Japanese convenience store fools us with its 40-percent-more sandwich, but in a good way

Family Mart is upsizing over a dozen products for a limited time, but they’re being more generous than they let on. 

On 1 August, Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart began a new campaign called the “Roughly 40-Percent Increase Strategy”. This campaign, which gives customers roughly 40-percent more for their money, is limited to certain items and is set to be released in three instalments, with the first instalment running from 1-7 August, the second from 8-14 August and the third from 15-21 August.

Image: Press release

▼ The first instalment is the largest of the three, with a total of 10 products being upsized during the seven-day period.

Image: Press release

The product that caught our eye here was the Juicy Ham Sandwich, which sounded absolutely delicious, so we went out and purchased one, along with a regular sized one so we could compare the two sizes.

▼ Both the large and the regular Juicy Ham Sandwich (“ジューシーハムサンド”), which goes by the rather dull-sounding “Ham & Cucumber” in English, were priced at 300 yen (US$2.10).

In an era of rising prices, where companies everywhere are doing their best to cut costs, we had a sneaking concern that this “roughly” 40-percent increase campaign might land more on the sub-40-percent side of things. The only way to find out, though, would be to get out the scales and weigh the sandwich fillings, seeing as this appeared to be the only difference between the two, as the bread slices were identical in both.

So how would they weigh up? Well, let’s start with the regular fillings, which weighed in at…

▼ …57 grams (2 ounces).

Judging from this result, the fillings in the new campaign sandwich would need to weigh at least 79.8 grams to be a 40-percent increase. So…how much would the fillings weigh?

Drumroll please…….

The “roughly” 40-percent more sandwich weighed in at….

▼…94 grams!!!!!

That means that instead of giving us 40-percent more fillings, Family Mart had given us…

▼…65 percent more!

▼ Family Mart! You big, lovable, god-like underseller, you!

By underselling the “roughly 40-percent increase” and giving us more than we bargained for, Family Mart just earned a forever-place in our convenience-store loving hearts.

▼ We felt so much affection for the chain and its new campaign that we immediately went out and purchased even more of the upsized products.

Having been fooled by “paper tiger” sandwiches at Japanese convenience stores before, this reverse fraud, which delivered more than advertised, was a very pleasant surprise. Now we can’t wait to see how next week’s products fare on the “roughly” side of things. With Family Mart’s iconic Famichiki fried chicken being upsized in the next instalment, we’re already loosening a notch on our belts in preparation!

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