I told you to stop masturbating in the freezer.
And sometimes people value being stubborn over their own interests. I have yet to see an article in which any of people these gives a reason as to why they prefer to hang out in this McDonalds rather than the senior centers ( which going by the experience of my family members, generally plan activities according to the attendees wishes) , community centers or even the McDonalds or Burger King a couple of blocks away, which some of them no doubt pass on the way to this one. In fact, one person specifically notes that they prefer Korean food to McDonald’s and the article mentions that many come after filling up at a free lunch at a senior center.
It seems that the new resistance is calling the police, not that the McDonald’s has been content with such a huge group there all day for five years. Or maybe five years ago it was four or five people for a couple of hours between breakfast and lunch and it only recently got to the point where paying customers couldn’t find seats. Either way, it’s not McDonald’s responsibility to give them a place to hang out nor is it the city’s responsibility to beg them to explain what is wrong with all of the other places they could gather when it appears that the people don’t know themselves why they cannot gossip,chat, and go outside to smoke at the senior citizen or community centers
This is pretty much what happens at every McDonald’s. I don’t understand why so many of you are acting like this is some strange thing. The only thing that seems to be an issue here is that this McDonald’s is rather small, and doesn’t seem to be able to accommodate them. Well, that and that they stay maybe twice as long as most seniors, as most only stick around through breakfast time or so.
Also, giving people 20 minutes to eat is ridiculous, and might make me a bit spiteful, too. You’re having a problem with people spending 12 or more hours there, and your solution is to force them to have only have 3% of that time? I mean, that time is so short that I might take advantage of the technicality that, if I’ve left and come back, I’m on a new visit and thus should get another 20 minutes. Give 'em an hour, at least.
As for what I’d do? First off, these guys are a community, so you need to find a place for them to still meet that can accommodate all of them. Then offer to deliver some McDonald’s food there. Yeah, that’s a bit of an expense, but surely it’s less than the nearly $200 per person they are claiming to lose. And it would be good for PR, since they’d be actively reaching out to the older people.
I’d also consider having a special senior citizen time at some point in the day when they aren’t so busy. Most restaurants seem to have lulls in the day, as people tend to eat at fairly regular times. As the seniors have all the time in the world, it should be fairly easy for them to only come at those times. To add further incentive, only provide the full senior discount at those times, too. Instead of focusing on shooing people away, focus on inviting them at times when it would not be so inconvenient.
Everything I would do would be focused on the positive rather than the negative. The message should always be pro-seniors rather than anti-seniors.
Until last year, the only time I ever had McDonalds or other fast food is on lunch break at work. Since I spent 20-something years working in the Loop (Chicago’s version of “downtown”) in what could be called the financial district, nope, no retirees hanging out, ever. The rare other times I’ve gone is on road trips or in food courts - again, no old folks chilling at the ones off exits or way out in Gurnee or Aurora. I have always seen old people at the Burger King at Clark and Irving, but it’s in the shadow of a retirement home, so I Tom Jonesed it (ya know, didn’t think it unusual).
I’m sure it’s a common phenomenon, but I wouldn’t say it’s pervasive. Where I grew up, every McDonalds is off a highway, so I doubt it ever happened there. Looks like you need a dense urban environment where folks can walk to one for it to happen.
The article mentions that these guys really don’t even like McDonald’s food, preferring Korean food. And there are Korean and other Asian community centers around this area. So it’s not like there’s nowhere else to go.
What the fuck are you doing in McDonald’s that you can’t finish a burger in less than 20 minutes?
I’m fucking going to fucking McDonalds because it’s a good fucking way to so see my son and my granddaughters when we both have busy fucking schedules, and I want to spend more than 20 fucking minutes with them.
In every city I have lived in, I’ve seen fast food restaurants that have the “20 minutes only” rule.
It’s not strictly enforced. If you aren’t being a nuisance, you aren’t just there to take advantage of the AC and the heat, and you aren’t camping out for five-six hours at a time, no one is going to bother you.
If these old geezers were just hanging out for an hour or so, I don’t think think McDonald’s would care that much. But 12 hours? That’s crazy.
Ah yes, the infamous windowless basement with the shitty coffee. You can hardly blame these guys for getting their free lunch and then making tracks out of there to someplace with windows, and slightly less shitty coffee, and lunch they have to pay for (or would, if they were buying food).
They should renovate the restaurant so that the seats aren’t so comfortable. Perhaps metal chairs or stools with no backs. That way it’s tolerable for the 20-minutes or so to finish your meal but that’s about it. Seniors wouldn’t be hanging around in that environment. Then after they have all found a new place to hang out, put the booths back in.
They order one pack of fries between four people all day, so I’m sure McDonald’s would be more than happy to deliver that to them. But they’re not there for the food.
Isn’t McDonald’s run as a franchise, with the manager’s bonus depending on meeting targets? Even if it’s not, the manager is hardly going to be in line for promotions. It’s hardly fair when he/she hasn’t done anything wrong.
This is a terrible idea. If there is a baby (or toddler, I suppose) in the vicinity, the child will be in intense (and possibly damaging) discomfort, with no way to explain the situation to their guardian/caregiver.
The only thing I blame them for is relentlessly occupying one specific small busy McDonalds 12 hours a day, every day, and never visiting any other similar establishment within a 2 minute walk.
I believe like even sven that the only solution is some kind of community mediation. However, unlike her, I don’t believe that its because they have a reasonable point or have unmet needs. Its because they are assholes exploiting their privilege and can never be arrested, so a non-police intervention is the only kind that’s possible.
I’m not sure what the big mystery is.
They’ve been going there for 5 years. They keep going back because… that’s what they’ve been doing for 5 years. Humans, in general, are creatures of habit. It doesn’t matter that there are other places they could go, even places that are specifically set aside for them, because this particular McDonald’s is already familiar and comfortable. I’m sure it was just a small group of 2-3 at first, and then their friends and other members of their community followed them there and it just became their “spot.”
Yes. We are in 100% agreement. It seems to me that these men are being disrespectful jerks. I sincerely doubt that their free-lunch-providing senior center is the windowless hellhole that even sven imagines.
I just can’t believe that anyone over 13 is seriously fighting for the right to spend time in a McDonald’s, of all places. I don’t even like driving through a McDonald’s parking lot.
The manager should be grateful that anyone wants that crap.
But they don’t want “that crap.” These guys buy and eat hardly anything in the hours they spend in the restaurant.
the place should have a “happy meal per half hour per person minimum”.
The Burger King across the street from my workplace does that, too. The Wendy’s near my apartment always plays one of the Christian radio stations. I never thought about it that way, but the Wendy’s is near the local university and this is a pretty liberal city. It’s linger prevention. Lord knows it works on me.
:rolleyes: And why exactly does this small business owner - franchisees of McDonalds and the like are small businesses in their own right - have any obligation to this group of people who are disrupting his business and causing him to lose money? He owes them nothing, in my opinion. He has employees, vendors and taxes to pay, and paying customers to keep happy. These people, seniors or not, are making it harder for him to do those things, and they don’t care. It’s a business, not their personal clubhouse.