Japanese fast food chains offer reduced portions
September 18th, 2009 by James
Mos Burger - Less meat in your burger, but at least it's cheaper!
Regular readers of this blog have probably heard about Japanese fast food chains offering “mega” sized menu items. Since not all Japanese want to gorge themselves on giant portions, the same chains are now beginning to offer “puchi” (tiny) sized food:
The above clip discusses how Mos Burger recently cut the size and price of its hamburgers and saw a 30% increase in sales. Matsuya also started offering smaller gyudon bowls and has seen a nearly 30% increase in sales, mostly from female customers. Sukiya has noticed the success of their rival and has also added a miniature gyudon bowl to its menu.
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The small portions are a welcome idea.
Now I can go to these chains for a quick snack when I’m feeling just a little hungry, rather than force myself to eat it all and feel sick, feel guilty for wasting food when I can’t finish it, or wait until I’m really hungry.
That, and it’s also good for when time is short,
My sentiments exactly, helical.
That’s happening all over the US right now, except the prices stay the same. It’s how food producers can deal with inflation without the prices of their product appearing to change.
My father deals with price for a grocery store chain and said it’s been happening for the last two years, and it’s across the board but especially with corn based products (vegetable oil etc.) The trick is they use is either less food in the same sized package or replacing the normal package with a larger one that costs more per ounce.
Oddly, it seems that while grocery goods are becoming more expensive and smaller, fast food is simultaneously becoming larger and cheaper.
Yeah, if you check the bottoms of jars like peanut Butter , you’ll notice a big dent in the bottom while the price remains the same. Compare it to the flat bottoms used in the past years.
Jesus, 8 sizes of gyudon? I wonder how many of the smallest size makes up the largest size.
they have been doing this at kentucky (the wrap) – one less piece of chicken in the sandwhich but the price is the same. i was shocked they didn`t inform. but the samller portions are welcome as long as the price reflects this.
Yeah, the wraps have shrunk, but they did say so – at least, they said it was the new “easy to eat” size. But, as you noted, the price did not drop. KFC are bastards in this sense though: I stopped eating their “biscuits” when they drilled a hole in the middle to save dough.
For what it is worth—the Sukiya in my area has had the mini size for–maybe 2 years now–certainly well over a year. I usually order it when I visit.
I would rather they also scaled down the buns as well. Less protein is not as desirable as fewer carbohydrates (esp. those made with refined flour). That being said, I rarely (twice a year, tops) eat fast food anyway so this doesn’t really affect me.
For places that mainly cater to male customers, this is actually a good marketing strategy for bringing in female customers. Good move on their part.
Off-topic, but when I hear word puchi I don’t want even to laugh.
That I can wholeheartedly agree to.
“Puchi” is probably derived from the French adjective “petit(m)/petite(f)” meaning “small”.
A “30% increase in sales” after dropping the price by 36% (as in the Mosburger example given) is actually a bad business decision.
I.e.:
Selling 100 Mosburgers at 220 yen = 22000 in sales.
Selling 130 Mosburgers (30% more) at 160 yen = 20800 in sales.
Just pointing this out since the main article kind of makes it sound like they’re doing better business because of the price/portion reductions. In fact, they’re not doing enough extra business to make up for the lost sales. At least at Mosburger.
Did you catch the part about the meat being smaller?
The video (albeit in Japanese) mentions that the Mosburger meat patty is 3/4 the size of the original.
Yes, but let’s assume that 220 yen burger cost them 110 yen in materials. If they sell 100 burgers, they make 11,000 yen which they use to pay salaries, operating expenses etc. before they get to clear profit.
Now, they cut the meat by 25%. Let’s assume the meat patty was originally 50 yen, so now it is about 39 yen (overly simple calc, I know, the raw meat cost dropped 25% but the costs associated with making frozen patties will not have not dropped significantly, if at all). Raw materials for the burger now cost 99 yen. 160-99=61 yen, multiplied by 130 burgers is 7,930 yen.
They are down 28% in income even with a 30% increase in sales. They would need a 180% increase in sales, not a 130% increase, just to be holding steady at where they were before they dropped the price.
Or the increase in sales could be 30% increase in yen value. Using your example
Selling 179 burgers at 160 yen = 26,600 yen (30% more)
No, the announcer clearly says they are selling 30% more hamburgers (number of burgers) than they were before (販売数）. Like George said, if they used to sell 100 burgers, they now sell 130 burgers.
Now, Matsuya does say sales are up “almost 30%”, and since they use 売り上げ I will assume that is sales as measured in yen.
Well at least they are telling you the size is smaller and the price is lower. But you should never mess with a MOS Burger, those are already perfect. As for the way they are resizing things in the US & Canada, buy changing the container & product size while keeping the price the same, that should be illegal!! That’s nothing more than a scam!
This was illegal until a few months ago in Germany until a few months ago, at least for a large variety of goods! Now they changed the law and already the food companies are trying to trick the customers. Instead of 500ml bottles of flavored milk drinks there are now 420ml, 480ml, 500ml, 520ml… bottles from different manufacturers. It’s insane, especially as the bottles seem to have the same volume but don’t, because of slight varieties in the shape.
At least the supermarkets have to provide a price label that shows the relative price based on 100ml/gr/etc., so you still can compare by that price, but it’s more cumbersome.
This is a scary trend, Japanese women don’t need to get any smaller. They should just stick to the “futsu” size.
I like the idea on how they managed to match two apparently conflicting trends:
While there definitely is a trend toward healthier eating habits which include portion control, thanks to the global economic crisis, there is also an increasing trend towards maximizing performance-value. Providing a suitable matching discount in the price manages to appease both concerns.