Ranking different takeway food options.
This Aussie TikToker ranks takeaway food available in the United Kingdom by personal preference. This is a nice way to introduce monopolistic competition and can be followed up by an activity listing favourite takeaway foods which the students can then rank..
ACARA Alignment: ACHEK017
Clip Length: 0:56minutes
Year: 2025
URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@damonheta180/video/7473552257573735702?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Economics Concepts: Monopolistic competition
- Use a Menti to get students to list their favourite takeaway foods, https://www.menti.com/al4tfxetz7og
- Identify which ones are the favourites and write on the whiteboard
- Ask students the average price for the favourites identified
- Show the clip
- Invite student to share how the takeaway food in the TikTok is different from what they have listed.
- Now explain that the takeaway foods are all trying to get people to buy them, they are slightly different, but all in the same takeaway food market. Refer to the favourites, they will probably have similar prices, and the only difference will be the type of food. This is an example of monopolistic competition.
- Monopolistic competition is when many firms sell similar but slightly differentiated products. In takeaway food, firms try to differentiate to capture different markets. McDonalds aims for the family market with their Happy Meals and playgrounds. Subway is aiming for people wanting healthy food, KFC seems to aim for cricketers in Australia with its heavy advertising in that period, Dominos is going for students and people on a budget. But they are all selling takeaway food.
- Next you can give the example of a chicken burger; McDonald’s, Subway and KFC all sell them. They have a similar price and if one of these firms increased the price well above what others are charging, they would lose customers.
- Show students this graph from 2018 and ask them if they still think Australian’s are consuming the same quantity of McDonalds. Which new entrants are missing? If not, why not? Does age or marketing have any impact? What about the COVID experience and social media? (from https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/mcdonalds-kfc-subway-most-visited-aussie-restaurants)
