I went to McDonald’s the other day for the first time in a long time and ordered a #2 meal and told them to “Super-Size It!”. Then I actually looked at the menu and it turns out that what I should have said was “Large Size It!”.
They’ve changed their rating system – an ordinary meal is “Medium”, what used to be super size is now “Large” and they have a new, larger definition for “Super”. Of course they raised the rates at the same time – 49 cents for the large (was 39 cents) and 98 cents for the super.
Aside from the usual advertising idiocy of the three sizes being medium, large and super, I’m very annoyed. They’ve spent the last few years training me to say super size and now when my Pavlovian response kicks in I get a too big drink and a way too big fries and I part with an extra 59 cents.
Why don’t they call it something new? How about hyper size? Then they’d have large, super and hyper sizes!!
At any rate, the story has a happy ending. I corrected my order and told them I wanted a “large” size and the incompetent person waiting on me charged me for the large but gave me the super-duper size anyway. (I’m normally pretty tolerant of the help at fast food joints – for a lot of them this is their first job – but this person was a manager and she didn’t give me the bigger size out of good will – she just screwed up. She was trying to do about fourteen things at once besides wait on me. Nice personal touch.)
Someday I’ll make the connection between eating at McDonald’s and the queasy feeling that follows. One of my favorite TV comedy moments was Buck Henry on SNL announcing Ray Kroc’s demise: “Ray Kroc, McDead at 79.”
The smallest combo-meals give you your standard McMeatProduct, plus a medium fries and a medium soda. They do sell small fries and small drinks, but you have to order those separately.
Anyway, if you got a super-size for the price of a large, you should stop complaining and share your fries. =B^)
Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle.
I’ve always considered McDonald’s to be an example of the very worst that modern Western capitalism can possibly be. The food is not only overpriced, it is of consistently poor quality (I will concede that the fries are okay). The advertising is insipid, the toys tacky, the decor gaudy, the entire “McDonald’s Experience” incredibly plastic, even by fast-food standards. Not long ago, I was given a half-price coupon for a Quarter Pounder. I’d not been to “Mickey Dee’s” in several years and decided to give it another chance. I won’t make that mistake again. The burger was not even worth the “discount” price. I cannot imagine paying full price for it.
I am well aware that millions of people disagree with me. This is a prime example of why I try not to let popular opinion affect my personal beliefs.
This is not a rant against fast-food in general. I know that such establishments are different from other restaurants. I’ve worked at a couple of them, as well as at establishments of higher caliber. I would eat at any fast-food joint before McDonald’s. If “Mac” was my only choice, I would go hungry. Perhaps for days.
I thought you were going to mention the Salad Shakers commercial. “It’s the most fun you can have with salad!” Really? Shaking a 16 oz salad cup with dressing is “fun”?
And don’t get me started on the apple pies. Since they stopped deep fryin’ them ,they’re now inedible.
I say that Mickey D’s can just go take a flying McFuck. Those French farmers have the right idea. McDonalds is emblematic of everything that is wrong with the American capitalist way of looking at food preparation, lacing it with chemicals and hormones just so that there will be more of it. Quality, not quantity, America! Christ on a hawg with Ronald McDonald’s grandmother…
The last time I was in a McD’s was to pick up advertising copy. I don’t think people go there to get good food. They most likely go there because there are no surprises.
Here’s a private personal bitch over which I have no control: tons and tons of people overseas eating a McDonald’s and thinking of it as “American Food” or an “American experience.”
As if the old Arthur Triecher’s(sp?)Fish and Chips was a “British experience.”
AARRRGH!
I eat there maybe once every two months after I tell myself I have not eaten there in a long time. Then I eat there and answer my statement …Now I know why I have not eaten there in a long time. Those burgers are like cannonballs in your stomach
and the Chicken McNuggets are not chicken. I would classify them as Mystery Niblets. Don’t believe me? Check out the ingredients chart.
Having had confirmed for me recently that they have to call them ‘buns’ and ‘shakes’ because they do not classify as real bread or milk products respectively, has made me even more determined to never visit them again.
I also don’t like the evil way they target children.
I’m a KFC guy anyway. I don’t go for much else in the way of fast food (except for fish and chips, but then that’s a New Zealand staple I can’t live without - it’s in my blood. Possibly literally) and chicken is the world’s greatest food ever.
They also don’t have banana shakes in McDonald’s here in Australia, damn them. They do in New Zealand, what’s the deal???
There’s a key to ordering at Mickey D’s: make up a special order. I’m not a big fan of mustard, so I order the burger with just ketchup. This forces them to make a fresh one, so I always get it hot. Still not good (nowhere near the standards of Wendy’s) but better than otherwise.
And yes, McNuggets suck.
Although I do like the shakes, they’re sorta like sweetened wonderbread dough…the thickness is the key thing for me.
Normally I stay as far away from McYukkies as possible. However, I have to say that nothing cures a hangover like a Bacon & Egg McMuffin, McHash Browns and McCoffee.
A few months back I saw their tv ad for chicken nuggets. 20 nuggets cost a penny more than buying 10 nuggets twice. Never could figure out why they did that.
A few times a year, we have to make torturous drive through the middle of nowhere to take my son to a doctor in Dallas. We stop at McDonald’s exclusively- twice on the way there, and twice on the way back, because:
1.These towns are so small that most have nothing resembling a restaurant at all. The only “food” available is a greasy Chimichanga from Allsup’s, which is guaranteed to give you diarrhea, not a good thing on this trip (see my comment on restrooms, #4). Only a few towns are large enough to contain a McDonald’s and these are conveniently spaced out along the way. The only other option is Dairy Queen, which is even more expensive, or some scary wayside taco stand.
2.McDonald’s “food” can be ordered from the car and eaten in the car.
3.The happy meal toys, though pathetic, are briefly entertaining to the two small kids in the back seat.
4.The restrooms are relatively clean. Note the use of the word “relatively”. Most restrooms you’ll see on this trip have not been cleaned since the advent of indoor plumbing; McDonald’s cleans its restrooms a little more often than that. In most places we stop for gas or snacks, there actually is no working indoor plumbing. Where the toilet has a water supply (the sink definitely doesn’t) the thought of placing my children on those toilet seats gives me the heebiejeebies. I have routinely changed my kids’ diapers on the hood of my car rather than take them in there. And I am not squeamish.
5.Everyone knows what a Quarter Pounder is supposed to taste like. Granted, it’s hardly haute cuisine, but if your QP tastes slighty out of the ordinary you know there’s a problem. Standardized “food” has its advantages.
Kat:
Most bread rolls or buns will have ingredients samped on the bag, and in a supermarket they are more than likely freshly baked, so there shouldn’t be a prob there,
But Mc Donalds is expressly forbidden to use the word ‘bread’ when referring to its buns and rolls because there is too much sugar and not enough something else to legally classify them as bread. And the shakes have almost no milk in them at all. It’s reprocessed fat.
OK, I’ve got to take the other side. I LIKE McDonalds!!! I would say this is the unpopular position, but I don’t really think this is the case based on the success of the company.
Would I take someone who had never had an “American Hamburger” to McD’s as an example of the best… NO, but it is a comfort taste that I remember from my childhood. Believe it or not, some people like Hagus (sp?).
By the way… my primary IRL interest is cooking. I appreciate a variety of tastes, and McD’s is one of the many.
Yeah, they target us kids at an early age. I admit that my first sentence was “Go bye bye in car get French Fries.” I do like their fries, though ever since I left high school, eating there makes me wish I didn’t. It sits in the guts like cement, and just isn’t as good as some other places. But it is McMatter.
I’ve been to McShit three times in as many months. Each time, I’ve visted different cities and ordered what used to be my favorite menu item: the McNuggets. Each time I order, I ask how long they’ve been out of the fryer, and I’m always told they “just came out.” I have to wonder what the hell they’ve done to them for them to come out of the fryer tasting like leather-breaded plastic chewie-chunks… shudders
GuanoLad: Perhaps you can direct me to a book/article/website where I can get details on this?
MaryAnn: I hope you complained!
I have to confess, I have a thing for Quarter Pounders with Cheese every once in a while. And occasionally, I even get a grease craving and order a Double Cheeseburgers (they have to be the greasiest fast food burger out there).