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

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

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

DailyDirt: Some Nice Graphs....

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Having lots of data doesn't always make things easier to understand. Interpreting a vast amount of figures is becoming an increasingly important skill, and visualizing information can be a nice way to present an argument. We're always on the lookout for interesting conclusions based on lots of experimental evidence, so if you've got some examples, send them our way in the comments. In the meantime, check out a few of these cool links.

• Hans Rosling's "classic" Ted talk on global health statistics is one of the best demonstrations of infographics ever. Google acquired that Trendalyzer software, but making your own animated bubble charts isn't quite as entertaining. [url]
• Here's an interesting graph comparing 'deaths per kWh' for a variety of energy technologies. Nuclear power's very low fatality rate seems debatable, though. And if coal mining deaths are counted, then it'd also be nice to see a comparison of the dangers of coal mining versus uranium mining... [url]
• The Economist tried crowdsourcing a version of its Big Mac index and came up with some pricing data within the US & China. Really, though, these graphs probably just tell you where the most Economist readers live. [url]
• An analysis of the world's billionaires creates some neat graphs. The graphs aren't that pretty, but the top 5 individuals with the highest age-to-wealth ratio is an interesting ranking. [url]
• To discover more stuff on research & research tools, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

Filed Under: big mac index, billionaires, graphs, hans rosling, nuclear power, trendalyzer
Companies: google