When it’s a Medium, of course.
Wendy’s International Inc. , the No. 3 U.S. hamburger chain, on Friday said it would remove the term “Biggie” from its french fries and drinks, switching to the well known terms small, medium and large. However, the new designations may confuse some diners who are used to such sizing at other restaurants.
At rival McDonald’s Corp., the largest burger chain, a 32 ounce soft drink is designated a large. At Wendy’s, a 32 ounce drink will now be called medium, instead of Biggie. Wendy’s is also adding a 42-ounce soft drink — the equivalent of 3-1/2 cans of soda — as its large.
Previously, Wendy’s sold a 16 ounce soft drink as a small, a 20 ounce soft drink as medium and a 32 ounce soft drink as Biggie. Now, a 20 ounce drink is a small, a 32 ounce drink is a medium and the new 42 ounce drink is a large. The company will still sell a 16 ounce drink on its 99 cent value menu.
At a time when folks are increasingly concerned about health and fast food, I’m a bit surprised that Wendy’s (which has long cultivated a happy, family tone) is going the opposite direction, effectively increasing the sizes of their drinks.
They are taking a few healthy steps, though:
The new sizing terminology, which Wendy’s is promoting in stores, comes just a day after the chain said it would virtually eliminate artery-clogging trans fats in its fries and breaded chicken items.
Wendy’s restaurants in the United States and Canada will switch to a new blend of corn and soy oil for french fries and breaded chicken items starting in August. The move will reduce trans fats in fries to just zero to 0.5 grams, depending on serving sizes, while all of the breaded chicken will have zero grams of trans fats.
It’s still confusing that Wendy’s has dropped the “Biggie” terminology. While they claim it was confusing people, it was their top-size drink, and it’s odd that, even if they decided to increase that top size, they didn’t simply shift the label with it.
On the other hand, Wendy’s always had the best salads and other alternatives to the hamburger-and-fries standard.
I’m amazed at the number of people who still come into a Starbucks and try to figure out “Venti”, “Doppio”, “Quad”, etc. They’ve got to have the most confusing terms, judging by the questions and blank looks.
Well, the sizes are pretty straightforward (on the menu). All the various options, though, aren’t really spelled out. And, inevitably, no matter how careful I am about making my order, it gets restated when yelled over to the barrista.
When I started working at McDonald’s back in the late 70s, the sizes of small, medium, and large drinks were, respectively, 12, 16, and 22 ounces. We were amused by a convenience store commercial (probably 7-11, in those days) trumpeting its huge new 44-oz cups by showing a fast food customer (a construction worker, I think) looking disdainfully at a 22-oz cup and saying, “You call this a large?” I think by then most other places had 32-oz large drinks.
I’ve found I can usually confuse the order-taker by asking how many ounces the cups hold when they ask me what size I want. They usually end up bringing one of each cup over for me to inspect.
Size terminology is so different from place to place, I prefer to simply point at the size cup I want. It’s a great illustration of what happens when people take the view that word meanings are arbitrary, so you can use them to mean whatever you want them to mean. The fast food industry has invented so many idiosyncratic ways of indicating serving size that I cannot communicate what size drink I want linguistically, and must resort to the nonlinguistic method of pointing and grunting. Another way to look at this is that I don’t get fast food frequently enough to be fluent in the specialized language of fast food drink sizes.
I wonder if the confusion created by creative size terminologies creates an inefficiency that would be beneficial to eliminate. How much time do order-takers and customers spend clarifying drink sizes, and does it cost the fast food industry any money?
I haven’t bought any food at a Wendy’s lately, but I think it’s interesting that McDonald’s has what I think of as a small size for a drink. I’m guessing it’s 12 ounces, but I notice that it is about 4 to 5 inches tall. In many fast food joints, that’s the amount reserved for children’s portions. Jack in the Box, Carl’s and Rubio’s – yes, I know you Coloradans don’t have these – small sized drink is around 7 inches tall, although the prices are not very different.
In addition, my favorite trick at the movies is to order the kids box, which at $4.75 includes an extra small popcorn and drink (but plenty large for me) and a special container of candy that changes every month (M&Ms, Sweettarts, etc). The smallest drink at the movies is $4, so this is a great deal. I don’t know why more adults don’t do this. (Heck the AMC theatres don’t care if you bring in your own food, so I sometimes I buy a subway and just bring it in.)
Actually, we do have Carl’s Jr (though not many) and Rubio’s, too, I think. No Jack, though. Nor In-n-Out, though I don’t believe you Californians have Sonic.
It’s a great illustration of what happens when people take the view that word meanings are arbitrary, so you can use them to mean whatever you want them to mean.
I love it — deconstructionist fast food!