Ugh, that hasn’t happened here yet but I’m sure it will. 
Funny how it differs. Here, they started differentiating again. $1 for small, $1.25 for Medium, and $1.50 for large if I remember right.
I was curious; I hadn’t had one in a long time. A friend sent me info about their Ghost Pepper whopper, so I thought to myself, “why not?” It was somewhat spicy… but what burned me the most is that it cost $9! No, I’m not joking: nine whole dollars. No fries, no soda.
Yeah, that burned me.
.
The plain McDonalds burger (“just a burger and a bun, please”) is a tastier burger. If you get it to go, you can add things to it at home. Some lettuce. A Kraft single. A thin slice of onion. Two dill pickle chips. Maybe two slices of pepper.
Maybe ketchup, maybe sriracha, maybe that addictive Sriracha-Mayo that Heinz sells.
To me, after I modify it at home, its sort of tasty. Granted, there’s a bit of shopping beforehand (and that’s a lot of refrigerator space to take up) and lets face it: my flavor likes are my own. But the plain burger and a bun for a buck just seems right.
The aroma of chargrilling permeates the BK parking lot, but not the food itself. Sad.
Arby’s has their Waygu burgers back. $9.95 is the opposite of what the OP is looking for.
One of my old favorites was to buy the McDouble cheeseburger when it was only $1. That was a small cheeseburger with 2 burger patties and one slice of cheese. That wasn’t enough cheese, so I’d take it home and put another slice of cheese on it. Or, I’d grab a slice of cheese (an American single, the kind individually wrapped in plastic) and bring it with me if I was eating in.
And sometimes I’d toss on a slice of swiss, or gouda, or some bleu cheese crumbles, something different. (At home, I wouldn’t bring it in the restaurant.) Nice little life hack there.
I don’t know how much one of those burgers costs anymore. I tried to look it up at the McD web site, but they won’t show prices. I could do an online order, but only using an app. There’s no way that I’m downloading an app to look up the price of one sandwich out of my own curiosity. I guarantee you that it’s no longer $1.
where i live near the end of the Mojave desert you know its summer when Mcd’s trumpets their dollar drink promotion usually right before when the low is 85F and the high is 110 or higher
last year they banned drink-only sales from the drive-thrus so a lot of people ordered them through the app so they could park in the delivery section and you could see workers carrying out drinks to cars like he old carhops …
I hate the app too. I mean, if I’m dining at an expensive restaurant and I pay by plastic, that’s one thing. That’s a fond memory as I pay the VISA bill the next month.
But, McDonalds? Burger King? How can I justify that when I had the cash in my hand?
Cash is King; you still make that deposit and that weeks receipts help you make payroll.
Credit Cards? They get paid a month later ( and some only pay a portion, due to back room deals).
Or is this App going to show on my Cell Phone bill… even harder to justify.
Print the coupons, stick them in mailers and flyers and F— The App!
You attach a credit card. I hate paying for anything in cash, so that’s fine. It doesn’t seem that long ago that fast food places didn’t take credit cards.
What is this “cash” of which @Mundane_Super_Hero speaks?
Meh. I don’t go to McDonalds etal for a good burger. I go because I’m hungry and just want something quick. The solution for that is a McD’s double cheese burger. There is a Mcd’s near my mom’s house. The closest fast food to where I actually live is 45 minutes away on a two lane highway.
In any case, that’s IMHO the cheapest edible burger.
How come nobody has mentioned White Castle yet? You can get 20 sliders for $15 around here. I wouldn’t call it “inexpensive premium” but they’re tasty, hot and cheap.
Honestly I usually stop at a gas station at these times. They still have styrofoam cups, while fast food hasn’t had them in decades. And the prices are either cheaper or at least the same. And I could usually use a break to stretch my legs when I’m in the middle of several errands anyway. But drive through soda isn’t a bad idea either, if you’re in a hurry and don’t mind plastic or paper cups.
It kinda sounds like the OP disqualifies them in their second paragraph, else I would have mentioned it too.
I read the whole thread looking for White Castle and missed that the OP mentioned them in the first post! 
I’m not so sure that the $15 figure is still true. They have raised in price quite a bit.
That said, their buns are very small and very soft. It is almost impossible to modify them w/o creating a very sloppy mess. FTR- I used to bring a sack of them with me when I’d visit people. Most of the time, it would all go ( and happily ).
But many of my friends then started complaining bitterly,
" Why aren’t you bringing Crudités and Dip?"
Well, I started bringing ‘Veggy Platters’… until I realized that the Dips could feed themselves.
None of that is true, at least around here. I don’t know any gas station that will sell you a large drink for $1, and nobody has styrofoam cups. They all have plastic or paper.
It’ll be illegal in my state next year anyway.
Last I saw, Speedway still had the any-size Speedy-Freeze for some price less than a dollar.
I’ve never noticed that Speedway was a thing. Apparently there is one about a half hour from my house. I’ve never been to one.
Then again, McDonald’s is 5 minutes away…
A big competitor to Speedway here in Minnesota is Holiday. I use their “Sip and save”, which for $7.99 let’s you get one drink each day (soda or coffe or tea). I usually stop by every day so they lose lot a of money on this because of me; I know the drinks don’t really cost them much. Sometimes the cashier will gently chide me if I get a small size.
$7.99 a week? Month?
I’m also reminded that Subway had a promotion for a while (I believe I took advantage back in 2001) where you bought a special cup (which cost quite a bit) and then you received free refills. It was a huge cup too.
At the time I worked in a building that had a Subway on the 1st floor so I got a refill at least once a day. But I also got food there frequently as well, so it probably worked out for them in the long run.