October 11, 2007
Do not super-size me
A word of praise for my local coffee shop. It does indeed serve good coffee but another reason I like it is that it offers it in sizes "small, medium or large". Yes, that’s right. Not "tall, grande and venti". Or "large, extra-large and super-size".
My colleague Tim Harford has written elsewhere about how one now has to ask specially for a short cappucino in Starbucks as if is a samizdat item. The menu starts with tall.
More generally, the abolition of the notion that any serving or portion can be small - as if consumers will somehow feel short-changed - is irritating for fans of plain speaking.
I also like the fact that my local frozen yogurt shop calls its main flavour "ordinary". But that is another story.
