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Does this look like a McDonald’s meal to you? You might be surprised where it comes from…
THE KEY TO the success of a fast-food outlet like McDonald’s used to be simple: consistency.
Go to any McDonald’s around the world and, with a few exceptions, you’d find the exact same experience as you’d get at home in Ireland: the golden arches; the red and yellow colour scheme; the same ordering system; the special sauce on the Big Mac; Ronald and his slightly terrifying face.
For some travellers adverse to – or afraid of – local cuisine, the McDonalds was the first port of call on a trip abroad in a new city.
The company even managed to find a home in some hospitals, in a curious case of ignoring-the-obvious.
McDonald’s has its roots in post-WWII suburbanisation in the US, combined with embracing of new technology and use of clever marketing. It offered people cheap, convenient food, at a time when busy families were turning to the ‘miracle’ of processed dinners.
From our vegetable juice-sipping , kale-eating vantage point today, it can be hard to see how a company offering fried food and beef burgers got so popular. But the business techniques that McDonald’s both pioneered and made the best of, like franchising and large-scale production, were novel and revolutionary.
But the US behemoth hasn’t escaped the recession – its profits dropped 15% last year, and sales have been dipping worldwide.
Associated Press reported that brand new CEO Steve Easterbrook said he will “strip away the bureaucracy at McDonald’s” so the company can better keep up with changing tastes.
“The reality is our recent performance has been poor. The numbers don’t lie,” said Easterbrook.
He only recently took over the hamburger chain, so what’s he going to do about getting more fries into people’s gobs?
The company will restructure itself, but that’s not where the changes stop. McDonald’s is looking beyond the US market and into the opportunities presented by hungry diners in countries like Australia and China.
If we journey thousands of miles to Australia, we’ll see exactly how McDonald’s has been trying to change things from even before Easterbrook stepped up to the tray.
The company has slimmed down its menu worldwide, but now it’s looking beyond simplification and into putting more choice into the customers’ hands.
It’s also daring to break out from the McDonald’s neon-focused look of old, and take some inspiration from latte-toting hipster corner cafés.
The hamburger home literally took inspiration from ‘corner cafés’ by creating its own test kitchen called The Corner McCafé.
Located on a (you guessed it) corner in Camperdown, Sydney, it’s a former common-or-garden McCafé that was transformed into a testing ground for new ideas.
Business Insider took a trip there last December, and you can read their account here.
The biggest takeaway from that visit was that the menu was going wilder than McDonald’s had gone before.
At the Corner’s ‘learning lab’, you can find salads with Moroccan roast chicken breast, chipotle pulled pork, and even brown rice and lentils.
There’s barista coffee, and burgers served not on greasy semi-transparent paper, but a Williamsburg-approved wooden board.
And did we mention the brioche bun? Or the tofu?
Gone is the bright signage, replaced with muted and tasteful wooden boards and tables and chairs.
This table-service café isn’t likely to be the new face of McDonalds (well, not just yet anyway), but it showed that the company was not adverse to trying something new and tempting in new customers.
It’s still open, so it looks like the testing is continuing apace.
While The Corner is a one-off for now, another way McDonald’s has been rolling out the changes is with its Create Your Taste option.
Rather than the choices ending at a brief thought of ‘Big Mac or Quarter Pounder’ at the tills, the company has decided to put more selections into its customers’ hands.
That means building their own burgers, a concept that is already used in higher-end burger restaurants here in Ireland, like The Counter.
Currently available in 300 selected outlets in Australia, as well as Singapore and California, there are plans to roll it out to thousands of McDonald’s outlets in the US this year.
Create Your Taste offers a choice of bun (or lettuce), with a beef quarter pounder patty, topped with the customer’s choice of vegetables, cheese sauce and ‘premium toppings’.
The ‘have a nice days’ are kept to a minimum, as the food is ordered using a touchscreen. There are plans to add chicken burgers to the Create Your Taste menu too.
People prone to dithering can select a pre-created option like Spicy Tortilla:
Some people took this to its inevitable conclusion – getting as much bacon as possible:
McDonald’s also launched its partnership with delivery service Postmates in New York earlier this week, and plans to offer a mobile app in the US in 2015.
The changes are big, but they’re necessary too – after the publication of books like 2001′s Fast Food Nation; the popularity of food writers like Michael Pollan; and the release of films like Super Size Me, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and Food Inc, a new discussion evolved around the impact of fast food on people’s health.
Alongside this came a focus on local food, artisan products and homemade meals. Times have moved on since the mid-20th century revolution that fast food helped forge. A return to ‘real food’ is growing – and McDonald’s knows this.
Time will tell whether getting rid of the yellow arches or even retiring Ronald McDonald will help to yank back up its declining sales.
One thing is for sure though – playing with its food is turning McDonald’s into a conversation-starter once more.
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What’s the difference between YES and Sometimes? You either do or you don’t.
To me yes would imply eating there regularly and sometimes would imply once in a blue moon. I’ve probably eaten there 4-5 times in the last 5 years so I voted sometimes. I now feel disappointed with my self for typing this pointless message.
Mmm Bacon… gawwwe…
Its like marmite! You either love it, or religious beliefs prohibit you from eating it
Céard faoi pá agus coinníollacha na bhfostaithe? Agus cá as atá an bia ag teacht? An bhfuil siad ag íoc cánach?
the wages and conditions of the employees? What has that got to do with bacon?
I’d imagine they pay tax like everyone else too? You comments meaning has flown right over my head…
#Conor
“Bacon” ??? Is alt faoi todhchaí McD agus bealaí chun muide a mhealladh isteach. Tá ag iarraidh cosc a chur ar Supermacs agus iad ag oscailt san Astráil. Féach ar seo: Watch “john oliver aug 3 2013 mcdonlds min wage fox” on YouTube
john oliver aug 3 2013 mcdonlds min wage fox: https://youtu.be/D8wiudhAhaA
Something for the McHipster.
You really should hold back a little on the free ads, Journal, or you’ll end up broke!
Neal, it’s clearly not a free ad. It’s an article.
Can’t it be both?
I don’t know about you but I’m Lovin’ It………
Yes, everything is changing. Like it now seems absurd only 12-15 yrs ago we blew smoke into each others faces all night long in every pub, club and fun house length and breadth of the country.
In some few yrs, we’ll be asking – how did we eat the awful stodge in macky d’s?
( and we may also be saying how we used to go out and drink 9 and 10 drinks at a sitting on a night out too)
The touchscreen service is already available in McDonald’s in Kilkenny
Going to McDonalds for healthy food is like going to a hooker for a hug.
Hey, hookers need hugs too !
Didn’t know what to have for dinner, read this article and now im craving md’s! Now it turns out my local md is closed for renovation :( gutted
Have a salad, you’ll be better off =P
On the plus side you won’t have a itchy hole.
I’m with you on that, I’d fookin love a burger!
Still not food… chemicals yes, food not so much.
Everything is chemicals.
Yes there is chemicals in all foods but not the ones that make you sick and give half your money to the pharmaceutical industry….100 years ago close to 1 in a 100 people got cancer, it’s soon to be close to 1 in 2 but hey keep eating that crap, your choice.
@John – sometimes I look at these ’100 years ago’ stats and ponder the effect of an increased reliance on cow’s milk – a substance filled with growth hormones designed to turn something born the size of a teenager into something almost as big as a Hiace van in a few short weeks…
McDonalds is pure shite. When I feel like eating junk food it’s Burger King or Supermacs all the way.
I’m just gonna say it
Bacon….good
Burger….good
Together….NO, NEVER!!!
Absolutely scandalous comment.
The only thing that doesn’t improve with bacon, is the lifespan of the pig…
I wouldn’t eat the rubbish and anybody who does eat it should really consider what the health complications are
Beef, bread, cheese, lettuce and sauce.
They health implications of that are minimal at worst.
The health stuff comes into play if you eat it often and in large quantities but the same can be said for anything.
If you’re going to have a McDonalds or any fast food, keep it a once in a while treat and maybe walk to the shop to balance out the extra calories.
Be healthier than those Big Macs and the other burgers they have they need to change to healthy food otherwise the future be full of unhealthy people .
I have reported your comment Thomas, for being on the verge of blasphemous and hurtful – Hang your head in shame.
Only joking of course bud, :-)
Averse*
So basically…. They opened a whole new restaurant? But are planning to use a slight twist on the same name?
have your say