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xp84 | on: Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's
The burger patties were absolutely not 1/8 pound. I can assure you from experience as a Professional McDonald's Worker in 2003 that those were 10:1 patties then as well. I can also vouch for the same from another major burger chain circa 2001. I'm sure they shrink everything possible, but interestingly they haven't been shaving down the beef quantities for some reason.
cestith | parent | next
I worked at McDonald’s a decade prior to that, and they were 10:1 then, too. I think it’s possible and maybe likely some other chains might have switched from being 8:1 to 10:1 since the market leaders already had that size. There are much better examples though than some isolated regional player’s beef patty sizes.

We used to buy half gallons and gallons of ice cream. Brands started selling 60 or 62 ounces instead of 64. Over the years, it’s gotten to where some brands sell 48 ounces - three pints - instead of 64.

Breakfast cereals have had similar shrinking sizes.

xp84 | root | parent | next
Shrinkflation is to me the best example of why pure short-term-ism is a cancer. The first jackass to do it, say by taking a soup can of 16 ounces and adjusting it to 15.75oz, it boosted the profits that quarter. Mathematically, we could keep asymptotically shaving the size by 1.6% every couple years forever, but IRL that won't work because the amounts needed to be shaved would get so small as to not have the cost savings effect (or even be possible to precisely measure). So in reality the amounts need to be more like an actual quarter or half ounce at a time. So at some point the soup can, the candy bar, etc. would become so small that with one more shrink, people will recognize that it can't even feed one person, and at that point, all the "value" that was extracted by the previous CEOs to goose their stock price short term will be exhausted, and they'll have to move on to watering it down or whatever. But our packages will stay that idiotic minimum size forever.
cheschire | root | parent | next
Don't you remember how they recovered from this after 2008? That's when they started selling "family size" options that are bigger, but with a not-so-obvious price increase where you can't really tell if it's more or less expensive per oz.

Price-conscious shoppers still buy the smaller thing if it's cheaper per oz (and only if the stores show the price per oz on the shelf), but most people just get the bigger size because that's how much they want to consume, and they can't really tell that the 15% increase in size does not equate to 19% increase in cost.

Many stores would stock the family size separate from the regular size so the shoppers couldnt easily compare price per oz.

Eventually the family size just becomes the regular size, but now at the higher price. Then the shrinking happens again.

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furytrader | root | parent
Breakfast cereal boxes have gotten so small, it's ridiculous. They might as well label the package "Fun Size" since it's clearly not "Full Size".
therealdrag0 | parent | next
Didn’t they also have filler then remove it to be 100% beef at some point?
x______________ | root | parent | next
100% beef is the topic of an ongoing lawsuit[0].

0 https://lawsips.com/mcdonalds-100-beef-lawsuit/

johnwalkr | root | parent
I was surprised to see a real reference because I thought the 100% beef thing was a 100% myth.

But that article confirms in several places that independent testing finds no fillers at all, and what is left is just "Plaintiffs allege that undisclosed processing steps or agents applied during production or cooking could alter the accuracy of the “100%” claim." It's not a very convincing argument and it would be quite hard for McDonalds to cover up a secret process to add another ingredient.

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FireBeyond | root | parent | next
Only after attempts to call one of their suppliers or processors "100% Beef" failed.
hydrogen7800 | root | parent | next
I recall a similar claim regarding pop music compilation CDs advertised as being performed by "The Original Cast", which was really a group by that name playing covers of popular songs.

Or another being "Made in USA", where Usa was a city in Korea.

FireBeyond | root | parent | next
I feel like there is a probably apocryphal story of a town in Japan being called Scotland so they can sell whisky as Scotch.

Which as a highlander I don’t see the need for - Japanese whiskey is quite able to stand in its own and hold its own.

b112 | root | parent
"Genuine diamonds" sold fake diamonds after trademarking the name, I thibk. However a decade later I read about them losibg a lawsuit.

This tricks don't work any more.

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glitchc | root | parent
100% beef is a trademark.
nickff | root | parent
"100% beef" is a factual claim, and not subject to Trademarks; McDonalds Trademarked "100% PURE ALL-AMERICAN BEEF" in 1982.

https://www.trademarkia.com/100-pure-all-american-beef-73352...

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BizarroLand | root | parent
Even that doesn't mean that the patty is JUST beef. Thanks to legalese, the only thing a claim like that would guarantee is that the beef portion of the hamburger patty is "100% PURE ALL-AMERICAN BEEF".

It could be 99% filler and not be a lie.

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fennecbutt | parent | next
Where did OP specifically say maccas?
xp84 | root | parent
OP didn't say any chain, so his argument is technically not falsifiable, but that also makes it incredibly dubious.
beepbooptheory | parent
How did they make a quarter pounder out of 1/10s?
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