A PHOTOGRAPHER has visited the world’s loneliest McDonalds in the middle of the Bering Sea off of Alaska.
Chris Luckhardt shared his experience in a YouTube video showing how the abandoned fast food spot became a time capsule for the prices and menu customers enjoyed in the 1990s.
Luckhardt traveled to Adak Island, Alaska, around 1,100 miles away from Anchorage, and filmed his discovery for his YouTube page (@chrisluckhardt).
The store first opened in 1986, but the success of the franchise allowed the family who owned it to buy two new stores in Oregon and relocate.
The branch has been abandoned since 1994 and the menu has not been changed since.
Customers at the time enjoyed a Big Mac priced at $2.45 and six chicken nuggets for $2.35.
A Big Mac meal on Adak Island would have set customers back $4.59.
This surprising menu even showed an advert for “dino-size fries” as an apparent promotion for the 1993 “Jurassic Park” movie.
These signs highlighted the huge price hike in McDonald’s prices over the years.
The U.S. Sun previously reported on how a McDonald’s location had charged its customer $18 for a Big Mac meal.
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Prices of everyday items have been steadily increasing, affecting McDonald’s once low-cost items.
“The price of the items sold at McDonald’s have to do with inflation but also commercial property prices, gas prices, interest rates, car prices, health insurance cost, flight costs since you have to fly foods around the country, and more,” David Klyman, a financial strategist at Klyman Financial, explained to HuffPost.
Regional issues such as economics, minimum wage, property taxes rent, and other goods have led franchise owners to raise the cost of food.
“McDonald’s prices vary by location. Ninety percent of McDonald’s restaurants are independently owned and operated by franchisees, who have the ability to set their own prices,” according to McDonald’s corporate website,
Luckhardt revealed on his Instagram (@chrisluckhardt) that he made the trip to the island in August 2022.
While there he reported that most of the homes he was filming were abandoned, with the majority of residents living in a cluster within the island.
Adak Island has a population of 154 people, according to World Population.
The island was previously home to a naval base from World War Two but the base was decommissioned in 1997.
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Naval Air Facility Adak was later opened as the remote island’s airport.
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Elizabeta Ranxburgaj
