Comment by nayroclade

Comment by nayroclade 5 days ago

42 replies

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I always found the "Amazon 4-Star" name funny. Presumably when it was first pitched internally it was called "Amazon 5-Star", then they realised that meant they basically couldn't sell anything, since nothing popular gets a full 5 stars. So they changed it to "4-Star", which just sounds awkward, and lacks the suggestion of top-quality that "5-Star" would. Instead, it's like the "Amazon Not-too-bad" store. I was amazed that they actually went ahead with it.

eithed 5 days ago

When did naming things have to reflect reality? ie it's "Burger King" and not "Bearable Burger"

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  • PaulHoule 5 days ago

    It was a pretty good burger until 2013 when they changed the machine they used to cook the burgers. Now it's worse than McD's and that's saying something.

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    • nebula8804 5 days ago

      Wait that explains so much! Do you know more about the change?

      I've been weirded out by the fact that their jr burger buns are now super shiny as if they are spraying something on them. I know this is processed food, but no burger bun should be able to reflect sunlight the way their burgers now do...

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      • dns_snek 5 days ago

        I haven't seen them in person but a simple egg wash will make any baked product very shiny.

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        • nebula8804 4 days ago

          I'd be inclined to agree but typically egg wash alters the texture of the bread. You get a more darker and crunchy texture after baking. This bread is still soft and still quite light. The weird thing is the more expensive burger(Whopper) is still matte. You'd think if they were going to fancy up the bun it would be the Whopper bun right? Very strange.

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    • AdamN 5 days ago

      Yeah it used to really taste flame grilled. It's pretty low rent nowadays - to the point where I wouldn't go there even if desperate.

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    • jermaustin1 4 days ago

      I can't tell if it was franchise specific, but we have a Burger King near us in Clear Lake/Houston that is absolutely amazing. Fries are always crispy and well seasoned, the patties actually have grill marks and taste like they've been charred. The location hasn't been updated since before I moved away in 2015, and has been consistently good since 2010 or so when I first moved near it.

      That said, every other Burger King around me, and near my house in Louisiana, and near all of the places I lived including NJ, NY, CT, VT have been awful. I never ate there BEFORE this 2013 change though, so I cannot comment on the quality in the before times. But my local, is amazing. Tastes like I remember it from the 90s.

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      • smegger001 4 days ago

        The burgers are fine at the one accross the road from my job but the Burger King here has to most bland frys I dont think they salt them at all they are crispy but lack taste.

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    • Cthulhu_ 4 days ago

      Which is ironic because when BK came to the Netherlands a lot of people went to it because its burgers were better than McD's.

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  • FireBeyond 5 days ago

    My fiancee used to work at a place called "Decent Pizza". Their motto "Not the best but not the worst."

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    • schoen 5 days ago

      Apparently PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was originally named after a fictional grocery store called Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.

      Reply View 1 reply
      • reaperducer 4 days ago

        Sounds like something straight out of A Prairie Home Companion.

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    • tyingq 4 days ago

      My favorite in this space was the MadTV skits about a computer/video dating service called "Lowered Expectations".

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    • Cthulhu_ 4 days ago

      Honestly I respect it. I wouldn't object to a "regular food" takeout / delivery service.

      Actually, these do exist - they deliver daily hot meals to the elderly, for example.

      Reply View 0 replies
  • mjmas 5 days ago

    Something interesting I found while looking up Hungry Jacks (the Burger King franchise here in Australia) is that the angry Whopper is a normal menu item here but it seems to be only a seasonal/special item for Burker King.

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    • geoduck14 4 days ago

      Please tell me what is in an Angry Whopper?

      Also, time I was in Australia, I had a burger with a fried egg and a beat. It was SO good.

      Reply View 2 replies
      • mjmas 4 days ago

        It is a Whopper with onion rings and Jalapenos.

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      • astura 4 days ago

        It's a spicy version of the whopper.

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  • calvinmorrison 5 days ago

    who is this appointed this beef monarch anyway?

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    • kid64 5 days ago

      Dairy Queen

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      • mcswell 5 days ago

        I lived in Quito Ecuador back in the late 70s/ early 80s. There was a hamburger place called "Burger Queen"--the name was in English, presumably to attract people who knew about Burger King. They had a sign that read "Casa del Whooper" (not Whopper).

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      • Andrex 5 days ago

        I'm gonna be 90 and Burger King/Dairy Queen puns are still going to make me laugh.

        Reply View 0 replies
giraffe_lady 5 days ago

Shoulda just bit the bullet and gone with "4.8-star." I'm sure they talked about it and yeah it's goofy and awkward but it would get the meaning across and maybe show a bit of a sense of humor and that's exactly why they never ever could.

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  • bootlooped 5 days ago

    They could have followed the lead of TV manufacturers and called it "5 Star Class" (4.5 star)

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divbzero 5 days ago

They should have left it as “Amazon 5-Star” with nearly 5-star products.

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paulddraper 5 days ago

Yeah it’s kinda like a dollar store but instead of focusing on the upside (cost) it reminded you of the downside (quality).

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adolph 5 days ago

"'Amazon Not-too-bad' store" sounds pretty reasonable. Maybe a too-clever work around for the 5-Star problem would be to call it "100-Star," which would be 4 in binary notation. Or they could call it "5th-Star" since 4 stars is the fifth number of stars b/c the range of starts is zero indexed.

  Ordinal : Cardinal
  1 : 0
  2 : 1
  3 : 2
  4 : 3
  5 : 4
  6 : 5
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  • polshaw 5 days ago

    The range of stars is very deliberately NOT zero indexed, you cannot rate a product below 1.

    Reply View 4 replies
    • qingcharles 5 days ago

      It has been a constant source of irritation in my life that I could never rate the Spawn movie zero stars on IMDB.

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      • simondotau 5 days ago

        Consider the first star as an award for technically qualifying as a “movie” in much the same way as tree bark qualifies as food.

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reaperducer 4 days ago

Presumably when it was first pitched internally it was called "Amazon 5-Star", then they realised that meant they basically couldn't sell anything, since nothing popular gets a full 5 stars. So they changed it to "4-Star"

This would not be the first off-by-one error at Amazon.

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boredtofears 5 days ago

Also funny because there are many product categories on amazon where if its not above 4.5 its probably shit

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