# Old folks using McDonald's as an old folks' home. What would you do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926 "2014-01-16T02:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/61 "2014-01-17T14:11:07Z")
I feel bad for the business. From the article it appears they are losing money which makes sense. I’m not going to eat fast food somewhere I can’t get a seat at. I think if they seniors had left when the lunch rush kicked in, we wouldn’t have this issue. I wonder how serious this boycott can be. Will this hurt the franchisee? If the business is losing money, I can see it closing in which case the horde of senior will descend on some other fast food place and hog all the tables. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/62 "2014-01-17T14:58:52Z")
I can’t help but think half these people would have spent a few hours in jail if they were 17. > [@Namkcalb](#): > > Alternatively, you could offer a half price discount for basketballers. Koreans aren’t used to six and half foot tall Africans. > [@Namkcalb](#): > > They could always start a rumour that the burgers don’t use dogmeat Your dog whistle is showing. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/63 "2014-01-17T15:17:13Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > They could always start a rumour that the burgers don’t use dogmeat Coming up on the next zany episode of “How I Met Your Mother”… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![HipGnosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/76d3ee/32.png) [@HipGnosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HipGnosis)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/64 "2014-01-17T15:37:26Z")
Take a picture of each of their faces every 20 mins with a camera with a REALLY bright flash. Mop under the tables they’re sitting at with really strong disinfectant - every 30 mins they are there. And don’t rinse it away. Close the bathrooms ‘for cleaning’ 30 mins after they’ve had their coffee. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/65 "2014-01-17T15:44:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In [today’s news](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/nyregion/leaders-urge-customers-to-boycott-mcdonalds.html), Korean community leaders are trying to organize a world-wide boycott of McDonald’s restaurants for disrespecting the loiterers and rudeness in asking the police to remove them. Or they could collect donations, buy some McDonald’s franchises and run them as leisure centers for the elderly. It’s reassuring to learn that the Korean community is apparently out of problems. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/66 "2014-01-17T16:05:32Z")
Why are a bunch of pervy old guys hanging around at the McDonalds? Two words - hot chicks. Get your coffee at the senior center from a social worker, or from a perky young teenage girl at the McDonalds? The equipment may not work all that well anymore, but it still rules every decision of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/67 "2014-01-17T16:20:31Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > In [today’s news](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/nyregion/leaders-urge-customers-to-boycott-mcdonalds.html), Korean community leaders are trying to organize a world-wide boycott of McDonald’s restaurants for disrespecting the loiterers and rudeness in asking the police to remove them. > > Or they could collect donations, buy some McDonald’s franchises and run them as leisure centers for the elderly. > > It’s reassuring to learn that the Korean community is apparently out of problems. Jack Bert is the name of the franchise owner and by the name, I’m guessing he’s not Korean-American. I wonder if the same problem would exist if he was Korean. It might, but at least the racism claim might be more suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/68 "2014-01-17T16:32:50Z")
A bunch of people who spend their days there not really buying anything but are inconveniencing other people who want to buy stuff… are threatening not to come back? :dubious: Ok, where’s the down side? ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/69 "2014-01-17T16:33:54Z")
> [@Caffeine.addict](#): > > I feel bad for the business. From the article it appears they are losing money which makes sense. I’m not going to eat fast food somewhere I can’t get a seat at. I think if they seniors had left when the lunch rush kicked in, we wouldn’t have this issue. Or if they were spending more than $1.39. There’s a group of about twenty or thirty people that I work with who descend every Friday at five onto the same restaurant, move tables around to suit us, and sit there for four or five hours, being loud and driving the waitstaff nuts by asking for separate checks for every last one of us. And they love us, and reserve our tables, and give us great service, because we’re spending money. If these Korean seniors were buying more than a quarter’s worth of fries per day each, they’d be valued regulars. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/70 "2014-01-17T16:38:34Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > In their culture, there’s a long tradition of using mass-produced modern furniture stores as meat markets and boxing rings. We can’t judge; they have many things to teach us. Har har. Go ahead with the “their assholes, screw em” approach. You’ll end up with a standoff, bad press, and apparently a boycott. Try to understand what is going on and work with that, and you might be able to solve the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/71 "2014-01-17T16:39:38Z")
**sven** , are you fucking kidding? You want a single McDonald’s franchise to fix some longstanding problem in the psyches of local Korean seniors? You don’t think they’ve tried politely asking them to leave? > [@Chimera](#): > > A bunch of people who spend their days there not really buying anything but are inconveniencing other people who want to buy stuff… are threatening not to come back? :dubious: > > Ok, where’s the down side? They are asking _all_ Korean-Americans to boycott _all_ McDonald’s restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/72 "2014-01-17T16:52:24Z")
Because that will work. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/73 "2014-01-17T16:54:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **sven** , are you fucking kidding? You want a single McDonald’s franchise to fix some longstanding problem in the psyches of local Korean seniors? You don’t think they’ve tried politely asking them to leave? > > They are asking _all_ Korean-Americans to boycott _all_ McDonald’s restaurants. No. As mentioned earlier, I think this is the role of the city. The seniors are not using existing facilities, and there is a reason for that. The seniors are facing new resistance from a place they have been frequenting for half a decade. There is a reason for that. Figure out the answer to those two mysteries, and you’ll have a roadmap for solving the problem with minimal pain. But sometimes people value being “right” over their own interests. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/74 "2014-01-17T16:56:09Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Or if they were spending more than $1.39. There’s a group of about twenty or thirty people that I work with who descend every Friday at five onto the same restaurant, move tables around to suit us, and sit there for four or five hours, being loud and driving the waitstaff nuts by asking for separate checks for every last one of us. And they love us, and reserve our tables, and give us great service, because we’re spending money. If these Korean seniors were buying more than a quarter’s worth of fries per day each, they’d be valued regulars. They may not even be paying that much. When I worked at McDonalds in high school, we had a senior coffee discount. It was something like 50 cents (not that they didn’t bitch about how expensive it was, anyway). Lord help you if you forgot and didn’t charge them their special rate. I got chewed out by one of our charming “guests” on my first day shift for this reason. Or if you prioritized the $30 drive thru order that’s getting cold over getting them their fouth free refill, filling up the bucket of creamers, or listening to them complain about their doctor. One of the reasons I started working nights, in fact – they cleared out by lunch. Given my experience with “that group” of seniors, I’m not unsympathetic to the business. Some people are just takers, no matter their age, and if they weren’t costing the business money then the business would want them to stay. When people post about a group of teenagers loitering at a restaurant after buying 2 sodas (with 10 free refills) for a table of 8 in 4 hours while strewing straw wrappers everywhere and being loud, nobody goes “Well, what if the teen recreational facility doesn’t have a lot of natural light? Let’s sort out all the social issues before this business can kick them out.” We’d say don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, kiddo, scramola. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/75 "2014-01-17T16:57:25Z")
Who cares why the restaurant is “newly resisting” (though it hardly appears that’s the case, just that they’ve finally started calling police)? ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/76 "2014-01-17T16:59:23Z")
At least with teenagers they can play the high pitched ‘mosquito tone’ to irritate them into leaving. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/77 "2014-01-17T17:00:54Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Har har. > > Go ahead with the “their assholes, screw em” approach. You’ll end up with a standoff, bad press, and apparently a boycott. Try to understand what is going on and work with that, and you might be able to solve the problem. As opposed to having seniors take up all the available seats driving away paying clients, and going out of business anyhow? How is a McDonald’s franchise supposed to fix this whatever weird issue motivates the seniors to hang out. Is the solution to open up an Ikea so they can all hang out there? I’m curious to see how big the boycott is really going to be. So far it sounds like a few disgruntled types who aren’t really customers anyhow. I can’t think of any business that would let you hang out all day taking up a table when you spend one or two dollars, especially if paying clients aren’t going in because they can’t find a spot to sit. One McDonalds near me has their TV permanently set to Fox News. Considering that the majority of the clientele are not the Fox News viewing demographic, I think they do it so people don’t linger. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/78 "2014-01-17T17:56:29Z")
It’s common for all of the McDonalds around this area for guys 60 and up to hang out throughout the morning to lunch. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/79 "2014-01-17T18:17:34Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Go ahead with the “their assholes, screw em” approach. You’ll end up with a standoff, bad press, and apparently a boycott. Try to understand what is going on and work with that, and you might be able to solve the problem. Despite rampant and scurrilous rumors to the contrary, I am not currently employed by McDonald’s. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-folks-using-mcdonalds-as-an-old-folks-home-what-would-you-do/678926/80 "2014-01-17T18:26:17Z")
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