เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2026-10-12

Same chain, different price across Belgium: Panos' Ham & Jonge Gouda varies by 11% between restaurants

As fast food pricing becomes more data-driven, Drive Thru Index compared what two chains charge at each of their own restaurants in Belgium, on 12 October 2026. The gap between a chain's cheapest and most expensive restaurant is at most 11%; in the US, the price of a McDonald's Big Mac varies by 125%.

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• Pizza Hut: €14.70 for the Margherita (medium pan) at all 73 restaurantsThe same basket of five items costs €46.90 at every one.
• Panos Ham & Jonge Gouda: €4.70 to €5.20A 11% spread across 14 restaurants; 14% charge €4.90.
• Big Mac in the US: 125% from the cheapest restaurant to the dearestAcross 13,657 McDonald's restaurants; percentages only, prices are never converted.

Anthony Gherghetta, an Australian software developer who built Drive Thru Index, started it after reading some of the buzz about AI being used to set fast food prices: he wanted to see whether it was true, and how big the price differences between restaurants really were. Prices bear out the contrast he noticed. In Australia, 97% of McDonald's restaurants charge within 10% of the typical Big Mac price; in the US, 53% do. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest tenth of restaurants is 10% of the typical price in Australia and 33% in the US. In BE, 100% of Pizza Hut locations, the biggest chain tracked there, charge within 10% of its typical Margherita (medium pan) price.

“I kept reading that fast food chains were starting to use AI and customer data to set prices, so I wanted to see if it was true and how big the differences really were. In Australia, where I’m from, a Big Mac costs much the same wherever you buy it. In the US the price changes from one restaurant to the next. Fast food apps now know what you order, when and where, but customers can’t see how prices are set. So I built Drive Thru Index to check every restaurant, every day,” said Gherghetta.

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Drive Thru Index reads every restaurant's menu from each chain's own ordering app every day; these are the latest pickup prices collected on or before 12 October 2026, in euros. A chain's spread is how much more its most expensive restaurant charges than its cheapest, as a share of the cheapest price, for its signature item and for the same basket of items; chains with fewer than 5 restaurants priced are left out. Airports, stadiums and similar sites are left out, and so are prices below 40% or above 250% of a chain's typical price, which are almost always menu errors. Each chain is compared only with itself, and another country is compared by percentages alone: prices are never converted between currencies.

About Drive Thru Index: Drive Thru Index (drivethruindex.com) publishes the menu price of every item at every restaurant of the biggest fast food brands, collected each day from the chains' own ordering apps. As pricing becomes more data-driven, it exists so that customers can see what each restaurant really charges and how it compares with others nearby. It covers the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands. Brands are only compared with themselves, and prices are never converted between currencies. Its figures are free to quote with attribution: "Source: Drive Thru Index".

The images with this release are free to use with the credit "Image: Drive Thru Index (drivethruindex.com)".

Media contact: anthony@drivethruindex.com

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