In praise of MaccyDs

[Fab Foodie]

MaccyD's has an awful reputation, but as a company they have standards in quality, welfare and customer service that leaves plenty of corporations in the UK absolutely trailing in it's wake.

Unfortunately for them, people seem to remember Supersize Me and have drawn some pretty hard to remove conclusions.

This. And on a truly enormous global scale.

 

[dellzeqq]

This "warming cabinet" of which you speak....is it for warming burgers? If so, I'm mightily impressed with the service and flexibility of the staff.

that's be it. They were in between the double cheeseburgers and the breakfast thingummies

 

[Ian H]

Kudos to the manager of that particular McD, but my experiences of the actual McD food and drink has not been good.

 

[Andrew_P]

I have often commented on how amazing they have the kids trained and @ min wage. They are always grafting and working to the system. Do not think I have ever seen them mucking about. They do it with very little noticeable management.

 

[Glover Fan]

Probably cause unlike the typical supermarkets in this country that expect minimal amounts of staff to keep stores of up 100,000 sqft fully stocked, McDonalds usually have a decent amount of staff and create a real team ethic.

 

[ASC1951]

If I remember rightly they're also very good for British farming.

All the meat is UK sourced, isn't it? And some recent programme - Countryfile? - pointed out that they are by far the largest buyer of organic eggs in the country.

 

[GM]

...yet again!

Andrew and I arrived in Morecambe at 5.45 this morning, to a stiff, rain,bearing northerly wind. There was, surprise, surprise, nothing open, so we headed off toward Lancaster.

It would have been five to six when we came upon a McDonalds. The manager was inside. We knocked on the door, he smiled, came to the door and invited us in.

Now, as commercial prospects go, we were little better than the homeless men that crowd in to the Victoria Street branch. Our priorities were warmth, toilets, breakfast in that order. We were wet through and filthy dirty. We could not have been made more welcome. Our gloves and hats were put in bags and placed in the warming cabinet. They brought our food over to us, and didn't seem to mind my half-hearted attempts to clean up the drips and the grit that fell of my clothes. The toilets were spacious and equipped with a first rate hand dryer. And they had porridge. Proper porridge, not the oatsosimple nonsense.

The coffee was decent, the tea ok, and the breakfast was......inexpensive. The new MaccyDs decor is easy on the eye.

We stayed over two hours, ordering from time to time. When we left, our gloves were handed to us with best wishes. Smiles all round. Thankyou, MaccyDs!

Hope you don't mind, but posted this to my Niece who is an area manager for Macd's. I think he deserves a pat on the back!

 

[Glover Fan]

All the meat is UK sourced, isn't it? And some recent programme - Countryfile? - pointed out that they are by far the largest buyer of organic eggs in the country.

I work in the industry and in addition to this their welfare requirements in terms of amount of hens per sq ft, feed quality are the highest in the UK.

They also have excellent working relationships with their suppliers, preferring quality and service over cost. They don't pay the lowest they can get. Almost like an antithesis to the supermarkets. Yet they still make billion dollar profits. If there is a business model in the world that I would suggest, theirs would be it.

 

[Canrider]

If there is a business model in the world that I would suggest, theirs would be it.

Hmm, how much of that is pro-active and how much of that is re-active to their size making them the prime target on these various issues?

 

[srw]

that's be it. They were in between the double cheeseburgers and the breakfast thingummies

And a little bird told me that theclaud has a soft spot for an egg McMuffin of a morning.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Generally speaking I enjoy a good Muffin rather than a 1/4 pound of prime beef.

 

[User482]

The MaccyD's in Lancaster was the last time I visited one in the UK, well over 10 years ago. The food is bland pap, but I must concede, that having been ill for several days when travelling in S. America, the prospect of a plain burger and fries made in a hygienic environment was too appealing to resist.

 

[david1701]

Another plus point is that because everything is per prepped and standardised there is a master list of what allergens are in what food, so I have a wheat allergy and know I can walk into any macdonalds and either eat their breakfast on a plate or ask for a knife and fork (they do give them to you) and all of the burgers can be eaten with chips which is pretty handy

And as plus point for their taste they fired my sister on like day 2 20+years ago

 

[dellzeqq]

at the risk of appearing to be a MaccyDs groupie

- the woman in the Chadwell Heath MaccyDs who greeted Hatler and I (combined age 108, and now you're all going to have to die...) with the question 'are you training for the Olympics?' should be running a charm school. Then again the entire branch should be running a charm school. Susie, who, let's face it, is used to the best, loves stopping by for a coffee on our expeditions to Essex, and we always get a welcome.

- they don't hide stuff. All the nutritional information you could want is up there for you to see. Are you listening KFC?

- Hockliffe. Opening their doors at 2.45am for LonJoG. Game, set and match!

I know about the supersize thing, but I don't eat MaccyDs every day, or even every month. I simply know that they're there if I'm setting off on a cold morning and need a wee (and, at my time of life, that's a certainty) and a bit of a wake-up. What strikes me about MaccyDs is that they have worked out that their greatest asset is the people who work in their branches. There are plenty of large concerns in this country where the 'staff' are manifestly not proud or even interested in their job, but MaccyDs seem to have worked out some alchemy that brings out the best in the people that work for them.

It may be an American thing. I worked in one of the furthest outposts of Kellogg's and the CEO used to come over from Michigan and was clearly at home chatting to people working on the packing line, people he knew by name. I see Sainsbury's replacing their staff with those dreadful beeping machines and wonder if, perhaps, they've overlooked the best of what they've got.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm no great fan of the buns, but the chips are fine. And you get free BBQ sauce!