Why Do Three Pancakes at Johnny Rockets Cost the Same Amount as Two Pancakes?

This intriguing snippet of a Johnny Rockets menu, via Marginal Revolution, highlights the mystery of restaurant portion pricing. Buying two pancakes costs $4.99 -- but so does buying three pancakes.

What's going on here? MR commenters speculate that the restaurant is either trying to make the three pancake consumers feel like they're getting a bargain, punishing "civilized" two-pancake customers who don't want to consume as many calories, trying to make people thirsty with more pancakes, causing them to buy high-margin drinks, that this is either a pricing error or a marketing experiment by Johnny Rockets, or, of course, that "it is a purposely silly price designed to get people to comment on it, mention it to friends, and include in blog entries, thus attracting attention to the restaurant."

Thoughts?

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This intriguing snippet of a Johnny Rockets menu, via Marginal Revolution, highlights the mystery of restaurant portion pricing. Buying two pancakes costs $4.99 — but so does buying three pancakes.

What’s going on here? MR commenters speculate that the restaurant is either trying to make the three pancake consumers feel like they’re getting a bargain, punishing “civilized” two-pancake customers who don’t want to consume as many calories, trying to make people thirsty with more pancakes, causing them to buy high-margin drinks, that this is either a pricing error or a marketing experiment by Johnny Rockets, or, of course, that “it is a purposely silly price designed to get people to comment on it, mention it to friends, and include in blog entries, thus attracting attention to the restaurant.”

Thoughts?

(P.S.: Who knew that Johnny Rockets had breakfast? I thought it was just an old-timey burger place.)

(via Marginal Revolution)


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