h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it really such a puzzle? It's a simple equation - provide less + charge more = bigger profits. There are things to be said too about the environmental implications of slicing up a normal size bar into little pieces and wrapping it eight times instead of once, but that's another story.

Here in the UK, things like washing powder used to be sold in three sizes - small, medium and large. Now the same size boxes, in the same order, are labelled large, king size and giant (or economy, or family, or whatever). What used to be called small is now called large. We have become so addicted to the (inherently stupid) idea of MORE AND BIGGER in everything we do that a kind of psychological inflation has taken what seems to be permanent hold. So "fun size" is just another euphemism for "very small", designed to misdirect you away from the actual volume of what you are receiving.

Ignore the adjectives, look for the weight. It's the only way.

Starbucks' names for small, medium and large. A marketing trick for sure. Create a new world with it's own language to which ppl can belong. I do, it works.

You'll find me at my local Starbucks with my laptop a venti coffee with three addshots of espresso.

BTW, after some googling I learned that venti is 20 in Italian and refers to the number of ounces the largest cup holds.

Great entry by the way. Not too long, not too short. Graciously lacking the kind of factual stuff that makes other entries boring.