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

[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.

[MumblesBadly]

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.

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!)

[1marley1]

Don’t eat that shit

[TheXFactor]

Did you request tomatoes on the side?

[FRANKRIZZO]

Always get the large portion

[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!

[mdj1980]

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!)

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.