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21
Mar
'I’m lovin’ it!': The Harrogate McDonald's superfan who’s eaten there every day for 12 years
Most people love a McDonald’s.
Whether it’s a late-night pick-me-up, an early morning hangover cure, or simply a weekday treat, the allure of the Big Mac stretches across borders.
But one Harrogate woman takes her love to another level.
Seventy five year old Anne Johnson has visited the town’s McDonald’s almost every day for the past 12 years. From stepping through the door in 2014, she’s been drawn back daily by the friendly staff – and of course, the food.
You might expect someone with that track record to have worked their way through the menu.
Not Anne.
For almost 4,380 days straight, she has ordered the same thing: a Big Mac meal, no pickles, no onions.
You could say she’s found her Happy Meal.
She told the Stray Ferret this week:
I don’t know why I haven’t tried anything else. I’ve never had chicken nuggets – I don’t think I’d like them. I still sit at the same table in the corner whenever I can.
The Big Mac sauce keeps me coming back. I love it. I don’t know what it is about it, it’s just really nice. Sometimes I think about asking them for a pot of sauce to take home – but I daren’t!
I don’t know what puts me off the pickles and onions. I like cooked onions, but I’ve never liked raw onions. And I’ve never liked pickles.
Even during the restaurant’s recent six-week closure on Cambridge Road, Anne didn’t break the streak – getting her grandson to order her usual on Deliveroo.
The Big Mac is perhaps McDonald's most famous burger. Photo: McDonald's
Breakfast, McLunch and…
Clearly, Anne is a woman of habit – although she hasn’t quite started asking people to move from her favourite seat just yet.
She usually arrives at about 11.30am, occasionally popping in earlier for breakfast. She’s partial to a Sausage McMuffin, but it still doesn’t rival the Big Mac.
And having a McDonald’s breakfast doesn’t quite fit with her usual schedule.
Usually, Anne will have porridge, a banana and a prune yoghurt in the morning. She follows this up with her daily Big Mac meal.
Nothing is required after that – she said it fills her for the rest of the day.
The restaurant reopened on March 17, 2026
Big Macflation
Since 2014, the price of the Big Mac has risen by 83%.
Based on that increase, the Stray Ferret estimates Anne has spent around £17,569 on her daily ritual.
Her reaction?
Oh God, that’s disgusting! Well, I’m shocked, actually. That’s a lot of money! I won’t stop doing it, though. It’s my only enjoyment because I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, so you know.
A graph showing yearly UK Big Mac prices since 2000. The lowest they've been was £1.88, from 2004 to 2006. Picture: BigMacIndex.App
When asked about health concerns, she was equally firm: she doesn’t smoke, drink or go out, so sees no reason to give it up.
She even said she lost a stone in her first year of eating there.
Anne has never been abroad, and the few times she does go holidaying to Scarborough, she doesn’t have a McDonald’s – instead she opts for a chippy tea.
But, barring a few rare breaks from routine, the superfan has returned to the same order, at the same table, day after day for more than a decade.
“McDonald's means a lot to me,” Anne added. “I think this is somewhere I’ll be going for the rest of my life.”
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