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all 95 comments

[–]GizmaAzara 83 points84 points  (16 children)

Beacause quarter means out of 4. Third means out of 3. 4 is bigger than 3. Duh. /j

[–]RickyRosayy 52 points53 points  (4 children)

They should have pivoted and sold a 1/5 lb burger for the same price. What a deal!!

[–]Bo_Jim 7 points8 points  (2 children)

They already do. The standard burger patty they use to make the Papa Burger (2 patties), Mama Burger (1 patty), and Baby Burger (1 patty) is 3 oz. That's just slightly under 1/5 lb.

[–]Onlyanidea1 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Only fast food I eat is Wendy's.

[–]JoshuaLyman 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Sir, this is not a Wendys.

[–]High-Nate 18 points19 points  (10 children)

You’re joking, but that’s actually how stupid some people are . It isn’t due to lack of education since they understand what a fraction is. But their poor brains just couldn’t communicate that information correctly . Bless their hearts

[–]Personal_Pin_5312 23 points24 points  (4 children)

Is this why they call them double quarter pounders and not 1/2 pounders?

[–]DoomRider2354 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Yup. Double sounds bigger than one half.

[–]dancin-weasel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Double is 2x! Half is only .5! Waaay better deal.

[–]ThirdInversion 4 points5 points  (4 children)

i work in finance, I learned long ago that i cannot even talk about numbers without a long pause [even with other folks that work in finance!]. otherwise people's eye glaze over and roll back in their heads.

[–]Onlyanidea1 1 point2 points  (3 children)

My girlfriend does the book keeping and financing of a small to mid sized company. I'm pretty good with numbers and math, But when she starts explaining something I Totally glaze out and just repeat the biggest word or phrase she said back at her. Haha..

[–]ThirdInversion 2 points3 points  (2 children)

don't worry, i have had math phds take a hard pause when i talk numbers to them. i just wish folks would think about numbers like they think about words. my highest math in school was calculus and math was not my major, but growing up i always thought that folks had a feel for arithmetic, but they don't.

[–]Onlyanidea1 2 points3 points  (1 child)

arithmetic

NOW you are just making up words!

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hehe!

[–]TheChosen44 50 points51 points  (2 children)

Damn, people are stupid, and I say that collectively, including myself

[–]Onlyanidea1 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Yes. We dumb.

[–]TheFluffiestFur 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not only are we dumb, but we're stupid.

[–]ShallotIllustrious 18 points19 points  (2 children)

That's why I'm going to start charging twice as much for the larger 1/8th pound burger.

[–]que-queso 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Why stop there? I'm going 1/16th at 1/3 the price! That's 6 times as much money! Maf is fun

[–]ThirdInversion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is basically the way the economy works now because of all the 'not math people.'

[–]Thymeisdone 9 points10 points  (0 children)

A&W has fewer letters so their food must be tiny. DUH.

[–]BashStriker 4 points5 points  (4 children)

This isn't true, is it?

[–]Spikes_chains123 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It absolutely is. MCDs even tried again in 2007 and had the same problem

[–]KennstduIngo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The A&W CEO later claimed that that is what their market research showed. I don't think it has been confirmed for sure whether this was true or something he just claimed to save face.

[–]Zeno_The_Alien 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Very true. Except it wasn't lower cost. It was the same price. From A&W's website:

In the 1980s, then-owner A. Alfred Taubman launched the "Third is the Word" campaign to promote A&W's new third-pound burgers and compete with another brand's smaller quarter-pound burger.

Taubman recounted this example in his book, Threshold Resistance. "We were aggressively marketing a one-third-pound hamburger for the same price...but despite our best efforts, including first-rate TV and radio promotional spots, they just weren't selling."

Confused why A&W's burgers weren't able to compete even though the burgers were priced the same as their competitors, Taubuman brought in a market research firm.

The firm eventually conducted a focus group to discover the truth: participants were concerned about the price of the burger. "Why should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat?" they asked.

It turns out the majority of participants incorrectly believed one-third of a pound was actually smaller than a quarter of a pound.

Despite the confusion, Taubman took an important lesson from the experience: "Sometimes the messages we send to our customers through marketing and sales information are not as clear and compelling as we think they are."

For the curious, they still have 625 locations across the US.

[–]dancin-weasel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

971 locations in Canada.

Now I need a mozza burger.

[–]gromit1991 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Neurologists the world over would just love to study a brain where the owner believes that a third is less than a quarter.😁

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably not much there to study

[–]Baulderdash77 8 points9 points  (8 children)

In Canada A&W is across the board better than McDonalds and is a premium brand. It has a completely different menu and is not connected to the US A&W.

They only sell grass fed beef without any hormones or steroids, they only sell chicken with no hormones or steroids, and they don’t sell processed cheese- just real cheese slices. They also don’t have any single use plastics in their packaging, even straws that makes it a bit annoying to be honest.

That being said their food is objectively better quality and better taste than McDonalds in Canada.

[–]dancin-weasel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fellow Canadian here. A&W in Canada is better than pretty much any fast food (IMHO). Much better ingredients and waaay better burgers. A few bucks more for a meal, but a frosted mug of rootbear, decent burger and fries is a great meal. And they also have the best apple pie in the business

[–]Aggressive_Courage83 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not to mention A&W burgers actually taste good and ice cream machine always works.

[–]HighOnGoofballs 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This has never ever been posted hundreds of times before

[–]aomega343 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oof

[–]cygnusx8 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Finally, a non covid post!

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

word up!

[–]palmetto420 1 point2 points  (1 child)

The appearance of any fraction automatically triggers a brain shut down sequence. When ordering fast food, you have to be quick. There isn't time to wait around for it to reboot and run the calculator app again.

[–]ThirdInversion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

true, even smart folks get a brain fart when i say, 'thats 20 percent.'

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Merica.

[–]ThirdInversion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Murica

[–]Professional_Emu_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This post makes me want a thirder pounder burger right now

[–]Arctic_Strider 0 points1 point  (1 child)

This is what happens when white people thinks Jesus is gonna provide so we don't have to be smart. American school system is heavily based around Christian values and teachings, but one thing that's not in the Bible, is a story about a man who was clever in a real way. Sure it's a very clever trick to turn water into wine the way Jesus did, but why don't the Bible teach how to make proper wine with the magic of yeast and sugar instead, something that a person actually may have a benefit of knowing. This is actually partly why Christianity was forced upon us white people amd Europeans in general, because it teaches us to not think of our own (because then we get punished), and that there should ONLY be one entity of power God/government, etc... I'm not an flat-earth-anti-vax-tin-foil-hat mouth breather that thinks the government is trying to scam us into injecting magnetic heavy metals into our bodies so we die. What I am saying however is that the Bible makes people stupid, or at least it's not of any benefit to anyone whom already is stupid. Do humanity a favor and burn your bibles and trash your local churches! And fire all teachers who are religious (even though the majority of teachers probably are, and there is not exactly a surplus of good teachers around as it is already, so it might backfire as less people will get educated, but thw rest could just go on a boat for a few years or work in the mines, maybe we'll be better off with some left behind which can do all the hard, simple labor necessary to get this dump running)

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

you are correct, religions are instruments of control that use peer pressure to guilt trip people into believing. but they are not really any different than governments.

[–]bobber18 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Was watching Family Feud yesterday. Question for winning team in the lightning round: what’s worse than having a pigeon poop on your head? Answers given were canary (4%) and penguin (0%).

[–]xd3mix -1 points0 points  (4 children)

What do you mean?

[–]Zeno_The_Alien 1 point2 points  (2 children)

The key to this mystery is in "poop on your head". Penguins don't fly.

[–]xd3mix -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Then what? One could still poop on your head in an hypothetical scenario where you are holding a penguin over your head

[–]Zeno_The_Alien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Technically true. But I think the implication of the question was that your head is being pooped on by a flying bird.

[–]bobber18 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean “what do you mean”?

Do you mean “explain like I’m an American of average intelligence?”

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This post speaks to me on a spiritual level

[–]Flopolopagus 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Same mood with those Facebook poll questions that are like:

4*8+2=??

Which is, like, 3-4th grade math. And maybe I can give you the benefit of the doubt that you forgot about or mixed up P[B]EMDAS, but there are significant odd number answers for a problem like this with even numbers! It fucking blows my mind how our education system has failed our population.

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

they don't want you to know, other wise you might be able to estimate how much of your tax dollars are being spent on shit you ain't even told about.

[–]Meta_Spirit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fractions in elementary school were too hard

/s

[–]Professional_Emu_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have no idea what A&W is but ok

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t believe it was for any reason beyond the McDonald burger and brand both being superior in quality. A&W is trash food. Cute lil story tho.

[–]DirtySingh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sell a 16th pounder and profit.

[–]shez19833 0 points1 point  (0 children)

couldnt they see the pic/actual food item and realise?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

This is what the former CEO of A&W claims. I suspect the real issue was he couldn’t compete with McDonalds marketing

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

McDs does have their shit on lock. the big mac is actually a mass marketing masterpiece. mcnuggets are right behind them and then the fries are still good, but not remotely as good as they were years ago before they banned trans-fats.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What’s the evidence behind that? There’s a lot of reasons products aren’t as good as other products.

[–]Saif_Horny_And_Mad 0 points1 point  (2 children)

i was gonna say that we should give them the benefit of the doubt and say that in the 1980s, depending on what country you live in, not many people had access to education but...... being on the internet made me question the true level of intelligence of the masses ...

[–]ThirdInversion 1 point2 points  (1 child)

in the 1980s education in the US was way better than now. and from the 30s to the 80s it was actually even better.

[–]Saif_Horny_And_Mad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup, as i feared, it was just plain stupidity. There is apparently no cure for that, no matter the era

[–]pluey200 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is what happens when you put lead in gasoline

[–]ThirdInversion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's still an A&W franchise in Fishkill, NY [at least it was there before the plague]. I think I'll go there now that I read this. :-)

[–]GipsyDangerV1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man I need to take this to heart. And I guess they should have called it the 2/6 burger instead

[–]lfrdwork 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey I was born in the 80s and I'm sure I didn't know that until later! Mostly cause fractions aren't taught until first grade...

[–]khesha2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Muricaaaaaaa...

[–]ExtensionBluejay253 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This wouldn’t have happened if we’d figured out the metric system.

[–]felt224 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So why not do a «?more expensive 1/5 pounder «? ?

[–]Artuhanzo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guess thats why it is common to use ounces now

[–]Longjumping_Toe_3931 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe they should have sold 1/6 pounder

[–]ConjectureProof 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They should’ve sold it as 2 burgers 1/6 pounds each

[–]NadaTheMusicMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure they didn't buy it because who wants to eat root beer flavored burgers?