Some of us have never heard of A&W Restaurants, which somehow has close to 1000 locations in the US and Asia. We knew A&W makes root beer and cream soda, but not fast food. Well, live and learn.

In the 1980s, the chain was owned by A. Alfred Taubman, who made a fortune developing shopping malls (New Jersey's Short Hills Mall FTW!). For our younger readers, shopping malls were these giant buildings with stores and restaurants which were the epicenter of suburban life for the latter half of the 20th century. Never heard of them? Well, live and learn.

In any case, under Taubman's watch, A&W introduced a revolutionary concept: the third-pounder burger! At the time, McDonald's quarter-pounder ruled the roost, but A&W's offering not only beat it in a taste test, but was cheaper! How could it fail?

Oh, it failed. Unfortunately, the majority of consumers did not understand that a third is larger than a quarter. "Why should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat?", they said. So the third-pounder could not gain any traction, as McDonald's continues to dominate to this day.

Oh, the vaunted Americans education system! We really should live and learn!