Fast food restaurants - why "Bring Yer Own Mustard"?

The McDonald’s I go to (not that often, though) gives mustard on its standard regular cheeseburgers. Therefore, I’ve never had the need to look for packets. I’m sure they must have them, though, for those who ask.

The perfectly balanced mustard/ketchup/pickle/onion/meat/cheese mixture of tastes is what makes a McD’s cheeseburger taste so good, in my opinion.

To the point of the OP, I think it’s probably because mustard is generally more expensive and less frequently requested than ketchup. Packets of that kind of stuff in bulk are going to run about a penny each, plus the costs of stocking and transport etc., so call it 2 cents each. Then, if they are readily available, people will take them (thinking here of my grandmother, and her “if it’s not nailed down” theory of restaurant stockpiling). So it starts to add up. And believe me, these stores are making very thin margins to begin with, so your 99 cent value menu burger’s profit is probably wiped out by a few ketchup packets, let alone the more expensive “liquid gold” that is yellow mustard.

Since this is such a weighty issue, I thought I’d offer a clarification and a comment, and then I will tie all the plot lines together in a semi-amusing anecdote. Sort of like a mustard-themed Seinfeld.

Clarification to bradwalt: At McD’s, the mustard is not dolloped, as that implies a spoon or ladle being involved. In the world of McStandardization, this would leave too much room for individual discretion. Instead there is a doohickey that is basically an open metal pot with a trigger. When the trigger is pulled a set amount of the yellowest mustard you’ve ever seen is dropped onto the burger in a little star shape. More interesting is the caulk-gun-like contraption for “special sauce” which can shoot gook fifty feet or more.

Comment to RobV: Good show! Making fun of fast food employees is a challenging game, and you have shown both courage and wit in your mockery. In reality, though, some improbably large proportion of the population has worked in one of these places, including many of your SDMB peers. Many of the employees are short-timers, but among the other primary groups working at these places are the mentally handicapped, the elderly, and the poor. You showed them!

Climactic scene: Yours truly, circa 1990, dumps the entire mustard trigger-pot-thing into my lap in the first hour of an eight hour shift a la Polycarp’s story; acute cause was leaning on a counter to rest–thus violating the caridnal rule, “if you have time to lean you have time to clean”. Some smells and colors, it turns out, cannot even be removed from polyester uniform pants.

Mustard comes on every non-special-order burger I’ve ever had, up and down the East and West Coasts of the US and parts in between. I did notice a lack of mustard pumps, though. fine by me! Yuck.

Ahh, I’d forgotten the thrills of the condiment dispensers…those things scared the hell out of me.

3 years of Mcdonalds checking in…

If you want to see mustard get its day in the sun, try one of Chicago’s better hot dog establishments. The ones that take their dogs seriously will have plenty o’ mustard, but you’ll have to ask specially for ketchup. (Putting ketchup on a dog is frowned upon in these circles.)

FWIW, in all of north texas, ive never seen a fast food restauraunt that discriminates against mustard…

wendy’s is big on mustard, mcdonalds puts it on some burgers for sure, burger king does it too. Most have mustard packets out in the open, but ive asked for it when its not in a little box, and its almost always right under the main counter under the register area.

maybe its a new york thing?

have you tried just asking for mustard on the burger when you order it?

Just for the record, McDonald’s stiil puts mustard on thier hamburgers and Quarter Pounders. There is also mustard flour in th Big Mac sauce.