The McDonald’s kiosk sucks. It constantly tries to upsell you on every item or tries to get you to go back and add more items to your order even after you’re done ordering.
The last time I went there I got a 10 Mcnugget “value” meal which still ended up costing $13. For that much I could have gone to a better restaurant and gotten a similar amount of food of much better quality.
To me at this point the only benefit to ordering McDonald’s is convenience. They’ve basically turned what should be an inexpensive value product into a premium product, but the “premium” aspect of it is just that they’re open late lol
While I've almost always read bad online reviews for McDonalds in the US, I think the experience might differ a lot in other places around the world, for context on what I'm about to write and why I think many people think the price is the worst offender.
Believe it or not, I've always had a good experience at any McDonalds I went to service wise. Over on this side of the pond they're seen much more positively in general, I think. Their food is pretty good by fast food standards, and it's way more consistent quality wise than pretty much every other fast food place. In the last few years they've also turned most of their restaurants from the typical fast food restaurant decor to cozier and actually comfortable places to hang out in, which is pretty cool.
BUT, the prices just don't make much sense anymore. The price for a basic menu is currently near the price point of an actual restaurant meal. At shopping centers over here there's usually always a couple of "somewhat fast" local food restaurants - I don't know what to call them, kind of an in between between what you would call fast food and what you would expect from a "slow" fancier restaurant - and it's actually become cheaper to get a normal menu there than at McDonalds. The one big attractive of McDonalds and fast food in general used to be price - but if it's currently cheaper to get a full plate of great much better food, why would I ever go to McDonalds unless I'm really in a hurry? They seem to be counting on people still going there out of habit, but I think there's not nearly as much of a fast food culture here, so I've started noticing that McDonalds around me have much fewer attendance than they used to.
I spent a couple years living in Australia: The McDonalds’ over there uses local Australian grass fed beef for all of its burgers and they were honestly delicious.
Moved back to Canada though and the McDs over here is just abysmal. I’d feel bad giving it to a stray dog…
I don’t know what to call them, kind of an in between between what you would call fast food and what you would expect from a “slow” fancier restaurant
Fast casual? Typical chains considered to be “fast casual” are Chipotle and Five Guys. A local taco/burrito/burger/sandwich place would probably fall in that category.
McDonalds in developed nations such as East Asia or Western Europe will generally taste much better for the same relative cost.
This is because the US has much, much weaker food regulations than other developed countries and allows all kinds of additives, treatments, and substitutions that are straight up banned in other nations.
This is why Americans tend to rave about the food whenever they travel internationally. Like, no sweetie, your country just allows businesses to feed you carcinogenic slop for luxury prices.
I personally love kiosk ordering and by proxy, self check-outs anywhere and everywhere. The less humans I have to work with the better, because humans are slow, social, and make mistakes. That said, McDonald’s kiosks kinda suck, and they are one of the least intuitive interfaces out there IMO.
I don’t mind fast food kiosks, but I really hate self checkout at the grocery store. It’s literally making me do the work someone else used to do for me of scanning and bagging items. It makes everything take longer. And if you fuck up even a tiny bit, it starts screaming that you are an idiot loud enough for the whole store to hear until an attendant comes to help.
Kiosks of any sort can vary, from fast food to grocery to other types. There are some that work well and make self service far faster and easier, and others that routinely have issues. I've never used McD's, but I have used Sheetz a lot before and it flows very well both in displaying the options as well as suggestive selling that isn't in your face and disruptive. As for groceries, Publix has always been perfect for me, while some others not as much. Walmart's is 50/50 on if it will work okay or have some issue.
I wonder if there's a list of what manufacturer supplies what kiosks and a correlation can be made.
Outside of the ordering, McDs has never been the best, but as they've dropped in quality to drive profits and still meet the demand that persists regardless, so have others. My favorite used to be Burger King in the 90s, but I will go to McD instead of stepping foot in a BK at this point, that's how bad they are.
And the stupid thing is, none of them are doing anything much different. The quality doesn't have to be this low in food and service. I can only assume the bottom line is greater if they sacrifice everything needed to keep standards up and maintain just enough to keep a minimum demand flowing.
I can’t think of the last time I went through a self checkout without having to wait for an employee. Sure, a lot of the time it’s just because I’m buying a bottle of wine or whatever, but, like, that’s still a problem.
It’s also super terrible security-wise, because it incentivizes employees to make their account credentials whatever is quickest to type in on the kiosk that seems to have less processing power than my cellphone. I usually look away out of politeness, but I’ve glanced at their codes a few times. Saw one that was literally 0000. Another that was just 1, because apparently they don’t even necessarily have any password requirements lol
I’ve found that a lot of cashiers don’t know what some vegetables even are. Or there was a sale for large avocados 50 cents each. But they put them in as medium avocados and they cost way more. Just a real life example. So I use the self checkout.
I’m happy to use a self-checkout if I’m only grabbing a handful of items. That tends to be quicker and easier than waiting for an attended till to free up.
There’s no way in hell I’m taking a shopping cart of stuff through though.
I think early releases of self checkouts were extremely poor and buggy. I have had minimal issues over the last handful of years, most of them would have been issues a cashier would have needed to call for help for anyway.
I also don’t feel that I’m made to do extra work. I think having someone bag groceries is a luxury anyway, and most of the time it’s done differently than I would have. I can fit all of my stuff into two bags, while a cashier will split it across 5. Many cashier’s also don’t know the difference between various produce items that requires me to tell them, when I could have just done it myself.
The only time I don’t do self checkout is if I’m getting alcohol. At some locations, I would sooner wait behind someone finishing up their self checkout instead going to an empty cashier.
They’re not kiosks, they’re an assembly of components that don’t always work well together
The stupid scales. I understand they want to prevent theft but they don’t, they just inconvenience people. If you want to control theft, either pay a cashier or maybe use cameras
Maybe it’s because I worked as a cashier for a while in college, but I don’t find self checkout to be any slower than a cashier. I also very rarely have it yell at me. Possibly also because I used to work the self checkout process at a grocery store, too.
And if you fuck up even a tiny bit, it starts screaming that you are an idiot loud enough for the whole store to hear until an attendant comes to help.
Not OP but some stores have these hyper-sensitive scales you put your bag/scanned items on. They can be super annoying as tiny differences in the weight will lock up the entire thing and you need someone to unlock it again. E.g. if you didn’t start with all your bags already on it and you try to add a new bag. Or the area is full and you want to remove and already full bag. Or you nudged something with your leg while scanning the next item.
Ah, never seen those. I don’t think we have anything like that over here in the Netherlands. You just scan the barcodes and put it in your bag. Alternatively you can grab a handheld barcode scanner at the entrance and just scan and put the stuff in your bag as you shop.
The best thing is grocery stores where they have handheld scanners you can take with you in the store, you scan the item as you put it into your bag and on the way out you just scan the code on the self-service checkout and pay. Least effort possible, plus the scanner doesn’t have the “oh a speck of dust landed on the scales… obviously this means he’s trying to steal shit” issue.
Honestly, it’s 9pm so unless the store is 24 hours (and even if it is) then they’ll be trying to close down a clean up and get things ready for the morning shift which starts early.
When I worked at McDs years ago a few big orders deciding to sit in the restaurant around 9pm could mean the difference between getting to go home at 12:30 and getting an OK nights sleep vs getting to go home at 2:30 and getting a terrible nights sleep before they might have to come in at 10am the next day.
You could argue that if they didn’t want customers at that time then they shouldn’t be open - which I would agree with - but obviously the low level grunts making your food don’t get to make those decisions.
Too late then, I’m afraid you got the crew who were more concerned about getting home at a slightly more healthy hour than giving you fresh food.
Never go in to any restaurant past 9pm unless it’s in a busy metro area and there are other people about or you are getting food that caters to drunk and high people that can be taken away.
I flew business class international on united and there were ads before every movie. Their business class product used to be great, and now it’s a joke.
I don’t like the kiosks at all and it seems like the service is slower when you use them. It’s like no employee feels responsible for your order. The food can be good, the biggest variation I usually see is in the fries, sometimes they are hot and fresh and other times you can tell they’ve sat for a while.
I hate Google as much as the next guy - well, probably a lot more than the next guy actually - but here I’m siding with them for a change.
They require payment for a feature (your phone number: it is monetizable private data to them and that’s your payment) and you tried to get the feature without paying. And you failed.
The story here is that AI is frighteningly accurate when detecting embedded screenshots, not that Google is “vicious”: they’re not vicious in this case, they’re simply scary successful at detecting your attempts to game their system. Probably because everybody and their dog tries the same trick all the time, I would assume.
Generally speaking, I agree with your assessment of Big Data and Google. But not in this particular instance.
I don’t eat their often either, but the current meal deal with fries, drink, double burger, and nugs for $5 is pretty great by today’s fast food prices, so I’ve gone a few times over the last month.
Everything at the one I’ve been going to seems on the up and up. (I use the apk and hit the drive through). Foods been between pretty warm and hot every time. Only real gripe is that every time I order the burger no ketchup, no onions, and extra Mustard, and every time there’s only the tiniest damned bit of mustard on it. Like…I want some Mustard, damn it.
Wife mentioned it today at work and it appears “that” McD’s is notorious for being awful. Again, I’m McD’s expert but the story on here about profits down last quarter was just odd timing for me ending up at one. So ijad my own opinion as to why there may be more issues!
I flew on Porter and their “ad” was just a 30 second thing about how they’re a cool airline. That’s fine, although the real cost is that they make you have a rewards account
You don’t have to have an account. The alternative is an ad every 30 minutes though and a kind of annoying disconnect (maybe?) depending on your device.
I went with making an account but the person flying with me just watched the same ad every 30 min.
It’s a free wifi service provided by the airline while on the flight. One ad, when most other places are charging $10-20 per flight? I’ll watch the single ad. I’d rather that then someone, say, injecting adverts into sites and services. which is very possible.
Agree, which is why this is mildly infuriating and not worse. Of course there were about 10 minutes of unskippable ads on their media screens before take-off which was a pleasure to be subjected to. That should get everyone free WiFi without needing an additional ad…
I don’t want food or WiFi. I want legroom so I can sleep. I don’t want seatback entertainment. I don’t want a complimentary tea towel, blanket, and neck pillow. I don’t want your stupid cheapo earbuds. I don’t want Tim Tams and that little sachet of Vegemite with my toast. I don’t want your gross instant coffee. I don’t even want a flat white. I don’t care that you have soymilk. And thay muffin you gave me has egg in it. I told you I can’t have egg. I don’t want your little tiny tube of toothpaste with that miniature toothbrush. I don’t want to watch Adam Sandler’s Wedding Singer on that screen you have on the wall in front of the aisle. I want legroom. I want to watch the insides of my eyelids. I hate having to lay my legs sideways for hours and being unable to relax or sleep because I am knees-pressed against the seat in front of me. And that camera on the seat back freaks me out. Why why why. Just let me sleep.
Watch out for United. That was the seatback camera airline. Qantas was the better of the ones I have been on. At least I could put the iPad with a camera in the seat pocket on Qantas.
Legroom is probably the most expensive thing to give on a plane, so if you want legroom, pay for the privilege and fly business class. Otherwise, at least try to enjoy the few concessions you get from the airline
The McDonalds in my area is pretty amazing (Silverthorne CO). There’s always like 10 employees and it just hums in there. I only ever order from the app; I get a large fries no salt and a large unsweetened iced tea for $2. The fries are always fresh (no salt is key) and they are ready within a minute of me walking in the door.
Appreciate the comment! That said, I’m not looking to find ways to better my McDonald’s experience here :)
I just need to build that time since I was at McDonald’s back up. I wanted to vent after seeing the story about price likely causing their 1/4 results. I think there’s more to it.
As a fry jockey. Fuck you. I make all fries fresh to order but all you assholes online just tell people to order no salt fries to be “fresh” it might work at McDonald’s but lemme tell you where I work a no salt fry is made at my convenience and set aside because making a no salt fry means WIPING DOWN EVERYTHING COVERED IN SALT It is not a “hack” eveywhere.
Every other goddamn online order is “no salt” but also extra cheese, double bacon, extra pickle. It slows things down so much I’m actually trying to get no salts for online orders banned.
Hey friend, sorry about that, but there’s just way too much on them otherwise. I end up wiping them down with a napkin and giving up after a handful if they have the typical amount of salt on them—I don’t know how people do it
If you just want less salt I forgive you. If you are trying a fast food hack to get fresh fries when you would have gotten fresh fries anyway then that’s what makes my blood boil
mildlyinfuriating
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