Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
24 January 2010
08:3338610#1
McDonalds has often teethered on the brink of going out of fashion, and just when you think all is lost, it bounces back in fine style. It has just been announced that the chain has had its best ever year...customer visits up from 83million to 1billion.
And wait for it...87million Big Macs sold. That's shifting some burgers that is!
So this great swing in good fortune for McDonalds is down to the recession at a guess. Generally people are more price-aware and staying away from the more fancier restaurants..ie..a bad year for Gordon Ramsey, a good year for McDonalds.
"Even if you only have £1 in your pocket there is something at McDonalds for you" says the blurb. And now with better coffee and better salads, the overall menu has improved too. This success has meant more and more jobs are being created, with up to 5,000 more jobs in the coming year.
All this talk of hamburgers is making me hungry..yes its time I had another Big Mac. Must join the rest of the masses, Dont wanna be left out!
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
24 January 2010
08:3638612#2
Paulb
Have to say I do lead a lifestyle that doesn't always give me time to eat as i should and i do love a big mac
Macdonalds have gone through many stages, do you remember when they went through a healthy time and withdrew salt from there chips?
Soon re introduced!!!!
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
24 January 2010
10:1038619#3
WOW, that's great news! For a minute there I thought that McDonalds were going to go out of business!
I very occasionally take my children in for the irony of a 'Happy Meal ©' comprising of a handful of limp, lukewarm fries, some tasteless chicken nuggets and a milkshake, so thick that I worry could cause some kind of haemorrhaging getting it up through the straw. The saving grace for the children (who usually leave most of it) is the toy, usually linked to the latest Disney film to ensure corporate back scratching and the indoctrination of young minds. On such occasions I abstain from eating, even if I'm hungry. I do have a coffee now and again, which I think is about the best thing they do.
The bottom line is that this is a Capitalist success story and really exposes the soullessness of the model. BarryW makes an eloquent case for his belief in the ideas of Friedman on another thread. Although a good debate, the WHOLE thread seems to negate one thing...the mention of people, humans beings. This is of course the factor that can used to expose the naivety of both politicians and economists alike. Although so much can be given a numerical value (especially that Capitalist obsession 'profit'), human interaction and experience cannot. Of course McDonalds, Tesco and Subway (and the government) feel they can quantify people views with mindless questionnaires, with set responses of 'Agree'; 'Disagree'; 'Agree Strongly' and 'Neither Agree or Disagree'. This linguistic nonsense, just a desparate attempt to humanise a process that ultimately just churns out a set of numbers, providing a set of pie charts to a think-tank of some kind.
The result of all this profit-driven nonsense is the passionless, automated, experience that is: 'shopping in Tesco' or 'eating in McDonalds'. Each interaction with a member of staff, a robotic monologue of responses, defined by a flow diagram dreamt up by a board meeting of ex public school directors.
DT:"Happy Meal© please"
MaccyD Robot: "Burger, Cheeseburger, Nuggets, Fish fingers?"
DT:"Burger"
MaccyD Robot: "Fruitbag?"
DT: "Yes please"
MaccyD Robot: "Drink?"
DT: "Strawberry Milkshake, reduced viscosity please!"
MaccyD Robot: "errr right, enjoy your meal"
DT:"But it's not for me! ...is that not part of the flow chart?"
If this is what corporate capitalism has done for food, in the same way Tesco has to shopping (and these are success stories!!!!ARRGGGHH) I can't wait for these inhuman approaches to affect every aspect of our lives. Let the markets freely define themselves and take over with no intervention. Ironic really, that this economically driven approach has actually reduced our choices rather than expand them and in doing so eroded human interaction!
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
24 January 2010
10:2438621#4
You cant buck the facts of life and economics DT, however much you want to...
The good news is that our wonderful capitalist system means that you have choice... You don't have to have a MickyD's you can have Kentucky instead, or maybe Ham Egg and Chips at Blakes... The latter would be my choice though I have had a Micky, KFC and a Pizza recently.... I love freedom of choice!
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
24 January 2010
11:2538625#5
I like the quarter ponder and flies, and their coffee. It`s a great pity about all that packaging that litter`s the streets, and those useless plastic toys they give, (or use to give) out. How do Macdonalds succeed where others have failed, or not reached their sales output?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
24 January 2010
12:0538627#6
If you really want to dice with death you could try biting into a fresh fruit pie..
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
24 January 2010
15:3738631#7
Not wanting to move away from the orignal thread, but must reply to the usual barryw waffle.
Laets be clear, walk down the town you don't need me to tell you.
Big supermarkets will kill off small shops.
mac D is ok if your in a hurry as i often am, but any more than that no.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
24 January 2010
18:1038637#8
I haven`t tried a BarryW waffle Keith, any good mate?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
24 January 2010
18:1338638#9
That's it Keith, when Tesco Metro has moved into the town centre and they have to resort to opening a Tesco metro inside another Tesco, where will the 'choice' be then?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
24 January 2010
19:1438646#10
we may be forgetting that macd is a rite of passage for the young.
every young child has to have a happy meal now ang again or their schoolfriends will think them strange.
did not paul b once post about briony in her teenage years scoffing the chicken nuggets there along with all the other teens?
whether it is healthy or not is irrelevant, no-one eats it every day.
any serious nutritionist will not decry the eating of "treats" now and again.
24 January 2010
19:3438659#11
Please, for your own sakes, don't try to picture the origins of a meal that costs £1. That way lies madness!!
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
24 January 2010
19:3638660#12
HOWARD
Whilst kids eating mac D's is correct, sadly for many kids it is there only meal
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
24 January 2010
19:5338666#13
When are they, and KFC for that matter, going to have proper CHIPS and not those deep-fried, desicated matchsticks?
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
24 January 2010
20:1038671#14
Just come back on, and saw the new yahoo headline about the new american McD advert which has infuriated some over here, as they`are referring the big mac to costing just a `BOB` here, (instead of a pound), when of course, the bob is an old shilling. Clearly, the empty headed marketing people in the States haven`t done their homework properly regarding our old currency.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
24 January 2010
20:4338687#15
I occasionally (as in three times a year) have a McD big breakfast - usually after a hangover and when I sober up I remember why I don't have them!
It's been known for me to have the occasional Mc cheeseburger or the filet of fish but that's pretty much it - no chicken nuggets shall ever pass my lips again - yuck!
I NEVER touch KFC because of their alleged cruelty regarding their chicken farms.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
24 January 2010
21:0838695#16
There's nothing more cruel to a chicken than killing it!
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
24 January 2010
21:1438699#17
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
25 January 2010
15:3238763#18
On the odd occassion I quite like a Big Breakfast with that very strange 'scrambled egg' at least their coffee has improved big time, it used to taste like dishwater
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
25 January 2010
18:5638773#19
not tasted the scrambled egg in there, have tried the sausage and egg macmuffin a few times.
fascinating experience, what type of chicken lays a rubber egg?
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
25 January 2010
19:1038776#20
Actually the breakfasts are the better option at mikkyDs though i do like the ice cream!
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!