memes

I hear this type of take often but I'm skeptical that it happened (originally heard it as McDonald's doing it, not A&W) and I'm skeptical that it's the reason it failed.

You could test this by setting up a food stall that sells something like this as a control.

1. 6 pc for $5
2. 9 pc for $5
3. 12 pc for $9

Then do something similar with the burgers. See how many people inherently want more for the same price. Then switch it up so the middle one is cheaper. Switch the ordering of the lists as well. Etc.

Do I think some people just don't understand fractions and think third is less? Sure. But I think there are too many variables to say that's it alone. If someone is that bad with math, it's gonna matter if you write it as ½ ⅓ ¼ or half third quarter. Then it's gonna matter if they ask what the ⅓ means versus if the cashier asks if they want "half, third, or quarter".

All that to say, I think there are definitely some people who don't inherently want more food, even if it's the same price (and maybe even if it's cheaper) and I'm not sure how many people like that there are versus people who are bad at the math aspect. Throw in stuff about how the menu is presented and I just don't see how we can really come to this conclusion.

Shout out to the time my buddy realized it was 1¢ cheaper to get two 6 of meals than one 12 pc meal. (Basically 6 of was like $5.99 and 12 pc was like $11.99 or whatever.)