Value SizeFollow

They're supposed to remove the nozzles and soak them in bleach water every night before close. I'm not surprised that most places don't, however.

Well, large companies in general have been making a habit of reducing their product and selling it for the same price in order to save money.

Anyone who works or spends a lot of time in a grocery store will notice this a lot. Often times the package will remain the same size, but if you read the label it will have less on the inside.

Along with this, I have found that they are cutting costs under the guise of going "green" and making their packaging, and the product itself, out of cheaper low grade materials.

Hmm, maybe I just can't understand what Alma is saying.

If you do understand, then your post doesn't represent your claim given the fact that you were talking about actual change in sizes when I was just simply talking about the change in names. Since you said it was only McDonalds, when clearly Burger King and Wendy's at a minimum have done the same thing, I question your claim.

But nice try.. It's ok to be wrong, no need to try to "talk yourself out of it". It's not even possible in this scenario.



Everyone except Allegory.

Just like Ugly said, it's not about content, simply my name..

I disagree. Allegory got it. Kuwoobie didn't, but, well, it's Kuwoobie. I kid!

Edited, Oct 20th 2010 5:19pm by Belkira

I read this post and your first post as totally different, but if you claim that you had the same thought, then I'm not going to argue that you didn't, because it doesn't matter. Mostly of what you just said is what I was thinking as I stated in my previous posts.

I think you're in the minority.

This

I know that's how I read it.

I skimmed a lot of posts because I was too lazy to read them all. So if I said something that's already been said...oh well.

With my experience I haven't noticed size/name getting any bigger. Well I haven't been to McDonalds in a while so I don't know about them. McDonalds used to always give a 24 oz. medium and a 32 oz. large. Whether that has changed I don't know. Wendys and Taco Bell on the other hand have always given a 32 oz. medium and I believe a 40 oz. large. It's just always been like that since I've been going.

As for prices I used to go to McDonalds also and get the exact same thing. The price used to be $4.75. After awhile I noticed I was paying more, around $5.15, and so on over the years it kept increasing. Though I never had an increase in portion size or anything else.

Some places I believe offer a tiny bit of savings getting the meal as opposed to getting things separately. As someone stated though Taco Bell's meals are the exact same price as ordering everything individually. Probably just for more an ease of ordering stuff.

I don't know what I'm really trying to say, just babbling my experiences.

How old are you though? There absolutely has been "size creep" of the sort both Allegory and Alma are talking about (whether they agree that's what they're talking about or not is subject to much philosophical confuzzlemnet though!). When I was a child, a "small" cup was typically about 8oz. A medium was 12 and a large was 16.

When I was a teen, 12 was small, 16 was medium, 20 was large, and some places had XL which was the ridiculous size of 24oz! OMG!

As I got into my mid 20s, 16 was small, 20 was medium, and 24 was large, XL was 30 or 32oz. Absolutely ridiculous of course!

Today, it's not uncommon for 16-20oz to be "small", 24-30oz to be "medium", 34-40oz to be "large", and something ridiculous like 64oz to be "extra large". To say that sizes have changed is an understatement.

The reason is "what Joph said". The cost for an extra 4oz of actual soda is like a penny. But they can charge an extra 20 cents for it (because people will pay more for more, duh!). If you keep the names the same, people will keep ordering the "medium" because that sounds like a "normal" amount to buy. If you just increase the size (and cost!) of "medium", people will order it anyway and most of them wont notice that they're now getting a soda the size of a large and for the price of a large. They just order medium because that's what they always order and don't realize that they're getting kinda ripped off. Ok. Not just "kinda" either.



Some of that (most of it if you're talking about straight food orders) is inflation. Some of it is market research. The research shows that most people will order a combo off the menu and will just accept that it costs X amount more than it used to without really paying attention to how much more. The combo tends to include one main "thing" (burger for example), a side dish (fries, onion rings, etc), and a drink. So they're instantly ******** you for the drink (and some of the combo increase is because they come with the medium drink which today is the size and price of 5 years ago's large).

The other aspect of this is that they know that a percentage of people will avoid the combos and look only for the best deals. And that those two types of people are distinct. Thus, they'll offer great single item prices to attract that second group and pass on the cost to the combo meals. That way they get business from both groups.



Believe it or not, despite comments to the contrary, most of the time if you add up the prices of the individual items in a combo it will cost more than the combo. That's by design. The key to recognize is that those items themselves are overpriced to make the "value items" on the menu relatively cheaper. You are vastly better off ordering several items off the dollar menu than a single item that costs X dollars. You're also better off not ordering a drink (for several reasons).

When I was younger I used to always order the combo meals. Most places had simpler/smaller sets of menus and the combos were cheaper and actually a good deal (sorta). I don't eat fast food very often now, but when I do I pretty much always order off the dollar/value menu if one is there. The other stuff is ridiculously overpriced relatively speaking. Order a bunch of small/cheap items. Don't get a drink. Don't buy fries. Your wallet and your gut will thank you!


Or... Buy real food and cook it yourself.

That doesn't make sense. Most items on the dollar menu are loss leaders. I don't know if it still applies but I read before someone from Wendy's stating that if you order a dollar burger and a dollar fries, Wendy's loses fifty cents. If you get a drink with that, they squeeze out some slight profit but saying that they're intentionally overpricing their regular menu items to entice you to buy items they sell at a loss is... ummm...

Well, it doesn't make sense.

Ah, found a cite saying about the same basic thing:


Edited, Oct 22nd 2010 8:47pm by Jophiel

That was a cheap shot, and not funny enough to warrant being said.

Edited, Oct 22nd 2010 9:13pm by Allegory