Is McDonald's under-rated as a bike stop?

[mjr]

It's just an advert, bit of humour. I reckon we could pull thousands of adverts to pieces but that would just be sad. Lighten up, I'm sure you ain't the perfect driver or rider....none of us are, we are just human

HO HO HO(!) Sleep-driving - it's just so bloody hilarious, isn't it? Perfectly fine to endorse such lethally incompetent motoring as a way for people to get to greasy American-style hamburger joints for breakfast(!)

No, I'm not a perfect driver or rider, but the time I drive off and can't tell the difference between a bin and an intercom is the time when my driving licence should be removed!

 

[Hill Wimp]

Mod note.

Back on topic. The thread is about McDonald's as a bike stop. Let's leave driving out of it light hearted or not.

 

[Gravity Aided]

The only thing I see wrong with McDonalds' as a bike stop is that they are all in high traffic areas, on very busy roads. Something to do with the business model.

 

[rideswithmoobs]

McDonalds Demographic...

People most likely to litter (points 6 and 8)...

McDonalds market share

Join the dots yourself.

What's this got to do with the OP's question ? And the first two are American reports related to US and not uk so is even more irrelevant.

 

[Gravity Aided]

The first is a organization called Litter-It Costs You.org., no idea of where it's based, study methods, etc. May be based in the American South, as many examples on that page have to do with Georgia and Tenessee. No idea about methodology, seems more like assertion. Other looks like many charts. Hard for me to judge facts based on such a paucity of information. May vary by area, or common customs.

 

[jefmcg]

You've missed a large part of this discussion then I take it?

And you apparently missed this...

Mod note.

Back on topic. The thread is about McDonald's as a bike stop. Let's leave driving out of it light hearted or not.

For me, McDonalds is fine if I am far from home and need a place to stop, but I'd never use it as a destination, a turning point on a ride ie as a preplanned "cafe stop".

 

[Cycleops]

I'm not going in there until they get rid of that scary clown.

 

[nickyboy]

Galvanised by this thread I contacted McD again about the litter from its local outlet in the Peak District National Park. On the previous occasion they didn't reply

Well I have had a reply. It is a pretty standard response. Here's the main extract


We’ve been working hard to reduce the amount of litter on our streets, but we know it’s frustrating for residents and businesses alike when members of the public choose to dispose of their litter irresponsibly. For many years we have been sending out daily litter patrols and organising larger ‘clean up’ events.



Every McDonald’s restaurant sends out a minimum of three litter patrols each day, which means that across the UK, our staff walk thousands of miles a week completing litter patrols.



We’re also proud to work with organisations like Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Scotland Tidy, Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Northern Ireland Tidy, alongside our own suppliers, to try and reduce the amount of packaging we use and make as much as we can recyclable.


I honestly didn't expect much more. At the end of the day it's the customers doing the littering. I might start tweeting them piccies of McD litter in the countryside around here to ramp it up a bit

 

[Cycleops]

I might start tweeting them piccies of McD litter in the countryside around here to ramp it up a bit

Good idea.

 

[nickyboy]

If you're that worried, why not pick it up yourself?

a) There's quite a bit of it
b) I'm on my bike so I've nowhere to put it

 

[Glow worm]

a) There's quite a bit of it
b) I'm on my bike so I've nowhere to put it

It's fairly easy to be honest. I pick up from a mile and a half stretch of lane between here and the next village as I get so peed off with it all. The council sent me some litter pickers and gloves and I just hang a bin liner over my handlebars. If I do it the day before bin day I just shove the black sack with the others for collection.

It is amazing how much litter gets dropped just on that short stretch in only a few days. Quite dispiriting really. On the bright side, judging by the smoking, drinking and eating habits of most litter droppers- they won't be around for very long!

 

[mjr]

If you're that worried, why not pick it up yourself?

Become an unpaid slave for McD?!? I do pick some litter up (space and weather permitting), but I also pay taxes that fund the public litter-pickers. It would be nice if McDonalds paid all its taxes rather than reportedly paying branding "royalties" to use a tax-free Luxembourg deal and campaigning for UK tax cuts over Christmas dinner, rather than the rest of us paying and then having to do the work ourselves too!

McDonalds should remain only a last resort bike stop for all sorts of reasons. Branded litter on the back roads and tracks that we enjoy cycling along is just one symptom of their sickness.

 

[jefmcg]

[QUOTE 4519338, member: 45"]"Hello. I'd like a regular quarter pounder meal please."

"Do you want to go large with that?"

"NO! I SAID REGULAR! NOT LARGE! IF I WANTED LARGE I'D HAVE SAID "Hello, I'd like a large quarter pounder meal please"! DID I SAY THAT? DID I?? NO, I DIDN'T! NOW GO AWAY WITH YOUR CORPORATE PROFIT-PERSUASION AND GET ME WHAT I ASKED FOR!


Please."

"Nice bike"*


*added for mod acceptability.[/QUOTE]
Again, you are lucky that you have never worked for one of these companies. Switch brain off and follow the script is the only way to survive. If you don't want to hear the script, go somewhere else.

 

[jefmcg]

The last bit of litter I picked up was an 700C inner tube, left on a pavement 2 metres from a bin. At the time I had just been diagnosed with influenza and was so out of it that I managed to leave half the groceries I'd bought to wait out the worst of it at the self checkout - but I could manage to get the discarded tube to a bin.

Cycling doesn't create much roadside litter - inner tubes, gel wrappers, a banana peel. I see enough of these on the roads relative to the numbers of cyclists to not feel superior.

 

[mjr]

Again, you are lucky that you have never worked for one of these companies. Switch brain off and follow the script is the only way to survive. If you don't want to hear the script, go somewhere else.

Aye. Failing to follow the script and try to upsell even customers who have explicitly said what size they want... that can be a disciplinary offence in some chains. No idea if it is at Muck D because I never worked for them, but stuff like that was a factor in deciding where I worked as a student one summer because the wages were all basically market minimum within a few pence.