[dragonwriter]

> A McDonalds double cheeseburger meal costs $8.

> I remember when that was 3.99 not too long ago. Somehow I doubt that price difference is captured by the official 1 - 2% inflation rate.

Probably not exactly (and maybe not even approximately), because while restaurant meals are included in the CPI, the CPI is a somewhat broader index than the “McDonald’s double cheeseburger meal index” (also, McDonald's prices have regional and even store-to-store variation, and it's possible your local prices have varied differently than average for that particular item.)

[manquer]

There certainly is a big Mac index.

The price of big Mac is used as purchasing power proxy.

McDonald's is pretty efficient in their supply chains to use as rough proxy to real world idea of how things are. The variations you talk about don't add up to 100% change in price OP mentions.