McDonald's to close all UK restaurants • Hacker News Board

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#41

Post by klipt » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:21 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #33

jakear wrote: post #2

If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out f…

> In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), I don’t know if they support this in the UK, but for the US McDonald’s has an excellent mobile app. You can order and pay using the app. You can pick up by going through the…

> ask the person to place the food on the backseat, that should be pretty safe

Certainly sir achoo oh excuse me I sneezed in your car, so sorry, good you thing you have a partition between the front and back seats, oh wait you don't?

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#42

Post by DoreenMichele » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:21 AM UTC

o-__-o wrote: post #34

finaliteration wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re still buying fresh produce because there’s plenty of it and we don’t have a ton of space to store frozen/canned food. I’ve been washing produce with soap and water for 20 seconds and then rinsing it before eating it. We also roast most of our vegetables so the risk seems small, to me.

I am debating Ordering a pizza right now and I was thinking of putting it in the oven for 2-3minvwhen it got here then store it in a container I have at the house and discard the box as usual. I see no flaws in this plan.

From what I have been seeing, it appears to live longer on cardboard than other surfaces. In my experience as an immunocompromised person, the cardboard box is the biggest problem.

Dispose of the box carefully and wash your hands afterwards. The pizza is probably fine, though it's fine to cook it a bit longer for good measure too.

You can (potentially) order from a service with contactless delivery to reduce your risk. For example, Little Caesar's will let you leave instructions to leave it on the porch or whatever.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#43

Post by closeparen » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:22 AM UTC

stri8ed wrote: post #35

georgemcbay wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"which you then immediately stick in your mouth." Sticking the food into your mouth isn't much of a concern, there's no evidence that covid-19 can transmit "foodborne". The actual issue is an infected food prep worker contaminating the wrapper or the food itself, you touching the wrapper or the food, then touching your eyes or nose prior to washing your hands.

In theory, so long as one does not make contact with their nose or eyes, except in a shower (after washing hands), all infections can be prevented, besides airborne-based intake? Has it been established that infection cannot be caught by consumption of contaminated food?

There are definitely foodborne pathogens, this just isn’t one of them (probably).

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#44

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:26 AM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #18

It’s not Waffle House, so it’s not time to panic yet. https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/if...

Pretty sure some Waffle Houses are closed, so panic time may have finally arrived.

Apparently FEMA no longer uses the Waffle House Index, in any case.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#45

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:28 AM UTC

jakear wrote: post #2

If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out f…

> Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier

Fred Meyer, at least, allows you to buy a whole list of groceries and they will bag it all up and meet you outside in the parking lot. Not a bad way to limit exposure.

Not everyone has FM, obviously, but I'm sure there are equivalents across the country. I'd start by checking any Kroger or Kroger subsidiaries.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#46

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:30 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #31

makomk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, there's a lot of people in London who don't really have the space to keep large stockpiles of food in, or necessarily much in the way of decent cooking facilities.

You can store months of dry rice and canned food under your bed alone. You're talking about survival planning, not glamping. Most adult humans can survive upwards of 2 months without any food whatsoever if you've got adequate access to water.

Eating rice and beans is absolutely no way to live, that's for the zombie apocalypse, not a pandemic lockdown.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#47

Post by smallgovt » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:45 AM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #38

smallgovt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is currently passing its own stimulus plan that will ship at least $500B to the bottom half of earners. It seems like the ETA for passing the bill is mid-week.

> to the bottom half of earners. Last I heard it was really for middle-income earners, as there was a phase-in income floor at around $50k/yr and a phase-out at around $75k/yr. Has this changed?

The last article I read was this FT article published two days ago: https://www.ft.com/content/1f8e5a3a-6a58-11ea-800d-da70cff6e...

The article says the Republicans are proposing $1,200 per individual who earns below a certain income and $500 per child, while the Democrats are proposing $2000 per month to all individuals and $1000 per month to all children.

They're apparently stuck on how the corporate bailouts will work.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#48

Post by matthewheath » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 2:53 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #33

jakear wrote: post #2

If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out f…

> In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), I don’t know if they support this in the UK, but for the US McDonald’s has an excellent mobile app. You can order and pay using the app. You can pick up by going through the…

Yes, we have this too — well, the order pickup from the mobile app. I assume you have to park up to get the order, but I've never tried it myself.

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#49

Post by seniorcardigan » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 3:03 AM UTC

jakear wrote: post #2

If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out f…

I recall many a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Popeyes in less than great areas having a mechanical container the worker placed food in instead of opening the window. They were for safety, I havent seen them in almost 15 years but im sure some is still using them

Re: McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

#50

Post by toyg » Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 3:07 AM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #29

makomk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble is that realistically, it's not possible to get by with a single weekly shop in the UK right now. A lot of supermarket shelves are empty due to everyone buying more than they usually would, and even when they're not there are purchase quantity restrictions that make it hard to get a full week's shopping in.

And Europe as a whole tends to buy groceries every other day, so I'd suspect stores aren't prepared to provide for any degree of bulk buying. Maybe it'll catch on more after this debacle - grocery stores are generally running fine in the US besides toilet paper and the odd other thing being sold out sometimes.

It’s not the stores, imho. From my experience of UK supermarkets in the last week, they’ve basically caught up with most stuff they are directly responsible for or that is produced very close to their needs. Bread is now there, vegetables are there, milk is there. What is dramatically lacking is processed food. I expect that’s because those items have much lower elasticity in their production: if you know you’ll sell X cans of tuna per year, you’ll build a plant that makes X * 1.3 or thereabout; when demand suddenly spikes to 3X or more, there is no time to build another plant (and even if there were, you might not want to invest into something that is probably temporary). Same for meat: you cannot grow extra cows in a couple of weeks.

There is a lot of pressure on supermarkets at the moment which should probably be directed at the larger food industry.