The Drive-Thru Upsize Trap

Ever notice McDonald's drive-thru menus steer you past small combo? Small is seven dollars,

buried in plain text at the menu's bottom corner, where your eyes skim past as the

car behind you pulls closer. Medium is eight dollars, glowing under a

backlit photo of golden fries spilling from a red carton, the size the intercom voice assumes when

they ask, "What drink?" Large, eight dollars and fifty cents,

just fifty cents more, right where the fries in the photo tower a little higher,

making medium suddenly feel like paying almost the same to leave fries uneaten. That fifty-cent

jump felt efficient, didn't it? It didn't. You were buying relief from the