[tinotopia]

In the past few years, McDonald's (and some, but not all, other fast food restaurants) really seems to have gone all-in on the price-discrimination approach of setting list prices high and offering all kinds of discounts if you know where to look.

Relevant to the Big Mac Index, at the moment the app offers a two-for-one deal, through February 27, on Big Macs; so the effective price isn't $5.81 but $2.90. If you don't want two Big Macs, you can get free fries or a free drink, or both, or 20% off your whole order instead: but you can only use one discount every fifteen minutes, and you can only use any specific discount once per day.

The implication for the Big Mac Index is that in the face of the complex web of discounts offered by McDonald's it's nearly impossible to calculate the actual price of a Big Mac in the United States for general purposes.

That the 'discount' is offered through February 27 shows that this isn't really a discount but effectively the regular price for people who order through the app. The choice of the 27th for the end date leads me to suspect that they might be lifting the discount for one day a month to keep the FTC happy.

[JohnBooty]

    In the past few years, McDonald's (and some, 
    but not all, other fast food restaurants) 
    really seems to have gone all-in on the 
    price-discrimination approach of setting 
    list prices high and offering all kinds of 
    discounts if you know where to look.

Not that this is exactly some secret but a while back, it was explained to us (by somebody reasonably high up the org chart at McDonalds) is that the sandwiches themselves were money-losers, but that fries and drinks were essentially pure profit. (Thus, the birth of the infamous "super size it!" promotion)

They reallllly don't want you going in there and just buying sandwiches.

[sdze]

They must hate me because I only buy 4 hamburgers.

[Scoundreller]

Same in Canada. List price is $6.29, but the app routinely sends me coupons for $3.29 per unit.

And then there’s some points/rebate with each purchase.

[eyeundersand]

Is there a website or any other resource that provides a consolidated list of similar discounts? Could do with one for Chick-Fil-A or Bojangles.