Looking back at an entry from the archives, I thought I’d update something I said about the Hardee’s Monster Thickburger™:
That’s the effect of consumer choice. If the people don’t like it, they’ll stop buying the burger. No amount of public bitching about corporate responsibility or heart disease or obesity, no matter how tender and earnest, is going to change a consumer’s behavior until the consumer wants to change. The progress might be slow, but it’ll happen. And that change becomes more lasting and permanent when it’s a choice, just like the lasting effect of the quality of Hardee’s food at Squires Student Center. That Hardee’s is now an A&W franchise.
That A&W franchise is now an Au Bon Pain, thanks to the painfully awful food served by that A&W, a fact to which I can unfortunately attest. Despite the obesity “crisis” we’re now facing, I stand by my original assessment that choice is sufficient and essential. People aren’t stupid and do not need the government’s help to make them better. Experience is a much more powerful motivator.