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McDonald’s burger empire set for unprecedented growth over the next 4 years with 10,000 new stores (english.elpais.com)

submitted 11 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] BeansPurkeypile@lemmy.world 72 points 11 months ago

10,000 new McFlurry machines that are out of order

[-] fluxion@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Buying stock in ice cream machine repair see y'all on the moon

[-] Joelk111@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

The company is called Taylor. Not sure if they're public. IFixIt has a video dissecting why the machines are always broken.

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[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 68 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago

That's how it's been in the US for a long time. It's just simply not worth the money for what you get.

[-] xpinchx@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I got down voted last time I mentioned this, but the app usually has pretty good deals if you just need a quick bite. Two spicy chickens for $3 is my go-to.

[-] TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Don’t you have to waive your right to sue McDonalds if you use their app or was that just an internet rumor? I don’t eat there or ise the app so don’t know but thought I read something like that.

[-] xpinchx@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I just looked it up you're right lol. I imagine it's intended for pricing compliance and maybe data security, those are common lawsuits. If you get food poisoning and they find food safety violations... or if the golden arches falls on your car, or really any other negligence they're still on the hook.

Compliance is a really big deal in corporations and pricing is a big one. Again not a lawyer tho.

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[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago

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.

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[+] LarryTheMatador@sh.itjust.works 45 points 11 months ago

[deleted]

[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 20 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 16 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Taco Bell has definitely inflated their prices by a massive margin.

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[-] paultimate14@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] Auduras@lemmy.world 41 points 11 months ago

McDonalds is primarily a Real Estate company. Their food service is secondary.

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

They're a logistics company.

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[-] qyron@sopuli.xyz 37 points 11 months ago

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?

[-] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 22 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Ahh, so ~40% are in China.

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[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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... ;)

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[-] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 8 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] LackingC10H12N2O@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

/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.

[-] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] _danny@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] Squizzy@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

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.

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[-] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago

Factory meat from a factory restaurant from a factory country

[-] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

Nuggets come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown!

[-] TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

Millions of nuggets, nuggets for me

[-] JK_Flip_Flop@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

My local McDonald's burnt down when the ice machine caught fire

[-] AceQuorthon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 11 months ago

No clue how people are so fond of McDonalds, there are literally so many other fast food choices that are superior in every way

[-] dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Because in alot of areas it's the ONLY fast food restaurant

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 11 points 11 months ago

As an American: I’m sorry we’ve unleashed this upon you, rest of the world :(

[-] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 8 points 11 months ago

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

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[-] Naich@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago

Hooray! What the world really needs right now is more cattle farming for burgers and more people driving to go and get their burgers.

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[-] MonsterMonster@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Maybe McDonald's should be putting more effort into confronting the abusive staff?

McDonald's problem.

[-] bigFab@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] _danny@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

A start could be reducing the crazy subsidies cattle farming gets. We could reduce carbon emissions and have money to fund green projects.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

But wait, I thought "pEoPlE dOn'T wAnT tO woRk!"

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[-] Lauchs@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

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...

[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

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

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this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023

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