bringing the power of bistromatics to your livingroom

nicholas on 2004-01-09T22:09:08

First there was the infinite improbability drive. Then there was the bistromatic drive. However, that had the downside that the inside of your spacecraft had to be attacked by interior designers until it resembled a restaurant, in order for the numbers to dance in the correct way

Now it seems that West London pizza delivery firms have figured out how to advance the technology still further, so that numbers can be made to dance in the comfort of your own living room, without any gut-wrenching makeovers.

Take, for example, this menu from Romeo's Pizza:

Med Large Super Cheese & Tomato Base ÃÂ£4.95 ÃÂ£7.70 ÃÂ£8.50 Extra Toppings ÃÂ£0.50 ÃÂ£0.70 ÃÂ£0.90 Free Choice ÃÂ£7.50 ÃÂ£10.45 ÃÂ£12.95

where Free Choice is Cheese & Tomato with 4 toppings of your choice. Whereas if you do the same ÃÂ la carte it would cost
ÃÂ£6.95 ÃÂ£10.50 ÃÂ£12.10

This makes no sense. Sometimes it's cheaper, mostly it's not. I think they must have cracked the secrets of bistromatics, and managed to decouple the numeric effects from the environment. Pretty soon I guess pizza will no longer be delivered by suicidal learner moped drivers, but suicidal learner flying saucer pilots. Duck!

most people making up prices have no clues

merlyn on 2004-01-09T22:22:47

I see a lot of examples of the "$2 each, or 2 for $5" sort of mentality in my travels. It just doesn't make sense some times.

Of course, you could get into the issues of round-off if you want to look at the pennies. My brother figured out once that buying two separate Big Gulps was one cent cheaper than ringing them up together, because of the way the sales tax rounded on the different transactions.

arrgh. presentation

nicholas on 2004-01-09T22:44:14

Strange gaps in the columns of numbers is not my fault - it seems that the use.perl formatting code does some wacky things when presented with long lines.