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The Year of McDonald's

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Re: The Year of McDonald's

#51

Post by namibj »

observationist wrote: post #25
kube-system wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonalds is financially quite healthy. They've never been the cheapest nor the best quality. McDonalds excels in having food at the right place at the right time and a minimal effort to transact. If you are traveling at any random place in the US, and you are in a hurry and want something you are familiar with, McDonalds is the most likely thing you will come across first. There is a huge cognitive anchoring this ha…

Don't forget consistency - you can get chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce and french fries that taste recognizably the same at any of their 42,000 restaurants. The food preparation and storage, shipping logistics, and other underpinnings of their consistency trick are admirable, even if the other issues with fast food detract from the overall picture.

But a strawberry shake in the US tastes horrible to those used to the DE version.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#52

Post by paulpauper »

tetris11 wrote: post #2

One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs. On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason and are sitting next to each other without any tension or…

McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for Starbucks.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#53

Post by margalabargala »

kube-system wrote: post #15
munk-a wrote: post #5

What a bizarre statement about a place of business that's tried to irrelevance themselves into non-existence this year. Fast food pricing is now equal or beyond the prices of quality food with non-chain fast food (i.e. doner/local pizza joints) becoming the new affordable option.

McDonalds is financially quite healthy. They've never been the cheapest nor the best quality. McDonalds excels in having food at the right place at the right time and a minimal effort to transact. If you are traveling at any random place in the US, and you are in a hurry and want something you are familiar with, McDonalds is the most likely thing you will come across first. There is a huge cognitive anchoring this ha…

They're rapidly burning part of their core value proposition for finances. They are increasing transaction friction, via much higher store prices and requirement to use their app, forcing use of touchscreen ordering, etc.

Boeing appeared quite financially healthy in summer 2018 as well.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#54

Post by paulpauper »

erulabs wrote: post #47

> These communities are the flowers growing between the cracks of the cement parking lot: a reminder that life survives, and often thrives, in the harshest environments, such as the modern world Lovely writing here. I am fascinated by the idea that the porousness of any system is its lifeline or even possibly its great enabler. There's a legend that during the Chinese revolution, extremely rural and difficult to trav…

Life endures? Sounds a little overwrought for something like McDonald's. It's a community in so far as people gather there, but otherwise people interact little with each other except when ordering food.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#55

Post by lazyasciiart »

gowld wrote: post #50
bhouston wrote: post #16

McDonald’s has also seen a major boycott because of its Israeli branch’s support for the Israeli actions in Gaza: https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel... Apparently it was so bad that global McDonalds bought back all the Israeli franchises.

McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023 Sales growth slowed a bit, but the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term.

It sounds like you are attempting to disagree with the parent comment, but you don't present anything that contradicts them. The boycott effort slowed sales, which triggered the parent company to buy back the Israeli franchises, and then the boycott died away.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#56

Post by lazyasciiart »

margalabargala wrote: post #53
kube-system wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonalds is financially quite healthy. They've never been the cheapest nor the best quality. McDonalds excels in having food at the right place at the right time and a minimal effort to transact. If you are traveling at any random place in the US, and you are in a hurry and want something you are familiar with, McDonalds is the most likely thing you will come across first. There is a huge cognitive anchoring this ha…

They're rapidly burning part of their core value proposition for finances. They are increasing transaction friction, via much higher store prices and requirement to use their app, forcing use of touchscreen ordering, etc. Boeing appeared quite financially healthy in summer 2018 as well.

I'm not sure that having a franchise fall out of the sky would be so harmful to McDonalds though.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#57

Post by ProfessorLayton »

kube-system wrote: post #15
munk-a wrote: post #5

What a bizarre statement about a place of business that's tried to irrelevance themselves into non-existence this year. Fast food pricing is now equal or beyond the prices of quality food with non-chain fast food (i.e. doner/local pizza joints) becoming the new affordable option.

McDonalds is financially quite healthy. They've never been the cheapest nor the best quality. McDonalds excels in having food at the right place at the right time and a minimal effort to transact. If you are traveling at any random place in the US, and you are in a hurry and want something you are familiar with, McDonalds is the most likely thing you will come across first. There is a huge cognitive anchoring this ha…

Perhaps, but a lot of these arguments have been used for Starbucks, where it seems like their relentless streamlining and price increases have been catching up with them.

McD's has been on a similar path, and have reintroduced $5 meal deals in an attempt to bring customers that have been priced out back.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#58

Post by galago »

paulpauper wrote: post #52
tetris11 wrote: post #2

One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs. On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason and are sitting next to each other without any tension or…

McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for Starbucks.

I walked by the Starbucks in my neighborood recently and there were about 30 customers inside sitting at long tables. Every single person was staring at an electronic device. Maybe that's how a public square works nowdays.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#59

Post by roughly »

paulpauper wrote: post #52
tetris11 wrote: post #2

One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs. On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason and are sitting next to each other without any tension or…

McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for Starbucks.

The author suggests the opposite, at least for McDonald's - the employees do care and are attentive to the needs of the people in the restaurant, and that's part of why the community springs up there. I'd expect McDonald's corporate policy is to hustle people along, and it's inattentiveness to that policy that enables the public square, not inattentiveness to the people in the square.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#60

Post by epcoa »

gowld wrote: post #29
anonu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump was an actual campaign stop photo op... Harris didn't do a McD photo op. So not clear on your point. Also Trump rode in a garbage truck around the same time. Was he one upping Harris? Or just trying to appeal to the working class? Probably the latter...

The garbage-truck photo op was Trump's a followup to his campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage", and in particular to Biden calling that behavior "garbage".

Your chronology does not fit.
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