Mcdonalds seems dead set on becoming some weird roadside vending machine. Last time I went they are making dine in areas uncomfortable (concrete benches and stools), built a wall between employees and customers, no play place, self pay kiosk. Felt like I was being trained like a lab rat to serve myself and encouraged not to hang around. Feels like an extreme model of having zero employees and training your customers to be your employee.
Everything you describe appeals to me. The less I have to directly interact with their employees, the better.
Being able to take a few moments to ensure my order is complete and accurate, without delaying every other customer behind me, radically improves the customer experience.
Eliminating the two most error-prone steps (communicating between customer and staff, and entering the order into the register) greatly improves order accuracy.
Taco Bell is doing the same thing, but hasn’t inflated their prices nearly as much as McDonalds. Burger King and Wendy’s are lagging behind.
Wendy’s has kiosks where I’m at. Not everywhere apparently?
Taco Bell has definitely inflated their prices by a massive margin.
they all have.
Couldn’t disagree more, depending on the location.
Pretty much ever McDonald’s outside of major cities is a social hub for locals. People will go there everyday and spend hours inside talking with each other.
that used to be hardee’s here… covid took away the wall of mugs the old-timers used every morning.
The loss of decent “third places” in the US is so goddamned sad.
That is a return to their original business model that led to them becoming a global institution.
Their dining areas were famously uncomfortable, witht he focus on being easy to clean and maintain and discourage people from lingering. The color scheme of red and yellow is purposefully garish, and combine with the lighting to make you want to get your food and get out.
There used to be a set of slanted warming shelves connecting the kitchen in the back to the area behind the front counter. You’d walk in during peak times and see rows of sandwiches already assembled and wrapped. You’d order your food and the cashier would reach around and gather the food that had been prepared 15-30 minutes ago. If you wanted a burger without onions or mustard or whatever you’d have to stand awkwardly and wait. The drive-thru used to be quick, maybe a couple minutes total.
I haven’t been to one in a few years so I’m not sure how it’s changed recently, but starting in the 2000’s they changed their business model to try to compete with places like Subway, Panera, Starbucks, Chipotle, etc. They introduced more greys and browns into their colorways. They expanded the menus with a ton more choice: novelty limited-time sandwiches, “healthy” options like salads and fruits, specialty coffees. They moved to making things to-order instead of having things pre-made. Wait times and prices both increased.
Every other “fast food” place seems to have followed them. The closest replacement I’ve seen is the expansion of gas station/convenience store food. Places like GetGo and Sheetz near me usually don’t have drive-thru’s, but I can quickly walk in and grab a pre-made sandwich for a few bucks and walk out.
What you are describing almost sounds to me like a modern automat.
I do see a role for automats. Door dash, grub hub or people who ordered ahead… Certain frequently bought items…
All in temp controlled lockers.
I think the expectations of consumers for a dine in experience is just a lot higher these days than McDonalds is interested or equipped to compete with and they’re also in the process of pivoting towards a post-automation future.
This to me sounds like a company that is realigning their strategy to fit the market segment they think they have the best chance of capitalizing on, which is apparently faceless late stage capitalism burgers.
I’d honestly be more worried if my late stage capitalism burgers HAD faces.
Where?
This chain is like an infestation of poison mushrooms. Where is it not present yet that could merit opening another of choke-n-puke?
It plans to open 900 new stores in the U.S. and 1,900 in some of its bigger international markets like Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company said it plans another 7,000 stores in other international markets; more than half of those would be in China.
So, a takeover by high cholestherol.
Ahh, so ~40% are in China.
I get what you mean, but that is probably a bad analogy. Let me explain.
Just because a mushroom is poisonous doesn’t mean its mycelium living underground isn’t essential for all the plants and trees in the area. Depending on the species, mycelium can carry warning signals between different plants, boost the health of the plant, increase fruiting yields and even fend off other damaging fungi and bacteria. There is even a type that will make little hyphae lassos to trap and consume nematodes that can destroy some root systems.
McDonald’s does none of those things for humans, even in an off-handed analogy kind of way, unfortunately. It anything, a poisonous outcrop of mushrooms gives back more to its local ecosystem than a Big Mac ever has.
Fungi are so misunderstood… ;)
McD and poison mushrooms do the same to humans: poison them. End of analogy.
I have an idea on how important of a role fungi play in nature and it’s one of those life forms I really enjoy finding in wild.
Here in Korea there are some but not very many. I guess you could squish quite many in here. The question is only who will go there to buy something? I haven’t been to McDonalds for years. It’s good at night when nothing else is open but if I can choose then I’ll probable choose something else.
Especially in Korea. I’ve read about that cuisine and I risk it has some really good food.
Sugar, Salt, Fat, the perfect ingredients,
to cultivate obese addicts with failing kidneys.But you’re “loving it” right?
Same as I, why would that be?.. :)Pretty much every restaurant loads their food up with sugar or salt because that’s what makes it taste good.
We’ve become addicted to salt so much that we don’t even realize we’re getting too much of it. You won’t make it as a chef if you don’t make your food unhealthy. Putting in a healthy amount of salt will always result in your food tasting ‘bland.’
They sell salty hamburgers spurlock. Real murder shit right there 🙄.
Self control and responsibility is dead. I guess we have to look towards our ceos to ensure only lettuce wrapped ground turkey is available! Daddy tell me what to eat!
Your list is the cornerstone of making good food. Nothing left but acids for taste answer that
Quantity over quality
/doubt
Yeah maybe they’re opening 10,000 new stores, but when a Quarter pounder meal costs $17+tax (CAD) who’s going to eat there anymore??
Oh, you want a single order of large fries? Sure, that’ll be $5.79+tax. Nearly $7 for literally one potato worth of fries. Get fucked.
Canada just seems fucked then. I can’t pull it up, it’s morning, but I can buy a double QPC meal for about $9.
Terminally online people say this, but their annual profit has increased year over year except for 2020 when everything was shut down.
They had a 9.6% increase yoy from 2022. Which was itself a 5% increase from 2021.
And even with Covid they rebounded to exactly where they were as soon as the shutdowns hit.
They went down 12.7% from 2019 to 2020, but went back up 29% for 2020-2021 and has increased ever since.
So the question of who is gonna eat there is answered. It’s everyone except you apparently. Everyone else keeps buying and pushing their revenue and profit higher year over year.
They have had 2 bad years in the last 15. They probably know a wee bit more than the average Lemming.
Just for the record, I appreciate what you are saying is true but this would also relate to them cost cutting which they have done a lot of over the last few years to near fully automated. So less people may be going but their costs are lower and margins higher so growth continues.
Is that NCOS? 🤨
I personally think it’s that people lack the time, motivation, and/or knowledge to cook themselves. I can make a cheeseburger and fries at home for about $3-5 in about thirty minutes, including cleanup. Compared to a $15 meal, it’s roughly the equivalent of saving $20/h.
Another issue could be home size is way down. If you live alone, you can’t buy one hamburger bun, you have to buy 8. You can’t buy a quarter pound of ground beef, minimum package size is usually 1 lb. If you buy the material to cook one meal, you’re committing to cook three to seven more within the next 10 days. So you’ve signed up for leftovers or up to four hours of cooking.
Nah, I cook 300 nights a year for my family. Do the shopping too. I’m very well off and have many options. I’m not Kenji, but I make it a point to bring my wife and I to two or three Michelin star meals a year.
I choose McDonald’s as a treat because it’s easy, good tasting, and it’s a nice quick tasty meal that’s at the same quality as any cheap quick sit down place. Getting a happy meal (nuggets, apples, milk) is an added bonus that gets the kid to eat without drama.
Your assumptions are mostly off base.
no one cares
You cared enough to comment.
They care enough to follow me around and just troll on whatever I comment 🤷♂️
Hooray! What the world really needs right now is more cattle farming for burgers and more people driving to go and get their burgers.
more people driving to go and get their burgers
They do deliver these days.
And they all walk.
It plans to open 900 new stores in the U.S. and 1,900 in some of its bigger international markets like Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company said it plans another 7,000 stores in other international markets; more than half of those would be in China.
Somewhat ironically, this actually seems like a result of increased living conditions in developing countries.
I also wonder how much of the first world growth is because previously spots without enough foot traffic are now viable with the rise of mcdelivery…
McDonald’s used to be a decent fast food choice in France. But nowadays it’s gotten super expensive and the portions are tiny, like the big Mac almost fits the palm of my hand. I’d rather go to any other fast food chain or small kebab joint when I need to scratch that itch before I’d go to McDonald’s again.
I wonder what they did with the Royal’ with Cheese… Technically they could shrink that too since it doesn’t have 1/4 pounder in the name.
even the ‘quarter-pounder’ has shrunk over the years. there’s more fat ground-in now than there used to be, but same ‘pre cooked’ weight.
Yeah I hadn’t had their food in a while and we ended up going to one in Lisbon earlier this year. I was really surprised at how small the servings had gotten for what they’re charging. I don’t really understand why anybody would go there at this point. There’s a lot of decent food out there for less money.
Not to forget that they are extremely shitty when it comes to vegetarian options especially compared to Burger King
That’s how it’s been in the US for a long time. It’s just simply not worth the money for what you get.
I got down voted last time I mentioned this, but the app usually has pretty good deals if you just need a quick bite. Two spicy chickens for $3 is my go-to.
Oh yeah a once in awhile thing is great, especially if it’s a deal.
No clue how people are so fond of McDonalds, there are literally so many other fast food choices that are superior in every way
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I don’t understand what you mean, sorry
But wait, I thought “pEoPlE dOn’T wAnT tO woRk!”
Factory meat from a factory restaurant from a factory country
Nuggets come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown!
Millions of nuggets, nuggets for me
I always love the McDonald’s hate. It’s amazing how much seething it brings along with it.
I sneak out probably once a month for McDonald’s, it’s my junk food treat and I’ll never give up my occasions.
no one asked. no one cares.
Still following and harassing me huh?
Who are you?
McDonalds is primarily a Real Estate company. Their food service is secondary.
Hey, I saw that youtube video too!
Unfortunately it’s dead-wrong.
Oh man, I’m ready for a truth bomb. Let’s have it!! What’s really going on???
Sensationalism.
I dont know the video. Can you please elaborate?
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
30 minutes of bullshit, and hopefully you can see how this guy who’s paid to make videos has a vested interest in making them seem… interesting.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
They’re a logistics company.
My local McDonald’s burnt down when the ice machine caught fire
10,000 new McFlurry machines that are out of order
Buying stock in ice cream machine repair see y’all on the moon
