[Food] Not so Happy Meal

[Sheebo]

probably same reason we had the furlough scheme open to all business, because multibillion pound organisations employ an awful lot of staff. they are the main beneficaries of this. or we could put back on to furlough. or we could do nothing and shut down those businesses.

Furlough, fine for companies that need it - I get that. Half price junk food I don’t. At all.

 

[bluenitsuj]

The litter bugs would probably just rip off the bits with their card/ reg details before lobbing it out of the window.

If only they were clever enough

 

[Live by the sea]

If anyone that eats in McDonald’s even occasionally saw the documentary about how the ‘ food ‘ is made a few years back , they would never eat there again . Horrendous.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Confession time: last time I was in McDonalds, many years ago, I did a runner. Paid for the food then ran off without eating it

Wow, i remember my great granddad telling me that one!

 

[grubbyhands]

Won’t stop the lemmings flocking there...and then throwing the empty cartons out of car and van windows onto the most beautiful stretches of countryside. McDeath should be either taxed extra for the clean up or made to send patrols out into the countryside to pick up all reported litter drops.

Don't ever kid yourself that there is any beautiful countryside around Aldershot.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Stuff like this happens all the time in processed food.

I once found a string of cardboard in a Bernard Matthews Turkey Drummer.

Didn't really bother me though. When you buy anything other than fresh food, you have to accept you have no idea what's in it or where it's been.

Sad to say it, but you aren't too far wrong. particularly when it's produced en masse.

 

[Questions]

They produce 20 foot tall chickens who wonder why they are so tall.. It’s hellish

 

[portlock seagull]

McDonald’s have better food safety and quality standards than just about every high street operator. Too easy, outdated and inaccurate to label otherwise, when these relatively rare instances occur. Pure food snobbery with a side order of ignorance to go, mostly.

 

[Live by the sea]

They might have better food safety but that doesn’t change the fact that McDonald’s food is processed muck .

Nothing to do with food snobbery just a basic understanding of what decent nutrition looks like .

 

[beorhthelm]

They might have better food safety but that doesn’t change the fact that McDonald’s food is processed muck .

Nothing to do with food snobbery just a basic understanding of what decent nutrition looks like .

is it a fact? sounds like opinion. beef from cows, chicken from chickens, chips from potatoe, gerkin, onion, etc grown. its basic for sure, no different to what you'd get in the supermarket. they tart it up to charge more, nutrition is not going to disappear.

 

[studio150]

Given the Government are looking to get the country fitter and banning junk food adverts before the watershed, you would have thought that they would have excluded junk food from the eat out offer.
But joined up thinking isn't a strong point for some.

 

[Poojah]

They might have better food safety but that doesn’t change the fact that McDonald’s food is processed muck .

Nothing to do with food snobbery just a basic understanding of what decent nutrition looks like .

I think what you’re describing there is pretty much fast food in all its forms. I’m sure every town has the odd artisan pizza or kebab takeaway and do things a little differently but by and large no fast food is going to qualify as decent nutrition. It’s a little harsh to call out McDonalds specifically for that.

Whilst I agree that their food is, as someone suggested, processed muck, there are elements of their business model that I admire under the cold, hard light of capitalism. It’s a misnomer that a successful business model has to have a quality product at the heart of it. McDonalds has created a world famous brand and global empire on the back of bland, unhealthy, poorly presented food served by overworked and demoralised staff (note, these are not the elements I admire).

They’ve done it by expanding their footprint as rapidly as possible early in their journey to create a familiar, omnipresent brand serving a very consistent product range cheaply in a quick and convenient manner. They are very good at serving high quantities of people in busy locations where people don’t want to be hanging around. They do that better than any other chain I can think of, and it’s no accident. They have many faults as an organisation, but there are elements of their model which most businesses could learn from.

The other one that I admire, not for their food but for their commercial success is Nando’s. What you’ve got is food quality a fraction above straight up fast food chains like KFC, a throughput capability only a fraction lower and staffing requirements only a fraction higher. They’re then able to charge a price point several times greater purely by creating a dining environment more akin to a mid-tier casual dining restaurant. Essentially, they’re able to exploit the positives of both fast food joints and casual dining chains, whilst simultaneously avoiding the majority of their downsides. It’s clever stuff, more so than many people appreciate, underpinned by the fact that they realised early on the role social media would have to play with upcoming millennial audiences.

For anyone interested in business and marketing, I’d fully recommend the book Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne - it does a very good job of explaining how businesses find these unique pockets of space. If Burger King and KFC are McDonald’s direct rivals - who are Nando’s fighting it out with?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Years ago I was having breakfast in the cafe in Whitehawk Road when I found a nut in my beans. A metal nut. It had come loose and fallen off the cooker.

You pay extra?

 

[LamieRobertson]

I go there

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I haven't been to McD's since lockdown but I used to and hope to again. I think there is a lot of snobbery about them . The grub is what it is, cheap and cheerful with no pretension of grandeur. Is it bad for you? No, not in small doses as long as you don't live on it.
My only frequent complaint is noise if full of kids and sometimes very loud music... I guess that is a generation thing.

 

[Steve in Japan]

I fancy a sausage and egg mcmuffin now

 

[Live by the sea]

I think what you’re describing there is pretty much fast food in all its forms. I’m sure every town has the odd artisan pizza or kebab takeaway and do things a little differently but by and large no fast food is going to qualify as decent nutrition. It’s a little harsh to call out McDonalds specifically for that.

Whilst I agree that their food is, as someone suggested, processed muck, there are elements of their business model that I admire under the cold, hard light of capitalism. It’s a misnomer that a successful business model has to have a quality product at the heart of it. McDonalds has created a world famous brand and global empire on the back of bland, unhealthy, poorly presented food served by overworked and demoralised staff (note, these are not the elements I admire).

They’ve done it by expanding their footprint as rapidly as possible early in their journey to create a familiar, omnipresent brand serving a very consistent product range cheaply in a quick and convenient manner. They are very good at serving high quantities of people in busy locations where people don’t want to be hanging around. They do that better than any other chain I can think of, and it’s no accident. They have many faults as an organisation, but there are elements of their model which most businesses could learn from.

The other one that I admire, not for their food but for their commercial success is Nando’s. What you’ve got is food quality a fraction above straight up fast food chains like KFC, a throughput capability only a fraction lower and staffing requirements only a fraction higher. They’re then able to charge a price point several times greater purely by creating a dining environment more akin to a mid-tier casual dining restaurant. Essentially, they’re able to exploit the positives of both fast food joints and casual dining chains, whilst simultaneously avoiding the majority of their downsides. It’s clever stuff, more so than many people appreciate, underpinned by the fact that they realised early on the role social media would have to play with upcoming millennial audiences.

For anyone interested in business and marketing, I’d fully recommend the book Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne - it does a very good job of explaining how businesses find these unique pockets of space. If Burger King and KFC are McDonald’s direct rivals - who are Nando’s fighting it out with?

I agree . Nando’s is clever marketing and as you said , quality only marginally better than KFC, McDonalds etc but appeals to the chavs . What I would say is you can make fast food nutritious if you make it yourself but I agree trying to do it at scale is very difficult as the temptation to cut costs and save money by reducing the nutritional aspect is huge .

Pret which I think is owned by McDonald’s is probably the best example of trying much harder to keep the nutritional content as high as possible under scale . Greggs is the opposite !

 

[Springal]

Pret which I think is owned by McDonald’s is probably the best example of trying much harder to keep the nutritional content as high as possible under scale . Greggs is the opposite !

It’s not. Its owned by a Private Equity group

 

[Boroseagull]

I've not stepped inside one since missing Christmas 1986 with food poisoning courtesy of McDonalds, Shepherds Bush. The irony of it was I was was taking the children to see a recording of Jim Will Fix It!

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

They produce 20 foot tall chickens who wonder why they are so tall.. It’s hellish

Do they think they’re in an aeroplane?