another food price analysis obsession - burger

It’s Burger King, my favorite beef burger store !

 And this time is more serious analysis than previous queue-in-line KFC example.  It comes with proper price gap analysis and order optimizing system.  I had to analyse in proper spreadsheet before I place order.  ( can you feel the obsession I have with numbers yet ? )

It all started when I saw an advertisement that if you buy up to RM 50 in Burger King, they will give you one FREE Chicken Royale burger and a FREE Touch N Go card!  I do vaguely remember I need an extra TouchNgo card but I forgot for what reason!  Normal price of a TouchNgo card is RM 10, and the FREE burger would be around RM10 too.  So saving RM 20 out of a RM 50 price is a HUGE 40% discount !!  

All I wanted was just ONE Whopper and see what advertisement has up sold me to.

Ok, this is the price list ...

First, all upgrades from medium to large set add RM1 standard across the board.  Size upgrade for individual fries and drinks add up to RM 1.20 so ALL sets upgrade saves 20 cents.  So this is as straight forward as if you want to eat more, simply get the size upgrades on the set.

Then I check the price differences between Ala-Carte and medium set.  The set costs extra from RM 1.40 to RM 4.85 with an average of RM 3.50.  So I presume I do not want to buy the set if the set extra cost is more than the average RM 3.50, marked in pink color.

The set comes with fries and drinks.  If you want only one of the items i.e. drink, then the extra fries is NOT really a saving but a redundancy.  The drink is RM 3 and the fries are RM 3.55 so I use RM 3 as the smaller price item. So I also decided not to get the set if the ala carte to set cost more than RM 3, marked in peach color.

Very soon, I have new order logic.  If I were to order sets in burger king, I should only consider whopper set and chicken tender set.  All other sets provide less value than these 2 sets.  And chicken tender set is the cheapest way to get your set.

So now I know what to order ala-carte and what to order sets, let match the RM 50 deal.  I wrote some formulas into the spreadsheet and auto calculate how much more to order in order to match my target.  Not to forget the 5% government tax in the calculation.  Items that can be purchased to match the target will pop up in green (in excel it would, not in google docs).

First select what I want to eat ... wait a minute, how to finish all these RM50 burgers by myself?  I quickly made a few calls and throw a small family dinner party.  The meal maker does not need to cook that much and the kids would love it too!  Add in a few more considerations like some doesn't eat beef etc.  Walla !!  Here is my order:

1 Chicken Tender medium set and ala-carte whopper, single mushroom swiss, fish, grill chicken and 9 pcs chicken tender.  Total RM 50.14 after tax.

Just in case they require before tax amount to be RM 50, I also come up with a similar order of:

1 whopper medium set and 1 chicken tender medium set.
Ala-carte single mushroom swiss, fish, french chicken, grill chicken one each.

Totalling at exact RM 50 before tax !

Did I just waste more money or have I just saved some?  I should have a great dinner party tonight and goes home with an extra TouchNgo card.  That couldn't be too bad right?