$5.01, really?

I was visiting with my girlfriend this past weekend, and she said something really interesting (not that she doesn't do that all the time, but this was particularly interesting)

It was interesting not just because it was right, but also because it sounded EXACTLY like something I would say!

She asked me if I had seen the new Arby's commercial.

I hadn't, but that didn't matter, she was about to explain it to me.

"Why," she wondered "would Arby's promote their combos and set a price at five dollars and one penny?!?"

"Why the extra penny?" she continued, getting more and more animated as she built herself into an anti-Arby's rant.

The combos, near as I can tell (and now that I've seen the commercials for myself) are just their sandwiches with a drink and fries.

The commercials harp on the fact that the combos are worth the extra penny, or something like that.

My girlfriend just couldn't get it. And I agreed. Why in the world would you create a huge campaign to announce that your combo meal is incrementally MORE expensive than all the other options (Subway, Quizno's, KFC).

Maybe they're trying to establish themselves as THE premium crappy sandwich place.

I don't know much about Arby's, having been opposed to them ever since I heard they were calling their roast beef sandwiches, 'Roastburgers'.

Those things aren't burgers! As someone who cooks 90% of their own meals on a George Foreman grill, I know what the heck a burger is and what it is not and it is NOT a roast beef sandwich!

See, see how animated I got just there? That's how she got.

Either we're more similar than I thought, or I'm rubbing off on her