McDonald’s french fries are a staple of the American food culture as their crisp, golden deliciousness has become a notable part of every McDonald’s value meal. This year, McDonald’s has introduced the basket of fries, which is a shareable portion of the chain’s world famous fries that offers about 50 percent more fries than the standard McDonald’s large side of french fries. This new size is available for a limited time and is aimed at the community of people who observe Lent, as it was introduced as a component of a $4.99 meal deal that comes with two Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. Individually, however, this new size of fries is priced at $2.99 which is $0.79 more than the large size.
To get a more in-depth perspective on how this new size of french fries compares to the other sizes, some economical research was needed. I took to the local Baden McDonald’s to conduct my research. My sample size was one order of each size, which I then took to a booth and used a food scale to measure the weight of each size in grams. Excluding the packaging, I weighed all the fries that came in each size.
My findings were as follows: the small fry weighed 73.7 grams, the medium fry weighed 104.9 grams, the large fry weighed 144.6 grams and the basket of fries weighed in at 209.8 grams. These weights were as expected: each one increased by about 50 percent of the weight of the previous size. The economic discrepancy here is that purchasing the bigger size really doesn’t bring you any real savings as it usually does in business practices. In the case of McDonald’s fries, the price per gram doesn’t vary much at all with the small fry costing around two cents per gram while the basket costs just under a penny and a half.
The real discrepancy, however, comes when you compare the serving size that you are supposed to get in each of these sizes with what you ultimately end up getting. In my research, I have found that the larger the size you order, the larger the gap between the supposed weight and the actual weight. A prime example of this is that there is a two gram difference from the suggested to the actual in the small size while I received 24 grams less fries in my large than the website suggested I would get.
Overall, by ordering a larger size french fries at your local McDonald’s, you aren’t actually getting more for your money, just more french fries. Regardless, this is nothing to get outraged about. Those who want every penny they spend to go as far as it can may find themselves buying multiple small fries instead of just one medium or large.