McDonald’s burger empire set for unprecedented growth over the next 4 years with 10,000 new stores
McDonald’s burger empire set for unprecedented growth over the next 4 years with 10,000 new stores
McDonald's used to be a decent fast food choice in France. But nowadays it's gotten super expensive and the portions are tiny, like the big Mac almost fits the palm of my hand. I'd rather go to any other fast food chain or small kebab joint when I need to scratch that itch before I'd go to McDonald's again.
Yeah I hadn't had their food in a while and we ended up going to one in Lisbon earlier this year. I was really surprised at how small the servings had gotten for what they're charging. I don't really understand why anybody would go there at this point. There's a lot of decent food out there for less money.
Not to forget that they are extremely shitty when it comes to vegetarian options especially compared to Burger King
the portions are tiny, like the big Mac almost fits the palm of my hand.
Well, McD is apparently also going to start making bigger burgers.
I wonder what they did with the Royal' with Cheese... Technically they could shrink that too since it doesn't have 1/4 pounder in the name.
even the 'quarter-pounder' has shrunk over the years. there's more fat ground-in now than there used to be, but same 'pre cooked' weight.
I think the expectations of consumers for a dine in experience is just a lot higher these days than McDonalds is interested or equipped to compete with and they're also in the process of pivoting towards a post-automation future.
This to me sounds like a company that is realigning their strategy to fit the market segment they think they have the best chance of capitalizing on, which is apparently faceless late stage capitalism burgers.
I’d honestly be more worried if my late stage capitalism burgers HAD faces.
Everything you describe appeals to me. The less I have to directly interact with their employees, the better.
Being able to take a few moments to ensure my order is complete and accurate, without delaying every other customer behind me, radically improves the customer experience.
Eliminating the two most error-prone steps (communicating between customer and staff, and entering the order into the register) greatly improves order accuracy.
Taco Bell is doing the same thing, but hasn't inflated their prices nearly as much as McDonalds. Burger King and Wendy's are lagging behind.
That is a return to their original business model that led to them becoming a global institution.
Their dining areas were famously uncomfortable, witht he focus on being easy to clean and maintain and discourage people from lingering. The color scheme of red and yellow is purposefully garish, and combine with the lighting to make you want to get your food and get out.
There used to be a set of slanted warming shelves connecting the kitchen in the back to the area behind the front counter. You'd walk in during peak times and see rows of sandwiches already assembled and wrapped. You'd order your food and the cashier would reach around and gather the food that had been prepared 15-30 minutes ago. If you wanted a burger without onions or mustard or whatever you'd have to stand awkwardly and wait. The drive-thru used to be quick, maybe a couple minutes total.
I haven't been to one in a few years so I'm not sure how it's changed recently, but starting in the 2000's they changed their business model to try to compete with places like Subway, Panera, Starbucks, Chipotle, etc. They introduced more greys and browns into their colorways. They expanded the menus with a ton more choice: novelty limited-time sandwiches, "healthy" options like salads and fruits, specialty coffees. They moved to making things to-order instead of having things pre-made. Wait times and prices both increased.
Every other "fast food" place seems to have followed them. The closest replacement I've seen is the expansion of gas station/convenience store food. Places like GetGo and Sheetz near me usually don't have drive-thru's, but I can quickly walk in and grab a pre-made sandwich for a few bucks and walk out.
What you are describing almost sounds to me like a modern automat.
I do see a role for automats. Door dash, grub hub or people who ordered ahead... Certain frequently bought items...
All in temp controlled lockers.
Couldn't disagree more, depending on the location.
Pretty much ever McDonald's outside of major cities is a social hub for locals. People will go there everyday and spend hours inside talking with each other.
The loss of decent "third places" in the US is so goddamned sad.
that used to be hardee's here.. covid took away the wall of mugs the old-timers used every morning.
Where?
This chain is like an infestation of poison mushrooms. Where is it not present yet that could merit opening another of choke-n-puke?
It plans to open 900 new stores in the U.S. and 1,900 in some of its bigger international markets like Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company said it plans another 7,000 stores in other international markets; more than half of those would be in China.
Ahh, so ~40% are in China.
So, a takeover by high cholestherol.
I get what you mean, but that is probably a bad analogy. Let me explain.
Just because a mushroom is poisonous doesn't mean its mycelium living underground isn't essential for all the plants and trees in the area. Depending on the species, mycelium can carry warning signals between different plants, boost the health of the plant, increase fruiting yields and even fend off other damaging fungi and bacteria. There is even a type that will make little hyphae lassos to trap and consume nematodes that can destroy some root systems.
McDonald's does none of those things for humans, even in an off-handed analogy kind of way, unfortunately. It anything, a poisonous outcrop of mushrooms gives back more to its local ecosystem than a Big Mac ever has.
Fungi are so misunderstood... ;)
McD and poison mushrooms do the same to humans: poison them. End of analogy.
I have an idea on how important of a role fungi play in nature and it's one of those life forms I really enjoy finding in wild.
Here in Korea there are some but not very many. I guess you could squish quite many in here. The question is only who will go there to buy something? I haven't been to McDonalds for years. It's good at night when nothing else is open but if I can choose then I'll probable choose something else.
Especially in Korea. I've read about that cuisine and I risk it has some really good food.
I used to live a 10 hour drive from the closest McDonald's. I think there was a lot of demand for the city that was in between.
/doubt
Yeah maybe they're opening 10,000 new stores, but when a Quarter pounder meal costs $17+tax (CAD) who's going to eat there anymore??
Oh, you want a single order of large fries? Sure, that'll be $5.79+tax. Nearly $7 for literally one potato worth of fries. Get fucked.
Terminally online people say this, but their annual profit has increased year over year except for 2020 when everything was shut down.
They had a 9.6% increase yoy from 2022. Which was itself a 5% increase from 2021.
And even with Covid they rebounded to exactly where they were as soon as the shutdowns hit.
They went down 12.7% from 2019 to 2020, but went back up 29% for 2020-2021 and has increased ever since.
So the question of who is gonna eat there is answered. It’s everyone except you apparently. Everyone else keeps buying and pushing their revenue and profit higher year over year.
They have had 2 bad years in the last 15. They probably know a wee bit more than the average Lemming.
I personally think it's that people lack the time, motivation, and/or knowledge to cook themselves. I can make a cheeseburger and fries at home for about $3-5 in about thirty minutes, including cleanup. Compared to a $15 meal, it's roughly the equivalent of saving $20/h.
Another issue could be home size is way down. If you live alone, you can't buy one hamburger bun, you have to buy 8. You can't buy a quarter pound of ground beef, minimum package size is usually 1 lb. If you buy the material to cook one meal, you're committing to cook three to seven more within the next 10 days. So you've signed up for leftovers or up to four hours of cooking.
Just for the record, I appreciate what you are saying is true but this would also relate to them cost cutting which they have done a lot of over the last few years to near fully automated. So less people may be going but their costs are lower and margins higher so growth continues.
Is that NCOS? 🤨
Canada just seems fucked then. I can't pull it up, it's morning, but I can buy a double QPC meal for about $9.
Factory meat from a factory restaurant from a factory country
Nuggets come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown!
Millions of nuggets, nuggets for me
My local McDonald's burnt down when the ice machine caught fire
No clue how people are so fond of McDonalds, there are literally so many other fast food choices that are superior in every way
Because in alot of areas it's the ONLY fast food restaurant
This is just categorically untrue. People go to McDonalds because they want to, even if they may not want to admit it.
A McDonalds franchise is, by far, one of the most expensive franchises to own and operate. They have strict rules on where you are allowed to open one and startup costs are in the millions, most are owned by investment groups and people who own multiple franchises.
If you have a McDonald’s, you have a market. So you most certainly also have a Subway, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, etc. Some of those franchises literally just plant themselves wherever a McDonalds is placed because it’s cheaper to do that then it is to do the market research yourself.
As an American: I’m sorry we’ve unleashed this upon you, rest of the world :(
After raising prices and doing away with all the good deals in their app (and adding an arbitration clause to it's tos)... I certainly don't eat there as much anymore. I'd be surprised if this expansion is sustainable.
What I don't get is McDonald's, really? Of all of the fast food chains McDonald's is the worst: quality, taste, appearance, everything. They're the worst burger fast food chain out there, how are we not seeing this growth with the better options? I'm just a bit confused lol
I hate fast food and burgers but I kinda like McDonalds. I mean I go there every other year but I kinda like it. It's the only place I like the fries from, I like the hamburger/cheeseburger, the patties in general, I like the big mac l, the ketchup, the sauces. I also only like their chicken nuggets, I hate chicken nuggets otherwise.
That being said, McDonalds's quality is vastly different around the world. I'll never forget the half burnt half frozen patty of the hamburger at the Denver airport. And in general how gross McDonalds was in the USA. In Germany I kind of like it. In Russia it was different but also ok, with some items being tastier and others super gross.
I'll never understand how people over the age of 20 seriously can eat at McDonald's/Burger King/KFC.
I liked it too when I was 15 but once I realised how overpriced and underquality it is, I stopped that completely. Only if it really really is the last and only option to get something to eat I would spend any money there.
Having had to pinch pennies to eat between paychecks recently, McDonald’s, while trash food, let me get a 1000 calorie meal for a little over 6 dollars through their app deals. Every other fast food chain app was basically selling me the window prices, which have significantly gone up. I think this has changed now, and they’ve gotten rid of those deals, but that was the reason for me at the time
They still have dollar drinks?
Hooray! What the world really needs right now is more cattle farming for burgers and more people driving to go and get their burgers.
more people driving to go and get their burgers
They do deliver these days.
And they all walk.
It plans to open 900 new stores in the U.S. and 1,900 in some of its bigger international markets like Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company said it plans another 7,000 stores in other international markets; more than half of those would be in China.
Somewhat ironically, this actually seems like a result of increased living conditions in developing countries.
I also wonder how much of the first world growth is because previously spots without enough foot traffic are now viable with the rise of mcdelivery...
Maybe McDonald's should be putting more effort into confronting the abusive staff?
Yet their biggest abuse is on the environment. It would be so much easier to add environment pollution tax on burgers than building five hundred million wind energy generators.
A start could be reducing the crazy subsidies cattle farming gets. We could reduce carbon emissions and have money to fund green projects.
That's 7 new locations per day for 4 years straight. Mind boggling... I wonder what the internal org chart for building this out looks like
That sounds... impossible?
That org chart involves a whole lot of people that speak Chinese, because much of this plan is basically “sell burgers in China.”
Like cancer
But wait, I thought "pEoPlE dOn'T wAnT tO woRk!"
People will work for 3 weeks to a year and quit then some other sucker gets on the wheel
In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell. Didn't McDonalds see the movie Demolition Man? We need to freeze Sylvester Stallone already so we can thaw him out.
So anyone want to explain to me how those 3 sea shells work already?
Is Wesley Snipes going to owe taxes for all those years he’s on ice?
Sugar, Salt, Fat, the perfect ingredients,
to cultivate obese addicts with failing kidneys.
But you're "loving it" right?
Same as I, why would that be?.. :)
Pretty much every restaurant loads their food up with sugar or salt because that's what makes it taste good.
We've become addicted to salt so much that we don't even realize we're getting too much of it. You won't make it as a chef if you don't make your food unhealthy. Putting in a healthy amount of salt will always result in your food tasting 'bland.'
They sell salty hamburgers spurlock. Real murder shit right there 🙄.
Self control and responsibility is dead. I guess we have to look towards our ceos to ensure only lettuce wrapped ground turkey is available! Daddy tell me what to eat!
Your list is the cornerstone of making good food. Nothing left but acids for taste answer that
Hmm. The McDonalds in my town had a small fire in the kitchen in 2020. It has been surrounded by "Reopening soon" signs since then. Color me sceptical.
Quantity over quality
whyyyyyyyyy
Not a surprise. People love going there.
I really don't understand why. It's trash food and it's not even that cheap anymore.
It's not fast either.
Its selling point for me was that it was quick and cheap. If it's neither of those things then I have way better alternatives.
10,000 new McFlurry machines that are out of order
Buying stock in ice cream machine repair see y'all on the moon
The company is called Taylor. Not sure if they're public. IFixIt has a video dissecting why the machines are always broken.
Although most of these restaurants are opening in highly lactose intolerant nations. So that might not be a big problem.