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The Year of McDonald's

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Re: The Year of McDonald's

#101

Post by jobbie »

santoshalper wrote: post #43
rdtsc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So not clear on your point. I just meant that an article, claiming to go for a deep dive on how McDonald's is part of the new American zeitgeist, mentions one presidential candidate, and the CEO murderer, but doesn't mention the other presidential candidate. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-... is just from a few months ago. > “It was not a small job,” Harris told Ruhle. “There are people…

Not really. Free Press is only pretending to be journalism. In an article defending JK Rowling, they describe people who are upset with her views on transgender rights as "maniacs, who are then flattered by cowards". It's a partisan rag.

This is the context of that quote, which doesn't state what you're claiming:

In recent years, she has become a figure of some controversy. Not for any real reason, but because we live in an era where things that are self-evidently true are denied by maniacs who are then flattered by cowards.

Also, this was in a piece from one of their columnists. Opinions are to be expected.

(https://www.thefp.com/p/things-worth-remembering-jk-rowling)

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#102

Post by hiatus »

wvenable wrote: post #97
hiatus wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are at the stage of capitalism where every single crumb is accounted for, every single blueberry on a muffin is tallied, and it's taking the joy out of life and of society. I ask in earnest: when was it any different?

It was much more difficult before computers and before computers were inside of everything.

So, when? It was bad 20 years ago as far as I can remember. When was the ideal time?

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#103

Post by wvenable »

hiatus wrote: post #102
wvenable wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was much more difficult before computers and before computers were inside of everything.

So, when? It was bad 20 years ago as far as I can remember. When was the ideal time?

I never said that there was an ideal time. But even 20 years ago, there was way less hyper-optimization than now. And 20 years before that there was less still.

The famous (although not confirmed) story of American Airlines removing one olive from passengers' salads to save $40,000 per year is from 1987. At that time something like that was revolutionary.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#104

Post by ethbr1 »

ghaff wrote: post #85
ethbr1 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting watching the cycle of startup -> optimization for customer value -> brand buyout -> optimization for profit. F.ex. Blimpie (MTY 2016), Jimmy Johns (Roark 2016), Firehouse Sub (RBI 2021), Subway (Roark 2023), Jersey Mike's (Blackstone 2024)

Subway's really the only one of those I have any personal experience with. But from my perspective it's pretty much long been awful.

I remember Subway being somewhat better in the mid-90s. Still not great, but better. E.g. tomatoes were actually ripe

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#105

Post by bhouston »

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.

> McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023

> the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term.

Are you making stuff up on purpose? I've rarely seen such a poorly argued and fact free reply on hacker news.

1. "McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023." Why start on October 7? The formal boycott calls only came in January (https://bdsmovement.net/Boycott-McDonalds) and why would a boycott start on October 7th anyways? McDonalds had nothing to do with the attack. Rather it was McDonald's that supported the Israeli invasion of Gaza after that attack. If you start from January 2024 there is no growth in MCD stock. Second, you need to compare to the market. It has dramatically underperformed the rest of the market which is in a boom. Thus it actually is like negative 20% compared to the market from that point onwards.

2. It was so bad that McDonalds acquired the Israeli franchises and it says in the articles it was because of sales misses: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/israel-boycott-mcdonalds-wil... It was a franchisee decision to support the IDF via McDonald's promotions, that likely won't happen any more.

3. "Sales growth slowed a bit... temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term"? How did you get that? Sales growth is negative this year and continues, McDonald's says so themselves. Their global comparable sales (which looks at same stores, ignoring price increases) have actually been decreasing this past year, especially in International markets: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/... https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/...

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#106

Post by etempleton »

For better or worse McDonald’s and other fast food and fast casual restaurants are some of the only places where you don’t get kicked out or at least hassled for sitting too long or not buying anything more than a cup of coffee. The food is also relatively cheap, though that has been changing.

You see a lot of elderly people use McDonalds and similar as their morning meeting place. They sit and drink coffee for 5 hours and chat. You can’t do that at most restaurants without annoying the wait staff.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#107

Post by sabbaticaldev »

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.

my friend, people just recently died for eating mcdonalds.

Re: The Year of McDonald's

#108

Post by canucker2016 »

RajT88 wrote: post #93

> As a walker, I use them for the same reason everyone else does—they are welcoming, social, inexpensive, and have Wi-Fi, good food, great coffee, and clean bathrooms. Great article, but McD's has mediocre coffee. I am no coffee classist; Starbucks also has bad coffee. Who has the best coffee? Dunkin Donuts.

One of my old managers told me the story of how McDonalds was doing tests to improve their coffee. They asked people to taste-test the McDs coffee, but the cup disguised the fact that the coffee was from McDs. The ratings were generally good.

When they did another taste-testing but the coffee came in McDs-branded cups instead, the ratings were bad.

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