Dogwash

While we're on the subject of food at Wetherspoon's, here's a bit of a marketing failure.

The pub manager has, as you might expect, some discretion to supplement the standard food menu with special offers, whether to clear an unexpected overstock or simply to keep the punters interested. And of course he gets to price them too.

I think Sean (for it was probably he) has missed a trick here. All the meals are priced at £4.99. Yet the 12oz Angus steak is not only 50% larger, but would probably have been one of those premium offerings — you know the sort of thing, hand reared beast hung to mature for 30 days after slaughter while the farmer's daughter sits by the carcass singing it soothing ballads to improve the tenderness. So a higher price would be expected.

Now I was tempted by the 8oz rump steak, which was entirely sufficient to still my hunger. The 12oz Angus would, as we say oop North, have been overfacing. On the other hand, I felt somehow foolish for not "maximizing my value" and would have felt irrationally embarrassed in ordering the "lower value" selection at the bar.

So in the event I took my stomach elsewhere.

Pricing, especially where special offers, bundles and BOGOFs are in play, is a subtle game. Had Sean differentiated the prices by no more than a pound, I would probably have felt comfortable enough to proceed.