Chicken, cheap..... and expensive?

Question

If chicken is so cheap and abundant, why is a chicken sandwich the most expensive thing on the fast food menu?

Ground beef at the store: $3/lb
Chicken at the store: $1/lb

Double cheeseburger at McDonald's: $1
Grilled chicken sandwich at McDonald's: $4

What gives?

Chuck, I agree with you, I spent $7 at a friggin hot dog stand for a dog, small fries, and small drink. Outrageous! Man, a lucky dog on Bourbon street during Mardi Gras doesn't cost that much!

TheOneAndOnlyBooger, you're right, chicken breast is more expensive, but we have it here for about $4/lb, which when compared to ground beef at $3/lb still doesn't explain a 3x's markup.

I think Chuck is right. People who want a healthy alternative will be willing to pay anything McDonald's demands of them.

Answer 1

It's clearly a matter of what the market will bear, especially if people are misled into thinking they're getting something that is worth more money. For instance, the typical McD's beef eater isn't all that concerned about what he eats. On the other hand, a person who wants chicken at McDonald's is perhaps more fastidious, and won't be easily led into eating something else. So they'll pay more to get what they want.

There is nothing healthy about McD's chicken sandwiches. Most all of them (I realize there are a couple minor exceptions) are breaded and deep-fried, which means they are nothing but grease-soaked pucks with a chicken center. The grilled one is probably marginally less greasy, but come on, it's still McDonalds. Notice that McD's doesn't really market them as healthy, they only market them in a more bourgeois manner.

Those silly gourmet chicken sandwiches at McD's are just an attempt of theirs to increase margins on food. Didn't you notice over the past...oh about 2 years now, how the prices of fast food went through the roof (in the U.S. at least)? I mean, prices doubled in no time. Along with this came an emphasis on various new items that always cost more than the old items did, such as those new chicken sandwiches, which have nothing to recommend themselves over anything else on the menu. McD's does have the ol' McChicken sandwich for sale still, for $1, but I never see it posted on the menu (you have to ask for it).

A month ago, I spent an insane near-$9 at Carl's Jr. on a hamburger, fries and drink. This customer-gouging isn't going to go on much longer, and in the past month I have seen the proof: Nearly every fast-food joint I've been in is handing out coupons, and my local BK is offering daily combo specials for $3.59.

Answer 2

Well the problem is you are looking at whole chick prices by the pound not a boneless skinless chicken breast that Mc Donald's uses on their grilled chicken sandwich. At the store I can buy a whole chicken about 4 lbs for just over $5 but if I want boneless skinless chicken breast for just over a Pound they are almost $10.

Answer 3

I believe that at a grocery store, groud beef is more popular than ground chicken and at McDonald's, A Double Cheeseburger is more appetizing than a Grilled Chicken Sandwich.

Answer 4

Because McDonald's specializes in HAMBURGERS- NOT Chicken Sandwiches. Usually fast food places make their $$$ on the stuff LIKE Sandwiches, Salads & etc.- because their Burgers are so cheap. Try to buy a Burger at a fast food Chicken or Fish place- & you pay an arm & a leg! :)

Answer 5

Yeah, same where I live too, chicken sandwiches are more expensive.

I think it is most probably to do with the demand & supply of the product. There is more demand for chicken by customers and that makes more demand for supply. A lot of costs go into the breeding of chickens etc.. equipments etc. and in some cases, as a recent USA program announced, enhancements used and injected into chicken to make them plumber :o.

Answer 6

The pricing of chicken has to do with how it is packed, prepared, and broken down. A refrigerated chicken is going to be more cheaper than a frozen chicken as it takes a lot of work to IQF (individually quick frozen) chicken with the thin layer of ice. Two, it depends what parts are being sold, if it is a full chicken it is going to be less expensive because it takes less work to break them down rather than buying chicken breast of thighs. Lastly, when it is shipped to the stores, there are layering (which is neatly layering the chicken) and slab packing (random) so the grocery stores price the chicken on the prices they are charged, it has nothing to do with name brands its just that name brands pay more for their product so it can be high quality to the buyer.

Answer 7

Chicken is categories under white meat, so it is more healthy to eat chicken compare to beef.

Reasons for grill chicken to be more expensive, it can be because that grill chicken is more difficult to season in order to get its favour

Answer 8

Because chicken is more nutrious than beef, therefor the demand to be fit is high. Therefore your demand for a quality piece of low fat meat will be high :)

Answer 9

Live Los Angeles where a whole chicken at the store is $8.

You are lucky if you got it this good.

Answer 10

Beef tastes good but chicken is better for you.