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10 Burger Chain Items That Are the Biggest Wastes of Money

Looking at quantity, quality, and price, these fast-food items are simply not worth it.

By Amanda Machado , Edited by Calista Headrick

Updated June 4, 2026

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Grabbing food on the go is convenient and can be expensive, but some items feel like actually throwing money away instead of filling your belly. Burger chains are a staple of the fast food world, fueling Americans through the day when there isn't time to stop and eat. Are you getting the best value on your order?

Learn which burger chain menu items are the most wasteful, either in quantity, quality, or price, so you can maximize your fast food budget.

Editor's note: Prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by location.

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Wendy's Baked Potato

Wendy's stands out in the burger world by offering the simple, healthy baked potato as a side. This was a great deal for years as part of the 99-cent menu, but a single plain baked potato with no toppings is now nearly $3, and that goes up to $4 if you want cheese, and $5 with any meat. Tasting Table did the math and found that at consumer pricing alone (without considering corporate bulk rate discounts), Wendy's would make over $60 on $5 worth of potatoes.

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Burger King's Triple Whopper

There is about a $7 difference between the cheapest burger (a plain hamburger) and the Triple Whopper. Business Insider reviews say it's not worth it. The burger wasn't better, just bigger — and you can order three hamburgers for about $6 or one Triple Whopper for over $9. The price value just isn't there, even if you happen to be fond of Burger King's burgers.

Sonic's French fries

Do you want fries with that? Yes, of course you do, but maybe skip them at Sonic if you're looking for value. Research findings from NetCredit found that Sonic delivers the least value on an order of fries. In a fast food comparison of 14 different brands, Sonic rated last at a price of about $1.27 per ounce of fries. For reference, the best value on fries is delivered by Shake Shack, at about $0.40 per ounce.

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White Castle's Surf & Turf Slider

White Castle has low prices because they offer sliders, or mini-burgers, which are much smaller than regular-sized burgers from most fast food restaurants. The value isn't there on the Surf & Turf Slider, though. Sure, it's only $4, but that's money you could spend on something that tastes better. Mashed ranked this as the worst menu item at White Castle, and described it as a hybrid of the Double Cheese Slider and a Fish Slider.

Arby's French fries

Shrinkflation was so thoroughly embraced by Arby's that there was a lawsuit about it in New York. The fast food chain was found to have deceptively changed its sizes without any transparency to customers. Arby's phased out their kid-sized fries and made that new small, and the previous small became a medium, and the medium became a large. The Post then ordered all three sizes and discovered even more shocking news: there was nearly the same amount of fries in all three sizes.

Chick-fil-A's Deluxe Sandwich

It's not your imagination, the signature sandwich from Chick-fil-A that changed the burger game by offering a beef alternative is getting smaller. A Redditor posted pictures of the same sandwich ordered five years apart, and the size difference is striking. It resonated with consumers, who reported similar experiences. It begs the question whether or not it's still worth the $5-$7 for just the sandwich?

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Wendy's Chicken Nuggets

Customers actually took to weighing Wendy's Chicken Nuggets to prove the shrinkflation was real. In 2024, the average nugget weighed 14.6 grams, and in 2025, it was down to only 12 grams. That's a shrinkage factor of 17.81% in just one year. The taste might be good, but is it still worth the same amount of money?

Fountain Drinks

Soft drinks have some of the highest profit margins in the fast food industry. The cup costs more than the soda itself, and customers often get about $0.05 of soda. This is the real driving factor behind the new marketing push for "dirty sodas," which increases the profit margins further. McDonald's describes this as "a $100 billion category with superior margins".

Bottled water

When was the last time you saw a public drinking fountain? Access to water wasn't always behind a paywall, but drinking fountains are disappearing and being replaced with bottled water, and the price markups are outrageous. A bottle of water from Shake Shack is $3.49, which is more than three times the cost of just getting a large soda with your order.

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Delivery

Delivery is on the menu at every burger chain now, thanks to third-party delivery apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Customers expect to pay extra for delivery, but often don't realize there are additional hidden fees.

There's the delivery fee and tip, of course, but each menu item is also individually priced higher. A TikToker recently went viral for showing a more than $2 difference on the base price from Burger King and Chick-fil-A orders when utilizing their delivery options.

Bottom line

There's nothing wrong with treating yourself to fast food, but if you want to avoid wasting money, there are certain items on the menu at burger chains that are dragging down the value of your order. Smart shoppers know how to compare price to value, and get the most bang for their buck when grabbing food on the go, even though the fast food landscape is rapidly changing.

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