If you’re concerned with budgeting down to the penny, beware: The price of your Chick-fil-A waffle fries might vary from one location to another just a short drive away.
TikTok creator @squiggotini recently posted a video that claimed they found different prices for the same Chick-fil-A menu items at locations in the same city.
“Why did nobody tell me that Chick-fil-A prices aren’t standardized?” they said in the video, which currently has 952 likes and almost 13,000 views.
@squiggotini The price differences aren't limited to downtown or the mall, even residential ones vary in price #food #fastfood #weird #scandal #chickfila #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Squiggo
“I just moved to downtown Dallas and saw that I had a Chick-fil-A like two blocks from me and thought, like, I’m going to start going here regularly,” @squiggotini said. “That is, until I saw the prices.”
They continued, “The one nearest to me cost almost $10 for the chick-fil-a deluxe meal”—$9.95, according to a screenshot in the video—”and I swear that didn’t make sense, so I checked another place.”
When the creator checked the price for the same meal at the nearby mall, it cost $9.89. At a Chick-fil-A restaurant “almost a mile from the mall,” they said, it cost $9.25.
“And I know 75 cents isn’t a huge difference, but all these Chick-fil-As are within 5 miles of each other,” they said. “I knew prices were different in other cities. I just didn’t think I would see an intra-city difference.”
The creator captioned the video, “The price differences aren’t limited to downtown or the mall, even residential ones vary in price.”
In the comments, some viewers debated whether or not franchising might account for the price variations.
“I live in Lubbock Texas and a CFA deluxe meal is almost 11$ here. You’re telling me Dallas has cheaper CFAs??” someone commented.
Another wrote, “just confirmed this in my city too … wild.” The creator replied, “makes me wonder how many other places are also doing that that I havent noticed yet.”
Others said that they had noticed similar price differences at other chains.
One commenter wrote, “2 McDonald’s sprites were 2.17 at the McDonald’s by my house but 2.23 at the one by my bf’s house in the same town like how is this happening!”
“I live 1.2 mi from one McDonald’s and 1.4 mi from another, and it’s like a 25% difference in prices,” a viewer commented.
Another wrote, “chipotle does the same thing.”
Chick-fil-A’s website confirms the video’s claim without providing a reason. “Different Chick-fil-A locations sometimes have different pricing. Selecting a different store may change the price of your order,” according to the Georgia-based chain.
The Daily Dot reached out for comment from @squiggotini via Instagram direct message and Chick-fil-A via email. We did not receive immediate responses Monday.
This is not a new phenomenon, either. According to a 2022 Insider article, franchisees might charge different prices due to any number of factors, such as cost of labor or real estate. And a 2013 article from Click2Houston reported that while franchisors can strongly recommend price points, it’s up to the franchise owners to determine the cost of menu items.
In other recent Chick-fil-A news: A customer recently shared a hack to get a fried chicken wrap, and a worker showed off their cookie crumble frosted coffee creation.
