How “6 7” Influenced a Burger, a Frosty, and Some Wings

With “6 7” going viral, food businesses have had to decide whether or not to feed the frenzy.

Removing and Keeping “6 7”

Removing “6 7”

As Dictionary.com’s word of the year, “6 7” appears to have originated with Skrilla’s “Doot Doot (6 7 )” and also the 6’7″ basketball player La Melo Ball. Having since gone viral among 15 year-olds ( and younger), the number is more about a gesture and meaninglessness than anything substantive. (When asked, Skrilla rather cryptically said that “the phrase means ‘negative to positive’ and helped him turn into a positive person from a negative one.”)

Perhaps because of massive chaos when employees called out order #67, the Burger chain In-N-Out eliminated 67 from its receipt sequence. Although the decision was not officially announced, one employee told Reddit that “everytime I would get to number 66, and then get to the next customer it would just go to number 68…” Some managers told cashiers to ring up a water cup after #66 so they could avoid announcing the next number. Trying to confirm that 67 was removed, People quoted commenters saying it created too much “disorder” from the throngs of young people waiting for 67 to be called.

Summing it all up, one person said they “didn’t think much of” the removal” to which another responded, “You’re presumably over the age of 15.”

Keeping “6 7”

Meanwhile, Pizza Hut and Wendy’s decided to have some fun. On its 6 7 Menu, on November 6 and 7, Pizza Hut offered 67 cent boneless wings. And Wendy’s added a 67 cent Frosty deal that connected the small Frosty bargain to Black Friday promotions until December 7.

Our Bottom Line: The Margin

Economists like to tell us that we are always making decisions at the margin. Defined as where we add something extra, the margin divides what we’ve done or decided with what we add. A new employee enters at the margin. A snooze alarm adds to my sleep margins. And of course, we have margins of safety and of victory and profit margins.

Furthermore, margins influence decisions. When Pizza Hut limited its wings to two days, they avoided our diminishing marginal utility. With diminishing marginal utility, we get less extra pleasure from each new consumption unit. Two days of wings were enough to attract huge sales before people tired of them.

However, “6 7″‘s diminishing marginal utility might not arrive so soon.

My sources and more: Thanks to my Axios email for inspiring today’s post. From there, I found the details at People, Pizza Hut and USA Today .