Are you old enough to remember Wendy’s 1984 advertising slogan, “Where’s the beef?” with actress Clara Peller staring at a big, fluffy bun with a miniscule hamburger? Over the last 27 years, Wendy’s has built their empire of selling “good old-fashioned hamburgers,”  square and substantial, and offering customers a choice of condiments on their burgers. Yesterday, we were in disbelief that now the default “single” is the cheeseburger. If we understood the woman at the drive-through window, the customer pays cheeseburger price and at your request, they will omit the cheese; however, the cheeseless burger costs the same as one with two slices of cheese. To quote the person who waited on us. “It is just like when we leave the pickle off.”  

This situation upsets us for two reasons. First, obesity is epidemic in North Carolina (in much of the USA). Also, a single with cheese on the top and the bottom adds approximately 140 extra calories. That is a lot of calories, especially if people eat the sandwich without even thinking about it and they don’t even really like cheese. Secondly, cheese is not free. The sandwich price has cheese costed in. So, the consumer of a single hamburger is making mandatory  donation to Wendy’s every time they opt out of cheese. For each million served, that is a lot of PROFIT. What if Wendy’s gives the that money to the U.S. government to help underwrite health care costs associated with obesity.

What would Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendy’s) have to say about this situation? Finally, sorry if you saw this post previously. It accidentally published ahead of schedule.