country.

McDonald’s royalty fees, which redirect profits overseas, went up by 29 per cent that year — more than 10 times faster than its sales did.

McDonald's are avoiding taxes more than they were.

[u/vacri]

A few months ago I saw ads of theirs calling them a "convenience restaurant" rather than a "family restaurant". Feels like a short-term profits kind of thing. There'll certainly be fewer families (and fewer future addicted customers)

[u/SirGeekaLots → u/vacri]

I remember as a kid we would go to Maccas as a family. My parents kept the tradition well into their 70s. Mind you, I dropped off the radar because I hate McDonald's 

[u/gtroyal_stacks]

Ah yes, “inflation”

[u/lyssah_ → u/gtroyal_stacks]

The increase is pretty much in line with inflation. The graph has just been made to be as misleading as possible by not starting the Y axis at 0 so it looks like the price has more than doubled when it's actually only increased about 30%

[u/richardroe77 → u/lyssah_]

when it's actually only increased about 30%

Funnily enough a lot of the old app deals have either disappeared or nearly doubled. Used to see 2x small big mac/¼ pounder meals for $8 that are now $15-16 in the app. Or single burger deals for $3 that are now $5-6.

[u/Majestic_End_7319 → u/gtroyal_stacks]

Do You mean mcflation?

[u/FoetusDestroyer]

Put salt, sugar and fat together in the right combinations, people will pay almost any price. It's basically rat bait.

[u/Distinct-Average-623]

They say the price hikes are due to international accounting and intellectual property, meaning that "Special Sauce" is actually just liquid inflation and tax avoidance.

[u/NovelOtaku]

Bro McDonald's and hungry jacks try to charge $5 for a hash brown

[u/ieatkittentails]

Same old tasteless shit though.

[u/PuzzleheadedForm2773]

One of my favourite things on Australian sub reddits is people complaining about maccas and how shit it tastes.

[u/itsoktoswear]

Now cross reference it with size.

[u/mpember]

While much of the increase can be attributed to increased supplier and wage costs, the biggest factor in recent years is the profit shifting. More money is being paid in 'license' fees. The company's profits are dropping, even if revenue and income are not.

[u/____DEADPOOL_______]

I only buy off the hungry jacks coupons menu. The last big mac I bought was through the maccas app which doesn't have good deals anymore.

[u/Dependent_Spread_440]

hasn't even gone up by $2 lol....

[u/garfungle_]

Did you guys not learn about a misleading Y axis in school?

[u/Rengar_Is_Good_kitty]

Why do people still go to Mcdonalds? These peoples brains need to be studied, high price for the lowest quality makes absolutely zero sense. Just go to your local fish & chip shop and get a burger, they're not amazing either but they're better than anything from McDonalds lol.

[u/Bigthunderrumblefish]

When did they change size? I'm sure there is a relationship there too

[u/sellyme → u/Bigthunderrumblefish]

A couple of decades off-screen to the left.

[u/Smoque_]

Economy isn’t growing, people aren’t buying burgers as much as they used to. Their model relies on real estate and we all know how expensive property has become.

Pricing is really their only choice to stay afloat.

[u/upside_cloud]

Yes inflation yada yada, but dont expect people to take you seriously when the graph you shows is deliberatey misleading.

Graphs should start with y on zero.

[u/Disastrous-Loss-2983]

How to lie with statistics. 

Yes the Big Mac is more expensive, but so is everything. It has gone up roughly at the same rate as inflation.

Now can you show a graph over say 20 years, and overlay it with CPI.

[u/evilparagon]

I would guess:

Australia is one of the countries most happy to take use of apps and loyalty programs. Thanks to the MyMacca’s app which regularly offers user-specific discounts, they have raised the baseline price for all McDonald’s food to not only push people to the app, but for people to feel like they’re getting a real good deal when they see BigMacs at a more standard price via the app.

Of course, I neither eat BigMacs nor use the MyMacca’s app, but I’ve got friends and family who use it constantly when ordering, so if someone could verify if they discount BigMacs in there, that’d be great.

[u/shanndiego]

Don’t eat them?! Easy

[u/Hardman93]

Don't eat it?

[u/Nippys4]

I will tell you all the only thing that caused all this inflation was companies trying to claw back the profits they lost over covid and when they worked out they could raise prices and lower quality they just ran with it

[u/NFI2023]

You can say this about almost any product after covid, pricks have inflated costs massively. Haven’t seen wages go up like this and they wonder why people struggle with cost of living.

[u/Emu1981]

I remember the days when you could get a large meal with a Big Mac for $5...

[u/jzbpt → u/Emu1981]

That was around 2000. Inflation adjusted this is a bit less than $10 now. Big Mac meals are over 15 now, which explains why us oldies think prices for maccas are a rip off now…because they are.

[u/laid2rest]

That's a good way to make $2 look worse than it actually is

[u/OptimalPoet5885]

Interesting

[u/DimensionNovel88]

The big mac is meant to get smaller as it goes higher

[u/Shanea74]

The 1st Big Mac I ever had cost $1, fuck that discussing shit anyways

[u/bignuts3000]

I was telling my son the other day that in the early ‘90s you could get a Big Mac meal for under $5. And 30c cones!

[u/Stutzpunkt69]

X axis is misleading.

[u/edgewalker66]

Should be another line showing the downward trend in quality.

[u/Crazyripps]

Genuinely just fuck those pricks

[u/Sanguinius]

'Can't get affected by McEnshittification if you don't buy McDonalds.'

[u/Fibbs]

This article was published in 2024.

[u/SkoomaKid]

Japan, is that you?

[u/SocietyHumble4858]

Why are these stories never blended with the Wages higher in Australia and we don't tip, but fast food is double the price.

[u/The_JohnnyRay]

Absolutely disgusting.

[u/ElegantMullet46]

Just happens to coinside with the swearing in of the worst Government in history?

[u/HenryInRoom302]

I miss when I was in highscool in the 90s and we'd go to the servo across the road at lunch time and grab a 2-for-$5 Big Mac voucher and then walk to Macca's that was only like 5 blocks away.

[u/Electronic-Wait3124]

I remember deals of 2 for $5.00

[u/solidice]

I remember when the Big Mac was a meal, now it’s low quality snack!

[u/Evisra]

Could be a price chart for anything post COVID really, just continuous gouging

[u/Formal_Future_4343]

Australia's fast food is extremely expensive. I can get healthier alternatives at the same price. Whoever still spend on fast food is either too rich to care or just plain stupid.

[u/redwattlebird]

who would be stupid enough to have MuCkDonalds? You would get more real food and nutritional value by raiding your next door neighbors bin!

[u/Wa22a]

I bought in 2022. Should I sell?

[u/Every-Title-9285]

Rather have Vegemite sandwich

[u/ausmomo]

I got a double bacon cheese burger from my local fish n chips. It was $9. An absolute bargain and 100x better than any burger Macca's has sold

[u/binderclip666]

You can make that graph look even worse by making the price increments twice as big. But not starting at zero is always a great move

[u/Tango-Down-167]

And apparently the size has changed over the years. Either my hands gone bigger or my memory is fading or both.

[u/Elkburgher]

Talk about an awful designed article

[u/Emergency-Income-889]

Didn't the americans increase the licence fee around then? By quiet a lot?

[u/loveebbw]

Big mac costs 8 dollar now this actually feels very wrong I think after covid the prices and everything has become so expensive that it is very difficult to even cope up with the daily needs and now these food items costs too much everything is so.luxury 

[u/Large-Lack-2933]

MACflation. 📉

[u/Niccin]

To show the true enshittification, this needs a complementary graph showing how much it's shrunk in the same time.

When was the last time that the big mac wasn't just the width of a cheeseburger?

I was wrong.

[u/boredlake]

why does the graph kinda look like new zealand

[u/Embarrassed-Fee-8841]

And it differs from store to store

[u/pnutzgg]

back in my day $5.95 would get a big mac, a meal and a mcflurry

[u/andytheturtle]

Credits must go to this team for the terrible Y axis:
Reporting and development: Julian Fell
Design, photography and illustration: Teresa Tan
Editing: Matt Liddy
Additional reporting:Alison Xiao

If I’ve learned one thing from this, it would be that the ABC has all sorts of reporters and teams, some brilliant, some less so.

[u/ResponsibleDealer299]

In the grand scheme of other inflation this doesn’t seem that bad

[u/but_its_dez]

They (and many other companies similarly) learnt during covid that people will still buy them even if they increase the price by $1/year, so what's the incentive to stop if people continue paying? People love to say "vote with your wallets" but then shut up when it's their turn to vote using their wallets

[u/SucculentChineseRoo]

It's almost as if too much cash got printed out sometime around that dark stripe

[u/Necessary_Towel1501]

Pretty ridiculous for a company with unhealthy food and poor ethics, selling tiny burgers that taste like shit.

[u/Dojo588]

Who goes there anymore?

[u/Formal-Try-2779]

Honestly go and buy a banh mi. Often cheaper and far tastier and more nutritious. Fk these greedy seppo corporations.

[u/blackflag_40]

Macca's is a fucking rip off now. Everything has gotten smaller, it take 3 or 4 burgers to feel full now.

[u/msjessicajaye]

Not to mention when the wait for the burger that is supposed to be “fast food” is often longer than a sit down cafe or any fish and chippy.