I heard that story about coffee rather than chocolate: https://www.metafilter.com/154838/and-also-something-something-bed-depth-refractometer-readings-blah-bla

I heard that story about coffee rather than chocolate: https://www.metafilter.com/154838/and-also-something-something-bed-depth-refractometer-readings-blah-blah#6292277 https://www.metafilter.com/154838/and-also-something-somethi... It is excerpted from the book "Wired to Care", which I haven't read and which sounds platitudinous, but the story stuck in my mind. There was also an interesting unofficial history of Friendly's Ice Cream written by someone who assistant-managed one for many years. I can't find it online now. But basically it said the higher-ups kept watching the sales figures as they played with the prices, the decor in the restaurants, the promotional advertising, etc. It all seemed pretty random. Then the guy drew a graph and the only thing that really correlated well with sales was the percentage of butterfat in the ice cream (more=richer / higher quality ice cream). They kept lowering it to make the ice cream cheaper to manufacture until the ice cream became crap, then they would restore it, etc.