McShudder

Poststructural Pub
1

Y’know… I got these problems with McDonald’s. It also applies to much of the quick-service food industry in general.

  • It tastes yucky.
  • It’s marketed to children, who are too young to know better.
  • It makes Americans look stupid for being home to such a company.
  • It replaces regional variety with stuff that tastes yucky.
  • They got all this greasy junk, yet no Tater Tots. Likewise they have milkshakes and no malts. Also, they pretend like a Soft-Serve with a bit of chocolate pudding on it is a hot fudge sundae.
  • Monthly promos.
  • Inane advertising jingles that grate the nerves.
2

I always feel bad (physically) after eating fast-food like McDonalds, Burger King, etc.. For this reason, I haven’t eaten there in over a year. (And only rarely before that.) I’m fortunate enough to live in a place with plenty of other options.

3

If we have to eat at one (sometimes when doing festivals, we don’t have food with us, and/or need to grab something quickly) I’ll get a salad and grilled chicken, or such.
I really prefer Wendy’s, cuz you can get salad and baked potatos.

4

I hate fast food I try to avoid it at all costs.

5

I haven’t been to McDonald’s in years. Nothing for vegetarians on their menu . . . even the flavoring for the fries contains beef extract. I had a veggie BK at Burger King well over a year ago and used to get baked potatoes at Wendy’s, but I don’t frequent fast food resturants often. Greek diners are GREAT . . . eggs and toast and home fries and coffee and usually very inexpensive.
If you’re feeling irritated at McDonald’s, Walden, I think you’d enjoy watching “Super Size Me”. :smiley:

6

I enjoy McDonald’s breakfast foods, but I don’t care much for their burgers.

I don’t particularly enjoy their fries either…fact is, it is really difficult to get good french fries from a fast food joint these days.

Maybe it’s the “freedom fries” rename. That seems to include the concept of freedom from cleaning and sorting the potatoes, and freedom from ever changing the grease they are cooked in. :roll:

–James

7

I agree wholeheartedly.

Recently, MacDonald’s has been rolling out new items like walnut-apple and ginger chicken salads. This was the result of a complaint made by a cardiologist that the medical center where he worked had a MacD’s. He didn’t feel it sent the appropriate message to recovering heart patients. MacD’s has been endeavoring to change it’s menu there to avoid being kicked out.

VA facilities have Burger King. There is a thing on the wall telling you how their items are a good choice.

They also have a greasy pizza emporium and a greasy “home cooking” affair, with fried chicken, fried potato wedges, greasy biscuits, etc. Then, there is the “soul food” emporium, featuring such delights as ham hocks, ribs, pigs feet, smothered chicken, potatoes and gravy, and vegetables in soul seasoning (mostly salt, MSG, fatback, bacon, and more grease).

The breakfast special one day . . . I am not making this up . . . was pan-fried potatoes and onions, biscuit (scone dripping with margarine) and gravy (white gravy with chunks of sausage), two fried runny eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausage links or patties, two rather large slices of ham and red-eye gravy, and two smothered chicken breasts. If you wanted pancakes (extremely greasy), they’d toss on two of those for an extra 50 cents. With melted butter and syrup.

I remember this clearly because it was so astounding. They had trouble getting the lid closed on the container. People were actually eating all of it.

The total cost of this affair was $2.50. An egg, toast, and fruit, or yogurt and a bagel, was in the range of $4.50. That does not send a good message.

There is a sandwich emporium, too. You can actually get a veggie, veggie and cheese, or tuna on a pita wrap or fresh whole wheat roll. Because they offer that, they feel they’re doing the right thing.

All of the lunch specials used to come with a giant soft drink. We were able to get them to let us have a liter of water instead of the soft drink and a half-sandwich instead of a whole.

But there is still Burger King and the Grease Emporium. They send the wrong message to the patients.

Oh, and we’re getting Starbucks. Right in the hospital itself. I’m wondering if they’ll have the pastries. :roll:

8

The last couple years of high school I ate at McD’s and the other fast food places constantly (that’s what your driver’s license is for right?). Then I met my girlfriend and her mother’s cooking turned me onto the wonders of real food (not that my mom’s own cooking was bad! My mom’s a lovely cook).

After a couple years I had a BigMac while I was waiting for a class or something. I got violently ill, like my stomach was eating itself. I’ve had various burger joint things since then and it happens every time. I guess you develop an immunity to it as a kid, but once it’s gone, watch out!

9

And then there is always the . . . gallbladder attack. :moreevil:

A guaranteed, sure-fire deterrent.

10

If you want more impetus to swear off fast food for good, read “Fast Food Nation”. It’ll open your eyes, turn your stomach, and slam your wallet shut anywhere near one of the joints!

11

Now THAT’s food I could get behind! Some of Grandma’s fried apples would make a good dessert with it.

12

Personally, if I can avoid McDonalds, i will. BK and Wendy’s and such, I can tolerate, but in EXTREME moderation. If I’m ever out on the road, I make my best effort to find a Subway of such. My dad says he feels horrible after eating fast food. I’ve even seen people hop from Hardees, to Burger King, to McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc…those darn bicyclists.

13
14

It’s amazing, isn’t it? McDonald’s does somewhere between 40 and 50 billions dollars a year in sales, and yet nobody eats there. Or admits to it, anyway.

Some other items of interest –

McDonald’s also owns Boston Market (fast food meat loaf) and Chipoltle Grill (fast food burritos). Family grease and Mexigrease.

And McDonald’s is taking the lead in internal outsourcing. In early 2005, they set up a trial call center in Fargo, ND, to take orders from the drive-throughs in Oregon and Washington because minimum wage was cheaper in North Dakota. Look for curry drive through as soon as they can get rid of the Indians’ accents. Your drivethrough beamed by satellite to Bangalore.

And now a moment of silence for their two CEOs who dropped dead in the last 18 months or so.

15

also of interest - they take advantage of some federal funds for “training” of employees, so that they can enter the work force with more and better ‘skills’… and they get to do so with each new ‘unskilled’ trainee, who lasts and average of a few months… not a bad way to pad out the bottom line.

16

My biggest irritation with the fast “food” places is that more often than not, the order you get is not what you ORDERED. :moreevil:

It’s bad enough that I eat this crap, but when I do, why is it too much to ask to actually get what I ordered?

17

I stop at McDonalds on my road trips quite frequently. Their senior coffee for 42 cents is a good value. I also like the McChicken sandwich for 99 cents. I tell them to hold the mayo and add pickle and onion. And the side salad with the Paul Newman salad dressing choices is also a good value for 99 cents.

One of the McDonalds that I often stop at has a little lounge area with a fireplace and two stuffed lounge chairs. I am not sure what it is for. Sometimes I sit in one of the chairs and ask one of the staff to send me the cocktail waitress. You know, I have always been there at the wrong time, because the cocktail waitress is always on break.

18

-Nobody wants to admit to a MacD meal like nobody wanted to admit to voting for Richard Nixon. The beef tallow in the fry oil should have caused a much bigger scandal IMO as many Hindus and others violated dietary convictions unintentionally due to MacD’s practice. -Not that there’s not plenty of other reasons to avoid most fast food, but this was bad, an unethical & cynical practice if intentional, and plain stupid if unintentional.

I loved the taste of Big Macs but have avoided them for years.

19

Well, I’m not fond of their burgers, but I don’t see McD’s as the Evil Empire either.

I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten sick from anything I ordered there, though I can’t say that of little mom-and-pop places, as I have gotten quite ill from eating at a couple of those.

I do think if you have religious convictions that lead you to avoid beef products, you shouldn’t eat there (or even walk in the door, really). Kind of like, if you don’t care to be around guns, don’t go in a gun shop.

–James

20

Haven’t eaten at McDonalds in about 20 years though I drove through to get beanie babies back in the early 90s for the kids Slaphappy Meals. I thought BK was better in principle because of the open grill until I found out that they probably add flamebroil flavor from the flavor factory in NJ (see Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation) BK fries used to cut my tongue, and I still don’t know why… Never go to any of the rest of em. I tried Pollo Loco a year ago but it wasn’t any good. Taco Bell could be good but they use cheap oil to make their chips…and they have the blandest beans on the planet. They probably sprinkle preservative stuff on the lettuce too…

THe only really good corporate fast food joint that I have experienced in recent years is Sonic and that was in Tennessee. We don’t have em here yet. Big menu, good milkshakes. Plenty of snacky stuff. Oh yeah, we have InNOut but I just didn’t think it was as good as the hype. I tried it once.

I just don’t think a corporate franchise can make a decent burger anymore because it’s too controlled and weird. Joe’s Cable Car Burger in SFO is good, the guy sits in a little kitchen and grinds the beef fresh but they charge like $5 a piece for ‘em. In the old days of burger franchises, I think they always had a grinder onsite. Makes a huge difference. When I was a kid, I ate at A&W because I liked the rootbeer, but I didn’t have enough appetite to eat a PapaBurger, Baby Burger was too small, Teen BUrger had bacon (which I have never understood, mixing meats) so I settled for a MamaBurger but was embarrassed to admit it…Bringin’ home a quart or halfgallon of their tap rootbeer made the day complete.