Had they adopted the metric system
Or at least had an education system capable of teaching basic maths
You're from the UK I presume then? 🙂
Americans if they adopted the metric system: ".25kg > .5kg"
Classic.
But that's easy to solve by just adding a zero to .5
.25kg < .50kg
Though I could see some profit seeking companies selling a .250 burger for 25% more than their .25 burger.
The likely answer lol
TIL fractions don't exist in the metric system.
well they do, but since it's metric it's always 1/10 1/100 ... and they have their own name so no math needed
Let's just pretend that metric doesn't have fractions.
Not that they don't exist, but in my experience I have never seen them used, if something is, say, 1/2 liter you see it written as 50cl...
For burgers, I have seen
- 150gr
- 250gr
- 2 x 150gr
- 500gr
- 1kg
But maybe it's only my experience and in other parts of Europe it's different
Would you rather eat the 113-grammer burger? Or the 151-grammer burger?
Yes.
There is also a metric pound but honestly people don't use it.
Viertel Pfünder und Drittel Pfünder isjust as confusing.
No, Americans could have had bigger burgers if they weren't stupid.
It's not like Americans need bigger food.
metric system
Is this one of those intentionally-obviously-wrong comments designed to encourage people to comment on the meme?
Worked didn't it?
Should have sold it as a 2/6ths burger.
The maths teachers wouldn't have been happy, but apparently the buyers would have."Woah, 2/6 is waayyyy bigger than 1/4, not like that teensy 1/3 burger they used to have"
Lol that's amazing, I'm not American so I've not come across this ad before. Thanks.
No one went to A&W for burgers back then, footlong chili dog and root beer.
But that can't be right! I have it on good authority that A&W stands for Amburgers and Woot beer!
[VINCENT]
And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
[JULES]
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
[VINCENT]
No, they don't have fractions, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter is.
[JULES]
Then what do they call it?
[VINCENT]
They call it Royale with Cheese.
No, they don't have fractions, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter is.
"No they have the metric system, they don't know what the fuck a quarter pounder is"
Fractions aren't imperial, fractions are fractions, everyone has them. It's the 'pound' that's imperial and normal people don't use.
#woosh
How could OP have transcribed the movie clip so wrong, but still made an absurdist joke? Thanks for clearing it up.
I've been a victim of Poe's Law, but there has to be some threshold where it's not ambiguous.
Recently it occurred to me that in the US we have 25¢ coins but $20 bills. It never bothered me before but it's really odd. Especially when many other countries have 20"¢" coins.
Americans are every bit as capable of assuming a 1/8 kg burger is bigger than a 1/6 kg burger.
I'm gonna move the goal posts here and say smaller burgers are inherently better. I don't want to chew on a giant pile of ground beef.
You must love the smashburger trend
Quar ter poun der. Perfect size. Good marketing.
"A ThIRd PoUnDeR pLeASe". Too much to chew. Bad marketing.
I've just had a radical idea to solve obesity in America
I see this repeated all the time and I'm sure there's some truth to it, but A&W burgers are also disgusting and more expensive than their competitors. So there's that.
1/3 equals 1/4 because in both cases you have 1.
It was more because there weren’t many A&Ws around. Closest to me was over an hour away.
This is so dumb
the whole meme is just euro cope
I think you meant to type "nearly every country on Earth".
"Uh a 151.197 grammer with cheese."
I thought this was kind of a myth? I recall it being something like the quarter pounder was just well marketed so beat out even bigger burgers.
Wikipedia confirmed though:
The A&W research firm organized focus groups. The results revealed that many participants mistakenly believed that one-third of a pound was smaller than one-fourth (quarter) of a pound. Focus group participants expressed confusion over the price, asking why they should pay the same amount for a "smaller" third-pound burger.
This misunderstanding stemmed from consumers focusing on the numbers "3" and "4," leading them to conclude that one-third (1/3) was smaller than one-fourth (1/4), even though the opposite is true.[2]
A similar explanation appeared in The New York Times in 2014, citing the third-pound burger as one of the most vivid examples of consumer arithmetic failure.[3] In taste tests, customers actually preferred A&W's burger to McDonald's, and it was less expensive.
According to a CBC report, more than half of the people surveyed about the burger said they didn't buy it because they thought they were getting less meat.[4]
If we're talking about a focus group specifically comprised of regular fast food consumers, you're already kinda pre-selecting for the lowest common denominator.
No surprise that this segment would have lower education overall
The funny thing is McDonald's also tried 1/3 lb burgers later on, and also failed.
It's probably also why they don't advertise a Big Mac is 1/5 pound of beef, because it would make the Quarter pounder lose interest I assume.
"try our new 113g burger"
Yes, I've literally seen baked goods advertised like that. One bakery in my town is proud of its bigger-than-average pretzels and puts the weight right there on the ad posters.
The famous 113 grammer with cheese
There are three countries using the ass backwards Imperial measurement system. USA, Liberia and Myanmar...WTF!?!?
I hear this type of take often but I'm skeptical that it happened (originally heard it as McDonald's doing it, not A&W) and I'm skeptical that it's the reason it failed.
You could test this by setting up a food stall that sells something like this as a control.
- 6 pc for $5
- 9 pc for $5
- 12 pc for $9
Then do something similar with the burgers. See how many people inherently want more for the same price. Then switch it up so the middle one is cheaper. Switch the ordering of the lists as well. Etc.
Do I think some people just don't understand fractions and think third is less? Sure. But I think there are too many variables to say that's it alone. If someone is that bad with math, it's gonna matter if you write it as ½ ⅓ ¼ or half third quarter. Then it's gonna matter if they ask what the ⅓ means versus if the cashier asks if they want "half, third, or quarter".
All that to say, I think there are definitely some people who don't inherently want more food, even if it's the same price (and maybe even if it's cheaper) and I'm not sure how many people like that there are versus people who are bad at the math aspect. Throw in stuff about how the menu is presented and I just don't see how we can really come to this conclusion.
Shout out to the time my buddy realized it was 1¢ cheaper to get two 6 of meals than one 12 pc meal. (Basically 6 of was like $5.99 and 12 pc was like $11.99 or whatever.)
I mean, I don't know why you'd be skeptical.
A&W has a write up about it https://www.awrestaurants.com/blog/memories-history/the-truth-about-aws-third-pound-burger-and-the-major-math-mix-up/
And Snope's did an article https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/06/17/third-pound-burger-fractions/
There's plenty of blunders like this. Like when JCPenny's just gave great prices and sales dropped because if something is $50, that's too much. But 75% off from $200, well, that's a deal! We know more about the JCPenny one, because it happened in 2012 and not 1980-something
It's not like I'm gonna do research before making every comment. I was skeptical because it sounds far fetched.
Is that like a crab cake as a burger? What's up with the giant chunks of cucumber? That sweet and sour sauce running down it is gonna make that so messy and the bun is gonna be sliding off in both sides and soaked through.
Christ that is more cursed a burger than an A&W burger could ever be.
Yeah, if this is the burger they introduced then I think we know why it failed.
Burger looks like ass
I grew up in America and I can confirm, Americans are very dumb.
