Basic Burgers

The 39-c- no-frills solution

John Galardi, 44, is trying to steal a march on the major combatants in the great American burger battle among McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's. His strategy: undersell the competition. As president and owner of Der Wienerschnitzel International Corp., a California-based fast-food chain, Galardi is resurrecting the simple burger.

He has spent $100,000 and converted four of his chain's 324 U.S. outlets into white boxes with black stripes: they look like supermarket generic packaging with signboards reading 39-c- HAMBURGER STAND. McDonald's and Burger King's cheapest burger goes for 50-c-.

Galardi's basic burger is thin--he gets ten patties per pound of meat--and comes wrapped in plain paper. The price goes up to as much as 95-c- for a double cheeseburger. Says Customer Tim Hebert, 17, a high school student: "It's incredibly average, but it's cheap."

Galardi will try out his no-frills idea at 34 of his shops in eleven other Western states. Already his hamburger stands are stirring up competition. At one of its outlets near Galardi's, Burger King last week was promoting, on a hand-lettered sign, HAMBURGER--39-c-. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.