candidgamera | McEconomy of McScale

Economy of Scale is the notion that when you buy more of something, you save on the price per unit, because the high quantity allows the manufacturer to compress some of the costs associated with the item. Simple enough.

This notion is the root of one of my all-time favorite jokes, which goes thusly :

Guy One : "You're losing a dollar on every one of these you sell! How do you turn a profit?"
Guy Two : "Volume!"

Anyway. There's an oddity at McDonald's. I present to you Chicken McNugget prices, as observed by me, today:

20 Nuggets - $5.19 - Price Per Nugget : 26 cents.
10 Nuggets - $3.29 (though another spot on the menu had it at $3.49) - Price Per Nugget : 33 cents.
6 Nuggets - $2.59 - Price Per Nugget : 43 cents.

So far, sensible. But here's the quirk :

4 Nuggets - $1.00 - Price Per Nugget : 25 cents.

That makes no frigging sense. Why are the other options even on the menu? No matter how many nuggets you want, it is always better to buy them in units of four. Even if you only want six, buy two units of four and you save money. Does McDonald's really get that many college students at 1AM, coming in stoned and ordering 20 nuggets because they've blitzed themselves beyond the point of being able to multiply by five?