Drawn and Quartered
Fifty cents to add sweetener to iced tea. Thirty cents for extra sauce on a Big Mac.
We aren't being "nickeled and dimed" anymore; we're being quartered---and drawn.
The two examples above happened to my family recently. Our daughter wanted a sweetened iced tea at Starbucks and it cost us four bits. A couple days later my wife asked for some extra "special" sauce at Mickey D's on her Big Mac and the tab was three dimes.
The markup on some sweetener for a 12-oz. glass of iced tea, at 50 cents per, must be a gazillion percent. Same with 30 cents for another splat of sauce on a hamburger.
Again, these are only two examples. Lord knows how many more there are, of food and drink establishments gouging us for "extras."
It's a lose/lose proposition, in my book. The asking price should be negligible, like a nickel. But then, when you ask for a nickel for something, you look petty (probably because you are).
The answer?
FREE!
Why not?
How many people ask for extra sauce on their Big Mac? I don't expect you to know that number, and I certainly don't. Yes, McDonald's is a HUGE enterprise, and if you added together all the people who asked for extra sauce in any given day, I'm sure the amount would stagger me.
But how much does an extra splat of sauce, truly, cost McDonald's?
It HAS to be calculated in pennies, or even in fractions of pennies.
I know---even fractions of pennies, times the amount of people, could be a lot.
It's more of a PR thing.
Thirty cents for extra sauce on a Big Mac just seems too expensive. It seems like gouging. Same with 50 cents for some sweetener.
Despite the possible pettiness, I say drop the sauce price to a dime. I'll bet fewer would be disdainful of the pettiness of asking for a dime than they would for the gouginess of 30 cents.
How about you? If you've come across ridiculous fees and charges for trivial requests, let me know, either by e-mail or by commenting below.
I wanna hear your two cents' worth. Unless that's up to a quarter now, too.
We aren't being "nickeled and dimed" anymore; we're being quartered---and drawn.
The two examples above happened to my family recently. Our daughter wanted a sweetened iced tea at Starbucks and it cost us four bits. A couple days later my wife asked for some extra "special" sauce at Mickey D's on her Big Mac and the tab was three dimes.
The markup on some sweetener for a 12-oz. glass of iced tea, at 50 cents per, must be a gazillion percent. Same with 30 cents for another splat of sauce on a hamburger.
Again, these are only two examples. Lord knows how many more there are, of food and drink establishments gouging us for "extras."
It's a lose/lose proposition, in my book. The asking price should be negligible, like a nickel. But then, when you ask for a nickel for something, you look petty (probably because you are).
The answer?
FREE!
Why not?
How many people ask for extra sauce on their Big Mac? I don't expect you to know that number, and I certainly don't. Yes, McDonald's is a HUGE enterprise, and if you added together all the people who asked for extra sauce in any given day, I'm sure the amount would stagger me.
But how much does an extra splat of sauce, truly, cost McDonald's?
It HAS to be calculated in pennies, or even in fractions of pennies.
I know---even fractions of pennies, times the amount of people, could be a lot.
It's more of a PR thing.
Thirty cents for extra sauce on a Big Mac just seems too expensive. It seems like gouging. Same with 50 cents for some sweetener.
Despite the possible pettiness, I say drop the sauce price to a dime. I'll bet fewer would be disdainful of the pettiness of asking for a dime than they would for the gouginess of 30 cents.
How about you? If you've come across ridiculous fees and charges for trivial requests, let me know, either by e-mail or by commenting below.
I wanna hear your two cents' worth. Unless that's up to a quarter now, too.
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