Burger King, owned by Restaurant Brands International QSR, is facing scrutiny after a customer flagged a major issue with the price of their order. The restaurant is now accused of making a controversial pricing change.
A user on Reddit who recently visited a Burger King location in New Jersey is accusing the fast-food chain of quietly implementing dynamic pricing (also known as surge pricing). Dynamic pricing is when a retailer adjusts the cost of items based on certain times of the day when demand is high, among other factors.
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“I’m at a Burger King on the NJ Turnpike, and it appears they have some sort of dynamic pricing in place,” wrote the Reddit user in a post.
The user shared a screenshot of their order total at Burger King in the post, which reveals that it increased from $33.89 to $34.18 without providing a reason for the hiked price. At the bottom of the checkout screen, the store does warn customers “pricing can change for a variety of reasons.”
“They also wanted an additional $3 to add bacon to a burger! Yet adding bacon AND cheese, was half that price,” wrote the Reddit user.
The price of my Burger King meal got more expensive as I was checking out.
by u/Simply827 in mildlyinfuriating
In the comment section under the post, the Reddit user later clarified that tax was already included in the original price, so it wasn't the culprit of the 29-cent increase.
Users took to the comment section under the post to express outrage with Burger King for providing no reason for the last-minute price increase, with some even claiming that the 29 cent price difference would make them cancel their order.
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When the Reddit post began to gain popularity on social media, Burger King responded by saying that the price increase the customer faced at that restaurant was due to a “technical error.”
"I can confirm there are absolutely no plans for dynamic pricing at BK, and that no BK U.S. locations are using or testing dynamic or surge pricing," said a Burger King spokesperson in a statement to The U.S. Sun. "What happened at the New Jersey location was the result of a technical error, and we are working with our software vendor to identify the cause and ensure it doesn’t happen again."
The Reddit post also gained steam on TikTok when a user with the username nldoty made a video claiming that Burger King was not being honest about the sudden price increase being a technical error.
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“As a software engineer of ten years, this isn’t a bug,” said nldoty in a TikTok video. “Somebody went to the trouble of implementing this on their system.”
He claims that the price change looks like a feature Burger King was planning to introduce in the future, but it accidentally appeared before it was supposed to.
“The appearance of that isn’t a bug. The appearance of that right this second is a bug,” said nldoty. “You don’t put in a feature request, put it past the project manager, have the development team work on it, test it out, put it through QA (quality assurance), and then push it to production unless you ultimately plan to push that feature at some point.”
@nldoty #greenscreen #burgerking @Burger King #surge #surgepricing
♬ original sound - nldoty
Dynamic/surge pricing has been a sore subject for fast-food customers, who have recently experienced skyrocketing prices for beloved menu items. According to a recent report from the Roosevelt Institute, fast food prices have increased by almost 47% over the past decade.
Burger King isn’t the first fast-food chain to face backlash from consumers over dynamic pricing.
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- Chipotle test confirms customers’ suspicions about portion sizes
- McDonald’s reveals menu items customers can kiss goodbye
- Olive Garden is making a controversial change to its menu
In February, when Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner revealed during an earnings call that in 2025, the company will begin experimenting with dynamic pricing, customers expressed outrage on social media with some even threatening to boycott the chain.
In response to the backlash, Wendy’s later claimed in a blog post that Tanner’s comments during the call were “misconstrued,” and that it has no plans to raise prices during times of the day when demand is high at its restaurants.
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