The slow death of McDonald's in North America?

Not a lot of McDonald's in Wisconsin overall. Well I think it's more that Wisconsin isn't exactly in "cross-over" or "drive through" country. There aren't a lot of huge interstates in Wisconsin. If you've been there, you'll see there are not a lot of McDonalds, but that's less a matter of "civic pride" than it is a matter of McDonald's having the sense not to put up restaurants in areas with relatively little traffic. It's not a sprawly state, like its neighbor Illinois.

wasn't there a shitload after it came out about how they were fucking people & land over in india? it felt like it to me... think it was around then i actively stopped buying coca cola and their other drinks because they are scum rather than passively not buying it just because i don't like it. also there was the selling tap water thing, but that was sort of funny: dude, you live in a country where the tap water's safe and you buy bottled water? hahahaha you kind of deserve what you get.

But I do think that cultural distaste for fast food (esp. of the multinational conglomerate variety) is partly a taste issue, and is influenced by factors such as class, education and location.

In saying this I'm not implying that such a position is automatically a bad thing: I have an attitude towards Starbucks in particular that I would happily describe as "snobbish": I much prefer the idiosyncracies of all the little city cafes that Melbourne is so ostentatiously proud of. This exists alongside a certain cynicism w/r/t Starbucks' work practices (particularly the stuff detailed in, yes, No Logo, about squeezing out competition by oversupplying the market). But my cynicism about Starbucks as an aggressive multinational chain and my distaste for the homogeneity of the Starbucks experience are mutually reinforcing, and I'm not going to pretend that without the latter my position on the former would still be as strong.

I think that, with McDonalds, I feel less antipathy b/c the fast food experience seems to me to be it's own thing at this stage, whereas Starbucks and all the other coffee chains still present themselves as capturing the "cafe experience". I react against what I instinctively perceive to be the false version of something which I enjoy. And again this is partly snobbery coming into play: when we identify and react against a faux version of something we like we are demonstrating our qualities of discernment and taste in a way that is more sophisticated (relatively) than by simply making the broad distinction b/w what we like and don't like e.g. "fast food = uncultured; coffee = cultured"

thank you ray kroc.

Are McDonald's ads in other countries as strongly targeted towards minorities as they now are in the US? I think I've seen about 1 ad of theirs in the past year that featured a white person as the focal point.

As long as people get tired of eating ramen slash beans & rice once in a while, McDonald's is going to be doing just fine.

McDonald's is also the one with the ads where ppl see their families or jobs for the first time after eating a breakfast sandwich, isn't it? Or is that something else? McGriddles are apparently some kind of mind-melting substance.

Except for the dude who didn't know he was married, still golden.

I've never been to Starbucks because I didn't get hooked on coffee. I guess I am uncultured.

xpost andy OTM, strangely a talking cheeseburger and an unknown purple blob are a lot less creepy than the refreshing, uplifting, hip McD's ads.

Get a Dunkin' Donuts one instead; it's bigger, it tastes just as good and it won't give you torrential shits.

(xpost: One man's "sad" is another man's "bold vision"! TOMBOT FOR PRESIDENT)

jon how was yr dream date with Ned?

I wish there was a McDonald's near my office. Instead I'm forced to have the breakfast sandwiches from Wawa (a convenience store) - which are not even as appealing (though still edible, and a nice alternative to donuts).

Well, 99% of the time if I go somewhere I like that does good food, I am also going to get what I expect. I'm not saying this isn't a powerful (mainly subconscious?) reason for going to McD's, but in this day and age I don't think many places of repute have shonkily unreliable quality standards.

You would be surprised. This is not a defense of McDonald's, but there are many "places of repute" where the food quality can be very inconsistent.

their Indian franchise menus are hilarious (and also look thoroughly inedible. McD's "vegetable shabzi"? = NOTHANKYOU)

/r/fuckdonalds iirc

There's an infamous but LOLworthy-as-hell video of someone who at least wants to fuck a McDonald's burger - well if not quite a video at least an animated GIF - and the amazing thing is it's not from some internet rando who posted it online, but rather an actual paid McDonald's banner ad!

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/id_hit_it_-_mcdonalds_banner.gif

It appeared on espn.com in 2005 before some horrified McD exec managed to reach ESPN and get it pulled within an hour, but not before several bloggers captured it for all eternity. Exhibit A for why advertisers (and ppl in general) shouldn't try to be hip by using slang catchphrases until they're sure they know what they mean....

Here in Joliet our local McD's is busy nearly all the time. It's particularly mystifying as there are excellent Mexican restaurants all around it, plus a BK and a Checkers. There is so much traffic in and out of there that it's a frequent car accident zone. And I must admit that I'm guilty of hitting it once a month or so, meself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/04/22/mcdonalds-new-uniform-hot-or-existentially-depressing/?utm_term=.a4f7a84bcdb5&tid=sm_tw

mcd's jumping on the health goth bandwagon two years too late