DailyDirt: The Golden Arches Has Over A Billion Served... But The Rate Is Slowing

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Apr 10th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

It's difficult to keep a good thing going without changing and adapting to the times. McDonald's is a national icon -- and it basically represents America to certain parts of the world. There's even a Big Mac Index to gauge currency exchange rates and global purchasing-power parity. McDonald's business has had some challenges in the last year, and the brand is the default whipping boy for activists. If you're still lovin' it, though, maybe you can get your favorite McBreakfast any time of the day now.

McDonald's breakfast menu seems to be the key to maintaining its fast food dominance. Getting an Egg McMuffin after 10:30 am appears to be an important menu option, but it might not be as easy as it sounds. [url]
It might sound simple to serve breakfast all day (since plenty of other places seem to do it), but McDonald's optimizes the space in its kitchens in a way that makes it difficult to expand its menu significantly during a lunch rush. Perhaps pancakes in the Age of Enlightenment will be a bit longer of a wait, but customers will learn to handle it. [url]
McDonald's faces increasing competition from more fast food joints in the US, and its reputation around the world is inconsistent and influenced by politics. This fast food giant could try a few different strategies to correct its course, so it'll likely try to experiment with operational changes in selected markets before changing its entire franchise network. [url]

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Filed Under: big mac index, breakfast, egg mcmuffin, food, menu
Companies: mcdonald's

13 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2015 @ 6:02pm

Better burgers are everywhere. McD still had good fries.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2015 @ 6:17pm

kicking the clown
Let's not ignore the big news story about McDonald's that just broke yesterday. Russia plans on creating its own fast-food chain and perhaps even sending McDonald's back to where it came from. Apparently people in Russia wanted an alternative greasy-burger source after the government ordered McDonald's restaurants shut down last year for "health code violations" during the heat of the US/NATO-Russia trade war. This follows the government's move last year to create a Russian credit card/payment service in response to being cut off by Western banks.

So patriotic Russians may soon be able to indulge in American-style fast food without sending their money to the evil Uncle Sam. Mcdonald's learned a hard lesson, that being the prominent face of American capitalism (or is it imperialism?)can indeed have its downside.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0410/A-Russian-rival-to-McDonald-s-New-chain-aim s-at-the-arches
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CharlieBrown, 10 Apr 2015 @ 7:40pm

Australia
You should see their new ad down here proclaiming how we've taken American McDomalds and Australianised it. I saw it last night for the first time. I was kind of sad afterwards!
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2015 @ 8:36pm

I heard McDonalds puts silicon in their food. The same silicon used in breast implants. Why do such a thing?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2015 @ 9:28pm

I stopped eating fast food when I began having diarrhea every night before class....hint hint!
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2015 @ 10:00pm

mcdonalds will ignore your community and impose its own will whether you like it or not - if you peacefully protest they will sue you into the poorhouse. to sell shit food.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/07/17/revealed-the-full-mcdonalds-tecoma-writs-and-affidavits/
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Cortland, 11 Apr 2015 @ 8:40am

Re: Green-Slime burgers
... I lost all respect for McDonalds when they quietly admitted adding disgusting "Green Slime" filler to their advertised "100% Pure Beef" burgers.
You can not trust their food quality.
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Kronomex, 11 Apr 2015 @ 3:13pm

One billion served, 10 million digested.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2015 @ 7:24pm

I stopped eating Micky D's years ago, when they tore down and rebuilt the place. I usually eat at that Dave Thomas's daughters place for lunch now. It says MOM right on the bag. Dave passed a few years back, from heart problems I heard, hope it wasn't due to too many bacon double cheeseburgers.
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ysth (profile), 12 Apr 2015 @ 7:28pm

Slowing down? Oh, no!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0HKE5vbws4

(not as good as Judy Small's original)
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John Fenderson (profile), 13 Apr 2015 @ 12:17pm

Re:
McDonald's fries aren't nearly as good as they were years ago. I'm not sure what they changed, but something did. That was pretty much when I stopped going to McDonald's entirely: the fries were the only thing on the menu that I thought were actually delicious, then they changed so now they're just not worth the bother of going there for.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2015 @ 2:56am

Re: Re:
I'm not sure what they changed, but something did.

The beef flavour was removed because of the vegans.
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Zonker, 14 Apr 2015 @ 5:04pm

Re: Re:
They stopped using the good tasting trans and saturated fat oils to fry them in and replaced it with that crap tasting unsaturated fat plant oils based on the belief that plant based oils are somehow better for you than animal based ones (despite the fact that we are animals). Sure makes better business for tax subsidized canola/soybean/sunflower growing farmers in the US though.
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