Florida's Sunshine Tax, Measured: McDonald's Prices Run 2% Above the National Median

TAMPA, Fla. - Rezul -- In Florida, McDonald's prices run 2% above the chain's national typical price: index 102, where 100 is the national median. That is the finding on Foodie Pundit's new Florida chain price page, a state-level check of seven fast-food chains that publishes its sources, its method, and its own gaps on the same page as its numbers: https://foodiepundit.com/florida-chain-prices

Source: Drive Thru Index, prices checked November 11, 2026.

Florida does not pay the same price at every chain. Against each chain's own national median, Chick-fil-A and Arby's index at 102 in Florida, Burger King and Wendy's sit at 100, Taco Bell indexes at 98, and KFC at 97. The median menu item behind those indexes runs from $5.29 at Arby's and $5.39 at Chick-fil-A to $6.19 at McDonald's and Burger King, $6.59 at Taco Bell, $5.99 at Wendy's, and $5.59 at KFC. Each chain is measured only against itself, so the index answers one question honestly: what does this chain charge in Florida compared with what it charges across the country?

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Foodie Pundit checks those state figures against its chain price index, built from per-dish menu prices in its dish graph. Its national basket medians, computed November 11, 2026, put a McDonald's basket at $4.49 across 103 priced locations, Burger King at $9.95, KFC at $8.99, Wendy's at $8.45, Taco Bell at $8.03, Arby's at $7.19, and Chick-fil-A at $5.45. Baskets hold up to five headline dishes per chain and differ by chain, so they are never compared across brands. Across 27 state comparisons in six states, Foodie Pundit's own index and the Drive Thru Index figures land a median of 6.28% apart, with 19 of 27 comparisons agreeing within ten percent. The side-by-side table is published on the page.

"A price index should show its receipts, including the empty shelves," the Foodie Pundit newsroom desk said. "We publish what we can prove, we date it, we name the source, and we say plainly what is not ready. Readers can check every number on the page."

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What is not ready is stated on the page, too. Foodie Pundit has mapped 4,005 Florida locations across the seven chains but has priced only 7 of them, below its three-per-brand minimum, so it does not publish its own Florida index yet, and it publishes no city-level comparisons at all. State indexes require at least three priced locations per brand; national baskets require ten or more. Per-dish prices are graded by evidence before they count.

Readers who want price moves like these can get them in Foodie Pundit's free daily digest; sign up and read today's food industry headlines at https://foodiepundit.com/