I think this is stupid. I’m not a huge customer, but as a result, I’ll probably start using alternatives. There are plenty of them.
In fact, one of the chains should go back to frying in tallow. It would save them money, and be in your face to nutrition quacks.
They’ve learned nothing from Starbucks, the lesson being to fire the entryists.
Tallow… Yes! I remember when McDonald’s fries were the best. Crispy and delectable. Nothing like these limp, soggy oil sponges today.
I think the problem is Michelle Obama.
I find McD’s products becoming exceedingly bland, which I attribute to a reduction of salt.
That’s definitely part of it, but I think it goes further. I’ve noticed it in canned soup. It’s not just the lack of salt, it’s the attempt to mask it. It’s the stuff they use to either make it taste salty without salt, or to somehow make it taste like it doesn’t need salt. Whatever it is, it’s unappealing.
The first time I went to the US over a decade ago the food already tasted like it had no salt in it. It was like everything had the taste of corn syrup and vegetable oil.
Man I sure missed European food with real salt and real sugar in it. But now food is starting to taste like that crap here too!
This is the danger of believing what the MSM are saying – you pick up all kinds of nutty ideas about what people think. Nobody outside Manhattan or San Francisco cares one whit about kale, as McD’s will find out when people reject this ridiculous reset.
Not that it really matters to me personally; I occasionally pick up breakfast there, but if I want a burger and fries, I go to In-N-Out (best burgers) or Five Guys (best fries)…or forget the burger and go to one of the innumerable drive-thrus in SoCal that have good gyros and fried zucchini! (One of the great SoCal institutions that I’ve seen nowhere else.)
In Texas, we have Whataburger (and Five Guys). I’m ok with both McD and Walmart chasing the Progressives, because they do seem like the natural customer base for both. Such a move will keep the moonbats out of Chick Fil A and other respectable establishments.
I thought that In-N-Out had built some distribution centers and moved into some parts of Texas? If they are in your area, try them; as Donny said, “They make great burgers!” (A “Big Lebowski” reference for the uninitiated)
Walmart chasing Progressives?
You never see the Whole Foods demographic at Walmart — too many persons of color.
Forget about Whole Foods; if you are sincere in your Trotskyist solidarity, you shop at Aldi. Aldi is that privately held German company where you put a quarter deposit in a slot to get a cart (Americans are lucky, in Germany it is a Euro coin), the groceries are 100% generic brands, and you bring your own shopping bags, not because you are an eco-freak but because they charge for them.
My observation is that the shoppers are recent immigrants, seniors in search of cheap food, and inter-racial couples.
Why the inter-racial couples in an Aldi? I still think there is social stigma regarding marrying across race, and only people who are sufficiently immune to what other people think about them are willing to shop at Aldi. The folks at Whole Foods are all about social signaling and worried about what their peers think about them. You have to ve abandoned those concepts to shop Aldi.
Paul, you get your quarter back if you re-rack the cart. It’s a deposit, not a fee.
I noticed today that the nearest Aldi has a McD’s in the same parking lot. Across the street is Walmart, which interestingly enough also has a McD inside the store. The progressive elite need their McD Latte easily available. I drive by both to get to my Whataburger and HEB grocery store.
We visited the Aldi about a month after it opened. Quite frankly, its appearance inside and out is on par with the Dollar General about a mile down the road. The difference is Dollar General actually has more customers because it actually carries name brands. Other than a nostalgic feel of an old 50’s grocery store; I can’t find one redeeming quality for Aldi over any competitor within 5 miles of our local store. I’m sure if we had a Safeway, then maybe Aldi would be competitive, but even Walmart out performs Aldi in, of course, selection but also quality of produce and meats. In Texas, few things beat Walmart in terms of diversity, but then we often laugh when coastal Americans think they are diverse.
I will note without comment that the company that owns Aldi also owns SoCal institution Trader Joes, which all in all is probably more popular (and more desirable for a neighborhood) than Whole Foods in trendy coastal SoCal. That is all…
In my area Aldi has some deals that are best in the area, as does Walmart, Save-A -Lot, and the farmers markets. It’s just a matter of knowing which one is best for your needsin the next week or so, and picking it up from the best store when you happen to be going near it. Competition is good.
Why the disrespect of kale as the punchline to a joke about snooty people?
If you are eating cole slaw slathered on your barbeque as they do in rural North Caroline, you are using kale as a condiment. Kale is the exact same thing as cabbage as a Cocker Spaniel and a Golden Retriever are all dogs.
Kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli are all one species. You can eat the leaves on a cauliflower because they are kale leaves. They are related to that invasive garlic mustard pervasive in the East and now taking over the forest undergrowth in the Upper Midwest. The domestic vegetables have the exact 2-ear life cycle and seed dispersion that makes garlic mustard such a Frankenweed, but maybe with less with winter hardiness.
I have two second-year kale plants in flower that will set seed this year in the style of garlic mustard. None of this saving of kale seed takes place in the schoolyard Michelle Obama garden because the folks planting it don’t know about this and they pull out the 2nd-year plants.
Kale is among the few things I know how to grow. I pick the leaves as they emerge to get them before the cabbage moth gets ’em — wish the cabbage moth would go after garlic mustard. You can pick the plant all summer long without harming it — it just keeps growing back, just like garlic mustard. You can eat the leaves on a burger like McDonald’s is getting disrespect for proposing, in a salad, steamed over rice, in soup or a stew like cabbage.
Look people, with enough mayonaise, all of the kale varients slide down good . . .
Oh, I have nothing against kale (or anything else in the cabbage line); it’s just that kale has become the latest “in” food among the nattering nabobs, and so witness the McDonalds’s buffoonery.
Properly cooked Brussel sprouts and broccoli are some of my favorite vegetables. Enjoy your garden!
Do you want some serfdom with those fries?
I’ve never liked McDonnalds food, based on taste. I did eat there sometimes when I was in college, though, because they were both close and cheap.
Seems to me they’ve chosen to move away from being low price, and now offer even worse-tasting food at higher prices, along with a supersized side of sanctimonious moonbattery.
This will not end well. My advice to anyone holding McDonnald’s stock; sell.
What I found interesting wasn’t that McD article but another one I read sometime ago where they are replacing the guy at the counter with a huge touchscreen where you can select what you want to eat.
I bet that will save money. That’s one of the few things McD is interested in. Last time I was at McD (I never actually hate in one) I noticed the place was packed with children. I think those are probably their main customers here in Europe.
Perhaps they should be thinking of sugary treats instead of salad.
You may think it’s impossible for the average customer to take any longer to just order a freakin’ burger, but give ’em a touch screen and they’ll find a way.
The one place in town with good onion rings went out of business. I remember having some good ones at a place in Oklahoma decades ago. Sometimes you just have to do without.
The Boomerang in Norman (home to the University of Oklahoma) had the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted. Don’t know if they are still there; it’s been decades since I’ve been to Norman.
The commenters above are all talking as if McDonald’s is in the restaurant business. They’re not. They might operate like a fast-food chain, but the restaurants are just placeholders, put there as part of a very long-term business plan.
McDonald’s is in the real estate business. They buy a property, usually a corner lot, for cheap – long before the area around them gets completely built up. They run a restaurant there for a few decades, and then when they sell, the area has been built up and the property is worth orders of magnitude more than they paid.
I heard that decades ago. But I’m not sure it squares with the daily income reality of these stores? My mid 70s mom was hired as an accountant for our one horse town local McDs. Yes, its on the corner of our single traffic light, but the real estate appreciation will not come close to the daily income over its lifetime.
The franchisee owns the store, but McDonald’s owns the land.
Don’t see the problem. Someone should take advantage of the rubes. If someone is willing to fork over for McDonald’s cardboard because it has kale on it, then who are we to hold them back?
Karl, what are ya? Some freedom luvin’ capitalist or sumptin?