whiterabbit, eating uncooked sausage is not a good idea.
Has anyone else ever noticed how sweet Big Macs are? After not having eaten at a McDs for several years, I happened to be working near one a couple of weeks ago, so I got a Big Mac Value Meal. What are they using in the special sauce? It was very strange.
For fast food burgers, I like BK. Fire! Fire!
Burger King rocks.
I can go you one better than this. My mother, who is 76 years old, has never eaten any fast food except Arby’s roast beef sandwiches and a Dairy Queen Brazier hot dog, and the Dairy Queen thing only happened because my dad insisted on going there.
Which is maybe why she’s 76.
Every place is different, that’s the problem with a global boycott.
The McDonald’s on Rt. 7 in Tyson’s Corner, VA, is hands down the best fast food joint I have ever been to. I used to go there regularly when I worked near there (at Wolf Trap, for those familiar with the area), and whoever was in charge there really had their shit together. They’d have several employees working the drive-through line with headsets, and they’d take your order, stick a post-it note with your total on your side mirror, you’d get around the corner and there were two people taking money, and there was an arm sticking out the window with your bag, with the correct order in it every time, before you could even pull up. There was always a long line at lunchtime and I was through it in under 60 seconds every single time.
Wendy’s? My husband and I went to one here in Miami one fine evening and it took us, and I am not exaggerating, THIRTY MINUTES to get our food, and there were maybe four people in front of us when we got in line. We would have left, but we kept thinking it would get better, and after we’d invested enough time waiting, we were determined to stick it out. Besides, I was pregnant at the time and really wanted a salad.
I don’t think whiterabbit meant “rare” as in “not fully cooked throughout” but rather as in “not often”.
It never ceases to amaze me that people can’t grasp this concept.
YES, businesses and corporations can (and do) lose customers every single day due to one idiot, lazy employee. Employees are the physical embodiment of a business, and if a customer doesn’t feel important based on an employee’s reaction/service, the customer will go elsewhere.
“But I’m not McDonald’s!” people will say. “I just work here!” But if you’re wearing that uniform, to the customer, you ARE McDonald’s. And if you treat that customer shabbily, the customer is likely to remember and tell other people.
Two years ago, my wife and I attempted to take her parents out to dinner at our local Olive Garden restaurant. We were told the wait would be approximately a half-hour. More than 50 minutes later, after everyone else in the lobby had been seated and new groups our size (those who arrived after us) were being shown to tables, my wife began arguing with the hostess. She was told “Five more minutes” and my wife said something along the lines of “By now I could’ve made the damn pasta myself.” We left, and ate elsewhere. My wife complained online to Olive Garden’s corporate office, and got $40 in coupons. Which she gave to her parents. She has never eaten at Olive Garden since, and I seriously doubt she ever will.
Nor is this limited to the fast-food industry. The company I work for is a franchisor of office furniture dealerships. There’s a dealer in the northeastern U.S. who would be a perfect fit for our program. He would probably sell around $2 million a year with us, with approximately $600,000 of that staying in his dealership as profit for him.
He refuses to do business with us, because he doesn’t like our company president. They know each other slightly. Neither man has done the other wrong; their personalities just don’t mesh. The dealer in question loves our program, thinks it’s a great way to do business. And he’s perfectly willing to leave approximately $600,000 a year on the table to avoid doing business with us, based on one employee.
Whoosh!
I guess I should have used a smiley. 
Besides, McDonalds has more than one of those.
Not all of them! But they sure have some doozies.
I worked at Burger King about a decade ago, so it’s entirely possible that things have changed. When I was there, microwaves were indeed used to heat a sandwich as the meat may have been grilled and the bun toasted up to 30 minutes before your order came through. In that time period, the plain burgers would sit in a steamer to retain some warmth and moisture.
Once the burger was assembled, it was tossed into the microwave for 5 to 10 seconds to bring it a little back more to ideal temperature. Any sandwich with mayonnaise was not microwaved, which means that an ordinary whopper would have the bottom half microwaved while the employee put mayo, lettuce and tomato on the top half. The microwave isn’t for cooking. The “flame-broiling” annihilated the meat already.
Hmm. Apparently building a Whopper is just like riding a bike - you never forget. And now I want one for lunch.
I pulled into the drive through at a McDonalds last week. The woman taking orders through the speaker quite obviously had acquired English as a second language very recently. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me: I want a sausage McGriddle, just the sandwich not the meal, and a cup of water.
Her: Ok. One hot chocolate.
Me: No. Not hot chocolate. I want a sausage McGriddle, just the sandwich not the meal, and a cup of water.
Her: Ok. Your total is $2.88.
The sandwich alone was only $1.79 plus tax, so I knew she still had it wrong.
I gave up and drove away and haven’t been back to it since. I don’t understand why they had her working the order speaker. She may have been a fine worker, but taking orders was not something she was capable of doing.
Do they even serve hot chocolate at McDonalds?
Reading Fast Food Nation did it for me.
The secret’s been out for a while. It’s just 1,000 Island salad dressing.
I must also throw Airman some kudos for dumping McDonald’s and jumping on the Wendy’s bandwagon. Nothing beats their spicy chicken sandwich! Unless of course they put on too much mayo as many Wendy’s restaurants tend to do in my experience.
Yes and no to that, Lib. It’s true that the franchise owners are independent of each other, but corporate HQ, which depends on the franchisees for its profit, can and should be enforcing quality standards in the franchises (undoubtedly spelled out in some detail in their contracts with their franchisees). ISTM that it’s clear they’re slacking off here, and they deserve to feel the appropriate level of pain.
The response of the franchisees who are running a tight ship should be to demand of corporate HQ that they get their asses out into the field, and make sure that all the franchisees are running things properly, because bad performance at one or two MickeyD’s will discourage customers from going to other McDonalds. It’s not like the name of the franchisee is on the sign, even if it’s on a tiny plaque inside the restaurant.
I understand this. I’m just saying it’s silly. I’ve got no issue with boycotting the particular store (or better complaining to the management of that store) McDonald’s might be a large multinational corporation, but essentially each store is run more or less independantly, operating under the overarching policies set by the corporation. Mypoint was, and still is, if you like going to a particular place, there’s no reason to avoid the entore company, if you only have an issue with one particular employee in one particular store.
Same here, but I haven’t finished the book yet, so I’ll still eat at KFC and Taco Bell 
(Proud to have not eaten BK in over a year and McD’s in three years)
Wish I could find the exact quote from that “Lethal Weapon” film, wherein Joe Pesci says something to the effect of:
“Okayokayokay…never go to the drivethrough. You know why? Okayokay…cuz they fuck you at the drivethrough! They fuck you at the drive through and you can’t do anything about it and you end up with tuna.” [/words to that effect]
I don’t know how you Americans survive without Harvey’s.
McD’s: Blechhh…
Wendy’s: Time ill spent…
Burger King: Slop City…
In-N-Out: Da Bomb! And you get to see all the employees bust ass getting your Double-Double with grilled onions. Yum! Haven’t seen one lazy stooge there yet…
Recipe? You mean it’s not just equal parts ketchup and mayo?