When Three Was Bigger Than Four

Feb 1, 2021 | Mobile

Everyone who learned to count knows that the number four is larger than the number three.  It’s on the number line, sitting there in plain sight.  To get from three to four, you jump one space to the right.  To get from three to four, you add one.  Greater and less than signs don’t lie.  The arrow points at the smaller number.   3 < 4.  It’s undeniable. 

Going from four back to three requires subtraction. You take one away.  If four is larger than three, it follows that three is less than four.  Obviously.

That’s the kind of cut-and-dried, absolute thinking that allegedly doomed a new addition to A&W All American Food’s menu back in the 1980s. 

You may now know A&W for its national brand of bottled and canned root beer sodas.  What you might not know is that A&W began in 1919 as a chain of fast-food restaurants serving burgers, hot dogs, fries, and of course its famous root beer and root beer floats delivered in frosty mugs.

The company was an early innovator. A&W is credited with creating the first bacon cheeseburger in 1963, an item now a menu staple at any restaurant that serves ground beef between buns.  It was the first to introduce car hops (servers who brought food to your car). By the time McDonald’s debuted, the company had already been operating for nearly 40 years and was the industry standard for fast food, done right.  

Over the years A&W grew to more than 2000 locations world-wide. As of 1977 there were twice as many A&W restaurants than there were McDonald’s.  Sadly for A&W, the root beer king’s reign at the top of burger mountain didn’t last.  

In the late 70’s Ronald’s Golden Arches exploded across the American landscape. Creative marketing and an aggressive expansion strategy coupled with the introduction of drive through lanes, the Quarter Pounder, the Egg McMuffin, and McDonald’s Playland areas helped propel McDonald’s to the top of the fast-food empire.  By 1976 there were 4000 McDonald’s restaurants. Two years later, there were 5,000. In 1980 the company opened its 6,000th location. 

A&W, once dominant in the fast food world, saw its position in the market rapidly fade as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC and other chains surged ahead.  Competition, burdensome franchise agreements, a comparatively stagnant menu and the rapidly changing market rocked the former fast-food titan. A&W  locations dwindled to just over 500. Recognizing the need to change to combat the growing popularity of McDonald’s, the company took direct aim at one of its biggest selling burgers.   

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder had proven immensely popular.  A&W decided on a plan to one-up the Golden Arches.  The root beer franchise went to work and created a new menu item.  The new A&W Third Pounder beat McD’s quarter pounder in blind taste tests. Not only was it better tasting, but the A&W Third Pounder meal actually cost a little less than a Quarter Pounder combo. 

Win-win, right?  A better-tasting, less-expensive option to the Quarter Pounder was surely destined for success and should catapult A&W back up the fast-food ladder. 

So why wasn’t there an A&W renaissance?  Why isn’t there an A&W franchise at every Interstate exit, in every town, around every corner?  Why didn’t the third pound burger trump the competition’s quarter pound offering and give A&W the market boost it sought? 

According to rumor?  Math. 

Legend, a legend backed up by comments from the then-owner of the A&W franchise, Alfred Taubman,  says the general public wasn’t able to easily comprehend that a third pound burger is actually larger than a quarter pound burger.  As Taubman stated in an interview:

“Well, it turned out that customers preferred the taste of our fresh beef over traditional fast-food hockey pucks.  Hands down, we had the better product.  But there was a serious problem. More than half the participants in focus groups questioned the price of our burger. “Why,” they asked, “should we pay about the same amount for a third pound of meat that we do for a quarter pound of meat at McDonald’s?  You’re overcharging us.”  Honestly.  People thought a third of a pound was less than a quarter pound.  After all, three is LESS THAN FOUR. 

Maybe people didn’t really prefer the A&W burger after all, maybe there weren’t enough locations to make a real dent in McDonald’s place in the American psyche, maybe it was a case of too-little-too-late on the part of the root beer titans.  Whatever other factors may have played a role, the story persists that the average citizen was unable to recognize that a third-pound patty is larger than a quarter-pound burger, and is therefore the better deal. 

Test it out.  Ask four random friends whether a quarter pound burger for $5 or a third-pound burger for $4 is the better deal.  Does the A&W legend hold up?    

Too bad Mathnasium wasn’t around in the 1980s.  Our students know from practice and example that a third is a larger portion than a fourth.  Our students have seen examples in action (candy bars and pizzas come to mind).  Our students know that the smaller the denominator (the name of the fraction) the larger each part of the whole is going to be. 

The math works! 1/3 is actually larger than 1/4

1/4

1/3

The rest of the A&W story you can probably guess. All you have to do is look out the car window and count the number of A&W restaurants you see compared to the number of other options.  A&W’s Third Pound burger was a flop. The company took a hit. McDonald’s domination continued to the point that there are now about 36,000 Golden Arches locations across the globe. 

Interestingly enough, McDonald’s debuted a Third Pound Angus burger in 2009. Four years later, the item was removed from the menu without fanfare, as customers continued to choose the Quarter Pounder more often.

The Third Pounder flop wasn’t the end for A&W, though. The franchise didn’t disappear completely.  It survived and over the last 40 years or so has slowly built back its presence in the marketplace.  The company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019 and last year expanded to about half the number of locations it had at its late 70s height.  The company also announced plans for continued expansion and a broader menu. 

If you want to give A&W a try, you’ll have to drive a fairly long way.  According to the company website, a few of the nearest locations to Mobile are Haleyville, AL (337 miles away), Kimball, TN (404 miles away) and Spring Hill, FL (444 miles).  Assuming an average driving speed of 55 mph, can you figure out how long it would take you to get to those locations? 

If you do go there, just don’t ask for a Third Pounder.  It’s no longer on the menu.  You could select the A&W Bacon Double Cheeseburger (an A&W invention) which is described as containing “a full 1/3 pound of 100% U.S. beef.”   So while the original A&W Third Pounder of the 80s may have been doomed by math, its successor quietly lives on under a new name. 

 

 

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