Hidden Menus

[1995hoo]

I believe Potbelly's has a semi-"secret" menu that is not advertised in stores but is easily accessed if you use their app. I've never used the app, but a former colleague did and he showed it to me. The one I recall is the "Wrecking Ball"–a Wreck (ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, and cheese) plus meatballs and marinara sauce.

[jeffandnicole]

The only difference between a McDouble and a double cheeseburger is that the latter has two slices of cheese and the former has one. The double cheeseburger was, in the late 2000s, on the dollar menu, and there was no such thing as a McDouble. But they wanted to raise the price of the double cheeseburger, but doing so would mean they'd have to remove it from the dollar menu. So they invented the McDouble and priced it at $1, hoping nobody would notice.

Later, they ran out of things they were willing to sell for $1 and the dollar menu became the $1-$2-$3 menu thing, which seems pointless to have, but whatever.

It wasn't a case of willing to sell, but rather what they could sell while making a profit.  Soda is cheap, so that's really the only thing on the dollar menu right now. And since most people will get more than just the soda, they make up the profit on their other products.

BTW if you have the app, you can get $1 large fries every day.

[Revive 755]

I believe Potbelly's has a semi-"secret" menu that is not advertised in stores but is easily accessed if you use their app. I've never used the app, but a former colleague did and he showed it to me. The one I recall is the "Wrecking Ball"–a Wreck (ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, and cheese) plus meatballs and marinara sauce.

Potbelly's also has (had?) a "Fire Ball" - meatballs, cheddar cheese, chili, and hot peppers.

[Dirt Roads]

The only difference between a McDouble and a double cheeseburger is that the latter has two slices of cheese and the former has one. The double cheeseburger was, in the late 2000s, on the dollar menu, and there was no such thing as a McDouble. But they wanted to raise the price of the double cheeseburger, but doing so would mean they'd have to remove it from the dollar menu. So they invented the McDouble and priced it at $1, hoping nobody would notice.

I love cheese, but I actually liked the McDouble better than the double cheeseburger.  I could still get it that way, but it doesn't seem right to let them keep the extra slice of cheese for free.

[Scott5114]

American cheese isn't even that expensive (you can get it at Walmart for 14¢/slice, and I know damn well McDonalds buys enough of it that they can get it for far cheaper), and whapping a slice of it on a burger isn't a meaningful amount of labor (let's say 10 seconds, and that's if you're a newbie and have trouble getting the slices apart like I always did when I worked kitchen at BK, which equates to about 2/10¢ in labor at $7.25/hour). The 30¢ price difference between the McDouble and the double cheeseburger is suspect.

[jeffandnicole]

American cheese isn't even that expensive (you can get it at Walmart for 14¢/slice, and I know damn well McDonalds buys enough of it that they can get it for far cheaper), and whapping a slice of it on a burger isn't a meaningful amount of labor (let's say 10 seconds, and that's if you're a newbie and have trouble getting the slices apart like I always did when I worked kitchen at BK, which equates to about 2/10¢ in labor at $7.25/hour). The 30¢ price difference between the McDouble and the double cheeseburger is suspect.

Markup is typically twice the cost. So 30c for a 14c item sounds reasonable.

Also note...you're guessing at the cost. But you're also going there and picking it up yourself. You're not paying for it to be delivered, which would be part of the price of all products a McDs store pays.

[Scott5114]

Well, they're going to get cheese delivered as part of a weekly/biweekly truck, and the cost of that delivery is going to be split across several dozen types of items arriving on that same truck, which is further divided between each individual unit in the case. Cheese is shipped in large cardboard boxes with several thousand slices in it. The per-unit delivery cost at that scale is hilariously negligible.

I am not entirely guessing at the cost, since I managed a Burger King and had access to the purchasing prices. I would imagine that McD's gets better pricing than BK because they have a larger number of stores than BK does and thus can leverage economies of scale. I do recall that the price at BK was below ten cents a slice in 2009, when I last saw them.

[jeffandnicole]

Well, they're going to get cheese delivered as part of a weekly/biweekly truck, and the cost of that delivery is going to be split across several dozen types of items arriving on that same truck, which is further divided between each individual unit in the case. Cheese is shipped in large cardboard boxes with several thousand slices in it. The per-unit delivery cost at that scale is hilariously negligible.

I am not entirely guessing at the cost, since I managed a Burger King and had access to the purchasing prices. I would imagine that McD's gets better pricing than BK because they have a larger number of stores than BK does and thus can leverage economies of scale. I do recall that the price at BK was below ten cents a slice in 2009, when I last saw them.

BK, for as long as I remember,  charges 30c to 40c for a slice of cheese on the Whopper, which is already a fairly pricey sandwich for what you get. It's about the only sandwich I'll get without cheese.

[Scott5114]

30¢ is what I remember it being. Adding cheese to a Whopper actually gets you two slices of cheese according to the book. BK only stocks one size of cheese slice, so to cover the whole patty you have to overlap two of them in an interlocking-diamond pattern.

[OCGuy81]

I believe Potbelly's has a semi-"secret" menu that is not advertised in stores but is easily accessed if you use their app. I've never used the app, but a former colleague did and he showed it to me. The one I recall is the "Wrecking Ball"–a Wreck (ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, and cheese) plus meatballs and marinara sauce.

My arteries hardened just reading that!