Size Musings

I am going to take a detour from my usual reflection of Bentley's performance to something that sparked my interest this morning.

Every day, I open up my Internet explorer at work and MSN suggests several articles I may be interested in.  Today, the one I chose to click on was with respect to Tim Horton's recent addition of a 24oz coffee.  http://money.ca.msn.com/savings-debt/gallery/inside-tim-hortons-coffee-cup-upsizing

First off, I don't like Tim Hortons.  I am kind of a coffee snob that way, I prefer a coffee that's fair trade, very dark and black.  Many times I state that if you cant drink the coffee without loading it with sugar and milk, either you are drinking terrible coffee or you just never really liked coffee to begin with.  After all, you wouldn't add cranberry juice to a fine wine would you?

What struck me the most was on slide 5, the expert opinion is that  'Offering a larger portion strengthens the value proposition. Those perceptions linger, even if a bigger serving comes at the same per-ounce price as a smaller one.' In many cases I have seen the quality of food diminishing in order to provide more "Value", or in other words: quantity.

I guess it boils down to how we perceive value, and I just don't see eye to eye with the masses.  It makes it increasingly difficult to fulfill my definition of value without paying through the nose for it. 

Am I alone here?