{"id":757925,"date":"2026-07-12T04:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757925\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T04:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:26:10","slug":"americas-cheapest-city-to-grab-a-cheeseburger-fries-and-soda-revealed-and-it-might-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757925\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s cheapest city to grab a cheeseburger, fries and soda revealed\u2014and it might surprise you"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cheeseburger, fries and a soda remain one of America\u2019s classic comfort meals<\/a>, but what Americans pay for that combo depends heavily on where they live, according to the so-called Cheeseburger Index.<\/p>\n

A new DoorDash\u00a0State of Local Commerce report<\/a>, which compares the average price of a cheeseburger, fries and a soda across US cities, found the average price of the meal is lowest in Austin, Texas, at $12.94.<\/p>\n

DoorDash said cities in the South and Southeast tend to be more affordable because of structurally lower operating costs, helping the region rank well across both grocery and restaurant price indexes.<\/p>\n

The highest cost topped out in Anchorage, Alaska at $28.28 for the same meal, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The ten best-value cities in the study are concentrated in the Midwest and\u00a0Texas, with four cities in the Lone Star State making the list \u2014 Laredo, Texas ($13.39), Lincoln, Nebraska ($13.86), Detroit ($14.99) and Philadelphia ($15.41) rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n

A cheeseburger, fries and a soda remain one of America\u2019s classic comfort meals, but what Americans pay for that combo depends heavily on where they live, according to the so-called Cheeseburger Index. Noyon \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

A new DoorDash\u00a0State of Local Commerce report, which compares the average price of a cheeseburger, fries and a soda across US cities, found the average price of the meal is lowest in Austin, Texas, at $12.94. Bellamy \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The rankings come as eating out continues to get more expensive, even as prices for many grocery and household staples have stabilized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DoorDash found the average price of a cheeseburger, fries and soda climbed 3.2 percent over the past year.<\/p>\n

While rising\u00a0beef prices<\/a>\u00a0have drawn attention this year, DoorDash said higher restaurant prices<\/a> appear to reflect broader operating costs \u2014 including labor, rent and energy \u2014 rather than food costs alone.<\/p>\n

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Local labor markets and operating expenses also help explain why the same meal costs less than $13 in Austin than in Anchorage, where it\u2019s more than double that cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t one economy. There are a lot of local economies,\u201d Jessica Lachs, chief analytics officer at DoorDash, told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

She said the Cheeseburger Index was designed to illustrate how those local differences translate into everyday prices for consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the story here is local variation,\u201d Lachs said. <\/p>\n

Local labor markets and operating expenses also help explain why the same meal costs less than $13 in Austin than in Anchorage, where it\u2019s more than double that cost. manassanant \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same basket of goods \u2014 a cheeseburger, fries and a drink \u2014 costs $12.94 on average in Austin, Texas, but $28.28 in Anchorage, Alaska. Same basket, same quarter, but a very different local reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cheeseburger Index is one of three affordability measures included in the State of Local Commerce Report. <\/p>\n

DoorDash also publishes a Breakfast Basics Index, which tracks the cost of common breakfast items, and an Everyday Essentials Index, which measures the price of household staples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sections of the report found prices for many household essentials remained relatively flat, while some grocery items have begun climbing again.<\/p>\n

Egg prices<\/a>, which helped pull grocery costs lower earlier this year, have eased, but avocado and milk prices rose 12.4 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cheeseburger Index is a really great way to distill the information into a simple, fun and relatable metric,\u201d Lachs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to place that same order for a cheeseburger, fries and a drink every month, how much would it cost you? It\u2019s a great way to showcase price changes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cheeseburger, fries and a soda remain one of America\u2019s classic comfort meals, but what Americans pay for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12832,6778,25325,28,48122,3286,222612,2402,1052,3288,1022,194],"class_list":["post-757925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affordability","tag-austin","tag-burgers","tag-business","tag-doordash","tag-food-drink","tag-french-fries","tag-inflation","tag-prices","tag-soda","tag-texas","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}