Originally posted by: ness1469
Originally posted by: CTrain
My Wendy's hasn't carried double stacks in ten years, but if it's deluxe, then it would have mayo, ketchup, 2 pickles, 2 onions, small tomato, lettuce, small piece of cheese and mustard (in the shape of a W.)
The Single comes with mayonaise, ketchup, 4 pickles, 4 onions, bun-sized tomato, lettuce, larger slice of cheese and mustard (in the shape of a "w"!)
The junior patties lose more weight as they cook than the singles do. So although the "net weight before cooking" of what you are buying is the same, then the weight of the meat is still a little less. But for a dollar difference, anyone who orders a single is a dork. Especially if you can order extra pickle and extra onion without being charged.
The people running the Wendy's near you must have a screw loose. A junior cheese deluxe alone (not the doublestacks) cost approximately 77 cents to make. I would assume that the Double Stacks cost about $1.05 or a little less for them. The Junior Bacon Cheeseburger costs $1.02 to make. That and the side salad ($.99 to make) are two of the store's loss leaders. It's easy for fast food restaurants to make the money back because the typical person orders a soda with them, which costs you about a buck, but costs them about 4-5 cents. Talk about profit margin. That's why it's so easy for them to give up a measly 30 cents on combos.
... I've worked at Wendy's for an embarrassing five years and one month. It fits the college class schedule though. 🙂
First I like to say that I've never worked at a Wendy's but your figures are no way correct.
I work in the fast food industry and there is no such thing as a "loss leader"
Fast food have the LOWEST PROFIT MARGIN in the food industry so they can't take a loss in anything.
When McDonalds first started the $1 menu, the highest cost item we had was the Big n Tasty because of the 1/4 meat and that was $.52 food cost.
Like I said I've never worked at a Wendys but a Junior Bacon does not cost $1.02 to make.
At McDonalds....I don't remembered the cost of a Cheeseburger but a Double Cheeseburger cost $.32.
Add a piece of BACON which cost $.13, a Double Bacon would cost $.45 cents.
Surely the variance cannot be that much between Wendy's and McDonalds.
a) Yes, there IS a such thing as a loss leader. We DO lose money for every junior bacon and side salad we sell, and I think it's safe to say I know my stuff around that store.
My store is one of three in Ohio to break 2 million dollars in sales, with about 35% of that being profit. By my math, that's $700,000 A YEAR. We are one of 12 stores in our franchise's district. Granted, the other stores don't do the sales amounts that we do, but even if they only did HALF of what we did, that would be 4.5 MILLION dollars a year in PROFIT. Go ahead and say that fast food has a low profit margin now, because 4.5 million a year for a business that maintains itself is pretty damn good.
b) A piece of Bacon at Wendy's is 11 cents a strip. There are two strips on a junior bacon.
c) You are comparing McDonald's food and Wendy's food. For starters, Wendy's food quality is far beyond Mc Donalds. We don't stick our burgers under a press to cook them, we do it by hand.
I don't know how many times you've been to Wendy's, but we slice every tomato we use daily, prepare the lettuce every morning, and etc. etc. I may not have worked at McDonald's before, but I know in the past they've used lettuce that came pre-chopped in bags, and tomatoes that were pre-sliced. the labor between opening a bag of lettuce and chopping about 60-100 heads daily is quite different.
d) McDonald's uses mostly second-rate beef from South American farms. Wendy's only uses beef from US Farms. Again, quality is the major issue.
e) In the recents years, McDonald's has been trying to mimic Wendy's, making their sandwiches to order, (although they still keep their burgers in a drawer after cooking them! Yum!) Replacing their low-quality salads with more fresh-looking and appealing salads, with more appetizing dressings, even going as far as trying to introduce Chili to their menu. That tells me that clearly Wendy's is on top, and although McDonald's may not be failing, they are definately worried that they might.
