OK, it’s not exactly one of the big questions in life. It’s not up there with “why are we here?” or “are we alone in the universe?” or “what do Kardashians do?”, but believe it or not, it’s a tricky question to answer.

If you go to East Warrnambool McDonald’s, a medium cheeseburger meal costs $5.30. If you go to the Maccas in central Warrnambool, the same meal is $5.55.

Here’s a breakdown across the south-west for you:

Now, before you rush to social media or the comments section to irately ask “How is this news?!??!”, I will beat you to the punch. This is not news in the traditional sense. Not even close. 

But it’s somewhat interesting and surprising, or at least it was to almost everyone who was told this tidbit of information. 

So why is it so? And has it always been so?

Back in the day (according to a former industry insider) McDonald’s did some socio-economic profiling, combined it with a study of fast food availability, and developed a tiered pricing structure. A store in Tier A – the highest price bracket – was usually in an affluent area with fewer fast food options. A Tier D store, with lower prices, would be in a lower socio-economic area where fast food was plentiful. 

A McDonald’s representative confirmed this tiered system had been phased out and that franchise owners now “have the ability to set their own pricing based on individual business factors”.

“Each McDonald’s restaurant has a unique set of characteristics that can impact pricing,” McDonald’s Australia corporate communications manager Chris Grant said, citing trading hours, customer traffic patterns and product demand as pricing factors.

John Whitehouse, who has run Warrnambool’s two McDonald’s stores for the past two years, said the few price differences between Central and East had been inherited from the previous owners and he was “working to reduce those discrepancies”.

“(The two stores) do operate very differently,” Mr Whitehouse said.

“I look at it as some of the prices are discounted (in some) areas.”

He also noted that supermarket prices differ from place to place.