Almost every time I order food at a McDonalds or another fast food restaurant they put the french fries on top of the napkins they give me. Why in the world do they do this? For one thing it makes obvious how greasy the french fries are, for another, it gets my napkins all soaked with oil. There is already a paper tray liner down on the tray that will handle the fries just fine. Why do they do this? Arrrrgh!!
I have no idea what this means. McDonald’s puts their french fries in a cardboard or paper container, never on napkins.
Thread relocated from IMHO to Cafe Society.
I believe the reference is to dining in, where most of your food will be laid out on the tray directly on top of the liner, but the french fries (within their container) will often be laid on top of whatever napkins you’re given.
The answer, I think, is because that’s usually the only food you’re ordering that is “exposed” (meaning, not completely contained in a wrapper), and some people might not want to eat fries directly off the tray. Since laying the fry container flat is inevitably going to lead to some spillage, the idea is that you might still be OK eating fries off of a (presumed to be) clean napkin, instead of eating food that has been in direct contact with the tray liner (ETA: or, God forbid, the tray itself).
Yes they do put their fries in a cardboard container but then they put that down on your tray with the open part on top of the napkins, (At least in my experience most of the time). And that make the napkins all greasy and and also advertises the oiliness of the french fries.
Damn man! I thought I had done good putting this in IMHO instead of General Questions. Oh well. 
Are you afraid other diners will discover you’re eating fatty foods? Or is it that you don’t want to be reminded how much fat is in fries? I must say I have trouble understanding this part of your complaint.
That’s a pretty good answer. It’s just that I consider the paper liner to be a “clean” disposable surface just as I do the napkins. But I want the napkins to be clean and oil free to wipe my face, etc. so I’d like the paper liner to be the surface that handles the french fry spillover.
So whatever grease is being soaked up by the napkins is grease you’re not eating, which is surely a good thing, right?
I think you need to rethink your position on this one. 
Touche!
I care not about others knowing I am eating greasy fries. I simply don’t need the fry grease on my napkins. I want to use the napkins to clean up messes on my face and hands. Why would a restaurant “pre-soil” the napkins by putting greasy french fries on top of them?
OK. Side note (or hijack if you will). You know how sometimes OP’s will react in amazement at how someone on the SDMB will answer so quickly to an esoteric question (say for example like who was the first person to use a protractor?)
Well, my post wasn’t so esoteric, but I’m floored by how many folks have chimed in within minutes of my posting the question! Let that be an answer to the recent poster who was worried about the decline of the number of registered users here.
In decades of eating at McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants, I never saw this, rendering the OP moot.
YES! But why does it have to be on the things I 'll use to wipe my mouth with?
They have more napkins available, you know.
Over here, you got yer fry napkins. And over here, you got yer face napkins. DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!
That’s what your sleeve is for!
Or your tie, if you’re a dandy.
…
Really? Maybe it’s dependent on individual restaurants. But in my experience it happens more times than not.
Yes, yes, I know. I don’t have any trouble cleaning up after myself. It’s just always struck me as odd.
Look, if you’ve entered a McDonald’s restaurant without first devising an adequate grease-management strategy then I’m afraid it’s all on you*.
*SWIDT?
Oho!!! And now, to get back to a completely different beef I have ( about mysterious acronyms), what does SWIDT mean?