WTF Wendy's Burgers got smaller?!?!?!

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WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
My local Wendys got rid of the fruit punch for powerade, now thats a crime to be upset about.
 

JulesMaximus

No Lifer
Jul 3, 2003
74,544
924
126
Originally posted by: NFS4
Not surprising. Americans with their ever-expanding waistlines complaining about downsized portions :D

:laugh: No kidding. I went out to dinner with my wife and son on Friday night and ordered baby back ribs at Chili's along with mashed potatoes and broccoli. I finished half the ribs and maybe half of the potatoes. In fact, the ribs were dry...they pretty much sucked. :thumbsdown:

I did eat all the broccoli though...it was yummy, probably drowning in butter. :(

My wife had the lettuce wraps which were actually quite good (I ate some of the lettuce). My son ate half a cheese burger and some corn on the cob with milk for a drink.
 

XZeroII

Lifer
Jun 30, 2001
12,572
0
0
I just went there last week and yea, the double stack was replaced with something much smaller and not nearly as good.
 

GoingUp

Lifer
Jul 31, 2002
16,720
1
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Originally posted by: eos
When I was in high school almost 20 years ago, the Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait came with a long red spoon. When you consumed the treat and reached the bottom of the cup, your fingers would get chocolate on them from the rim of the cup. These days, the spoon towers over the cup.

I strongly doubt they increased the length of the spoons if normal cost cutting measures described above have been taken over the years.

You might also notice thinner napkins, cups or straws.

Alluding to the Jimmy Dean guy, I have also noticed in the grocery store some orange juice manufacturers have stopped selling the 128 oz. size in favor of a 104 oz. or smaller container. Same price (or near to it), natch.

Good times.

At least a poound of butter is still a pound of butter.

Yea, its like how Ice cream comes in 56oz instead of a half gallon.
 

Eos

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2000
3,463
17
81
Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Originally posted by: eos
When I was in high school almost 20 years ago, the Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait came with a long red spoon. When you consumed the treat and reached the bottom of the cup, your fingers would get chocolate on them from the rim of the cup. These days, the spoon towers over the cup.

I strongly doubt they increased the length of the spoons if normal cost cutting measures described above have been taken over the years.

You might also notice thinner napkins, cups or straws.

Alluding to the Jimmy Dean guy, I have also noticed in the grocery store some orange juice manufacturers have stopped selling the 128 oz. size in favor of a 104 oz. or smaller container. Same price (or near to it), natch.

Good times.

At least a poound of butter is still a pound of butter.

Yea, its like how Ice cream comes in 56oz instead of a half gallon.

I had forgotten about that one. I saw the "new" 1/2 gallon at Christmas. I tend to buy a small or medium Blizzard instead of larger ice cream packages.
 

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
Originally posted by: Injury
Originally posted by: SithSolo1
The new patties on the stack attack are indeed smaller. The corners didn't even reach over the edge of the bun. Then again the two I had were well overcooked so maybe they shrank a bit.

I was hugely disappointed. I was expecting the ole double stack at 99c but with a new name.



No.

Here's the deal:

Wendy's cooks their food to order. It's not like McDonald's where they cook patties and put them in a drawer to use when needed, but your burger is rolling off the grill seconds after you order it. To do this, the grill operator needs to somehow be clairvoyant and figure exactly how much meat will be needed at any given time or service will come to a halt. In the past, this has only caused them to over-produce cooked burgers, and while they use the excess for their chili, you can only prevent loss for as much chili as you sell. The typical store had a problem that caused them to throw away about 20 pounds of meat a week. This is a huge waste, both financially and from a conservation standpoint.

In an effort to reduce their waste, many stores started using "clamshell" grills to cook their meat. It cooks twice as fast (as heat is applied to both top & bottom) and allows them to be more precise in their timing, as meat cooks in about the same time as it takes to serve a customer from the time they walk in to the time they have their order.

The problem is that previously, when the meat was previously cooked by someone with a spatula, the meat was pressed out so that it got thinner and cooked thorougly without scorching... This made the meat appear bigger. The clamshell grills don't press the meat as well (thus the patties tend to tighten up a bit and stay more square than they previously did).

So again, if you want to contest this I suggest you call Wendy's directly and ask them because for as much time as I spent flipping burgers in my high school days, I can promise you I would have noticed a change and I'm not seeing it.


Sorry that your own fat asses are misleading your eyes.

Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Originally posted by: slag
Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.

Chicken is kept in warmer trays. Hamburger patties are not. They're kept warming on the grill. If they didn't do chicken that way, you'd be waiting 4 minutes for a chicken sandwich.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Not surprising. Americans with their ever-expanding waistlines complaining about downsized portions :D

It's my right as an American to get as fat as a cow if I want to!

Enjoy!

I shudder at the amount of calories in that pic. Does 4,000 seem like a good guess?

No f'in way is 4000 a good guess. That thing is huge, its probably closer to 10000 Calories.

Large sandwiches that you can get are sitting around 2500 calories. That cheeseburger has got to be at least 3x more massive than those large sandwiches you can find at Sabbraros (sp?)
You two haven't the slightest idea about calories, do you? LOL.

That burger is no more than 1600 calories. No way, no how.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Not surprising. Americans with their ever-expanding waistlines complaining about downsized portions :D

It's my right as an American to get as fat as a cow if I want to!

Enjoy!

I shudder at the amount of calories in that pic. Does 4,000 seem like a good guess?

No f'in way is 4000 a good guess. That thing is huge, its probably closer to 10000 Calories.

Large sandwiches that you can get are sitting around 2500 calories. That cheeseburger has got to be at least 3x more massive than those large sandwiches you can find at Sabbraros (sp?)
You two haven't the slightest idea about calories, do you? LOL.

That burger is no more than 1600 calories. No way, no how.

::tap::tap::

This thing on?
 

SuperSix

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,872
2
0
Originally posted by: se7en
Was the double that new stack attack? My roomate got one the other day and it was like a little bitty double cheeseburger.

He said it was good though.

Had 2 of those for dinner tonight - good stuff!! :thumbsup:
 

KLin

Lifer
Feb 29, 2000
30,107
486
126
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Not surprising. Americans with their ever-expanding waistlines complaining about downsized portions :D

It's my right as an American to get as fat as a cow if I want to!

Enjoy!

I shudder at the amount of calories in that pic. Does 4,000 seem like a good guess?

No f'in way is 4000 a good guess. That thing is huge, its probably closer to 10000 Calories.

Large sandwiches that you can get are sitting around 2500 calories. That cheeseburger has got to be at least 3x more massive than those large sandwiches you can find at Sabbraros (sp?)
You two haven't the slightest idea about calories, do you? LOL.

That burger is no more than 1600 calories. No way, no how.

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/23502.html

If that burger is the same one Here, then I'd say the meat alone is a little more than 7000 calories.

EDIT: I'd say it is the same burger because of the way the pickles are speared to the top of the bun.
 

Injury

Lifer
Jul 19, 2004
13,066
2
81
Originally posted by: slag
Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.

Burgers? No, you won't. At all. They roll straight from the grill. The chicken comes from a warmer grill, yeah. The cook time on chicken is 7minutes for the breaded and 10 minutes for the grilled. Kinda hard to make that on the spot.

You aren't going to win this one just because you think you saw it from the drive through window.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
Originally posted by: Injury
Originally posted by: slag
Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.

Burgers? No, you won't. At all. They roll straight from the grill. The chicken comes from a warmer grill, yeah. The cook time on chicken is 7minutes for the breaded and 10 minutes for the grilled. Kinda hard to make that on the spot.

You aren't going to win this one just because you think you saw it from the drive through window.

Are we going to have to summon an experienced Wendy's burger flipper for this?
 

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
Originally posted by: Regs
Originally posted by: Injury
Originally posted by: slag
Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.

Burgers? No, you won't. At all. They roll straight from the grill. The chicken comes from a warmer grill, yeah. The cook time on chicken is 7minutes for the breaded and 10 minutes for the grilled. Kinda hard to make that on the spot.

You aren't going to win this one just because you think you saw it from the drive through window.

Are we going to have to summon an experienced Wendy's burger flipper for this?

According to the other guy, they dont flip burgers anymore.. they cook them from both sides at once.

But yeah, I've seen them pull spicy chicken patties from a warmer drawer for sure.
 

Injury

Lifer
Jul 19, 2004
13,066
2
81
Originally posted by: slag
Originally posted by: Regs
Originally posted by: Injury
Originally posted by: slag
Lies. I can pull up at our local wendys and watch them take the chicken patty or spicy chicken patty out of the warmer drawer and throw together a sandwich. Same thing with hamburger patties.

Burgers? No, you won't. At all. They roll straight from the grill. The chicken comes from a warmer grill, yeah. The cook time on chicken is 7minutes for the breaded and 10 minutes for the grilled. Kinda hard to make that on the spot.

You aren't going to win this one just because you think you saw it from the drive through window.

Are we going to have to summon an experienced Wendy's burger flipper for this?

According to the other guy, they dont flip burgers anymore.. they cook them from both sides at once.

But yeah, I've seen them pull spicy chicken patties from a warmer drawer for sure.

Both BigJ and I, who have worked there, are saying you are wrong about the beef. Neither of us deny that they are pulling chicken from a drawer, as previously explained if they made that nearly to order, you'd have big problems with speed of service.
 
May 31, 2001
15,326
2
0
Originally posted by: Parasitic
Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Originally posted by: KK
Go to hardee's and get a monster burger. I got one the other day, it was pretty good, although the damn thing ran 8.44 including tax for the combo. A far cry from wendy's jr bacon cheeseburger.

Does Carl's Jr. carry that one?

Carls' Jr. = Hardee's.
CJ is more west coast methinks.

Carl's Jr. is not Hardee's, they bought them. There is not 100% parity between their menus.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Originally posted by: Injury
Both BigJ and I, who have worked there, are saying you are wrong about the beef. Neither of us deny that they are pulling chicken from a drawer, as previously explained if they made that nearly to order, you'd have big problems with speed of service.

On top of that with the beef, it'd be a waste of space and you'd wind up with more food loss. As you know (but others may not) the clam-shell grill has room for rows of beef on the side with the timer when to move the meat off and use it for chili.
 

yoda291

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
5,079
0
0
Originally posted by: KLin
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: xeemzor
Originally posted by: NFS4
Not surprising. Americans with their ever-expanding waistlines complaining about downsized portions :D

It's my right as an American to get as fat as a cow if I want to!

Enjoy!

I shudder at the amount of calories in that pic. Does 4,000 seem like a good guess?

No f'in way is 4000 a good guess. That thing is huge, its probably closer to 10000 Calories.

Large sandwiches that you can get are sitting around 2500 calories. That cheeseburger has got to be at least 3x more massive than those large sandwiches you can find at Sabbraros (sp?)
You two haven't the slightest idea about calories, do you? LOL.

That burger is no more than 1600 calories. No way, no how.

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/23502.html

If that burger is the same one Here, then I'd say the meat alone is a little more than 7000 calories.

EDIT: I'd say it is the same burger because of the way the pickles are speared to the top of the bun.

The internet says that's the 96er from a Denny's Beer Barrel pub -- 12500 calories.
 

Twista

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
9,646
1
0
Crap, i saw this thread the other day but didnt know they replaced the double stack. Well, i went to wendys and i ordered my regular ==? 2 double stacks and a small chilli. The total came out to 3.56 when it use to be cheaper for those 3. So, they added more tax and they added freaking mayonaise to my sammich which i didnt want. It still taste the same to me though.. just have to ask without mayo next time.
 

Doodoo

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2000
1,423
0
76
Dunno bout their burgers, but they upped their size for drinks. I ordered a medium and that thing was huge...like a liter of coke.
 

pkrush

Senior member
Dec 5, 2005
468
0
0
I think that the only Wendy's burgers that have shrunk are the value menu ones. Also, this seems to have happened at about the same rate that the dollar has fallen. I guess it's just impossible to get enough beef for a dollar to make a decently sized burger any more. Most other fast food places seem to have just dropped the dollar menus instead of shrinking the food, though.
 

Injury

Lifer
Jul 19, 2004
13,066
2
81
Originally posted by: pkrush
I think that the only Wendy's burgers that have shrunk are the value menu ones. Also, this seems to have happened at about the same rate that the dollar has fallen. I guess it's just impossible to get enough beef for a dollar to make a decently sized burger any more. Most other fast food places seem to have just dropped the dollar menus instead of shrinking the food, though.

They didn't shrink.