The States That Pay the Most and Least for Takeout

For a second year in a row, we were commissioned by NetCredit to find out which U.S. states are enjoying the best takeout prices. The full study includes city data, too.

To do this, we retrieved the menus for different fast food chains from Grubhub in 260 cities, covering the largest in each state. Then, we calculated the average national price for a set of popular items for each chain, both for the items individually and the full set:

• McDonald’s: Big Mac, French Fries, Chicken McNuggets (10 pc.)
• Pizza Hut: 14” Meat Lover’s Pizza, 14” Veggie Lover’s Pizza, 14” Pepperoni Lover’s Pizza
• Subway: B.L.T., Meatball Marinara, Tuna
• Burger King: Whopper, French Fries, Bacon Double Cheeseburger
• KFC: Spicy Chicken Sandwich Combo, Chicken Only (8 pc.), Secret Recipe Fries
• Popeyes: Spicy Chicken Sandwich Combo, Signature Chicken Combo (2 pc.), Handcrafted Tenders (5 pc.)
• Taco Bell: Crunchwrap Supreme, Crunchy Taco Supreme, Burrito Supreme

Using these values, we calculated the average national price for all items overall and for each individual chain. Comparing the national average prices to the average within each state allowed us to calculate price premiums (%) for takeouts across these chains and for each chain separately.

Finally, we compared the change in price premiums with the results from last year's version of this same study.