Is this a scam, shady, or just smart business?

I go into a national fast food chain yesterday and order a combo. The price on the menu board for this combo is $7.69. After I tell him what I want, the cashier clearly says "medium or large?"

I say "medium". He rings it up and it shows $8.29 plus tax on the register. I point out that it says $7.69 on the sign. He tries to ring it up again and gets the same result. He can't explain the price difference so he calls over the manager.

I suggest to them "maybe $7.69 is the price of the small combo". Of course, that's what it was, and that's all I wanted. (Small comes with plenty of fries and unlimited drink refills).

I just thought this sort of upsell was pretty shady given that I was never given the option for small and I was never told that the medium was an upcharge from the menu board (which did not have the prices for the other size combos or any sort of notice that "combo prices are for small only.")

I ate in and heard several other customers order combos and all just went with the medium when only given the medium or large as choices.

An extra $0.60 per customer adds up when you are doing hundreds of thousands of transactions per day.

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Originally Posted by mdj1980

I go into a national fast food chain yesterday and order a combo. The price on the menu board for this combo is $7.69. After I tell him what I want, the cashier clearly says "medium or large?"

I say "medium". He rings it up and it shows $8.29 plus tax on the register. I point out that it says $7.69 on the sign. He tries to ring it up again and gets the same result. He can't explain the price difference so he calls over the manager.

I suggest to them "maybe $7.69 is the price of the small combo". Of course, that's what it was, and that's all I wanted. (Small comes with plenty of fries and unlimited drink refills).

I just thought this sort of upsell was pretty shady given that I was never given the option for small and I was never told that the medium was an upcharge from the menu board (which did not have the prices for the other size combos or any sort of notice that "combo prices are for small only.")

I ate in and heard several other customers order combos and all just went with the medium when only given the medium or large as choices.

An extra $0.60 per customer adds up when you are doing hundreds of thousands of transactions per day.

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I recently had something similar happen to me but with a twist. When I indicated the combo number, the register clerk asked “Small, medium, or large?” When I replied “Whatever is the standard size”, she repeated the question acting as if she didn’t know that the standard size was “small”. To which I said “Whatever size comes with the price shown on the menu up there”, as I pointed to the menu board above and behind the registers”. To which she turned around to look at the menu, then turned back around and said “I guess that’s a ‘small’.” Of course it was.

But I don’t blame these folks. They are most certainly being trained to ask questions intended to up-sell orders, and management is most likely telling them to go through a script that nudges people into doing so. (Fucking assholes!)

Don’t eat that shit

Did you request tomatoes on the side?


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V8g4KrOR2Q...hoff-drunk.jpg

Always get the large portion

I'm actually surprised they do this.

Small is usually the worst value by far, even for them.

They're screwing themselves by forcing you into a medium, unless the small and medium are almost the same size.

I thought you were going to tell a story similar to what I found at a fast food place by me a few years ago, where four chicken nuggets were 99 cents, and 20 were $5.69. When I asked them why buying four nuggets five times was cheaper than buying 20, they neither could explain nor even understand my point. After about 2 years, they finally fixed it -- by making the 4-pack $1.29!

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I'm actually surprised they do this.

Small is usually the worst value by far, even for them.

They're screwing themselves by forcing you into a medium, unless the small and medium are almost the same size.

Because of allocation of labor and overhead costs, the operating profit margin on a small order is likely the smallest of the three options.

I thought you were going to tell a story similar to what I found at a fast food place by me a few years ago, where four chicken nuggets were 99 cents, and 20 were $5.69. When I asked them why buying four nuggets five times was cheaper than buying 20, they neither could explain nor even understand my point. After about 2 years, they finally fixed it -- by making the 4-pack $1.29!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I'm actually surprised they do this.

Small is usually the worst value by far, even for them.

They're screwing themselves by forcing you into a medium, unless the small and medium are almost the same size.

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I guess they might be making less per french fry. But they're selling more fries. I doubt they put more than 60 cents extra at cost worth of fries and soda into the medium. It's probably closer to 10 cents.

Weirdly, I hadn't had a fast food "meal" in years, usually I already got a beverage and/or don't want fries or whatever. Until today, in Hackensack NJ of all places.

I had no idea they even offered a small combo meal, specifically McD's, but any of them, really. Fingered Medium was the low default, never thought to ask otherwise.

Is it a scam? In MA, the attorney general has a consumer complaint division, and this is exactly the type of thing they would eat for breakfast, considering how many people it affects. I doubt Florida has such an equivalent, but worth checking out.

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Originally Posted by MumblesBadly

I recently had something similar happen to me but with a twist. When I indicated the combo number, the register clerk asked “Small, medium, or large?” When I replied “Whatever is the standard size”, she repeated the question acting as if she didn’t know that the standard size was “small”. To which I said “Whatever size comes with the price shown on the menu up there”, as I pointed to the menu board above and behind the registers”. To which she turned around to look at the menu, then turned back around and said “I guess that’s a ‘small’.” Of course it was.

But I don’t blame these folks. They are most certainly being trained to ask questions intended to up-sell orders, and management is most likely telling them to go through a script that nudges people into doing so. (Fucking assholes!)

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It is definitely a management issue, so I don't blame the cashier at all either. At least in your case they gave you the option for the small.

It is a pet peeve of mine when you go to a restaurant or a fast food place and the price you are charged for something is higher than in the menu, even if it is just a few cents. It makes you feel like you are being cheated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I'm actually surprised they do this.

Small is usually the worst value by far, even for them.

They're screwing themselves by forcing you into a medium, unless the small and medium are almost the same size.

I thought you were going to tell a story similar to what I found at a fast food place by me a few years ago, where four chicken nuggets were 99 cents, and 20 were $5.69. When I asked them why buying four nuggets five times was cheaper than buying 20, they neither could explain nor even understand my point. After about 2 years, they finally fixed it -- by making the 4-pack $1.29!

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The sandwich and fries came in a basket together...being that the fries were in there loose and not in a standard container I put it at 80% that the medium does not get you many more fries (which would need to be piled on top of the others, and are worthless anyway if you're not hungry enough to eat them all). I am guessing there is a 10-20% chance you don't get any more fries at all. I ate in, so the bigger cup that I would have received for the medium drink was meaningless as long as I was getting free refills.

I did one time notice that Wendy's had chicken nuggets 4 for $0.99 and 6 for $1.49 so if I wanted 12 I had no shame in ordering 3 sets of 4 instead of 2 sets of 6. If they are going to price stuff that way then that's what they get for it. I think now they are $1.29 for 4 there as well.

So right after I talked about Wendy's and their chicken nuggets, and mentioned that they fixed the pricing, they broke it again.

Went there last night to buy 10 nuggets for Ben. He usually doesn't eat all 10, and I finish the last few.

Anyway they said "$4.12" or some shit on the drive through, which made me certain they fucked something up.

Well it turns out that they just jacked the price of 10 way up to $3.89. Four nuggets is still $1.29, so you can now get 12 for $3.87 if you buy four three times, or you can buy 10 for $3.89.

:lol

So I bought 12. Didn't really need 12, but fuck them and their fuzzy math.