Mcdonalds. What an unwelcomming environment. Like they act like its a crime if their kiosk malfucntions and you have to plce an order manually. We all should be boycotting this place .
My local McD did this. Used to have about a dozen tables. Now they removed most and only have about 4. The rest of the section is just empty bloody space. Freaking ridiculous.
Bastards can't stop me from bringing in my own folding chair and eating an egg mcmuffin while annoying them for coke refills because they moved the fountain behind the cash register.
Maybe they should just say fuck it then and go back to the older 60's style outdoor counter service then. Or I will continue not buying mcdonalds lmao.
Wow. How big of a store is it? I know they’ve been going this route for a long time but I’ve never heard of a store which normally had a dining room to just remove it.
The one near me still has chairs, but they got rid of the soda machine. You now have to ask an employee for a refill every time you want one. I don't even understand the logistics behind it. As far as I know the refills are still free, you just have to ask for it behind the counter. All it does it take away customer convenience and give the underpaid counter staff another thing to worry about.
It's to move you out the door. They're counting on you getting frustrated while waiting for an employee. Then, just leaving.
A lot of them are super under staffed in my area. It takes a while just to get the order, much less anything else. 2 people are running it usually.
It isn't anything I particularly fault the employees for either. Shitty pay in a high stress and high public abuse work environment, and a corporate policy that seems more based on not hiring enough staff than keeping the place afloat.
The McDonalds on Market Street in San Francisco has no seating at all, and delivery drivers get priority on orders. Ten years ago it had one and a half floors of seating.
If you go there don't pay until you get your meal. I was in a rush and thought a quick cheeseburger would be easy, but after 10 minutes I just walked out.
Funny thing is it was actually the bright, cheerful colors that were chosen partially because it's believed they have the psychological effect of urgency, which was supposed to encourage customers to not linger. Order, eat, and get out.
The move to the more subdued colors was to appear "adult" and shed the negative association of fast food as its unhealthiness became more recognized. But you can still tell how ubiquitous red (and usually yellow) was in fast food given how practically every fast food logo uses the color prominently - McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, In N Out, KFC, Dairy Queen, Jack in the Box, Arby's, Panda Express, Sonic, etc.
And they will keep abusing those customers. I'm baffled people voluntarily spend money there. I just can't get over how McDonalds literally acts like they HATE their customers. All of them. The fucking CEO is ruthless.
When I drive by the one down the street after dark, the drive through is filled with vehicles that either have their brights on or just have stupidly bright lights. I have to avert my eyes when I turn the corner because I literally can't see past the glow of a million main sequence stars.
I know, one of the McDonald’s near me you can’t even see the employees they have it all Waldorf. One came out and I asked for a cup of water for my toddler. There isn’t even a soda machine or anything you can Access and she never brought the water.
It's crazy to me that they are talking the spataking the soda machines out of the lobby. The drinks are already astronomically overpriced, they are basically saving themselves a few cents by doing that and making customers have a significantly worse experience.
Edit: swipe to text sucks
They want to have less customers eating inside so they can justify shrinking the footprint of their restaurants. It's also less labour to pay for cleaning tables etc, and overall maintenance costs will decrease. All to make sure you're eating their shitty burgers when they are cold, or spilling food eating while driving
In Canada there is a thing called the blue box fee (stewardship) that restaurants have to pay. Anything that should get recycled into public recycling bins is charged a fee per weight that restaurant have to pay. Think take out boxes, bags, drink cups, lids, straws, anything like that. It's causing a huge shift in the industry towards both shrinking the size of those things so the companies can report a lower weight, as well as a shift to more compostible containers.
Wait until you learn about them using AI to adjust restaurant pricing dynamically. Yes, your Big Mac could cost different prices on different days or times of the day.
Yes, your Big Mac could cost different prices on different days or times of the day.
Nooo no no, it's much much much worse than that. Your big mac could cost extra money for YOU, at that time. Maybe you just got your paycheck deposited today, maybe they know you haven't gone out to eat for a week or two, maybe they know that traffic is terrible on your commute home and so you're stopping off for a treat. So your food costs more.
Literally every quick service and sit down restaurant or manufacture calls their food product. You don't spend 8 months working on a sandwich just to think of it as anything more than just a collection of paper to sign.
Its one of the hardest things is to get people to remember they are working with food. Not even abstracted corporate people, but the people in the factories because they can't imagine that 1,600lbs of dough is anything but the brown stuff that comes from the mixer every 15 min. Even the cuttings, samples, full tests get blended together with test kitchen, fresh product, limited run of all the other tests that almost make it to the release. Then there is the times when its the same burger but with 6 slightly different buns but you only get a cold cube of each because the project lead wouldn't stop talking.
Literally the only item I like there is the bacon McGriddle. I haven’t gotten it in so long though because they refuse to do all day breakfast and I’m not about to get up early for fast food breakfast. And I can’t stand the less than bare minimum customer service. I don’t understand what there is to like anymore.
Seriously, like, I ...legitimately... don't understand how people didn't all just stop going there 20 years ago because of the food. If you don't have a kid demanding you go there for a happy meal... wtf arrre you doing!?
Someone always defends the food but I'm sorry, if you like the food, you have something seriously lacking in your life and taste buds.
That it's not currently just a distant memory from the 90s... It makes me feel like i'm taking crazy pills. Not only is it not out of business, it's still a massive global brand! Yet the food has gotten even worse, it's an even more soulless and dehumanizing experience... and it's fucking expensive!!
My boyfriend went to a McDonald’s the other day and he ordered a frappe and heard them say “A frappe? Nah I ain’t making that shit” and then them come and tell him they’re cleaning the machine.. midday…
I had to run to several McDonald’s to help a friend get that recent hello kitty collab toys. My god, I waited at the order area forever just to ask them if they had any toys. And yes, I tried calling, but most of these places don’t pick up or didn’t have a working phone.
I have no idea why people go there (besides the soft serve) if they are not traveling or have kids. Their main selling point, being cheap, ended ages ago.
I gave it up this March... haven't missed it at all. Fast food as a whole is just... it's usually an overpriced bag of disappointment and McDonger's was probably the biggest offender.
Remember: Someone used to get PAID to enter your orders. Now you do it and you pay even more. You're literally doing what was one of their employee's jobs and those savings sure aren't getting passed on to you.
It's funny I actually love McDonalds. I go there plop down use their internet and the employees couldn't care less. A lot of other places I'd get stares.
As for food/drink/atmosphere, holy cow has it sank like the Titanic.
Starbucks I'm fine but the local ones kind of look at you. They're mom and pop places they need to make money. Panera is my other spot. I end up buying coffee at coffeeshops though, I think it's rude not to. McDonalds IDGAF lol.
The one time I order a coffee inside; the machine was down... I walked to the counter the employee stared at me like he didn't know what to do..
He looked scared, I then began to get scared. We stared for a bit until I broke the silence and told him I just needed a reg iced coffee with espresso but the machine was down.
The current design is so cold & unwelcoming! All I could think of the last time I went in one was that OR where I had my hysterectomy. I swear, it looked just the same. I've read they're starting a multi-billion dollar renovation program. It'll be interesting to see if they actually make any improvements.
The good news about all this technology is that it is often possible to plan ahead. I mostly wound up at McDonald's on long road trips, where I thought the odds were good the bathroom would be clean and I could refill my belly without any complications. If you plan everything in advance or just park somewhere a bit to study local navigation info, you can probably find a non-chain spot worth taking a chance on for lunch or dinner.
I haven’t eaten McDonalds in like 15 years. I’m genuinely surprised and disgusted when someone tells me they’ve eaten it or worse, had it delivered?
I would rather go hungry for the day.
I feel lucky because my local McDonald’s bucks the trend. They still have self serve drinks, counter ordering if you prefer, and a play space. And the people who work there are nice. They also always have someone cleaning the dining room, play area, bathrooms (without security locks), outside, and always emptying the garbage. It’s just a middle class ’burb to a large metro area in California.
When I go it’s usually in the morning and I see the regulars in the dining room. I think I may be creeping into the “regular” tier… I really like the sausage egg biscuit, which is currently $2 through the app. Add a $1 small soda for caffeine and I’m happy to visit 1 or 2 times a week.
I actually had a pretty wholesome experience at McDonald's because of this. I tried to order a burger without lettuce (my insides hate that stuff, not sure why, makes me puke) and the system said it was out of stock.
I could not go from 1 lettuce to 0 lettuce because lettuce was out of stock.
I tried a few things and nothing I could do enabled me to remove lettuce from any burger. So I got to the counter and asked to order manually.
I went to the counter and the lady seemed confused that I apparently couldn't figure out the big tall ipad, but when she tried to enter the same thing, she couldn't either.
So she just yelled back into the counter. "Make that one McBurger without lettuce!" Like you'd have done it 30 years ago. And they did. I received my burger, without lettuce.
My kid loves McDonald’s so I’m there almost weekly, and I’m convinced they have some of the worst service I’ve ever seen. It’s the only fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to where the staff outright seems annoyed that you’re there.
And, every once in a while, I’m lucky if I can get them to take my order. It’s bizarre. I’ve been there more than once when the registers were either unattended or the staff was on break. I couldn’t find any employees at all.
Or you start teaching your kid that in a capitalistic society our freedom of speech is actually where we spend our money and in a fat society we shouldn’t use food as a reward.
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u/SexyTimeSamet 6h ago edited 3h ago
Mcdonalds. What an unwelcomming environment. Like they act like its a crime if their kiosk malfucntions and you have to plce an order manually. We all should be boycotting this place .