at least from making it to my table. Every since the "pink gunk" stories and the use of ammonia to try to kill fecal bacteria stories came out, it just hasn't been appealing. Poultry and hog production is surely little better....

But, if these fast food chains want people to return, I think it is an industry-wide issue and adding a sprig of lettuce or dropping the fries in trans fat free oil is not going to be enough.

Perceptions?!?!

I like a veggie cheeseburger, fries, and a coke as much as the next person, but it's always a black mark on the food journal.

If tastes are changing toward something healthier, they'll be on it. If people accept garbage, then they're only too happy to provide it.

A business has to change with the times and McD hasn't. Not much, anyway. It turns my stomach just to look at that crap they call food. And it's not cheap,either, considering the junk that's served.

Not every day, of course.

The only other McDonald's fare I'll get is their grilled chicken salads with Paul Newman's dressings.

When I'm on the road with the big rig of horses sometimes its either McDonalds or truck stop food so the salad and/or the McMuffin are my fallback foods.... Pretty tasty.

cracked into a round form, cooked and placed into your sandwich, rather than something poured out of a milk carton...

Don't know if it is true, haven't been there since I heard it....

I think mcmuffins already have round eggs, which are real. The biscuts get folded eggs which came from a carton.

there the eggs were about as real as eggs come. Unless McDonalds found a way to make a fake egg inside a real egg shell. Having worked at McDonalds (some time ago) and eaten at many, many other places, I'd say McDonalds is by far not the worst food choice out there when you are on the road. I've had far worse that cost far more. I find that food quality has gone downhill A LOT in the past 10 years, while McDs has stayed pretty much the same.

MCD couldn't care less that a pig or chicken can't move in its cage b/c it's so crowded, and thus diseases rage like wildfire unless the animals are given antibiotics and other drugs. And I'm sure McD suppliers feed their animals the cheapest, most pesticide laden GMO grains they can find. And guess what? You're getting all that through the food chain.

Try pasture-raised, organically fed meat if you''re going to eat it. McD's way behind on that front, too.

land for humans to live on. It's not a sustainable diet for the whole country. It only works if few people do it.

If everyone would at least cut down on eating meat and dairy it would go a long way in helping diminish the cruelty.

the majority of the spent dairy cows in the 'mega-farms' (10,000 cows or more these days) are dragged to slaughter and ground up for americans to eat.

As we eat less meat and dairy, that industry/Corp. can maintain the domestic cruelty,due to our lax regulations.

Raise the domestic prices for consumers and increase exports. Their profits are always increasing.

Most of the ranches are gone now in favor of feedlots/fast food demand.

There is a gradual resurgence of grass fed beef ranchers across the country and that's a good thing.

I don't go all the time, but I do like it every now and then. I would go more if they paid their employees a living wage, and frankly, I think their PR problems vis-a-vis those labor policies explain part of their revenue problems.

I would prefer to eat at non-chains, but sometimes that is not an option and sometimes it is a bad option. Often other chains are worse than McDs. You can do way worse than McDs on the road or when you are in a hurry.

I begin every road trip with a Sausage McMuffin with Egg. It takes me far and if you actually look at the nutrition info it's not bad at all.

An egg McMuffin with the patties from a double cheeseburger added.

And reduce the salt while they are at it.

Glutamic acid is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of proteins. Any protein will contain some amount of glutamic acid. Autolyzed yeast and hydrolyzed proteins do contain glutamates, but Mono Sodium Glutamate is a synthetic salt of glutamic acid, essentially pure glutamate. Saying that they are the same is like comparing orange juice to table sugar.

You better go edit the wiki entry for MSG, because that's where I got the "corporate name" of MSG as listed in the McD's nutrient sheet.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSG

I've done my homework.

Last edited Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:20 AM - Edit history (1)

"MSG is one of several forms of glutamic acid found in foods, in large part because glutamic acid (an amino acid) is pervasive in nature. Glutamic acid and its salts may be present in a variety of other additives, including hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts and protein isolate, which must be specifically labeled."

Also, I am very intimate with how food additives in processed foods work... It's like this, 1oz of autolyzed yeast is added to a ton of MSG. The whole batch is suddenly converted into autolyzed yeast. Because, you see the processed food industry doesn't know chemistry either.

Why do they add MSG in the first place you may ask? Now, we'll dip into biochemistry and metabolism. They add it because it causes an increase in metabolism. Which in turn makes the animal hungry again sooner. So, they eat more. Which equals more $$$. In a contradiction, this is one area of mathematics and chemistry that the processed food industry is very familiar with and uses consistently. THAT is what is meant by FAST FOOD.

So, if it's an additive... Large enough quantities of it to achieve the desired results are not naturally present in the ingredients of the dish. Why not leave it out, as I pondered earlier.

... but only a small portion of the population cares about or has any negative reaction to MSG. It's really not a big fat hairy deal to very many people.

Yes, it's true that a minority of people may/may not have a strong adverse reaction to more than a normal amount of MSG in foods. Also, it may be true that it is the naturally occurring MSG in some foods that provides the temporary symptomatic relief of viral diseases like that in chicken noodle soup.

But, everyone experiences the metabolic reaction to MSG with an increase in blood pressure and heart rate which can lead to heart disease and stroke over time and there is no noticeable difference in how good the food tastes by adding more than a tiny amount. So, obviously the ingredient is being added for some presumed secondary effect that is causing people to eat more empty calories for the sole purpose of making more money.

If McDonald's is serious about having a healthier menu (like it says in the OP article) then why not leave the autolyzed yeast out?

They say they want a healthier menu, not me.

I do have objections to being fed like a lab rat.

You'd think I had suggested building a nuclear power plant in everyone's back yard.

While wearing Hazmat suits, I assume.

...and NOTHING to do with perceptions in how the public feels they treat their employees.

Let's see...The Fight for 15 campaign has been active now recently appearing nationwide. There's no missing these protests.

Surely these protests are creating doubt in the minds of a few due to yet another monthly loss.

Tides are turning.

It's partly the sh*t you serve...however there's a completely seperate perception that others have taken note of...

Look at COSTCO's numbers today.

You've been put on notice.

Shit hot dogs and pizza.

Wake the fuck up.

http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fast-food-chains-restaurants_c-Y2lkPTIx.html?bid=2002&sid=-1

How disappointing.

I think workers deserve a higher wage but 15/hr is too high. What I would like to see is the national minimum wage increased to around 10/hr, a little higher in expensive cities. But these increases have to be universal, it's not fair to target specific retail segments.

Costco is not a good example of anything, they are a special case in retail. They have an extraordinarily high average sale (about 150 per cust, business centers quadruple that) and they only put stores in areas with an neighborhood average income of 85K and up.

Even with their high sales they NET 1.83% which is very close to the amount they collect in membership fees.

They're elitist and exclusionary and they encourage vast overconsumption of goods.

They won't take any credit cards except AmEx. I cannot imagine how much that costs them in sales, especially with big ticket items like TVs. They must be getting quite a kickback from American Express.

People here love them because they pay really high wages, which is great that they can, but that doesn't mean that other retailers can do the same thing, especially mom and pop stores. Retail in general has very low net profits, including Costco, they only show a profit due to their membership fees.

"I don't understand..."

No, of course you don't.

They pay well, so they're heroes. All very nice.

Now tell me a few things:

1. Do you think Costco might endanger a few Mom and Pops? (God no. Only WalMart puts Mom and Pop at risk! Costco exploits buying power to offer discounts over smaller, higher cost retail! WalMart is DIFFERENT because they exploits buying power to offer discounts over smaller, higher cost retail! Can't you see how that's different?)

2. Do you think they ignore people who have little money? (God no. Everyone can afford to pay a fee for the right to shop somewhere, can't they?)

3. Do you think maybe they encourage people to buy more than they need, and therefore overexploit resources maybe just a smidge? (What?!? EVERYONE needs 5 pounds of salmon every week!)

All good, of course, so long as they pay employees well, right?

.... I can only guess the way in which they "encourage vast overconsumption".

If you mean because they sell in quantity I have some knowledge for you. Not everyone who buys a lot of something consumes it at a higher rate. They just don't have to buy it again for a longer period of time.

I dunno, I'm not a Costco member. I just go to their pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions.

My jaw drops everytime someone brags to me that they got their Thanksgiving pumpkin pie at Costco. Usually when I say I have to go home to start baking pies. "We got our pies at Costco and they were SOOOOOO good." Really. Look, just say you didn't have time to bake a pie so you picked it up at Costco. No problem. But bragging about picking up a Costco pie to take to Thanksgiving...not impressed. PS. You can make a pumpkin pie in the time it takes to go to Costco.

Oh hell no. McDonald >IS< fast food. Number 3 with diet. Period. Pay your money, get your food and go.

I don't want to get caught in a line full of people asking if the whole wheat bun is gluten free. Which has more fat, the pepper jack or the American? Just a little bit of ketchup, some mustard and can I get some Mayo on the side? Now what girl toys do you have? Porsche, dear, do you want the yellow piece of plastic crap or the red one? Aiden? What kind of bun do you want? No Aiden, it's the bread that holds the burger. Aiden, stop hitting sister. Aiden, stop, use your words.

They need an Express line and a "I have the delusion that this is fine dining and I have no where that I need to be" line.

Not that I go there much, but when I do, it's because I want FAST food.

Stopping for coffee in the middle of the night at Dunkin Donuts and these jackasses are ordering the equivalent of thanksgiving dinner. It's a god damned coffee shop, people! You want a meal, go to frigging Dennys! Let us Java folks get our shit and move on.

ordering food for his entire family/group of friends. And all I wanted was a cheeseburger and a small Sprite!

Now that has to be the pinnacle of inedible chain food. Unless they've changed. Or unless everyone else has risen to their level of horribleness, which is a distinct possibilty. The last time I was there (it's been a while because I refuse to darken their door after my last experience) I got a full scale breakfast which consisted of microwaved everything. Now granted, I have a peeve about microwaved food in restaurants, but still, it was awful. Never again.

Nasty of them to do that at an actual eating establishment. But my peeve about it at DD is even though they put this shitty microwave stuff on their menu, it's the drunks at 2 am jonesing for some food that go in and order a bunch of shit to eat and the one counter person spends 20 minutes tending to the food order when all I want is a coffee to go and I'm outta there. It just ain't right, I tell ya!

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Well played, well observed, well played.

.... and I'm not going to eat there later. Problem solved.

Oh, no!!!!! BTW, it was enjoyable for once a year.

I only eat there a couple times a year, because I'm willing to have one of their breakfast thingies if I happen to have the time and I'm near a McDs. But I just don't know the whole menu, I have to read it. Sure, when I was a kid there was a lot less offerings, so you knew the routine, shake, fries, burger. Now I drive up "Yes Ma'am!" "Um, I need to read the menu." or "I need to drive a little closer to see the menu (usually at those double speaker pole drive ups to handle 2 cars at a time). It scares me to think that people eat here so often they know every one of those dozens of menu items.

quite aware that the workers don't get much, so I treat them with respect.

I am quite fond of Filet-o-Fish, ever since I had them when I was a kid. I try to order one or two. Their source is an Alaskan pollock which is also the same at Burger King, so their product is real.

I also learned how Chicken McNuggets was made... in video. McDonald's doing a video promotion showing how they make their stuff to ease the public that they are not eating low grade dog food (RIP Rodney Dangerfield).....

Couldn't afford to eat out for about five years and by the time I could afford it again McDs just looked like a big greasy, gut expanding, headache inducing waste of money.

Not foolish enough to imagine that the recent depression permanently changed America's eating habits but I do think it helped create another generation that had to learn how to cook and save money. And once you've learned both of those, fast food doesn't have much appeal.

including diet soft drinks. Weight gain, bone density challenges, metabolism issues all stemming from the huge portions of liquid calories. Diet soft drink induce more hunger and cravings for sugar per the Harvard Nurse Study. Long term use of diet soda triggers delayed satiation (increased eating) and likely the fast food industry has known all of this long before Harvard.

Next up would be the fries with major sat fat and major empty calories. The healthiest thing on the general menu is the burgers. So complicating any changes to their menu at a time when their revenues are hurting is the fact that they make their best margin on soda and 2nd best on fries. THAT is the junk food business -- making people crave high margin prepared foods.

Everyone is chasing Chipotle these days. Subway did the make your own combo thing for decades before Chipotle but these articles never mention Subway.

McDonald's knows their segments -- they have a core of customers who choose fast food and aren't concerned about health consequences. That segment is likely hurt by the economy so any change in menu won't solve that problem. Then they have segments that are more challenging -- young mothers with children, health conscious people, and those who eat fast food less than 5 times a month. Those groups may be attracted by a change in offerings but it doesn't sound like McD will offer new items so much as eliminate existing ones.

I look for McDonald's to also emulate the biggest advantage that Chipotle has right now -- PR. Chipotle knows exactly what their customer wants to hear (and see) so they talk the talk. Whether they walk the walk is another question.

THIS is what the customer wants to hear:

Even if they had a high minimum for delivery.

Also, using meat from China is awful and pink slime too...I refuse to eat any of this sort of food.

for what you get. As a child we could go to McD's and get a meal for the whole family for 5 bucks.

Now its 7 or 8 for one person. Not worth it, many better choices out there for that price. If I want junk food i go to the local chain/gas station and get a big hot dog for one dollar.

Match that McDonalds.

That's a burrito with egg, sausage, onions, peppers, melty cheese and hot sauce.
It's pretty good too.

Not all of McDon is too expensive.

because that's the only reason I stop in at McD's anymore. Love those breakfast burritos!

I just had one this morning, no kidding

They wanted to learn how to run something more like a fast-casual restaurant with a simpler menu.