# Um, McDonald's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498 "2006-06-28T14:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/21 "2006-06-29T02:31:20Z")
I’d love to go see a baseball game, but I won’t be able to buy a hot dog as I’m still paying off the loan on the soda I bought last time. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/22 "2006-06-29T04:21:21Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > My local supermarket did this last year. > They had Pepsi, regular priced at $1.39 for a 2L bottle. Concurrently, they had a “sale” where you could buy 3 for the amazing low price of $4.99. I actually had to pick up 3 at the time, and I had to convince the cashier to charge me regular individal price, because I didn’t want the “sale” price. I even explained to her why, but basic math is apparently not a prerequisite for working as a cashier at this place. > > They fixed it a few weeks later. Not by reducing the sale price. By raising the individual price to $1.69. The kicker? The supermarket is named “Price Chopper.” I notice all sorts of price games with Pepsi products. Like one week they’ll be 99 cents, the next week they’ll be 5 for $5. Some stores never have them for 99 cents, they’re always $1.29 or more. I knew a dude that delivered Pepsis, and he said each delivery guy could make a special deal with the store, or just give them the standard price. My nomination for stupid pricing was Circuit City a few years ago, the had recordable CDs, 5 for $5 or 10 for $11. Hmm, I think I’ll take 2 packs of 5 thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/23 "2006-06-29T17:20:24Z")
You know, I once read a \*Wizard Of Id \* cartoon that might be relevant . And don’t mock, johnny Hart used to be funny. A peasant is selling fruit. A sign says “Apples 25c, three for a dollar.” customer says @“Hah, you don’t fool me. I get FOUR for a dollar” then walks off with a smug expression and four apples. Fruit seller winks at the readers and says “Until I put up the sign, nobody bought more than one” So, folks, before you buy your 3\*4 pack of nuggets, ask yourself if you really _want_ twelve nuggets right now. Would you be satisfied with 6? You may think you’re saving money, buit perhaps they’ve tricked you into buying more than you need, and paying a higher price for it. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/24 "2006-06-29T17:53:51Z")
Maybe a portion of each sale goes toward the local cardiac patient rehab center. Then it would make sense that the more you buy, the more you need to pay. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/25 "2006-06-29T18:14:39Z")
I’ve been surprised to notice that at Quizno’s, the best value is actually the _medium_ size. While pondering how odd that was out loud one day, a friend pointed out that they may have determined that they get more profit that way because people are more inclined to buy chips and soda with a medium. It could be that McDonald’s has made the same calculation. In fact, given the extent to which fast food places are computerized, I would be astonished if they hadn’t. If people are more likely to buy a smaller basket of McNuggets and then buy fries along with it, their profit is higher than it would be if that person just bought a large basket. So they price the larger basket higher. Of course you _can_ still buy several small baskets, but I bet that consumer psychology is working in MickeyD’s favor. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/26 "2006-06-29T19:12:34Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > Order 3 4-packs and see – but pay very close attention whether the ones they put in your 4-pack come from a different bin than the ones they put in the other packs. 🙂 Things may have changed in the last 20 years, but back when I made McNuggets (ugh… college jobs…) there was only one bin. There was another restaurant in town where I went to college that sold drinks in small, medium, and large. Medium was actually the cheapest size. The large was almost as expensive as the small on a per ounce basis. The fact that a lot of students bought the large thinking they were the most economical is probably a sad commentary on the average college kid’s ability to do basic math. There was also a restaurant that had small, medium, and large drinks, and had free refills. Why anyone would pay for a large when you could refill a small as many times as you wanted while you were there was beyond me. A lot of people did, though, including one of my friends, who just looked at me funny when I pointed out how silly it was. Of course, this was also the guy who thought banks had lots and lots of big stacks of money in the vault and when you wrote a check someone would physically go out to the vault and move money from one stack to another. I also noticed that one of the fast food joints around here (might have been McDonalds) had a #1 value meal which was cheaper than a #2 value meal, but if you bought just the sandwich for the #1 it was more expensive than just the sandwich for the #2. You got exactly the same fries and soda with both meals. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/27 "2006-06-29T19:20:31Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Things may have changed in the last 20 years, but back when I made McNuggets (ugh… college jobs…) there was only one bin. Well, there probably still is – though maybe they have overflow bins or something. But I was jokingly referring to the idea that the 4-pack was filled with “special” McNuggets, kept in a separate bin so as not to mix them up with the “real” McNuggets. It’s people! _People!_ > [@](#): > > There was also a restaurant that had small, medium, and large drinks, and had free refills. Why anyone would pay for a large when you could refill a small as many times as you wanted while you were there was beyond me. Lots of fast food joints have that around here (though with a couple of them the fountains are not publicly accessable so you have to ask for the refill – which I bet discourages a lot of them because it’s too much of a hassle). I still get a medium in those cases though because I can probably go the whole meal without having to interrupt it for a refill. The large, though, is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498/28 "2006-06-29T20:13:09Z")
I have heard that the $1 meals are not really great profit items for Mc D’s, but they have to have them to compete with other fast food places. Also the Mc Nuggets are one of the least profitable items of all. So the ‘Good Clown’ forces the stores to sell the 4 nuggets at the $1 price, way below what they want per nugget, when you get into other amounts (6, or 20) they get to set the price to what they want. The same is for their cheasebuger $0.99 and double cheesbruger for $1. The clown is holding the price of the cheesburger down but forcing the price of the double cheesburger down. Though I did see at least one Mc D’s which had a cheesburger at about $1.39 and the double at $1 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-mcdonalds/362498.md?page=1)