Burger King hikes Whopper price by 6%, cuts chicken wings

Whopper up 6% in two months: Burger King shrinks chicken wings

Two months without setting foot in a Burger King, I went in yesterday on a whim and left with a clear bill: the Whopper had gone from €4.95 to €5.25 in eight weeks, a 6% jump. It's not a scandalous figure until you multiply it by every meal someone eats in a year. And it's not the only way the chain is covering itself at the customer's expense.

The detail that finally tipped the scale wasn't the star burger. It was the chicken wings. They used to be sold in fours. Now, three or six units, depending on the new format, with recomposed prices so the customer doesn't quite notice the bite. Less product, new packaging, same or worse bill.

The silent shrinking of the basket

It's the old recipe for inflation that never shows up in the CPI: hold the nominal price as long as possible and cut the portion. The operator calls it format adjustment. The customer calls it leaving hungry. Added to that is the classic fryer issue: fries and wings with that reheated oil aftertaste that doesn't exactly invite a repeat visit.

The Whopper price increase is the visible part of the problem. The other, more silent part, is shrinkflation: fewer grams, fewer units, same price. With a domestic aggravating factor that more than one customer reproduced: a small sachet of ketchup for 50 cents. Charging for sauce is the last step in a strategy that turns any extra into a cash register.

Burger King or McDonald's: the war of the lesser evil

The underlying debate, when comparing chain against chain, almost always ends in a draw. Some argue that Burger King's burgers are bigger and less industrial than those of the golden arches giant, and others maintain the exact opposite: that the Whopper is drier than it used to be, that the bun tastes like cardboard, and that you have to empty half a dozen sachets to notice anything.

The curious thing is that the mid-range meal shoots up to €12 or €15 with fries and a drink. Here, it's not flavor that competes: it's the wallet. And at that price, the question half of Spain asks is reasonable: why pay that for chain food when there are alternatives next door that match or improve it.

The neighborhood bar as a refuge

The option gaining ground in comparisons isn't another franchise. It's the usual bar, the one with the unpolished grill and the house burger for €6 or €7, with an open kitchen and no extra charge for sauce. Against that, the argument of a clean and fast establishment fades when the chain meal costs the same or more.

In between, there's a range of upscale burger joints that have multiplied in cities and play between €8 and €11. And, for those who cook at home, the alternative of buying the meat and grinding it on the spot: it's cheaper and you know what's in it. Although another trap lurks there, the pre-packaged tray of ground meat with its percentage of fillers and additives.

The baffling figure: €19.72 per kilo for a Big Mac

When it comes to doing the math, there's one figure that takes the cake. A 220-gram Big Mac at €4.34 is equivalent to €19.72 per kilo. A beef steak, with all that that implies, averages around €15 per kilo nationally. In other words: chain burgers already cost more per kilo than quality meat, which is never inside them. Saying it out loud at the counter is quite amusing.