35 cents won’t buy you a burger anymore.
If you were to go out for lunch in Denver today, about how much money would you expect to pay? Fifteen dollars seems reasonable for restaurant meal and you’d likely pay about five dollars less for a burger meal at a fast-food establishment. It’s no secret that the price of everything has increased steadily over the years. But just how much have prices changed in the last 50 to 60 years? To give you a good point of reference, a burger at McDonalds cost about 35 cents when it opened back in 1957. If you went to Woolworth’s for a meal in the 1950s you could order a sandwich and a malted milk for about 75 cents.
Take a look at this list of some average food prices from the 1950s and see what else has changed.
Apples 20 cents per pound
Bananas 14 cents per pound
Eggs 79 cents per dozen
Potatoes 4 cents per pound
Sugar 9 cents per pound
Pork roast 39 cents per pound
Margarine 19 cents per pound
Bacon 35 cents per pound
We may be paying a lot more for our meals nowadays, but there are still a lot of good bargains to be found. Gunther Toody’s may be the only Denver-area restaurant around offering a 50 cent burger special on Wednesdays, so you can still enjoy some of those classic diner prices in the modern age.
Some prices haven’t changed too much. You can enjoy 50 cent burger day at Gunther Toody’s.