Jeremy B. Shapiro

The burger gets the glory.

The fries mint the profit.

Here’s the simple math behind a tiny add-on that fattens every ticket.

At McDonald’s, the classic ‘Would you like fries with that?’ exists because cheap-to-make sides carry outsized margins. Food costs average 31-34% of sales industry-wide, and low-ingredient items like fries and drinks land well under that, which is why bundling them tilts the mi