Renaming the Wendy's menu items
Wendy's has renamed its Biggie and Great Biggie drinks in order to... umm, make people feel better about their food purchases?
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — "Biggie" fries and drinks at Wendy's have been demoted.
The Biggie portion size, formerly the fast food restaurant's equivalent of a large, will now be called a medium. It's only a name change, and the portion customers get — the equivalent of almost three 12-ounce cans of soda for the drinks — won't get smaller.
Wendy's International (WEN) research shows demand for big drinks, but people were confused by the designation of Biggie and Great Biggie, the former extra-large size, spokesman Denny Lynch said. Switching to a more straightforward small, medium and large sizes made sense, he said.
The nation's third-largest burger chain has used the Biggie designation since the early 1990s.
The Great Biggie, equal to 3½ 12-ounce cans of soda, will now be classified as a large. Medium portions will be bumped down to small sizes.
The move might help appease critics who accuse the fast food industry of inflating portions and contributing to the nation's obesity problem, said restaurant analyst Dennis Lombardi, of WD Partners in Columbus.
Removing the Biggie designation makes size "less of an issue for people who want to talk about restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, who offer excessively large portions," he said.
I'm not overweight, I don't have an eating disorder! I only ordered a large! Of course, it's a 55-gallon drum of Coke, but it's only a large.