McDonald’s Shocking $16 Meal

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 26, 6:55AM EST

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McDonald’s Shocking $16 Meal — © McDonald's (Kodak, Tennessee) (CC BY 2.0) by JJBers

According to several media outlets, a man who walked into a McDonald’s in Post Falls, ID, a city of less than 40,000 people on the border with Washington, ordered a modest meal. The price tag was $16.10. He posted a short video on TikTok about the cost of the meal, and the video went viral. Over several weeks, it was seen by millions of people. And it was viewed as a sign that inflation in America had run wild. And, if people don’t have a savings account yields, inflation could be a problem.

People may be used to buying value means a McDonald’s, which can cost well under $10. According to The Washington Post, this order in Post Palls was for a “smoky” double quarter pounder BLT with fries and a Sprite. The burger is a “novelty item,” and McDonald’s presumably added to the total price. A large number of comments about the price were it was proof of inflation.

The video had legs. Related videos about the TikTok video ended up on YouTube. The story was picked up by prominent media outlets, including The New York Post, one of America’s most prominent newspapers based on circulation.

One of the reasons the video was seen and written about so often is that people believe inflation has not died. It is worth testing that assumption. A year and a half ago, the CPI was rising about 8%, and the Fed decided to raise rates to put a brake on rising prices. The Fed’s approach has worked. When the BLS released the CPI data for October, the index rose only 3.2% from the same period a year ago and was flat compared to September.

So. why are people so interested in a $16.10 McDonald’s meal? Probably because, in reality, there is a great deal of inflation in the consumer-based economy. While the Fed’s decision to raise rates repeatedly flattened the increase in the price of many items, it also pushed up loan rates on expensive things, particularly mortgage rates and car loans. While these are just two items, they can be part of a large household budget. If the cost of living rises, does it matter specifically what causes it? Inflation does show up in some people’s heating bills.

The reaction to the $16.10 McDonald’s meal might be an overreaction, but it says much about what people think regarding how damaging inflation is.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.