McDonalds - I'm Lovin' It

[Vriljami]

I don't make a habit of eating there now that I'm 20+ years out of that situation, however, once in a blue moon, you could give me a quality burger or authentic Japanese cuisine but sometimes it boils down to; you can take a man out of poverty but you can't take the poverty out of a man. So you find yourself craving a McDonald's frankenburger or some good-old-fashioned instant ramen and nothing else will slake that craving

QFT. I pride myself on making everything from scratch....but sometimes you need the sloppiest of goyfeed. And then Mickey Ds fries and Tangy BBQ hit the spot.

 

[JoseRaulChupacabra]

There's a video I'm too lazy to find, but the theory they have for MickyDees having boxy bland aesthetics is so the place is much easier to rent out to others in case it goes under.

QFT. I pride myself on making everything from scratch....but sometimes you need the sloppiest of goyfeed. And then Mickey Ds fries and Tangy BBQ hit the spot.

Yeah, slop is its own flavor. While I love a good burger with roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, and melted swiss cheese, sometimes... I could just use a BigMac.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

McDonald's is closing the CosMc's chain.

With the exception of the Chicagoland prototype all of them were in Texas (eight in the Dallas area, four in San Antonio, nothing in Houston or Austin, and they've already closed more than half). Basically, it was a way to compete with Swig/Dutch Bros., which were/are expanding rapidly in the state.

Speaking of Chicagoland, the current mayor of Chicago was triggered because McDonald's closed some stores in downtown Chicago and blames Trump for this.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

There's a video I'm too lazy to find, but the theory they have for MickyDees having boxy bland aesthetics is so the place is much easier to rent out to others in case it goes under.

Nah.

As someone who has dived into ex-McDonald's restaurant autism, you're missing a few things.

1. They rarely close restaurants without replacement, their failure rate is among the lowest in the industry. The ones that do close usually never see much activity post-McDonald's. (See old post on the topic).
2. It doesn't make sense to "rent it out", because in almost every case they'd make more money as a McDonald's then whatever they'd rent it out as. You can see a list of former McDonald's restaurants in Michigan (for instance) here and the ones that weren't located in Walmarts or gas stations ended up mostly getting demolished, the ones that weren't ended up getting non-food tenants like a laundromat or a dental office. In my state it's more of the same--vet offices, medical offices, and even used cars. When these stores sell they get cleared from the rolls; they still rent to franchisees only because that's where they can hold them hostage.
3. Generally, if a McDonald's can't survive in an area, there's not going to be much else that can.

 

[Hunter Hearst Helmsley]

Speaking of Chicagoland, the current mayor of Chicago was triggered because McDonald's closed some stores in downtown Chicago and blames Trump for this.

Ridiculous. Trump doesn't even work at McDonald's anymore how can it be his fault?

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Ridiculous. Trump doesn't even work at McDonald's anymore how can it be his fault?

I guess it was more easy for him to blame someone else like Trump than accepting then it's all his own fault.

 

[Eventide]

McDonald's is closing the CosMc's chain.

With the exception of the Chicagoland prototype all of them were in Texas (eight in the Dallas area, four in San Antonio, nothing in Houston or Austin, and they've already closed more than half). Basically, it was a way to compete with Swig/Dutch Bros., which were/are expanding rapidly in the state.

I was actually hoping these would take off. If only 'cause McDonalds coffee is surprisingly decent/strong (I believe McDonalds uses the Tim Horton's coffee supplier?) and it'd be nice for a place that exists where Mcdonalds coffee could be ordered quickly. Whenever I've tried to order McDonalds coffee, they never have it brewed/it takes forever/I'm stuck waiting behind some imbecile that changes their order at the last minute and than have to wait for the coffee to be brewed.

The reason I don't go to Mcdonalds (aside from their food is gross, overpriced, & there's way better fast food options elsewhere) is that whenever I do unfortunately step foot in one, they're terribly understaffed and it takes like, 15+ minutes to get my Mcnuggets (...I don't eat their burgers. Since the burger meat is rubbery & they always have wet buns ). Mickey D's has gotten real uppity lately - like it actually thinks its reconstituted pink slime that just barely meats the legal definition of chicken, is worthy of being waited for? Oh no no no no - that is not how their business model is meant to work. Customer gives McDonalds approximately 5 dollars, McDonalds quickly hands customer meal of approximately edible food. Nothing more, nothing less.

There's no conspiracy, even since starbucks and then chipotle showed there is a market of people willing to pay for "premium" fast food mcdonalds, bk and others have wanted to get on that, the profit margins on those are way higher.

...but don't the executives realize they're McDonalds? That's like trying to turn Dollar General into a luxury retailer. It's so obvious Mcdonald's business model for the past decade was planned by a bunch of out of touch Ivy League suits who never actually set foot inside a Mcdonalds before they started working for the corporation. & even than, I somewhat doubt that - or else they wouldn't be redesigning them to be so hideous and hospital-y looking.

Problem is only ghetto kids can brag about going to mcdicks...

...so that's why they keep releasing all those dumb rapper collab "limited edition" meals (which are just regular orders on the menu, but at a higher price 'cause it's Cardi B "curated" o whatever )

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I was actually hoping these would take off. If only 'cause McDonalds coffee is surprisingly decent/strong (I believe McDonalds uses the Tim Horton's coffee supplier?) and it'd be nice for a place that exists where Mcdonalds coffee could be ordered quickly.

McDonald's concepts never really take off. CosMc's joins a list of other failed prototypes, ventures, and concepts, including (but not limited to) Leaps & Bounds, McSnack, McDonald's Express, Golden Arches Cafe, Mac's Cafe, and a few others.

The reason I don't go to Mcdonalds (aside from their food is gross, overpriced, & there's way better fast food options elsewhere) is that whenever I do unfortunately step foot in one, they're terribly understaffed and it takes like, 15+ minutes to get my Mcnuggets (...I don't eat their burgers. Since the burger meat is rubbery & they always have wet buns ). Mickey D's has gotten real uppity lately - like it actually thinks its reconstituted pink slime that just barely meats the legal definition of chicken, is worthy of being waited for? Oh no no no no - that is not how their business model is meant to work. Customer gives McDonalds approximately 5 dollars, McDonalds quickly hands customer meal of approximately edible food. Nothing more, nothing less.

If things are made properly, there's not much to wait on. The problem is that there's a lot of restaurants that are now outsourced to huge regional franchisees that do little oversight and dictate top-down policy. This is how middle management fucks up restaurants and I've seen it happen.
1. Franchisee gets into a holding pattern with steady, profitable restaurants. The passion is gone, it's just there to make money.
2. Bean counter does calculations, finds that there's food being wasted. Producing too much, spoilage, doesn't matter. They don't investigate.
3. Incentivize managers for reducing food waste.
4. Rather than do the investigations themselves or make operational changes, managers interpret that to mean "nothing must be thrown out".
5. Ignore standards set out by the company, like how McNuggets must never be sold after 30 minutes leaving the fryer. (Who knows how long those McNuggets were taken out?)
6. Food is shit quality.

I doubt that not changing out coffee, iced tea, and McNuggets is the line being in the red or not.

...but don't the executives realize they're McDonalds? That's like trying to turn Dollar General into a luxury retailer. It's so obvious Mcdonald's business model for the past decade was planned by a bunch of out of touch Ivy League suits who never actually set foot inside a Mcdonalds before they started working for the corporation. & even than, I somewhat doubt that - or else they wouldn't be redesigning them to be so hideous and hospital-y looking.

The push for "fancier" McDonald's restaurants has been in vogue since the early-to-mid 2000s (though these crop of remodels actually looked and felt nice). The real crime is erasing all the themed McDonald's restaurants. They weren't as elaborate as some restaurants like the Zoo McDonald's but many of the smaller ones had some sort of local touch as well.

But there is a degree of being out of touch as well. Last year there was some article on a "McDonald's Executive Chef". While there some chuckling over that fact, it wasn't the fact that there was such a thing as a "McDonald's Executive Chef", it's the fact that nothing good has come out of the division for decades. (The only permanent addition was Chicken McNuggets back in 1983). The other major food items--the Filet-o-Fish, the McFlurry, the Big Mac, the Egg McMuffin...all of those were created by franchisees. There are some references around the Internet and from books referencing one-offs and limited tests but who knows how many restaurants were running new items over the years in hopes of becoming the next big thing.

 

[Maker's Mark]

Oh, wow - for real? I never ate Mcdonalds/had many Happy Meals as a kid (Oklahoma has waaaay better burger choices than Mcdonalds - for example, Braums).


Did this correlate with the time they required the inside of all Mcdonalds locations be redesigned/updated to resemble 1970's Doctor/Dentist offices? Like, 2021-ish?

Spoiler: image taken from Reddit

View attachment 7373368

Tin foil hat theory: maybe the executives are trying to tank the company's stock price by making intentionally shitty executive decisions?

My local McDonald's just got hit with this exact same redesign a few months back. Taking out the soda machine is damn criminal. But allegedly, they were losing like, thousands of dollars a month due to how many refills people were getting. Not that I'm buying that excuse.

 

[Eventide]

McDonald's concepts never really take off. CosMc's joins a list of other failed prototypes, ventures, and concepts, including (but not limited to) Leaps & Bounds, McSnack, McDonald's Express, Golden Arches Cafe, Mac's Cafe, and a few others.

Still, there was something there, from a "selling more Mcdonalds' coffee products" business perspective (which, I assume is the reason they opened the concept stores in the first place - they smelled blood in the "frozen coffee drinks" business model water). & to use another water euphemism, giving up on CosMc's feels a bit like throwing out the baby with the bathwater...? Especially since they have good coffee - like, they already have more than half of the work done!

I live on a major east coast city with crowded understaffed (newer Mcdonalds with those self-serve kiosks are always painfully understaffed) Mcdonalds that take literally forever to make a basic Mcdonalds iced coffee drinks. A CosMc's could have worked great here - open one on a busy city block and attract professionals who don't have the time to wait 30 minutes for an iced Mcdonalds coffee in a regular Mcdonalds. Make a CosMc's app like Dunkin's, where people can order and go pick up their drink (they could technically do that at a regular Mcdonalds, but it'd take too long to get it ready).

Like, they tested it in some cushy Chicago suburb and random Texas small towns; no wonder if flopped. It should have been in some urban area where McDonalds has too high foottraffic to sell its coffee properly.

...I wanted to try a Grimace Shake, dammit! (I never had the chance to, due to the machine always being broke or the workers too lazy to clean it).

My local McDonald's just got hit with this exact same redesign a few months back. Taking out the soda machine is damn criminal. But allegedly, they were losing like, thousands of dollars a month due to how many refills people were getting. Not that I'm buying that excuse.

Neither am I. I read a theory it was related to the laws being passed in libshit cities/states, requiring fast food places to ask if the customers want covers on their drinks/straws/fining businesses for providing them without asking 'cause of "muh plastic waste killing the Earth" . Like free plastic straws are the make or break waste - ignoring all the libshit celebrities flying around willy nilly, in their private jets.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Neither am I. I read a theory it was related to the laws being passed in libshit cities/states, requiring fast food places to ask if the customers want covers on their drinks/straws/fining businesses for providing them without asking 'cause of "muh plastic waste killing the Earth" . Like free plastic straws are the make or break waste - ignoring all the libshit celebrities flying around willy nilly, in their private jets.

It's probably overstated (not enough to kill it chain-wide) but I imagine there were huge problems with homeless bums and other leeches just bringing in their own cups (or cups from days ago) in some urban stores.

Still, there was something there, from a "selling more Mcdonalds' coffee products" business perspective (which, I assume is the reason they opened the concept stores in the first place - they smelled blood in the "frozen coffee drinks" business model water). & to use another water euphemism, giving up on CosMc's feels a bit like throwing out the baby with the bathwater...? Especially since they have good coffee - like, they already have more than half of the work done!

I live on a major east coast city with crowded understaffed (newer Mcdonalds with those self-serve kiosks are always painfully understaffed) Mcdonalds that take literally forever to make a basic Mcdonalds iced coffee drinks. A CosMc's could have worked great here - open one on a busy city block and attract professionals who don't have the time to wait 30 minutes for an iced Mcdonalds coffee in a regular Mcdonalds. Make a CosMc's app like Dunkin's, where people can order and go pick up their drink (they could technically do that at a regular Mcdonalds, but it'd take too long to get it ready).

Like, they tested it in some cushy Chicago suburb and random Texas small towns; no wonder if flopped. It should have been in some urban area where McDonalds has too high foottraffic to sell its coffee properly.

...I wanted to try a Grimace Shake, dammit! (I never had the chance to, due to the machine always being broke or the workers too lazy to clean it).

It wasn't in "random Texas small towns" it was suburban Dallas and San Antonio areas. I imagine they chose Texas because they were really spooked at how fast Dutch Bros (going from 1 in January 2021 to about 220 today) was growing, along with Swig. (On the other hand, Scooter's closest store is a small town about 45 minutes away, but it's near downtown, not near the rest of the stores at the Interstate--McDonald's, Buc-ee's, Taco Bell, and Church's Chicken with all the big signs.)

I never got a chance to go to CosMc's, but if they kept up the same nonsense that plagues McDonald's ice cream machines and similar operations they'd have the same issues soon enough.

 

[Adamska]

My local McDonald's just got hit with this exact same redesign a few months back. Taking out the soda machine is damn criminal. But allegedly, they were losing like, thousands of dollars a month due to how many refills people were getting. Not that I'm buying that excuse.

They're just being pennywise, but pound foolish tbh.

It's probably overstated (not enough to kill it chain-wide) but I imagine there were huge problems with homeless bums and other leeches just bringing in their own cups (or cups from days ago) in some urban stores.

That's a thing, but the overhead on soda is stupidly insane and these clowns are just looking for more margins and think that raising this shit to restaurant pricing is smart.

Not kidding on sodas being big bucks for all fast foods, it's the biggest earner since it just costs cents and the price of syrup, which is also really cheap. It's actually why Arizona tea is so cheap; the CEO openly admits that he has such high margins he can eat losses and still make big money. They just are terrified some fatso might demand two, and just want to avoid bums from drinking and shitting up their wi-fi.

Also it means they can hire one less guy to do deep cleaning of those machines, which you know they probably neglected.

 

[Keine]

They're just being pennywise, but pound foolish tbh.

That's a thing, but the overhead on soda is stupidly insane and these clowns are just looking for more margins and think that raising this shit to restaurant pricing is smart.

Not kidding on sodas being big bucks for all fast foods, it's the biggest earner since it just costs cents and the price of syrup, which is also really cheap. It's actually why Arizona tea is so cheap; the CEO openly admits that he has such high margins he can eat losses and still make big money. They just are terrified some fatso might demand two, and just want to avoid bums from drinking and shitting up their wi-fi.

Also it means they can hire one less guy to do deep cleaning of those machines, which you know they probably neglected.

IIRC the cups cost more than the syrup, but we're talking like a dime for a cup and a few cents for syrup.

Joe Schmoe can get a package of 50 plastic cups from somewhere like Cash & Carry for around $5 or so and I imagine that McD can get them much cheaper with the sheer volume they buy.

Also I tried a Filet-O-Fish for the first time in ages just because and it was not only overcooked but had almost no sauce on it and took almost 20 minutes. That particular location always seems to get slammed in the evening though and takes for goddamn ever. Still a shame though because I remember them being better.

 

[Eventide]

This Mcdonalds demolition (notice it's one of the newer, renovated Mcdonalds?), which apparently just happened a few days ago, came up on my TikTok feed. Which made me realize there's been a spat of shut down Mcdonalds in my home state of Oklahoma over the past couple of years:

Spoiler: Norman demolition

This location (which is a major college town! It's not experiencing an economic depression), a location outside of Stillwater near where State Highway 66 (i.e. old Route 66) gets very close to I-44 (i.e. a location that would have seen a lot of trucker traffic), one shut down in Endwell, one shut down in Broken Arrow, there's probably more but I'm not autistic enough to Google.

Mcdonalds was never really popular in Okahoma, since there's way better food options for cheaper (for example, Braum's runs a 3 for 6 deal - 3 burgers for six dollars. & Braum's burgers are waaaay more substantial/tasty than Mcdonalds slop). Still, an interesting trend to take note of.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

This Mcdonalds demolition (notice it's one of the newer, renovated Mcdonalds?), which apparently just happened a few days ago, came up on my TikTok feed. Which made me realize there's been a spat of shut down Mcdonalds in my home state of Oklahoma over the past couple of years:

I'm surprised that they left the Golden Arches on during demo; if it permanently closed that's the first thing that goes (and it looks newer/renovated).

Mcdonalds was never really popular in Okahoma, since there's way better food options for cheaper (for example, Braum's runs a 3 for 6 deal - 3 burgers for six dollars. & Braum's burgers are waaaay more substantial/tasty than Mcdonalds slop). Still, an interesting trend to take note of.

Vinita had the largest McDonald's in the country for years before it was closed and remodeled into a smaller location.

 

[Eventide]

Vinita had the largest McDonald's in the country for years before it was closed and remodeled into a smaller location.

I wasn't aware the renovations made the Vinita highway overpass location smaller. Gosh, I haven't been there in forever.

I'm surprised that they left the Golden Arches on during demo; if it permanently closed that's the first thing that goes (and it looks newer/renovated).

The Norman location was one of the newer renovated Dr's office looking-locations. I actually visited it relatively recently (within the past 2 years) to get coffee one night, while I was in Norman with relatives to watch a college football game. As you can guess, it took them 20 minutes to brew me a cup

They probably left the golden arches on 'cause they're not worth being carefully removed & resold. Who in their right mind (in Oklahoma) would be opening a new Mcdonalds location? They're a lost cause. & to be honest, I'd bet money they're one day, in the semi-near future, going the way of the Sizzler. (I mean, defunct, not the Hepatitus A thing. Or am I confusing Sizzler's decline with the decline of ChiChi's?)

 

[Xarpho's Return]

not worth being carefully removed & resold.

They don't get resold, I think they're just scrapped. Used to be a place in Houston with a "sign graveyard" and you could see a McDonald's sign back there (there's only one GSV shot that has what I'm talking about).

going the way of the Sizzler. (I mean, defunct, not the Hepatitus A thing. Or am I confusing Sizzler's decline with the decline of ChiChi's?)

Chi-Chi's was Hep A from green onions. Sizzler was already on its way out but it did have a big E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 2000 that put its Midwestern locations out of commission for good. Now, McDonald's outbreak from last year was bigger with 100 cases in ten states. (This was once again from onions). In that case, I'm more frustrated that the CDC (which I still think deserves to be shut down and restructured) had a chance to prove its worth, but was never able to figure out whatever farm sold them the contaminated onions and closed the investigation in less than two months.

 

[quaawaa]

Like, they tested it in some cushy Chicago suburb and random Texas small towns; no wonder if flopped. It should have been in some urban area where McDonalds has too high foottraffic to sell its coffee properly.

Their test markets were fine because they were trying to compete with Dutch Bros, which is exclusively a drive-through. They're also not in small towns, but rather large suburbs.

It failed because no one had any clue what CosMc's was. Does this look like a coffee shop to you:



They didn't even label themselves properly on Google Maps:


I doubt anyone driving by had any clue what CosMc's was.

Compare that to what the closest Dutch Bros looks like:


It says "coffee" on the sign, has pictures of drinks in the window, and has seating for walk-up orders. It also appears that you can order from a human instead of a kiosk.

It's a much friendlier design.

---

Reviews of CosMc's (major complaints are poor quality, small portions, and high prices):

---

McDonald's problems were greatly exacerbated when they moved their headquarters from the Chicago suburbs to a high-end restaurant district in downtown Chicago, which they did at a massive cost purely to be "cool". They lost all perspective on pricing after moving there. The closest restaurant to their HQ charges $42 for a (deep dish) pizza, which makes $10 for a McDonald's burger seem reasonable in comparison.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

It failed because no one had any clue what CosMc's was. Does this look like a coffee shop to you

In general, the CosMc's buildings were too large for coffee shops. I've seen some larger Starbucks shops that were obvious conversions from other brands (Long John Silver's, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC) but they were made to hang out inside. One CosMc's in the Dallas area had been through a bunch of names already, including KFC and Dunkin' Donuts.

Another in the Dallas area, 7304 Denton Hwy. was a former Pollo Tropical...there was another in a strip mall. But then you had the ones that were built new and even though they were smaller, they looked like they were converted from something else. Look at this...a giant cavernous overhang but you only get two tiny ordering kiosks and no places to sit except a few uncomfortable stone benches.

For a project that was meant to compete with Dutch Bros and the like, they really dropped the ball.

 

[Eventide]

Saw this on the NYPost site today:

Mcdonalds appearently use to own a riverboat restaurant! Neat. Why did corporate do away with all the cool themed restaurant?

It failed because no one had any clue what CosMc's was. Does this look like a coffee shop to you:

They look like knock off Planet Fitness locations (i.e. the shitty gym chain whose entire business model revolves around automatically extracting 5 dollars a month out of checking accounts from people who can't be bothered to figure out how to cancel payment on their gym subscriptions. Also they offer free pizza and tanning booths):

Spoiler: planet fitness