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Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoFunny story: 'Super size' was a hoax. You got the same sandwich, larger fries and a larger cup. But with free refills, the cup size is irrelevant. So you got a few more fries. At the time (super size is gone) I bought both sizes and counted. The 'super size' fries had 15 more fries. That's what you got for your 80 cents or whatever.
- wil421 7y agoYou’re only talking about the people who eat in. For the drive through the extra drink can be worth it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago> "But with free refills, the cup size is irrelevant." Only if the customer is dining in; for take-out, it matters. On the other hand, soft drinks costs pennies per serving, so you are still mainly correct.
- weare138 7y agoAnother trick I noticed was the shape of the box they used for the different sizes. The box for the "supersize" fries was tapered at the bottom so the fries wouldn't completely fill the larger box when they scooped the fries in, giving it the appearance of overflowing with fries. As you ate the fries, the remaining fries would slide down and fill the void so it seemed like it was completely full.
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoWhich explains why that SuperSize Me guy did so good health-wise!
- 1123581321 7y agoThe calories for McDonalds small/medium/large are 230/340/510. I don’t know how many individual fries each size has, but it seems like they do substantially jump in portion. The drink size is about how much you’re able to take away from the restaurant. It’s true fries and drinks are higher margin items than sandwiches for fast food restaurants, though.
- jdietrich 7y agoThe jump is smaller at Burger King - 320/380/430.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoSugar in the drink?
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoThe large coke has 70 calories more than the medium. It adds up.
- 1123581321 7y agoThe calorie figures were only for the fries. I didn’t downvote you, by the way.
- socalnate1 7y agoThis is just a classic price discrimination strategy; nearly all retailers do it in some way. Starbucks drinks have a nearly identical marginal cost to them; but have wildly different prices. Software companies disable certain features (that already exist in the software) to sell a lower cost version of the same thing without hurting the margins with those who can pay more. Pharmaceutical companies will sell both a generic and name brand version of the exact same thing. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_discrimination.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_discrimination.as...
- baddox 7y agoI've always been a little unsure of the usage of "price discrimination." The basic economics glossary definition generally refers to price discrimination between identical or nearly-identical products. Yet I hear it used for things that have obvious significant functional differences, like the storage tiers of the iPhone. Surely many people are buying iPhones with upgraded storage not simply because they are willing to pay more, but because they really do value the increased storage. So is that called price discrimination simply because the marginal cost increase to Apple is probably very low (much lower than what they charge for the storage increase)? Is price discrimination just a continuum that is not very well-specified? A much more textbook example would be the rumored practice of airlines' websites charging higher prices to people using more expensive computers. (I don't know if those stories were true, but that would certainly be an example of selling identical products to people at different prices, based on their willingness to pay.) Another example would be digital goods like movies and video games being sold at vastly different prices in different countries (hence DRM and region-locking).
- Excel_Wizard 7y agoThe greater the degree that the ratio of marginal cost to marginal revenue for the upgrade differs from the ratio of baseline cost to baseline revenue, the more you can call it price discrimination in a loose sense. This would be typified by upgraded goods having higher margins than baseline goods.
- shalmanese 7y ago
- Reedx 7y agoDid people think it applied to burgers? I thought it was well understood it was only for fries and drinks.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- crimsonalucard 7y agoI once asked a friend why he was buying an extra large drink. He told me because he wasn't a little asian dude like me that drinks tiny portions and that he needed an American sized drink. ...
- ska 7y agoHow else do you expect to get to be "American sized" ?
- crimsonalucard 7y agoMy comment was more about his intelligence than his size.
- badfrog 7y agoI wouldn't really call it a hoax. They were pretty clear about what you were getting for the extra money. Whether it's a good deal is a completely separate question.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoI don't think I ever saw them say "Well, if you eat in its only 15 fries more". So no, not clear at all.
- lonelappde 7y agoIt's more stuff for more money. Anyone who eats there more than once can figure out which size they like.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> Super size' was a hoax. You got the same sandwich, larger fries and a larger cup. But with free refills, the cup size is irrelevant. Takeout (including drive thru) is quite a bit of business, and makes cup size quite relevant. In any case, they tell you exactly what you get for the price difference. It's not a hoax, even if you don't think the additional product is worth the additional cost.
- danso 7y agoUntil I read this story I didn't realize the Chikfil-A sandwich cost 50 cents less. But the two times I've tried Popeyes sandwich, it definitely felt like a superior value in terms of quality and amount. I'd argue it's even better tasting than Shake Shack's ~$7 chicken sandwich.
- magashna 7y agoI've never understood the love for Chikfila. Maybe it's just been the ones I've been to, but the chicken fingers and nuggets seemed average at best. Now Popeye's, I'll gladly go to every once in a while with the understanding that I'll likely need to take a nap after. Their biscuits are a meal in itself, probably containing 4-6 sticks of butter, but damned if it isn't delicious.
- tjr 7y agoThe Chick-fil-a chicken tenders taste okay enough on their own, but they really don't taste like the nuggets or the chicken on the sandwich. Like it's a different coating, different seasoning. Not sure why. I like Popeye's just fine, but Church's Chicken! Now that's some tasty stuff. :-) I am five minutes from either Popeye's or Chick-fil-a, but the nearest Church's is hours away.
- amflare 7y agoIts all the same coating, but the strips are dark meat and the filet/nuggets are white meat. At least they were when I worked there.
- jharger 7y agoBack when I worked there (mid-late 90's) the chick-n-strips were actually marinated in the same stuff as the Chargrilled chicken sandwich. Both items are no longer on the menu, and were vastly superior to their offerings today, IMHO.
- sreyaNotfilc 7y ago
- Vrondi 7y ago...but, Popeye's chicken doesn't even taste like chicken. It just tastes like salt.
- zrail 7y agodelicious salt.
- filmgirlcw 7y agoApologies for the off-topic comment — I’m not really sure if the Popeyes sandwich is an indicator of anything, but it’s a damn good sandwich. My trash food friends and I drove nearly an hour (sans traffic it would’ve taken 20 minutes) to one of the only Popeyes in the Seattle area on Wednesday. There was a small line but a very long wait for food (understandably! It was similar to Shake Shack at lunch — lots of people waiting for their food), and we probably waited 20 or 25 minutes. It was worth it. It was worth the 30 minute Uber I took home — putting the full trip time including eating in at 2.5 hours. I wouldn’t do this all the time — and I’m very angry I no longer live in Brooklyn and work in NYC where Popeyes was plentiful — but this was easily the best ratio of value to wait time for food I’ve experienced — and I’m a veteran line waiter for trash/novelty food (Cronut, Ramen Burger, Cookie Dough, other stupid shit I can’t remember). It’s much easier to get to Chick-fil-A or Shake Shack, but I preferred the Popeyes sandwich. I was kind of hoping it was a trap/hype, like the KFC Cheetos sandwich (which was a disappointment). It was not.
- sreyaNotfilc 7y agoWhen I first took a bite out of Popeye's chicken sandwich I had two immediate thoughts. 1. This thing is delicious!! 2. Poor poor Chick-fil-A. Popeye's sandwich is much better. And I can eat it any day of the week.
- JustSomeNobody 7y agoOn the bright side, the people who work for Chick-fil-A have at least one known, consistent day off each and every week. For most of you who have not worked a job outside of tech, that's a pretty big deal.
- sreyaNotfilc 7y agoOh, I agree. My sister works in the fast-food industry. She never knows what days she have off. Its horrible. Chick-fil-A is doing something right here.
- cco 7y ago
- uhtred 7y agoPoor chickens.
- Japhy_Ryder 7y agoI agree. It's a real shame people foam at the mouth for a fried corpse sandwich - doing a dis-service to themselves (their health), the environment, and animal ethics.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't post like this to HN. It won't convince anyone, and just leads to flamewars that make this place even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- tareqak 7y agoIt would be interesting to see what other goods and services were introduced at around the same time as all these different iconic menu items. Higher priced versions of the existing goods and services with marginal but well-marketed perks?
- lowdose 7y agoI was expecting a story similar to the Big Mac index from the economist. But it is just a product launch review. A hyperbole Bloomberg original that leaves a bad taste.
- b_tterc_p 7y agoAre wages really rising for the target market of Popeyes?
- metalchianti 7y agoFor what it's worth, there seems to be a lot of viral marketing around this product. According to this reddit thread I'm not the only one who feels this way. https://old.reddit.com/r/HailCorporate/comments/ctcl8j/i_dont_know_if_its_just_me_but_i_swear_the_whole/ https://old.reddit.com/r/HailCorporate/comments/ctcl8j/i_don...
- foobaw 7y agoI'm waiting for the hype to die down - it's been sold out whenever I stopped by.
- RickJWagner 7y agoI was bitterly disappointed that Popeye's dropped the Shrimp Po' Boy. But the spicy chicken sandwich is good. (IMHO, not quite Chik-Fil-A good, but it's very close. And different, which means I can alternate. Win!)
- perl4ever 7y agoSo nobody remembers at this point they used to have one before the great recession? I'd like to know if it is as good, but there was a huge line yesterday when I happened to drive by a Popeyes in the same plaza as I was going to the grocery store.
- jessaustin 7y agoPerhaps motivated by the submarine here, I was moved last night to try the drive-through at a local Popeye's. Here follows a transcript of my experience, which as one might imagine I don't reckon I will soon repeat: Please wait to order. Ok. Go ahead. Yeah I'll have that shrimp po'boy. We ain't had that for four months. But it's on the menu? That's not us, that's corporate! That's not you? OK, I'll have one of those new chicken sandwiches. We won't have that until October. Then they get a new sign. What? So the sign will have been wrong for six months? How does that... ok I'll get the two-piece meal. We only got white meat mild and dark meat mild and... that's it. Uhhh... no spicy? I'm gonna come back another time, when y'all get a few things worked out here. You have a good evening. You can't expect much food left. It's only half-hour 'til we close!