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0toShifty posted:There was a real McCafe in King of Prussia, PA. Being served a quarter-pounder at a table is odd. Eating fries and a burger off a real plate with real silverware was quite disturbing. I also seem to remember they had an absurd array of desserts like pies and cakes, and many ice cream flavors. I've seen those touchscreen macdonalds in Paris and in Marseille.
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Oct 18, 2015 12:17
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In Aus we have optional touchscreens that link into the choice to make your own burger, which is then served all faux-fancy-like with chips in a basket by a worker, or you can just order regular poo poo from there, or you can go to the counter. This is, as far as I've seen, fairly universal between all non-foodcourt Maccas, franchised or no. All these variations and extremes one way or the other are weirding me out. 
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Oct 18, 2015 12:23
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AlphaKretin posted:In Aus we have optional touchscreens that link into the choice to make your own burger, which is then served all faux-fancy-like with chips in a basket by a worker, or you can just order regular poo poo from there, or you can go to the counter. This is, as far as I've seen, fairly universal between all non-foodcourt Maccas, franchised or no. All these variations and extremes one way or the other are weirding me out. Have you seen the Super Size Me documentary? Pretty much every American McDonald's looks like that.
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Oct 18, 2015 12:33
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ToxicSlurpee posted:McDonald's has become more or less synonymous with a bunch of things that are currently considered Very Bad Things. They're going to have to completely remake themselves if they want to keep existing. Everyone knows that cigarettes kill you, and we've known that for decades now, but people still smoke like motherfuckers. McDonalds will be around for as long as there are potatoes, cheap meat, and Coca Cola to sell. They may not continue be the cultural and financial juggernaut that they were back in the day, but millennials (and all of their various and sundry food-oriented ethical dilemmas) aren't going to be the thing that drives them to extinction. Also, even pseudo-informed tryhard foodie douches go on road trips from time to time, and there are a ton of places in the states where your only real food options are McDonalds and Taco Bell. They have that market cornered like a motherfucker. Radio Help has a new favorite as of 13:34 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 13:32
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Radio Help posted:Everyone knows that cigarettes kill you, and we've known that for decades now, but people still smoke like motherfuckers. The amount of people smoking is going down fairly rapidly. 
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Oct 18, 2015 13:40
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FutonForensic posted:If you want blatant viral bait, why not try the Squatty Potty ad?
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Oct 18, 2015 13:55
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Andrast posted:The amount of people smoking is going down fairly rapidly. Fair enough, but I think it's a safe bet that the people that are smoking (or eating a Big Mac four times a week or whatever) aren't really going to stop doing so with enough numbers to truly devastate either of those two industries in the short term.
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Oct 18, 2015 14:16
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The chart shows it's been about 20% for a long time and staying there. Smoking rate in Australia is about 15% and a pack costs $25 here!
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Oct 18, 2015 15:01
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McDonalds has some of the worst brand associations possible, and it's had them for quite some time now. Reading further into it, they were forced to cut back in the 90's after a period of over expansion, but that doesn't look like what this is. A lot of people have come to associate McDonald's with garbage-tier food, and for the most part are absolutely correct. They've been trying anything and everything to see what sticks and it looks like people just don't want McDonald's food nearly as much as they once did. In order to keep profits up, Corporate has been putting massive pressure on franchisees, and it's required higher prices, longer wait times, and an expansion of the menu (which requires more time, training, equipment, and supplies) that not everyone was necessarily on board with. The new menu items rarely worked out anyway. However, like a lot of people point out - McDonald's might be the best or only choice in a small town, late at night, etc. So they most likely won't go under as long as they're able to close stores effectively.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:15
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Fo3 posted:The chart shows it's been about 20% for a long time and staying there.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:42
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McDonalds has been struggling too long against the current of the bad reputation stuff - junk food and so forth. What they need to do is simplify and play a classic vibe to appeal to people's nostalgia for times before The Global Warmings and The Obesity Epidemics. Strip the menu as much as possible to proven long-term sellers, put a hint of 1960s style to all of their advertising, push "dependable," "traditional," and "efficient" as their brand, and shore it up by sponsoring lots of kids soccer teams and poo poo. They're never going to be healthy, they're never going to be upscale, and they're never going to be fashionable. They need to play to their strengths rather than to their weaknesses. People will buy products that buck the dominant trends: McDonalds can be the simple and dependable friend in an ever-changing and scary world. CommonShore has a new favorite as of 15:53 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 15:50
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Full Battle Rattle posted:McDonalds has some of the worst brand associations possible, You certainly can't afford even a lovely, generic McMansion on a salary from your mindless McJob. This is why you should give yourself a 6th degree black belt in tae kwon do and start a McDojo.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:55
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I eat McDonald's incredibly infrequently, even though I do go to a nice burger place maybe once a month. This other place is probably equally unhealthy (or gently caress, worse, I don't care), but the meal is substantially better. I'll usually end up paying around £10 for a double bacon, cheese, and pulled pork burger, with fries, and I'm absolutely full up. A McDonald's meal will run me around £5, but I won't be full, and it won't taste anywhere near as good. McDonald's (KFC/Burger King) food always over-promises and under-delivers. I can't remember a single time I've eaten a meal like that, finished, and thought "wow, that was awesome". Given the choice, I'd choose an independent place over one of the big chains any day, because for a bit more money I can have something really enjoyable, rather than something mundane. I guess what I'm trying to say is there are so many reasons why McDonald's and it's ilk are hosed in the long run, the only way I can see them lasting is if they've become too big to fail, like Coke or whatever.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:09
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I'm trying to stop making GBS threads up the thread with "its different here!  " but now I am genuinely curious what McD's corporate structure is like. Are the differences because each country's head office is allowed to do its own thing or do different governments just hold them to different minimum standards?
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Oct 18, 2015 16:15
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Smart corporate would control everything but make slight regional modifications by listening to local managers and anthropologists. Beyond that it's probably isolated test markets - you know that Mitch Hedberg joke about mcd selling spaghetti? That was actually a real thing in Orlando. No blankets' though. For all the obvious parody that it contaims, Snow Crash got one thing really on the nose - for a ton of people, places like mcd and taco bell really are the one consistent thing they can cling to as home. Keeping the brand and food familiar no matter where on the planet the location is is critical to their survival
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Oct 18, 2015 16:37
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Yeah, that is true. I haven't been to mcdonalds in almost 10 years. Back then I worked on the road, if I was hungover and skipped breakfast before leaving home, I used to get lunch there about once a week because it was quick and I knew what I was getting. These days if I was on a road trip in a strange town and needed a stop I would maybe go there too But it's been a while, and there's none around where I live right now, from what I have read even here it might be completely different from what they used to be.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:03
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AlphaKretin posted:I'm trying to stop making GBS threads up the thread with "its different here! McDonald's Canada has taken most of its cues in brand management and menu offerings from Australia for the last decade or so, so things are probably similar here to what you're used to. McCafe's success in Australia convinced Canada to give it a shot again, as they had sort of half-assed an attempt at it in the early 2000s. As far as corporate structure, there is a pretty large amount of autonomy in what franchisees are allowed to adopt or not adopt. Certain menu items are restricted to "full-size" stores (traditionals), whereas stores in Walmart and smaller stores without drive-thrus and in unique locations (SPOD, or specialized point of delivery restaurants) have a far more simplified menu to maximize profit and reduce waste and storage costs for. There's a lot of negotiation back and forth between franchisees and corporate on adoption of new procedures, and rarely are franchisees forced to purchase special equipment or bring in a new menu item or promotion if they can demonstrate that it would be detrimental to operations in their case. Major, nationwide promotions like Monopoly would be the exception. I doubt very much that the all-day breakfast fiasco would shake out the same way in Canada, because many stores simply wouldn't be able to do it efficiently or at all. Way back in 2010 they launched an initiative called Destination 2012, which was designed to bring every restaurant in Canada on-board with McCafe, self-serve beverage stations, redesigned interiors and exteriors, and entirely new service and kitchen systems by the end of 2012. It was a massively expensive operation and many franchisees simply couldn't afford it. In some cases the company offered to pay the cost of these renovations in exchange for assurances that the restaurant would stay open 24 hours a day for a certain period of time (a guaranteed money-loser in many markets), so that was an option for some. However, many restaurants still haven't even approached these changes yet and the backlash has been quite minimal. Tl;dr: the franchisee-corporate relationship in McDonald's Canada is far more cooperative and democratic than it sounds like McDonald's USA is. All on Black has a new favorite as of 17:21 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 17:18
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It seems to me like 90% of McDonalds are Mc Cafes now, at least around here. I thought the change was just cosmetic.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:26
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CommonShore posted:McDonalds has been struggling too long against the current of the bad reputation stuff - junk food and so forth. What they need to do is simplify and play a classic vibe to appeal to people's nostalgia for times before The Global Warmings and The Obesity Epidemics. Strip the menu as much as possible to proven long-term sellers, put a hint of 1960s style to all of their advertising, push "dependable," "traditional," and "efficient" as their brand, and shore it up by sponsoring lots of kids soccer teams and poo poo. It seems like every business is trying to tap in to the millenial market, though, and they're operating under the assumption that we're all idle hipsters that only want expensive coffee, organic food, and artisinal food that takes hours to make. Which is dumb as gently caress; sometimes I just want to chow down on cheap, greasy french fries. I know they're bad for me but every now and again I do, in fact, want to munch on deep fried garbage. I also have a cigar every now and again even though I know tobacco is terrible as well. The issue with McDonald's isn't the menu, it isn't the locations, and it isn't the junk food. It's entirely reputation. The fact that McJob exists as a word is why they're having problems. They've become synonymous with corporate greed, exploitation, lovely jobs with low wages and no advancement, and bottom of the barrel garbage wrapped up in a pretty package. It's really an indicator of corporate America's failings; they're asking how they can keep their profits raising every year while failing to realize that "profit uber alles" is the specific reason people hate them. They're a massive juggernaut that people are suddenly refusing to feed. I've been eating less and less McDonald's for that reason myself, really. I can't help but think about income inequality every time I go there. They're coming under fire for the same reasons that companies like Walmart are but responding about the same way.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:57
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So many of you must not have kids. My eldest daughter finally aged out of McDonalds, but my youngest still likes those loving chicken McNuggets. McDonald's isn't going anywhere, but they've probably hit market saturation for cheap burgers and nuggets. Their stock has reflected future expansion for so long that anything other than double digit growth looks terrible. They need to find a new growth option that doesn't include the Golden Arches. Which makes their selling of Boston Market a decade ago look so odd. I know it wasn't doing that great, but it was a foothold in the dining category that's currently giving them so much trouble.
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Oct 18, 2015 21:38
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Krispy Kareem posted:So many of you must not have kids. My eldest daughter finally aged out of McDonalds, but my youngest still likes those loving chicken McNuggets. Obviously, McDonalds need to start colonizing other planets so they can build new restaurants on them.
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Oct 18, 2015 21:52
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In 10 years, McDonald's letting Chipotle go for a few million dollars is going to be seen as a massively damaging corporate blunder on par with Blockbuster passing on Netflix. Both of them had the chance to be on the ground floor of the future and they both blew it and will limp along for a decade or so before they end up existing in a greatly diminished capacity.
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Oct 18, 2015 22:24
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Similar to Woolworths in Australia sold off Dick Smith Electronics in order to open their Masters hardware stores. The Masters stores are not doing well. The Masters stores are in direct compentition with Bunnings, which is pretty much the hardware store here these days. Everyone uses Bunnings, because every store is easy to understand and you can get to what you want easily. Masters stores, on the other hand, have all the "homemaking" poo poo front and center, with everything you need to do the job hidden away at the back. Masters was marketed more towards women and people who want "incidental" hardware needs, despite them all being big proper hardware stores. The result is tradies and guys looking to fix up their deck or whatever walk in, can't find what they want then go to Bunnings. Women tend to send hubby/boyfriend/dad/brother to the hardware store, so the market it's aimed at don't really actually go to the hardware store. Maenwhile, Dick Smith Electronics is apparently doing very well.
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Oct 18, 2015 22:53
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Speaking of McDonald's and their reputation, there's this weird commercial about how they "believe in Canadian youth": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2QyZ54Helw
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Oct 18, 2015 23:07
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People put too much stock into the "Blockbuster had Netflix and passed it up" sort of thinking. Just because you could have had the best or most promising technology doesn't mean you could have pulled off the same strategy that eventually made it great/won the marketing war. If it did we'd all be posting on IBM computers.
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Oct 18, 2015 23:23
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Jaramin posted:People put too much stock into the "Blockbuster had Netflix and passed it up" sort of thinking. Just because you could have had the best or most promising technology doesn't mean you could have pulled off the same strategy that eventually made it great/won the marketing war. If it did we'd all be posting on IBM computers. Some of those old ones are just a case of 'sure seems obvious in hindsight.' Hard to see the present from the past. Games Workshop passing on Blizzard licencing their Warhammer IP, because they were legit worried it would cut into their figurine sales? That one is less forgivable. The Warcraft and Starcraft franchises could have been the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k franchises, but Games Workshop didn't want to risk getting a cut of that sweet, sweet licencing money.
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Oct 18, 2015 23:39
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:In 10 years, McDonald's letting Chipotle go for a few million dollars is going to be seen as a massively damaging corporate blunder on par with Blockbuster passing on Netflix. The reason that broke down (from what I understand) is that they wanted to make it 'McChipotle's', use lower quality ingredients and expand faster than they were prepared. The reason McDonald's and Chipotle didn't work out is the same reason they're having trouble now: ToxicSlurpee posted:It's really an indicator of corporate America's failings; they're asking how they can keep their profits raising every year while failing to realize that "profit uber alles" is the specific reason people hate them.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:19
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IHOP doesn't quite understand social media.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:25
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Zamboni_Rodeo posted:IHOP doesn't quite understand social media. are we supposed to want to gently caress the pancake
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Oct 19, 2015 00:29
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Yeti Yeti Yeti posted:Speaking of McDonald's and their reputation, there's this weird commercial about how they "believe in Canadian youth": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2QyZ54Helw I also believe in Canadian youth. I mean, it's not just a conspiracy of sociologists.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:38
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Somfin posted:are we supposed to want to gently caress the pancake They are stacked to the max and dripping with sticky.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:41
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They also had one talking about it havinga butterface.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:42
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Zamboni_Rodeo posted:IHOP doesn't quite understand social media. Are people bitching about Dennys Tweets? Because Denny, and this, are perfectly fine.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:44
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Somfin posted:are we supposed to want to gently caress the pancake 
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Oct 19, 2015 00:44
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Krispy Kareem posted:So many of you must not have kids. My eldest daughter finally aged out of McDonalds, but my youngest still likes those loving chicken McNuggets. And that right there is just another example of "the problems with corporate America." Corporate America demands unreasonable, continual, perpetual, exponential growth forever. Not only must you grow every year but you must grow faster than the last year. The only direction is "up." Anything else is wrong. McDonald's is already everywhere. I live in a rural college town and even this tiny place has two of them. The other snag is that the price just keeps going up; they're trying to market themselves as both cheap and quality food and get the millenial dollar while refusing to pay that same generation anything. The woes of McDonald's are really the woes of corporate policy in America overall. They're trying to squeeze blood from stones and are trying to get money out of people that are already not doing well.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:53
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ToxicSlurpee posted:And that right there is just another example of "the problems with corporate America." Corporate America demands unreasonable, continual, perpetual, exponential growth forever. Not only must you grow every year but you must grow faster than the last year. The only direction is "up." Anything else is wrong. McDonald's is already everywhere. I live in a rural college town and even this tiny place has two of them. The other snag is that the price just keeps going up; they're trying to market themselves as both cheap and quality food and get the millenial dollar while refusing to pay that same generation anything. Just so you garner the perspective of the other side. Imagine you had $10,000 invested in Mcd's and every year, for the past 30 years, that amount doubled. What do you think your opinion would be, besides "gently caress the poor", upon seeing their growth slowing down?
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Oct 19, 2015 01:00
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I bet the #1 reason they go to McDonald's is because of this one thing, if they are like me: They have a drive through. I can't remember the last time I've been inside a McDonald's. They are on the way to somewhere, I know the menu, and they may be convenient. If they didn't have a drive through they'd be done. But....I will say their prices keep going up I get a meal and I'll spend $7. I can go to Taco Johns or even Panerai or some such and spend the same or less. Why does McD think they can get by raising prices so high for garbage tier food?
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Oct 19, 2015 01:13
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I like McDonalds black coffee. It's very decent.
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Oct 19, 2015 01:25
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VendaGoat posted:Just so you garner the perspective of the other side. Personally, I'd be pretty unhappy if I came to find out that the only reason my stocks were doing well was because of paying starvation wages. But then again I own no stocks and actually have morals.
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Oct 19, 2015 01:59
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VendaGoat posted:Just so you garner the perspective of the other side. Seriously, double growth every year for 10 years is an insane investment no reasonable person could expect to replicate
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Oct 19, 2015 02:19
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