As far as I can tell the whole appeal of McDonald’s is bland but edible food, quickly, at a low price.
Over the years, they’ve switched to what appears to be a prepare by order method so it’s no longer quick (it used to be on the little racks behind them, all pre-made), and it’s no longer cheap (especially if you get delivery and therefore immediately send half your dinner money to a Silicon Valley billionaire). It’s not quite Burger King levels of pricing, but it’s getting close.
The only thing they’ve got left is bland but edible, and that’s only desirable if you’re feeding a bunch of picky children.
There are so many better places to eat, and they don’t cost an enormous amount more.
It’s definitely a lot slower. I remember working there and at lunchtime they’d be working the grills 24 down - basically double the usual capacity and that stuff was wrapped and put into the racks constantly. They’d try and make burgers to meet demand with a holding time by which the burger should be sold by or thrown into a red bin. Usually it worked fine and waste was minimal but I assume some beancounter thinks that system and red bin waste costs McDonalds more money than it does to waste 5-10 minutes of somebody’s lunch break. If people get pissed off by the wait though they might consider going somewhere else - after all, if they’re going to wait, why not in a place where something more substantial than a burger is being prepared.
Or even a more substantial burger. I just learned that the standard McDonald’s burger patty is 45 grams (that’s 1.6 oz or approximately 1 medium celery stalk in freedom units). 45 grams! Only the quarter pounder has the 4 oz (113g for the rest of us or the weight of two large eggs for the Americans) patty.
This is all the pre-cooked weight. If your average patty loses 25% of its weight during cooking, that 45g patty becomes about 34g. WTF.
I don’t think the production method has changed, I worked there a decade ago and it seems to be the same, essentially precook the meat and assemble to order. However, I think they no longer pay employees enough to care about speed. They don’t pay more now than when I worked there. In fact, I moved to a state where they pay LESS. Why the hell would anyone working there bust their ass to get food out quickly? You get what you pay for.
They used to have it so those racks behind the counter were stuffed with already made standard prep burgers, and if you just wanted that you’d get one pulled off the shelf and be served in seconds.
You only had prep-to-order if you wanted the change the default configuration, no lettuce, no mayo, etc.
BK here is cheaper and wayyyyyy better than McD. So weird when people say “at least McD is consistent” - that doesn’t help if “consistent” is inedible garbage.
BK opened up in my country with slightly higher prices than McD and slightly better burgers.
Then McD went up to match and now BK has also gone up again
And then there’s Hesburger which makes McD and BK seem like gourmet food, but has increased in price to keep up with them. It’s getting to the point where there are somewhat nice restaurants that give you a real fucking meal for maybe an euro or two more than a BK meal lmao
A BK opened near my office a year or two ago. I’ve never had a burger I’d describe as depressing before then. But that Bacon King or whatever they called sure was.
As far as I can tell the whole appeal of McDonald’s is bland but edible food, quickly, at a low price.
Over the years, they’ve switched to what appears to be a prepare by order method so it’s no longer quick (it used to be on the little racks behind them, all pre-made), and it’s no longer cheap (especially if you get delivery and therefore immediately send half your dinner money to a Silicon Valley billionaire). It’s not quite Burger King levels of pricing, but it’s getting close.
The only thing they’ve got left is bland but edible, and that’s only desirable if you’re feeding a bunch of picky children.
There are so many better places to eat, and they don’t cost an enormous amount more.
It’s definitely a lot slower. I remember working there and at lunchtime they’d be working the grills 24 down - basically double the usual capacity and that stuff was wrapped and put into the racks constantly. They’d try and make burgers to meet demand with a holding time by which the burger should be sold by or thrown into a red bin. Usually it worked fine and waste was minimal but I assume some beancounter thinks that system and red bin waste costs McDonalds more money than it does to waste 5-10 minutes of somebody’s lunch break. If people get pissed off by the wait though they might consider going somewhere else - after all, if they’re going to wait, why not in a place where something more substantial than a burger is being prepared.
Or even a more substantial burger. I just learned that the standard McDonald’s burger patty is 45 grams (that’s 1.6 oz or approximately 1 medium celery stalk in freedom units). 45 grams! Only the quarter pounder has the 4 oz (113g for the rest of us or the weight of two large eggs for the Americans) patty.
This is all the pre-cooked weight. If your average patty loses 25% of its weight during cooking, that 45g patty becomes about 34g. WTF.
Ok, converting to imperial is nice but then acting like we don’t understand our own measures is just insulting.
Here in Germany Burger King is actually cheaper than McDonald’s, especially when you use coupons, since the ones at Burger King are actually useful.
I don’t think the production method has changed, I worked there a decade ago and it seems to be the same, essentially precook the meat and assemble to order. However, I think they no longer pay employees enough to care about speed. They don’t pay more now than when I worked there. In fact, I moved to a state where they pay LESS. Why the hell would anyone working there bust their ass to get food out quickly? You get what you pay for.
It was a lot longer ago than that.
They used to have it so those racks behind the counter were stuffed with already made standard prep burgers, and if you just wanted that you’d get one pulled off the shelf and be served in seconds.
You only had prep-to-order if you wanted the change the default configuration, no lettuce, no mayo, etc.
BK here is cheaper and wayyyyyy better than McD. So weird when people say “at least McD is consistent” - that doesn’t help if “consistent” is inedible garbage.
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BK opened up in my country with slightly higher prices than McD and slightly better burgers.
Then McD went up to match and now BK has also gone up again
And then there’s Hesburger which makes McD and BK seem like gourmet food, but has increased in price to keep up with them. It’s getting to the point where there are somewhat nice restaurants that give you a real fucking meal for maybe an euro or two more than a BK meal lmao
A BK opened near my office a year or two ago. I’ve never had a burger I’d describe as depressing before then. But that Bacon King or whatever they called sure was.
You feed picky children by giving them anything they don’t eat the next day.