No, it isn’t a transgendered Rhonda McDonald, or a black Ronnie McDonald in whiteface, but the first comment someone posted was also my first reaction.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20140423-ronald-mcdonald-gets-a-new-look-takes-to-twitter.ece
McDonalds is having problems with slowing sales. Since much of their sales volume comes from poorer people, do you think the push to upscale high end products might be the cause, not the clothes Ronald McDonald is wearing?
In the movie Sleeper, Woody Allen’s character wakes up far in the distant future, only to see a McDonalds. That future is looking less certain.
Ever seen Ronald McDonald without the makeup?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKAcOawiaNk
I always liked Ronald. I associate him with the Ronald McDonald house which helps families of children have a place to stay and live while a child is in a hospital for treatment. I even liked Hamburglar 🙂
When I compare McDonalds to the Golden Corral Buffet, it’s hard to make a case for McDs. I think I have been there twice since I came here in November. Lunch was about $7. The seating is odd – the bulk of the seating are tall stools you have to climb up onto. None of the seating is “family friendly” or obeses friendly. The flat screen TV menus are close to unreadable. The constant beep beep beep from a dozen sources is unbearable. 90% of the attention of the staff is on the drive through. It was a pretty unpleasant experience.
I almost never eat at McD’s either. My last few experiences were just like yours. I had one about a year ago where the manager went off and started throwing food and drinks in the garbage because she was unhappy with an answer from an employee. I actually filed a complaint on that one.
Lesson learned: Maybe McD’s should focus on service and customer comfort rather than worry about advertising.
I spend much time at my local McD’s a few years ago after a hurricane knocked out my power. The staff was very friendly and had no objections to me camping out at a table in the back to charge my cell phone and use my laptop with their free WIFI. There were a number of us that did the same and the staff, when things got slow, would come around with coffee refills for us.
As a result, I have given them much more business over the years than I would have otherwise.
This may be another part of their problem – some franchisees have gone public that they are fed up with (typically) older men ordering a cup of coffee and loitering in the seats for hours. This one near me is communicating that message via their choice of furniture and seating layout.
You see that more often in the northern cities in the winter. The homeless ask for coffee money so they can buy a bottomless cup (unlimited refills) in a heated McDs.
The nanny state of Connecticut is considering a law banning childcare providers from giving whole or 2% milk to children. I had a moderately heated discussion with the manager of the nearby Burger King (in CT). The only milk option they had was fat free. I asked the manager why they sold that and asked them to consider carrying at least 2% milk. The explanation was that they were doing it to protect the health of children. I pointed out that I’m not a child, and if they didn’t carry real milk, I would not be eating breakfast there until they did.
Right about now, Art, he is realizing that you were not drawing an obamaredline. 🙂
I have a fuzzy memory of going back a few months later and following up. I asked about the milk again before I placed my order, and then explained why I was going to McDonald’s. I recognize it was a futile gesture – but I have this notion that you can’t expect people to fix things they don’t know about.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/24/connecticut-lawmakers-take-up-bill-that-bans-childcare-providers-from-serving/
Pepsi sales will increase as a result.
Or more appropriately orange juice. OJ has as much sugar as pepsi, and only marginally better nutrition
Tropicana Products, Inc. is an American multinational company which primarily makes soft drinks. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Since 1998 it has been owned by PepsiCo. Tropicana’s headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois. The company specializes in the production of orange juice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicana_Products
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mauKiq-N6sw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Of course, if he wasn’t black, it would be even worse
That wasn’t anything like McGrand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6Wwb6Std0
pseudo Ziggy Stardust version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZDelV2mFyc
If you were a woman, would you have sex with Ronald McDonald?
Why don’t you make that a poll question?
What are some possible responses?
Here you go
http://streamingradioguide.com/show-poll.php?pollnum=2352
I just checked with google… they have digitized all the world’s books to stay one step ahead of IBM’s Watson… here is what google found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIrTv3cddLU
I read in a blurb yesterday about cloud computing that Amazon Cloud has a configuration with a 3.2 TB SSD (solid state disk – no moving parts). That’s pretty mind blowing. We’re about at the point that you can hold all of the published works in human history in the palm of your hand. Why bother actually knowing anything?
It is only a first step to have all the world’s books in the database. The trick is what all 2nd grade teacher’s know – reading comprehension.
What are the odds that Putin invades eastern Ukraine? You, I and all the readers of this blog can make an educated guess based on our life experiences and interpretation of the things we have read. Computers other than Watson and a few others can’t yet.
Since Vladimir Putin will not talk to al-Obama any longer then the odds are good that a few cartographers will have some more overtime work coming their way.
If Putin can retake the Crimea peninsula and restore it as part of Russia, then Obama should do something similar- retake the BajaCalifornia peninsula and restore it as part of the USA (as it was until President Polk pulled a Jimmy Carter and gave it away)
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/84winter/war.htm
The fight for Baja California lasted eighteen months. During this time, President Polk, Commodores Stockton and Shubrick, and Commander Montgomery promised that Baja California would become part of the United States.
On April 12, 1848, Lieutenant Henry W. Halleck, U.S. Army, wrote to Colonel Richard B. Mason, governor of Alta California:
For the United States to voluntarily surrender this country to the Republic of Mexico, and leave these Californians exposed to the loss of life and confiscation of property for having sided with us, under the assurances . . . held out to them, would not only be itself a breach of national faith,but would make us appear in the eye of the world guilty of the most deliberate and cruel deception.”39