Posts Tagged ‘Mcdonalds’
Supermac beats Big Mac in stodge wars
In Ireland you can eat at one of Pat McDonagh’s Supermac fast-food eateries. McDonagh earned the nickname Supermac for his showing in a Gaelic football match in the late 1960s between his school Carmelite college of Moate, County Westmeath, and St Gerald’s.
A Supermac burger is not to be confused with a McDonald’s burger. The US fast-food giant sought to block the Supermac brand over intellectual property right matters. McDonald’s argued that Supermac would create confusion on the high street, causing punters looking for a cheap meaty sandwich to mistakenly buy a, er, cheap meaty sandwich.
Supermac won the day. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) cancelled McDonald’s use of the “Big Mac” trademark. Supermac is now free to sell its grub throughout the EU. “We said there’d be no confusion. Big Mac and Supermac are two different things,” said McDonagh, 65. Indeed they are: one is Big and one is Super. The race for the burger with the biggest superlative is on.
Poo found on every McDonald’s touchscreen tested
Is McDonald’s chasing the authentic farm-to-table experience by smearing poo on its touchscreen monitors, Touch. Inhale. And in an instant you’re cow-side at the farm. Metro reports on findings by the London Metropolitan University whose researchers found fecal matter on every touchscreen they tested across eight different McDonald’s restaurants – six in London and two in Birmingham. On all screens the researchers found coliforms – bacteria found in digestive tracts and turds.
Paul Matewele, a microbiology lecturer at London Metropolitan University, is quoted: “Touchscreen technology is being used more and more in our daily lives but these results show people should not eat food straight after touching them. They are unhygienic and can spread disease. Someone can be very careful about their own hygiene throughout the day but it could all be undone by using a touchscreen machine once.”
No proof that it has. But the theory is there. Maybe McDonald’s customers should be sheep-dipped on entry and exit? And is eight screens a big test? Surely not. McDonald’s operates approximately 1300 restaurants in the UK of which around 1100 are franchised. The Metro doesn’t say who owns the eateries the researchers checked. McDonald’s says it said cleans the self-order screens throughout the day. Sadly it doesn’t clean its patrons.
This research is thinner than, well, anyone who eats at a McDonald’s. The fact is that anywhere where people touch things without first washing their hands thoroughly present a risk of contamination. Why else do you think Ronald McDonald wears gloves?
Posted: 1st, December 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, The Consumer | Comment
The scandal of Motorway coffee costing more
The Daily Mail has noticed that a coffee at a motorway services station costs more from McDonalds, Costa or KFC than it does from the same outlets not at a motorway services station. The explanation for this is really very simple – rent – and it’s the one explanation that we’re not given. Which is a pity because it is a very simple explanation.
Breaking up your journey with a coffee stop at a motorway service station? You may find it breaks the bank too.
An investigation has found that roadside stores charge up to 28 per cent more for a medium latte – costing motorists an extra 74p compared with the high street.
How desperately awful, eh?
Breaking up your journey with a coffee stop at a motorway service station? You may find it breaks the bank too.
An investigation has found that roadside stores charge up to 28 per cent more for a medium latte – costing motorists an extra 74p compared with the high street.
We’re given varied reasons for this, including the station operators claiming that it’s more expensive to operate such stations than general run of the mill services so therefore prices are higher. But it’s why costs are higher than matters and that’s rent.
The basic underlying story here goes all the way back to the very dawn of economics when David Ricardo published his book on rent, in 1817. If you can produce more crop from a piece of land then the rent on it will be higher than land that produces less. We can say the same thing by insisting that the cost of the land will be higher where there’s more money to be made. A third way of saying just that same thing is that the landlord always gets a chunk of whatever can be produced from a piece of land.
This is actually why Starbucks was making no profit – thus paying no tax – a few years back. They had lots of leases on lots of buildings that would be good to sell coffee out of. Because the landlords get a piece of that action places good to sell coffee out of have higher rents. Starbucks wasn’t making a profit selling lots of coffee but the landlords were doing just fine.
But that’s where there are lots of shops around. Starbucks couldn’t raise the price of coffee in those expensive places because if they did then we’d go to the one around the corner. Where prices were lower because they were paying less rent. That landlord’s share was thus coming out of Starbucks profits, not ours, the customers.
Now replay the same game but where there isn’t another shop just around the corner. We all know that lots of money can be made running a services station. Once people have decided to go there they’re a rather captive market though. So rents are high. But instead of those high rents coming out of the profits of the operators, they come out of our pockets in the form of higher prices. Because once we’re there we cannot go to another coffee shop.
There is no solution to this either. Just because there are only so many service stations, and once we stop at one we’re going to be doing our buying there, there’s lots of money to be had from running a service station. That means high rents – and that will, because of the lack of competition, lead to higher prices.
It really is all there in Ricardo’s book from 1817. It’s about time everyone understood it too, isn’t it? Two centuries being long enough?
Image: The Drive of Our Lives – The Heyday of the Motorway Service Station
Posted: 8th, May 2018 | In: Key Posts, Money, News, The Consumer | Comment
Daily Mail gives Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs an unwarranted kick
Giving footballers a kicking is lazy. Take the Mail’s treatment of former Manchester United great Ryan Giggs, who was in Malta for England’s World Cup Qualifying match on Friday 1 September. The game kicked off at 19:45. Around 2 hours later, Giggs was wrapping things up and heading back to the hotel.
As McDonald’s Head of Welsh Football, Giggs had to get some sleep before heading home to present the Welsh Community Football Awards “to recognise those who dedicate their time, effort and hard work into grassroots football throughout Wales”. The ceremony was set for September 2 at the Cardiff City Stadium, where Giggs’ Wales were taking on Austria in their own World Cup qualifier.
Giggs is working hard
But this is how the Mail reported things:
Ryan Giggs is well known in Malta due to the time he has spent on the island, starting from his early days at Manchester United. He also invested in a hotel group there with Gary Neville.
Nevertheless Giggs, along with ITV colleagues Paul Ince, Ian Wright and Glenn Hoddle, chose to return home from Malta as soon as possible after the game on Friday – even if it meant a 5.30am exit from their hotel on Saturday.
Task! And after all Malta has done for him…
Posted: 5th, September 2017 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Sports | Comment
Man busted for dipping cotton wool on McDonald’s coffee and rubbing them over his skin
To a McDonald’s in Roseburg, Oregon, where coffee is a perfume:
Posted: 15th, March 2015 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Indie band Ex Cops open letter to McDonald’s who asked them to play for burgers during SXSW
Happy day for Amalie Bruun and Brian Harding. The pop duo known as Ex Cops are invited to play at the Austin, Texas, SXSW. It would be just great. Think of the exposure. Think of the fans. Don’t think of the money because the invite from McDonald’s wants you to appear for free.
The Ex Cops’ replied via their Facebook page:
‘McDonald’s asked us to play SXSW. This is Brian’s open letter about it.
This week our band was asked to play the McDonald’s Showcase at the annual South by Southwest, also known to music insiders as “SXSW.”
Their selling point was that this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc”
I don’t, and doubt that they know what this means either.
Getting past that rhetoric, at the very least a big corporation like McDonald’s can at least pay their talent a little. Right?
“There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately)”
As of 2013, McDonalds is valued at 90.3 billion dollars.
I won’t get into the internet semantics of things you’ve probably seen on your Facebook feed; like that thing where it takes a McDonald’s worker 4 months to earn what the CEO makes in an hour, or their GMO love affair, and I will certainly spare you the bounty of photos showing how they treat their animals.
In lieu of being paid like a real artist, or anyone who is employed to do a service, McDonald’s assures us that we will “be featured on screens throughout the event, as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”
We recently headlined a show at the Brooklyn venue Baby’s Alright. They are by no means a DIY venue, but they are still an independent small business. The owners are people our age who used to book shows at Pianos and busted their asses to open a venue of their own in Brooklyn.
While I haven’t asked Billy or Zach how much they make annually (that would be weird) I’m going to guess they’re not looking at brownstones in Prospect Park at the moment. Yet when we played, we were paid very very fairly, were provided with drink tickets, and each band member fed a full entree from their menu (try the Brussels sprouts)
I will also go ahead and save time for any schill / troll rebuttals; “Are the other showcases paying you? No one is holding a gun to your head!” This is true. It is our choice (pretty much) to fly to Austin, play shows without soundcheck, and get paid nothing to a little. But hear this loud and clear, we LOVE making music, it is what we do, and despite some of its very apparent flaws, SXSW still provides a decent venue to be heard by some people who are really there to hear new music and not just do blow with dudes who wear square toe loafers.
It is a horrifying and gross reality when one sees the true nature of corporations and their pathetic attempts to achieve relevance with millennials. Doritos received a lot of flack for their stage a couple years ago, but i’m going to assume they paid Lady Gaga.
Oh, I almost forgot; “McDonald’s will offer free food to all audience members”
I don’t doubt that tons of bands will kowtow to this lame, lame attempt at a rock show. And I’m aware that to achieve any exposure is a Herculean task in 2015, but the Boethian Wheel is a real thing, and this will continue to exist if we, as artists, keep saying yes in exchange for a taste of success. Even if smells like a shitty Fish filet.’
Can you be a burger artiste? Just wondering because McDonald’s have a few opportunities – all unpaid – for anyone who can pump sauce into intersting shapes…
Posted: 7th, March 2015 | In: Key Posts, Music, The Consumer | Comment
In 1979 The War On Drugs Outlawed The McDonald’s Spoon
MCDONALDS alientated a key demographic among its clientele: the drugs user.
McDonalds created a spoon that could measure out exactly 100 milligram amount of drugs. No, not sugar or salt (those will be banned soon enough), rather speed, cocaine and whatever else the cool kids were buying to get stoned with.
Anti-drugs lobbyists led to the spoon’s removal from view, it being classed as drugs “paraphernalia”.
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Posted: 23rd, September 2014 | In: The Consumer | Comment
McDonald’s Terminates Worker Who Put Free Swastika In Woman’s Chicken Sandwich
LUCKY Charleigh Matice found a Swastika in her McDonald’s chicken sandwich, bought at a brand in Morehead City, North Carolina.
Eat yer heart out, Hamburglar. This is the surprise gift that will get the kids flocking to the store.
But Charleigh was upset by the free extra. She says her grandfather fought for the Allies World War II. It’s not what he would have wanted.
McDonald’s is swift to punish:
“We are very sorry for the service that our customers received, and to be clear we have terminated the employee who was involved. We do not tolerate that kind of behavior at McDonald’s, and it’s not what we stand for personally as owners. It is about providing the best level of service and care to our customers, and anything less than that is unacceptable to us.”
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Posted: 12th, August 2014 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
This Terribly Stupid Strike Against McDonald’s
THERE’S a very stupid piece of labour activism going on over in the US. It’s a series of strikes and demonstrations against McDonald’s over the pay that the people working in the stores receive. The reason it’s such a silly set of demos and strikes is simply that McDonald’s doesn’t actually employ the workers. So why shout at the people who can’t change the situation?
More than 100 demonstrators seeking better pay for McDonald’s workers were arrested as protesters swarmed the fast-food chain’s corporate campus near Chicago demanding a minimum wage of $15 (£8.88) an hour and the right to unionise.
The protest against McDonald’s Corp, the world’s biggest restaurant operator by revenue, came a day before a shareholder vote on executive pay, including that of Chief Executive Don Thompson, who earned total compensation of $9.5 million (£5.62 million) in 2013.
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McDonald’s Fan Stian Ytterdahl Gets Entire Menu Tattooed On His Arm
MEET 18-year-old Stian Ytterdahl of Lørenskog, Sweden. He’s got a tattoo on his arm of the entire McDonald’s menu.
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Posted: 27th, March 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Drunk Yorkshire Woman Drove To McDonald’s Drive Thru When Staff Refused To Seve Her Unless She Was In A Car
Posted: 23rd, March 2014 | In: Strange But True | Comment
McDonald’s Gets Dinged By The French Taxman
IT’S something of a pity that the various taxmen across Europe don’t actually understand the tax laws that they’re supposed to be administering. We had the case a couple of weeks back of Italy trying to impost the “Google Tax” in clear violation of EU law and here we’ve the French taxman going after McDonalds. Again, seemingly ignorant of the fact that they’re just not allowed to do this under EU law.
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Brilliant man invents the McEverything
WASTING time is a glorious endeavour and one writer has done something that is of zero use to anyone, but brilliant all the same.
He’s gone and invented the McEverything, which is basically the ultimate McDonald’s burger which has every sandwich on the menu contained within.
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Chicken McNugget rage video: customer threatens to eat waitress’s face and ‘shit it out into the gutter’
I LIKE Chicken McNuggets. You like Chicken McNuggets. This woman loves chicken McNuggets. But, then, she also likes eating the fast food worker’s face and “****ing it out into the gutter”. After I while, I guess your tastebuds just die:
Other key utterances not on the menu:
“I’m gonna eat your ***ing face and I’m gonna digest it, and shit it out into the gutter”
“Don’t make me assume my ultimate form”
“I’ll do more than just ****ing hiss at you”
“…you fat meatbag, I will end you”
“I want my ****ing nuggets”
“You want a piece of me”
(No. I want 20 pieces with sauce on the side)
“I will get my super sayan”
Posted: 16th, July 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Behold! The Irishman stuck in a baby seat in McDonald’s!
THE Irish are an unfairly maligned people, often jibed at for being a country of dimwits. However, like all national stereotypes, there’s always one berk on-hand to live up to it.
And so, we go to a McDonald’s in Cork (bring back the Oriental McRib, please) where a man managed to get himself stuck in a baby seat like a big buffoon.
Of course, the Gardai had to be called out and here’s the picture evidence.
“McDonald’s is aware of the incident involving a customer who decided to sit in one of our children’s high-chairs in Winthrop Street,” said a representative from McDonald’s.
“And as you can see, we recommend that children don’t use the high-chair without adult supervision!”
The man fulfilled another Irish stereotype while he was at it: He was reportedly drunk at the time.
Posted: 16th, May 2013 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Fast food legends: creator of the McDonald’s Chicken McNugget dies
A LEGEND whose work impacted on all of our lives has died. Former McDonald’s CEO Fred Turner, creator of the Chicken McNugget, has died:
Last week when he was in the hospital, Mr. Turner turned to his daughter, Teri Turner, and two of his grandchildren.
“He said to us, ‘Who’s had a better life than me?’ “ she recalled. “He said, ‘I did something with my life. I made a difference.’ ”
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Posted: 10th, January 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Thanks for the Olympic McDonald’s (photo tribute)
THANKS, McDonalds. Thanks for a great London 2012 Olympics! Now for Rio!
McDonald’s medal table says Team USA are beating Team China
HOW is Team USA getting along in the 2012 Olympics? Well, it turns out that in spite of winning fewer gold medals than China, the Americans are winning. The McDonald’s Olympics table on NBC shows that Team USA are well ahead of Team World. It’s all those bronze medals, readers – which is understandable given that McDonald’s gives its own staff gold stars aplenty…
Spotter: DaiBaker
Posted: 9th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
What the McDonald’s Olympics tells us about shyster-friendly Government
YOU’LL have heard of this no chips but McDonald’s chips at the Olympic sites, yes? Because Mickey D’s is the official fast food sponsor of the Games. If people are going to be fed chip butties then they’re going to be from Mickey D’s.
One particular site is complaining in a slightly more sophisticated manner:
Companies like McDonald’s do sponsorship deals all the time. They’re very good at negotiating them. But this isn’t just any old sponsorship deal. It’s a massively important public event, in which it’s a privilege – for spectators, athletes and sponsors – to participate. Every potential sponsor should have been made very strongly aware of that from the outset.
In other words, if LOCOG had been stronger negotiators – if they had been more confident in what they had to offer to sponsors – the Olympics, for God’s sake – then the balance of power would be more even and we would be reading fewer of these depressing stories.
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Posted: 13th, July 2012 | In: Money | Comments (3)
Racist ad of the day: 1976 McDonald’s
RACIST advert of the day harks back to 1976, when the Golden Arches welcomed black folks inside with the news that thee don’t ahve to get dressed up and “there’s no tipping”. “Get down with your food” at the place where yo mama’s legs are optional…
Posted: 9th, July 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Behind the scenes on a McDonald’s photo shoot
YOU know food adverts that look nothing like the actual food. Well, Hope Bagozz, marketing director McDonald’s Canada has filmed the makings of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese photo shoot. (No need to rush, Mr photographer. That burger cannot be killed by conventional weapons.)
via PetaPixel
Posted: 22nd, June 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
LOCOG celebrates ‘best of British’ with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nature Valley and Heineken
THE latest missive from the The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) is headlined: “London 2012 serves up the best in British food.”
Oh, really?
The “800 spectator concessions…will showcase the great diversity and quality of British food.”
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Escaped cow heads to McDonald’s drive-thru
TO Brush, Colorado, where escaped cow Darcy has arrived at her destination, a McDonald’s drive-through.
Was she looking for an old pal?
Read: The Long Life Of A McDonald’s Happy Meal In Pictures
Posted: 26th, April 2012 | In: Strange But True | Comment
