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The fast food landscape is a vicious and ever-evolving competition full of cutthroat tactics to sell consumers the largest amounts of food at the cheapest price possible. That’s why we love it so much. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end It seems those once-reliable guilty pleasures have started to skimp on their portions, leaving wounded customers wondering what went wrong. But did that Junior Chee really get more junior, or is it all in our heads?
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The fast food landscape is a vicious and ever-evolving competition, full of cutthroat tactics to
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sell consumers the largest amounts of food at the cheapest price possible
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That's why we love it so much. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end
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It seems those once-reliable, guilty pleasures have started to skimp on their portions
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leaving wounded customers wondering what went wrong. But did that junior chi really get more junior, or is it all in our heads
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Well, today, we're putting the golden arches under the microscope to answer the scientific question
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are fast food burgers getting smaller? Okay, I said I wanted a large
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Oh, this is a large? Well, that's disappointing. The modern concept of American fast food can be traced back to New York in the 1910s
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when coin-operated food vending machines and hot dog stands were hailed as cutting-edge conveniences
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But fast food was slow to take hold, thanks to all those little annoyances like world wars and a crushing economic crisis
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It wasn't until the 1950s and 60s that most of the well-known chains started popping up across the nation
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But things looked a little different back then. For instance, if you were to swing by your local McDonald's in 1955
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you'd be able to purchase a cheeseburger for just 15 cents. that might sound like an unbelievable bargain, until you pick the thing up
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McDonald's all-beef patties were thin, and the limited number of toppings weren't exactly
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generous. Although, a typical burger weighed in at around 3.7 ounces, which is about the size of
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a deck of playing cards. If you wanted to splurge on fries and a soda, they'd cost you an extra 10
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cents each. But both options only came in one size, and an order of fries weighing about 2.4
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ounces, and your soda a puny 7. Is it even still fast food at that size? Broadly speaking
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portion sizes at most fast food locations were modest by modern standards
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but prices were fair for the times, unlike today. We're looking at you, Ronald
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Through the end of the 1960s, fast food portions remained fairly steady
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but the 1970s saw many chains start making big changes. For one, some savvy burger marketers
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theorized that diners would buy more food if the menu items were offered in bigger portions
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and sold at a value price point. To put that in context, let's go back to that McDonald's
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cheeseburger. The bigger burger cost 33 cents in 1975, which was a fair trade-off when you
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factor in inflation. And if you wanted a Big Mac, which was officially added to the menu in 1968
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it would set you back 65 cents. Sodas, which could now be as large as 21 ounces
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were just 20 cents each. You could eat like a king, this king, for just under a buck. That was
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a steal even in the 70s It not clear which of the chains started the trend but bigger portions slowly took hold of the industry as companies incrementally ballooned their burgers while simultaneously offering low prices It was a simple marketing technique that fed off several cultural factors at the time First a growing number of people were looking for quick and easy
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meals both in and outside their homes. Microwaves were becoming a hot commodity, as were the Swanson
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Hungryman TV dinners, which promised large portions without all that pesky preparation
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Meanwhile, high rates of unemployment and inflation in other markets meant many Americans
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were looking for the best bang for their buck at dinner time. And with more and more women finding
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their way into the workforce to make ends meet, leaving neither parent with much time to cook
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dinner, fast food became a time-saving way to feed a growing family. So more people were eating
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fast food than ever, but they also expected more food than ever. This fueled the gradual growth
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literally and figuratively, of the fast food industry. But the competition was intense. As
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more fast food chains sought their own slice of the pie, individual brands were having problems
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standing out. Their solution? Make a bigger pie. The 1980s is often referred to as a decade of
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excess. After overcoming the economic strife of the previous decade, Americans were ready to live
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it up. Everything was big. The hair, the houses, the shoulder pads, and especially the food. Most
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chains were offering small, medium, and large sizes. And every big-name chain was scrambling
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to be known as the biggest, best, and cheapest in town. Ultimately, it was McDonald's, Burger King
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and Wendy's that vied for the fast food throne in a brutal battle known as the Burger Wars
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Wendy's fired the first and most deadly shot with a now iconic ad spot in 1984
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featuring a little old lady demanding to know why her burger was so damn small
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The Where's the Beef campaign was an immediate success. Wendy's sales saw a 31% increase
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breaking in 945 million in 1985. And people across the globe still quote the commercial today
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even if they don't exactly know where it came from. Of course, the clown and the king couldn't
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stand such an insult. This was war, after all. The rest of the 1980s were stained red with ketchup
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as the chains targeted each other with increasingly inflammatory marketing campaigns. Each chain also upped the ante by stuffing their buns with bigger or more patties and heavier
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helpings of toppings. But things really started to heat up in 1987 when McDonald's rolled out
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the option to supersize its already large fries and drinks. Supersized servings offered a heaping
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7 ounces of fries and an astounding 42-ounce soda for an additional 39 cents. It was such an
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incredible deal that the supersize option, which was originally intended as a summer promotion
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stuck around for 17 years. Although, they briefly renamed the promotion Dino Size as part of a tie-in
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with the 1993 release of Jurassic Park. Because the T-Rex has to wash down that live goat with something
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might as well be 42 ounces of Coca And speaking of the 90s the extreme decade did nothing to stop the rising tide of larger portion sizes One study from 2003 reported that between 1977 and 1996
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most fast food categories across a variety of locations experienced a drastic increase in food quantity
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Soft drinks went up to an average of 19.9 ounces. This was the era of the super big gulp, after all
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and cheeseburgers increased to 7.3 ounces, an average of nearly half a pound per patty
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Hey lady, good news, we found the beef. Turns out, a decade of burger warfare really benefited
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the beef-loving public. But just as the burger wars came to an end, a new conflict started brewing
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on cheesier soil as the giant pizza war was waged. For a short and glorious moment in fast food
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history, Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Little Caesars all competed to put out the biggest pizzas known
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to mankind. Little Caesars kicked things off with the Big Big Cheese Pizza, an 11.25-inch
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by 22.5-inch monstrosity, for just $8.88 or around $19.40 in today's money. Pizza Hut's
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Bigfoot Pizza was next out of the oven. It offered hungry customers a 2-foot-long by 1-foot-wide
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dining experience for $10.99 or around $24 today. And finally, Domino's Dominator became the largest
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pizza on the market at 30 inches long and 10 inches wide with a price tag of just nine dollars
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or a little under 20 dollars in 2024. sadly these mega pizzas weren't a sustainable model
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much like the burger wars the marketing campaigns alone cost the chains millions of dollars
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and the pizzas themselves were simply impractical with the dominator being too big to fit in many
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people's vehicles only a coward wouldn't try but there was another more pressing concern weighing
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down on these heavy fast food portions, namely that of a growing obesity crisis that plagued the nation
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As America headed into the new millennium, fast food portions took a noticeable nosedive
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as consumers stopped consuming so much. Alongside the obesity epidemic, a growing diet culture
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and updated dietary guidelines from the USDA, one high-profile piece of media had a disproportionately
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large hand in changing fast food forever. Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary Super Size Me
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followed the documentarian for 30 days as he ate nothing but McDonald's for breakfast
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lunch, and dinner. Throughout the experiment, Spurlock gained over 24 pounds and claimed he
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was at risk for liver failure after eating around 5,000 calories worth of Mickey D's every day
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In more recent years, the authenticity of this experiment has been called into question
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with no one being able to replicate Spurlock's results in the 20 years since the documentary
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was released. Despite this, Super Size Me went on to become a cultural phenomenon and
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it altered public perception of fast food in a big way like 42 ounces of soda big Just six weeks after the film debut McDonald announced that it would stop offering its supersize option
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though they insisted the decision had nothing to do with Spurlock or his dog. Yeah, sure
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don't sprinkle sesame seeds on our heads and tell us it's raining, Mr. McD
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Other fast food chains quickly followed suit, pivoting away from their bigger is better marketing
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and leaning into the more health-conscious worldview of the early 2000s. But while the appalling large items were being scrubbed from the menus
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by the mid-2010s, fast food portions were still bigger on average than ever
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So when did they start shrinking? Or have we just been imagining it the whole time
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2020's global COVID-19 pandemic saw the price of goods skyrocket, and just about everyone's purse strings got a little tighter
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For many, those hardships still haven't let up, and neither have the prices
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Fast food has now become a luxury purchase for millions of Americans. If you're interested in learning more about how that happened, make sure you check out our video on the subject
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But, in a nutshell, customers expect a certain quality and quantity from their expensive trip to the drive-thru
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In more recent years, a growing number of people have found that their experiences simply don't measure up
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anecdotal evidence is mounting as people flock to social media to share their stories of perceived
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shrinkflation the practice of decreasing a product size while maintaining or even raising its price
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it's difficult to say for sure whether fast food chains are truly shrinking their portions
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because no ceo in their right mind would come out and admit it what we do know for sure is that
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prices are rising according to an article on the street that classic mcdonald's cheeseburger went
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from being priced at around $1 in 2019 to $3.15 by mid-2024. That's a 215% price increase in five
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years. And the last time we checked, the burgers were not 215 times bigger. While customers have
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every right to take their hard-earned money elsewhere, it's also worth remembering that
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portion sizes today are still significantly bigger than they were at the beginning of fast food
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history. And American portion sizes are especially large in comparison with the rest of the world
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The 2.4-ounce order of fries McDonald's boasted in the 60s is now their smallest size on offer
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And their quarter-pounder weighs, well, a quarter of a pound, at least before it's cooked
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And despite what their marketing may have you believe, these delicious, salty treats still aren't good for us
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You probably won't find yourself in Morgan Spurlock's dire situation, but a decrease in size, or at least a decrease in consumption, is certainly better for your health
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Studies have shown a direct correlation between obesity and the availability of fast food
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And as of 2024, with the rising prices and possible shrinkage of fast food portions
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obesity rates in America are no longer growing. So, yes, it sucks not having that affordably supersized shoulder to cry on
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but maybe it's a good thing we aren't dino-sizing our drinks anymore
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#Restaurants
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