A burger stand in a popular beach town has managed to keep its signature burger at a little over $1 for nearly 20 years, even as food and energy prices have soared.
Chris Higgitt, owner of Higgitt’s Las Vegas Arcade Blackpool & £1 Burger Bar in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, England, has been selling the same burger for £1, or about $1.34, since opening the business in 2006, news agency SWNS reported.
The burger includes a bun, an English beef patty, onions and sauce.
Higgitt, 58, said the low price has become a major attraction, drawing long lines of customers during the busy tourist season.
“I am very proud of being able to keep the price for this long,” Higgitt told SWNS.
“It is more popular than ever,” Higgitt said, noting that people will wait in line for more than an hour to buy one.
Prior to working in the burger business, Higgitt worked as a processing and quality engineer. He later operated a bed-and-breakfast with his wife, Karen, before the couple purchased an arcade in 2006.
“The arcade wasn’t performing very well and Karen and I were talking about what we could do, and we thought of a burger bar,” Higgitt said.
He added, “So from this off-the-cuff conversation, I sat down and did the math, and figured out I could sell them for £1.”
What began as a side business gradually grew into the couple’s primary source of income.
Today, Higgitt said about 90% of his revenue comes from the burger operation, which is open seven days a week from March through November.
He credits a combination of efficiency, bulk purchasing and social media exposure with helping him keep prices low.
Higgitt estimates that each burger costs him about 50 pence, or roughly 68 cents, to make — including ingredients and electricity.
Keeping prices low, he said, depends on buying ingredients in bulk and attracting a steady stream of customers.
Social media has become one of the biggest drivers of that traffic, he said, with videos posted by TikTok creators and YouTubers regularly drawing new visitors eager to try what many describe as Britain’s cheapest burger.
“I am always welcoming [toward] food YouTubers or TikTokers who come along and record themselves trying the burger,” Higgitt said.
“This in turn brings people to try it themselves, or just to see me and enjoy the buzz of the place.”
In addition to burgers, Higgitt also sells hot dogs, Spam sandwiches and sausage sandwiches.
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