An irate McDonald’s customer took to Reddit to voice their dissatisfaction with the chain’s updated presentation of its “large” French Fries.
On Thursday, u/CrewCamel posted a photo showing a Big Mac container and what appears to be McDonald’s patented paper bag of small fries. “Here’s what a “large fries” looks like at my McDonald’s in 2024,” the post read. “I ordered a $14 Big Mac meal in the SF Bay Area and received this.”
Many users suggested the restaurant had mixed up the order, but they didn’t seem to notice that “Large Fries” was stamped on the bag in large red letters. “The fact that it’s on there at all possibly means that people were ordering large fries, getting this, and then complaining that they got the wrong size afterward,” u/AsherFischell said. “Yep. That is EXACTLY why that is there,” u/DoublyTheWhale concurred.
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“Might as well just say, ‘Yeah, that’s all you get, deal with it,’ on there,” another user offered. “Wow,” u/TomBombadil6 marveled. “That’s the size of small here in Canada.”
For those thinking that the modified size was exclusive to California, think again. “I did that at the McDonald’s at O’Hare airport,” one commenter revealed. “Couldn’t believe that was a large.”
While the true reason for the revised packaging remains unclear, it could be part of the company’s efforts towards compostable packaging. McDonald’s didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Men’s Journal seeking clarification about the new bags and the regions in which they are in use. Whether the amount of fires inside has changed, as customers claim, was not immediately clear.
It seems the change has actually been in effect in certain areas for some time, but it’s only recently come to consumers’ attention. A Reddit thread from two years ago claimed that “McDonald’s is reducing the size of their fries,” offering a picture of a bag stamped with “Medium Fries” as proof.
A thread posted six months ago to r/shrinkflation appears to offer some context for the switch. “They just changed their fry containers from the red cardboard containers to paper fry bags like their small fries. The large is just slightly bigger than the small…wayyyy less fries when poured out than even an underfilled large [box]. Claim that it’s for sustainability. Saves them shipping weight and conveniently decreases large and medium fry sizes by 30–40 percent by the looks of it.”
