Where this was said
Grievance #2: Menus Without Tax Are a Collective Action Trap
At 6:58 · chapter starts 6:56
Darian Woods, coming from New Zealand where a single nationwide sales tax makes price transparency easy, is baffled by American menus that leave you guessing the final total. [1] — Darian Woods "US restaurant menus don't show tax-inclusive prices — not out of malice, but because it's a collective action problem. Any single restauran…" 04:16 Cornell emeritus professor Sherry Kimes — who admits as an American she never even noticed the problem — lays out three reasons it persists. First, tradition: restaurants have never done it differently. Second, competitive dynamics: if one restaurant shows tax-inclusive prices and no competitor does, it will look more expensive and lose customers — a textbook collective action problem. Third, pure complexity: the US has state, city, and county taxes all layered on top of each other, creating a nightmare for anyone trying to print a menu. [2] — Darian Woods "I'm more sympathetic. You know, my grievance has been cured with better understanding." 06:25 By the end, Woods finds himself more sympathetic to the restaurants than when he started, his grievance partially dissolved by understanding the structural constraints they face.
Whalen Wong emailed Dunkin' asking why airports don't honor loyalty rewards. PR promised details 'ASAP.' Weeks of follow-up emails later: silence. It's a small grievance with a surprisingly telling corporate non-answer.
Dunkin' Donuts' director of public relations promised Whalen Wong details on airport loyalty program exclusions 'ASAP' but never followed up despite multiple emails.
McDonald's told Whalen Wong that loyalty program participation is at the discretion of owner-operators. It's a corporate way of saying: don't blame us if your local franchisee opted out. And at airports, that opt-out is nearly universal.
Airport fast food isn't just a regular franchise — it's a franchise within a franchise. Large concession companies run airport locations with their own POS systems, and those systems often can't talk to the chain's loyalty platform. The result: your points vanish at the gate.
McDonald's told Whalen Wong that participation in its rewards program is at the discretion of individual owner-operators (franchisees).
Airport concession companies often run their own point-of-sale systems that are incompatible with individual fast food chains' loyalty program technology.
