Fun on Friday: How to Sell a $69 Burger

In the Friday Gold Wrap podcast this morning, I talked about the minimum wage. Making a point about how raising prices lowers demand, I pointed out that McDonald’s wouldn’t sell many $15 hamburgers. But you know, there is a way Micky-Ds could make that work. Wrap those burgers in gold.

A chef in England is doing just that and he’s selling them for far more than $15 a burger. Andrea Zagatti is getting £50 a pop for his creation at Mr. Z in London. That’s about $69 US.

By the way, Mr. Z will deliver your sandwich – in a Mercedes. But you’re going to have to go to London.

Now, to be fair, we’re not really talking about a hamburger here. Dubbed “The Millionaire” the sandwich features aged beef ribeye, chimichurri, chicharrones, buffalo ricotta, king oyster mushrooms, and edible 24 karat gold.

OK. Confession time: I had to google chimichurri. It is an uncooked sauce with origins in Argentinian and Uruguayan cooking. It features chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano and red wine vinegar. Sounds bougie. But not bougie enough to entice to me plop down $69 for a sandwich.

The gold is the key though. I’m pretty sure without the gold, Mr. Z would not be able to command £50 for a sandwich. And I bet he could still charge a pretty penny for a plain old burger wrapped in gold. Gold has value. And people want to have it – even just to eat.

McDonald’s — take note!

Apparently, despite the price, sales have beat Zagatti’s expectations. He told Yahoo, “I certainly didn’t expect sales to come in like that. To have so many orders was incredible. It was an incredible reaction.”

But there were some critics. According to the Yahoo report,  some responded to a social media post about the sandwich saying, “£50 is an awful lot of money to spend on a sandwich, particularly in the current climate.”

To which I respond – if it’s an awful lot of money, don’t buy one and mind your own damn business.”

I mean, they’re not wrong. It is an awful lot of money for a sandwich — in my opinion. But value is subjective. And apparently, a lot of people think a gold-wrapped sandwich is worth the price. My opinion isn’t really relevant to their decision making. I get weary of internet busy-bodies telling people how they should and should not spend their money.

Now, granted, I wouldn’t plop down $69 bucks for a sandwich — gold or no gold, because, I gotta be honest; I don’t get it.

I understand why somebody might want to purchase and sleep on gold sheets. I can even kind of wrap my head around buying a gold fidget spinner — kind of. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t spend big money on those things either, but I can at least wrap my head around it. You have something you can keep forever. But why eat gold? People do understand how that ends up, right? You literally flush your money down the toilet.

But as I said, to each their own.

Personally, I think there are probably better options for you than buying gold to eat. You can easily invest in gold, keep it, and enjoy the wealth it affords. Call 1-888-GOLD-160. Our precious metals specialists don’t eat gold (at least I don’t think they do), but they can help you find the best way to make precious metals a part of your investment portfolio.

Fun on Friday is a weekly SchiffGold feature. We dig up some of the off-the-wall and off-beat stories relating to precious metals and share them with you – with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Click here to read other posts in this series.

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