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Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

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Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#41

Post by ska »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #28
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Funny 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.

I 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. ...

How else do you expect to get to be "American sized" ?

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#42

Post by cossatot »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #13

Apologies 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 peopl…

I used to go kayaking on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie (on I-90 east of Seattle) instead of the far superior Skykomish run on Highway 2 just because of the Popeye's at the Tanner exit of 90, right by the Snoqualmie run.

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#43

Post by badfrog »

erichurkman wrote: post #25
filmgirlcw wrote: post #13

Apologies 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 peopl…

I live around the corner from the Chick-fil-A just outside the Fulton St station. They have a snaking line inside _and_ a roped off line outside. A line to wait in line, and the outside line often is 40, 50, 60 people plus. I suspect some of those people waited as long as you did end to end, for a chain chicken sandwich in one of the culinary capitals of the world. To someone who hates lines, that's mind boggling!

Or you can go inside the station and get pre-assembled, slightly-soggy sandwiches from their kiosk with no wait. IMO definitely worth the tradeoff.

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#44

Post by filmgirlcw »

pkaye wrote: post #39
tenpies wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind Popeyes is not really fast food. Unless you're ordering fried chicken, everything is cooked to order. They are bound by physics as to how fast they can cook a piece of chicken while keeping it delicious. Add assembly time, and even when it's empty, the cashier will tell you "it'll be 10 minutes" on a sandwich order. Other things that a non-patron of Popeyes should know: * There is a daily special (Wednes…

> Unless you're ordering fried chicken, everything is cooked to order. So all the sides (fries, potatoes, biscuits, rice and beans, etc) are made to order?

The fries are definitely prepared more frequently -- biscuits too -- but the sides are not what I would call the best part of Popeyes because they can be made in bulk and put under heating lamps for longer periods of time than say, chicken.

I don't know how quickly the chicken turns over but it's pretty consistent -- especially if you're ordering something specific (X number of legs, Y thighs, Z breasts), because they need to ensure the proper quantity and that may require breading and then deep-frying the chicken on-demand.

The seafood is probably more "prepared to order" than anything, but I honestly don't know. I've never worked at a fast food restaurant, I'm just a giant and unabashed fan of trash food.

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#45

Post by baddox »

derefr wrote: post #40
baddox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'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…

Think about it the other way around: Apple could easily afford to put the largest amount of storage they offer in all their phones. From their perspective, it wouldn't be much of a cost difference in the BOM. But, if they only had the one phone model, how would they decide what to charge for it? If they charge a lower price, everyone buys the phone, but they're leaving money on the table because they know that some p…

Well, yeah, but there has to be a difference between price discrimination and simply charging more than the marginal cost. Of course anyone who would buy a product at above marginal cost would also buy it at the lower marginal cost (ignoring Veblen goods for the moment).

The other comment makes a lot of sense, which is to look at the difference in marginal cost of two product variants compared to the difference in market cost.

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#46

Post by badfrog »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Funny 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.

I 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.

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#47

Post by JoeAltmaier »

1123581321 wrote: post #7
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Funny 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.

The 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.

Sugar in the drink?

Re: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Is an Economic Indicator

#50

Post by dragonwriter »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Funny 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.

> 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.

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