Will a lobster in Montana cost the same as one in Missouri?
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Those are two separate questions.
“Market Price” on a menu refers to the price that the restaurant was able to purchase the food at a market that day. This is usually applied only to food that needs to be bought very fresh and may fluctuate significantly in local price (typically just fish). It’s the restaurant saying “We didn’t have enough information to write down a price at the time we printed the menu.” (In practice, many restaurants just use “market price” to get people to order something before they know how much it costs).
This is separate from the question of the relative price of lobster in Maine and Missouri. Lobsters are caught in Maine and must be shipped to Missouri, so they are generally more expensive in Missouri. This will apply to all restaurants that serve lobster, even those that print a price on their menu. It’s an unavoidable, long-term difference in the price of lobster. The “market price” label is instead meant to deal with *local* fluctuations in price, which are generally less stable or predictable. It’s entirely possible to see a day where lobsters are (relatively) expensive and Maine and (relatively) inexpensive in Missouri.
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