What is Wrong with McD's USA?

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Conventional wisdom is that the menu has gotten too large, which makes production a bitch, which has slowed what is called the trough-put...the amount of time it takes to get the food out the door once the order is placed. Mc Donalds also claims that they have lost the millennials because they want to customize and have more modern flavors, which is why they are starting "create Your Taste", which in tests in running 4 buns, 2-3 meats, 10 sauces, 10 veggies/other and 3 cheeses last I heard. We will virtually make our own burger on a I-Pad and then they will make the actual burger for us.

However in the last year I have had

1) mc nuggets fried in very old oil

2) cold fries

3) over salted fries

4) under salted fries

5) over salted burger patties

6) under salted burger patties

7) Big Macs which had almost nothing other that bun/meat/chease

8) burger patties that were dried up because they were cooked/held too long

9 Burgers that were dried up and cold because they have been made too far in advance

10) rude staff

11) dirty restaurant

12) the aforementioned long time to get the food

13) management berating staff in the open

14) staff that seems to be so mentally handicapped that they operate at about 20% of a typical 17 yo

15) get home to find what is supposed to be Sprite is only carbonated water

16) not all of my meal is packed in the bag

And the kicker is that i only go there maybe once a month, and probably dont go that often.

Call me skeptical that axing 12 items and then adding almost that many back with " create your taste" is going to fix what ails this company.

What say you?

EDIT: if I still had young kids I would be pissed that they have made if difficult/impossible for me to get the happy meals that I would want to buy. Soon if we want soda we need to pay for an extra one, because it can not be part of the happymeal....**** YOU food nazi's!

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Conventional wisdom is that the menu has gotten too large, which makes production a bitch, which has slowed what is called the trough-put...the amount of time it takes to get the food out the door once the order is placed....

Mc Donalds also claims that they have lost the millennials because they want to customize and have more modern flavors, which is why they are starting "create Your Taste", which in tests in running 4 buns, 2-3 meats, 10 sauces, 10 veggies/other and 3 cheeses last I heard. We will virtually make our own burger on a I-Pad and then they will make the actual burger for us....

Call me skeptical that axing 12 items and then adding almost that many back with " create your taste" is going to fix what ails this company.

What say you?

Clearly McDonald's is having an identity crisis.

Do they stick to what people love about them, that unique taste all of its own that inheres in the simple options like McNuggets, cheeseburgers and fries -- at the risk of alienating a new generation that has tasted better.

Or do they chase that new demographic by pretending to be something they're not and offering new unproven flavors that really aren't them at all.

No real good options for them as far as I can see.

They're fucked. But who cares? That stuff's terrible for you anyway.

3 Replies

@Kolyo,

Quote:

called the trough-put

My fave item on the menu.

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@Kolyo,

"But who cares? That stuff's terrible for you anyway."

Only when eaten regularly. One good burger feast every five or six weeks doesn't do any harm.

Sometimes there's nothing like a heap of junk food to fill that gap. Maybe it's a male thing?

Everything in moderation, but a little of what you fancy does you good.

0 Replies

Trough-put? Isn't that what one would use to feed the pigs?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I saw that and thought it oddly appropriate.

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@Kolyo,

Quote:

Clearly McDonald's is having an identity crisis.

Let's take this moment to remember their last big idea...to become the next Starbucks.

Quote:

Do they stick to what people love about them, that unique taste all of its own that inheres in the simple options like McNuggets, cheeseburgers and fries -- at the risk of alienating a new generation that has tasted better.

That ship sailed long ago....the frys dont taste anything like they used to. The apple pies are no longer fried. Big Macs are but a crappy knock off of what they used to be. The shakes used be be made out of soft serve but now are made of

Quote:

Ingredients: Corn Syrup, Water, Vanilla Extract, Caramel Color, Citric Acid, Pectin, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Yellow 5, Yellow 6.

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/ingredientslist.pdf
The ice cream cone used to be made out of ice cream but is not for all intents and purposes ice milk.

Quote:

That stuff's terrible for you anyway.

so all these years of efforts to get branded as having healthy options, all this expense they go to to have a bunch of salads on the menu that almost no one buys, has done nothing for you I see.

Quote:

They're fucked

how much so is not known, but problems with the operations combined with becoming the dictionary definition of fast food exploitive labor practices is a tough deal to need to navigate.

I am not sure what has gone wrong here, which is one of the reasons for this thread. However, at the moment I think the best thing they could do is reboot back to about 1995. Go back to the old recipes, put the beef fat flavored fry oil back in the frier, slash the size of the menu, make food delish , place it in a specially designed warmer with a time stamp and if it does not sell in time throw it out....pull out the old training manuals a teach staff to provide service to the customers.What would the response be if I could once again walk into a store and in 2 minutes walk out with a juicy delicious Big Mac and the best tasting hot and perfectly salted fries by far of any in America?

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There's a great trick which you can pull at any of these burger places to get a fresh burger, and it works nine times out of ten. That's to go in, pick up some salt from the side counter and put it in your pocket. The go up to the main counter, and order your burgers, loudly stressing that you are on a salt-free diet. That means they have to cook fresh patties, as they ordinarily salt them while cooking them. They also have to give you fresh fries which have not been salted after coming out of the deep fryer. It you have no shame, you can then just sit down, pull out the salt packets and salt your meal. Otherwise, you can go out to eat it in the car.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

However in the last year I have had

1) mc nuggets fried in very old oil

2) cold fries

3) over salted fries

4) under salted fries

5) over salted burger patties

6) under salted burger patties

7) Big Macs which had almost nothing other that bun/meat/chease

8) burger patties that were dried up because they were cooked/held too long

9 Burgers that were dried up and cold because they have been made too far in advance

10) rude staff

11) dirty restaurant

12) the aforementioned long time to get the food

13) management berating staff in the open

14) staff that seems to be so mentally handicapped that they operate at about 20% of a typical 17 yo

15) get home to find what is supposed to be Sprite is only carbonated water

16) not all of my meal is packed in the bag

And you still keep going back. Why should they bother changing if you put up with it?

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

For the regular menu items, I think McD's quality is about the same as it has always been. There has always been a lot of variability between stores and between shifts in the same store so it doesn't surprise me you've seen a fair number of negative events. Franchise McDonalds can be more variable than McDonald owned stores but that can be for good or bad. As someone who worked at McDonalds many years ago, I have a fair appreciation for the systems McDonalds uses to make consistent food around the world. Several times when faced with an employee driven variability problem, I've advocated for a "McDonalds solution". McD's weak point has always been management variability. It takes a pretty good management team to enforce high standards and its not like good managers are going to stick around for McDonalds pay.

As to their current problems, I think McDonalds is being squeezed between very focused burger joints like Cook Out, Checkers, Five Guys et al where they are focused pretty much on only making burgers and fries, cheap sandwich shops like Subway where with minimal investment you can open a store front and make a good profit on decently tasty and potentially nutritious products and higher end places chains like Panera Bread, Chipotle et al where the food is a better quality, not much more expensive than McDonalds and has a lot more cachet with the younger crowd.

As for expanding the menu, McDonalds has always been a menu innovator. A lot of those items didn't work out, some of them ended up being country specific, a few of them took off (chicken nuggets anyone?) There is always a risk in losing focus, but there is a risk in standing still as well.

1 Reply

I only get one thing at a Mickey's, the Mc Double with cheese. It a value meal and ttstes the same (with the exception that their cheese has gotten so un "Cheddar like" .Probably DOW ran out of the cheddar flavor.

I agree with the Mc"CAfe" BS , where they were screwing around with these "barrista babes" , most of whom hd NOT gotten the concept of what coffee should taste like. I hope they dropped that whole thing.
I see lotsa ole farts hanging around in the mornings (I stop at one on the Turnpike entrance at least once every two weeks). These guys seem to drink tons of their shitty coffee and eat burgers in the morning (prolly McMuffins)

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@engineer,

I very much do not agree with you that quality has always been thus, this company for a couple of generations was relentless about quality standards, food,sevice and cleanliness. And I dont think it is store manager level management that is the problem, the problem has to be at Oak Brook.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

In the UK during the 80's and 90's, the Public Health Inspectors for the area worked in the offices directly below mine, and they all swore that the only restaurant that they would never have a problem eating at was McD, because the Parent Company were so strict about standards of hygiene.

1 Reply

@Lordyaswas,

And I happen to know that 80's onward they had a super sensitive kind of expensive fry oil monitoring system, it was test tube based, done by human, that had to be done on a schedule. Under that system it was impossible to ever send food out that had been fried in oil that had gone bad.

And to make matters worse, the store that I got rancid chicken nuggets from is a corporate store, so they cant blame the failure on a franchisee.

2 Replies

@hawkeye10,

It is not a regular thing but two months ago I pulled up to the drive up window and everything inside looked filthy, to incude the window. That would have never happened before, there was a cleaning schedule and if it was not followed heads rolled.

0 Replies

@hawkeye10,

You might want to complain to corporate if you are seeing a continuous issue at your local store. Headquarters doesn't monitor every store every day.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Given the problems you apparently experience consistently you should notify someone who could possibly do something about it.

I picked up some kiddie burgers on the way back from dance class on Monday - everything was just right. Two regular, two with custom toppings, fresh and prepared quickly, the hot mustard I like tucked into the bag with the napkins. Great staff - consistently kind to the street folks who go in there for coffee/muffins/comfort/washrooms.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

" I like tucked into the bag with the napkins."

Was that because they tasted better than the burgers, ebeth?

2 Replies

@Lordyaswas,

nuh unh

I like those kiddie burgers dressed like big macs. they're a special treat

0 Replies

@Lordyaswas,

I love the hot mustard

I've tried to replicate it but no luck so far.

2 Replies

What is Wrong with McD's USA?

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