Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 440 posts

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#211

Post by hackuser »

What's interesting is that the Guardian and HN feel the need to appraise us of what happens in low-income communities.

On one hand, it's realistic - most people reading the Guardian or HN don't know (despite the fact that both are nearly as accessible in low-income communities as wealthy ones, at least via phones).

On the other, what does it say that the readers have to learn about it in a newspaper or Internet forum. It might as well be a story about culture in a foreign country instead of within a short drive for most readers.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#212

Post by IkmoIkmo »

niftich wrote: post #145
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #119

What astonishes me, is how often poor people go eating in a restaurant (e.g. breakfast in the first paragraph) when making breakfast at home (or lunch) is so much cheaper (as a fun exercise we often calculate the prices of our home lunch). Although I have a nice income, 80% of the time I bring my own food to work because restaurants are too expensive in my opinion to regularly use them. As a side note: I have the sus…

To make food at home, you either need fresh, perishable ingredients and/or time to prep and cook. Even accessing fresh ingredients may be a hassle (see: food deserts), so eating off the dollar menu often feels like a better use of your money than making the trek to the grocery store to buy some perishables that you then have to cook before they go bad. It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often…

> It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often, as opposed to one high-quality pair once a year.

Haha man I can hardly count the number of $15 pairs of sneakers I bought at the market as a kid, with the glue visible on the sides. Eventually the soles would inevitably come off, partially cause of the crappy shoe and partially because I was always playing football (soccer) with them.

The notion of buying a decent pair of shoes and another specialised sport-shoe just never even came up as an option in my mind, to drop $250 total on two pairs of shoes.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#213

Post by MattSayar »

niftich wrote: post #145
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #119

What astonishes me, is how often poor people go eating in a restaurant (e.g. breakfast in the first paragraph) when making breakfast at home (or lunch) is so much cheaper (as a fun exercise we often calculate the prices of our home lunch). Although I have a nice income, 80% of the time I bring my own food to work because restaurants are too expensive in my opinion to regularly use them. As a side note: I have the sus…

To make food at home, you either need fresh, perishable ingredients and/or time to prep and cook. Even accessing fresh ingredients may be a hassle (see: food deserts), so eating off the dollar menu often feels like a better use of your money than making the trek to the grocery store to buy some perishables that you then have to cook before they go bad. It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often…

Add poor money-management habits on top of that (which eg going out for breakfast exacerbates), and it's a recipe to further entrench you in a poor lifestyle, unfortunately.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#214

Post by gambiting »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #212
niftich wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make food at home, you either need fresh, perishable ingredients and/or time to prep and cook. Even accessing fresh ingredients may be a hassle (see: food deserts), so eating off the dollar menu often feels like a better use of your money than making the trek to the grocery store to buy some perishables that you then have to cook before they go bad. It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often…

> It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often, as opposed to one high-quality pair once a year. Haha man I can hardly count the number of $15 pairs of sneakers I bought at the market as a kid, with the glue visible on the sides. Eventually the soles would inevitably come off, partially cause of the crappy shoe and partially because I was always playing football (soccer) with them. The notion of…

I genuinely don't know what point you are trying to make here.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#215

Post by ccallebs »

robhu wrote: post #48
ccallebs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. It was surprising to me that a few local Chic-Fil-A restaurants served food Sunday to those donating blood in Orlando. Maybe it was PR, maybe it wasn't sanctioned by corporate, but I didn't see it coming.

It is part of the Christian religion to love those who are your 'enemies'.

Indeed, and it's really nice to see someone practicing that.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#216

Post by avar »

treehau5 wrote: post #174
zem wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why do you not? it's a very strongly ingrained part of human nature, and a lot of civilisation depends on it. in particular, the whole notion of a social contract would likely collapse if no one cared what other people thought; neither empathy nor game-theory-style rationality are strong enough as universal motivating factors.

Anyone who has ever said out-loud, "I don't care what anyone thinks," by virtue of their public pronouncement, is hoping that someone cares that they don't care what anyone thinks. A: "I don't care what people think. People suck, and are so judgmental!" B: "I too don't care what people think!" A: "Let's be friends!"

I've said something to that effect to people I'm with because their actions in caring overly much what people think directly inconvenience me.

So suggesting that they don't care so much about something that doesn't matter hopefully makes them think about whether caring what people think is worth the effort.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#217

Post by greenspot »

dangoor wrote: post #200
greenspot wrote: post #102

McDonalds is the master in orchestrating food. I love McDonalds and I think their hamburger is the best hamburger, their french fries are the best and all the other menu options have this typical McDonalds design--everything, every single piece and ingredient is meticulously thought through and the final dish has a perfect taste. The taste you get for the carb in-take is unmatched. It's cool to hate McDonalds, I know…

> Actually, it's not McDonalds those people don't like--it's their desperation and urge to be something better than they really are, the fear that people confuse them as with being white trash instead of middle class. This is the main reason they buy overpriced organic food at 'upscale' locations Perhaps that strawman exists. I know that we don't eat at McDonald's because we believe that factory farming[1] is inhuman…

Accusing McDonalds of Intense Animal Farming could be a bit overhasty. In Germany they clearly state being different, here is a report from 2014, check page 5, 'Best Beef' (English):

https://www.mcdonalds.de/documents/75202/2771485/CR_Report_2...

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#218

Post by balls187 »

tetromino_ wrote: post #194
balls187 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them. Full stop. No need to continue with the rest of your judgements. Parenting is a very hard job, and it's only made worse by all the parents (and even worse--non-parents) that want to make judgements. Being a parent, I now have a profound respect and appreciation for my parents (especially my mother). Things weren't always great, but they did the best th…

> Being a parent, I now have a profound respect and appreciation for my parents (especially my mother). Things weren't always great, but they did the best they could. Dude, I was growing up in the dying days of the Soviet Union, with empty shelves and lines and ration cards, and growing vegetables on a little private plot to make it through the winter without vitamin deficiency. I know very well what it's like to try…

I think you missed my point.

OP: shared personal experience related to topic of the article.

You: shared off-topic comment that teaching kids to eat at McD's is not good.

Me: Directly--don't share your judgements on how the OP chooses to parent (also off-topic).

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#219

Post by [deleted] »

jernfrost wrote: post #157

Bizarre how the article seems to present this as a hopeful and positive thing about McDonalds. To me it is just another indicator of how broken American society is. A fast food place serving terrible and unhealthy food is becoming a gathering place for poor people who are probably the ones most in need of a healthier and better lifestyle. It is also a sad reminder of how society has gone so utterly wrong when the che…

[deleted]

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#220

Post by greenspot »

the_af wrote: post #195
greenspot wrote: post #102

McDonalds is the master in orchestrating food. I love McDonalds and I think their hamburger is the best hamburger, their french fries are the best and all the other menu options have this typical McDonalds design--everything, every single piece and ingredient is meticulously thought through and the final dish has a perfect taste. The taste you get for the carb in-take is unmatched. It's cool to hate McDonalds, I know…

> I love McDonalds and I think their hamburger is the best hamburger, their french fries are the best and all the other menu options have this typical McDonalds design--everything, every single piece and ingredient is meticulously thought through and the final dish has a perfect taste. The taste you get for the carb in-take is unmatched. Really? That's surprising. I've always assumed people went to McDonald's because…

> with hamburgers from smaller, non-franchise restaurants

Sorry to disagree here. I think yes, there are definitely many non-franchise burger places doing fantastic burgers but I haven't seen any clearly superior. Yes different in taste but superior? No.

And very often, they lack the perfection level of McDonalds. You often get 'over-engineered' burgers, too thick, to much salad, too sticky whole grain non-typical burger bread, same frozen beef but from an unknown source, too much organic salad, too slow, too expensive, too much of being different. Too much of this attitude of not being McDonalds.

Maybe it's just a matter of taste but I prefer the plain vanilla type burgers McDonalds offers, I don't want the super organic rucola vegan burger with soybeans from your friend's burger in.

And again nobody matches their thin and ultra crisp fries.

Post reply on HN