The Big Gulp: Portions and Perceived Value

I want you to think about the last dozen times you ate out at a restaurant. Do you remember someone uttering the phrase, “Let’s start with this much. We can always order more.” Now for the big, fat question: When was the last time you actually REMEMBER ordering more? I can’t, for the life of me, remember it happening more than a couple of times in my LIFE! Why? Because once we're not hungry anymore, out of sight is out of mind.

We humans progress through a few stages when we eat:

We keep eating until we’re not hungry anymore
Then we keep eating until the food is gone or we feel physically sick

But once we’ve reached our initial satiation, we get almost NO marginal utility out of an additional bite. In fact, we pay good money to do something that we know is harmful: eating additional calories (I’m assuming that you are NOT one of the 1% of Americans that doesn’t get enough calories).

Why do we buy into this destructive scheme? Because the restaurants and marketers tap into our perception of “more-is-more” value proposition.

So let’s tally up the scorecard again:

Restaurants: Keep more inventory, waste more food and promote unhealthy lifestyles
Consumer: Have less choice, spends more money and shortens their lifespan.

The solution? As always, ASK the CONSUMER and give them more choices!! Believe me, doing that will earn you a lot more loyalty than making them feel like a pig.