•
McDonald’s
is the 2nd most popular fast food in the world (behind subway)
•
McDonad's
has 34,492 restaurants around the world in 116 countries!
•
There
is one McDonald's for every 22,174 people in the US
and for every 52,223 people in France. France is the country ranked 12th
in McDonald’s per capita. (the gaurdian uk)
•
McDonald’s
first opened 73 years ago in the United States.
§
Super-sized
items are slowly being phased out in America
since 2004, but you can still often get the nearly 2L sized drink and 7oz of
fries in many restaurants throughout the US.
•
McRib
was introduced to the world in 1981 and has been coming back from time to time
ever since.
•
The
reason that it is so popular is the mystery that it gives off.
•
Technically
ANY McDonald’s can ask for the McRib ingredients at ANY time.
•
In
2005, McDonald’s announced the “farewell” tour of the McRib saying that it
would be retired for good, but we see that in 2010 it was back again. Thus it was really just a gimmick for
McDonald’s to earn even more money.
•
The
McRib has roughly 70 ingredients including pig innards to create that boneless
“ribs” flavor…mmmm
And at a mere 500 calories, everyone can eat it
without worrying about their diets!
McDonald's has adapted to the French public and has therefore succeeded in convincing the French public.
McDonalds in France:
- • Green Logo
- • “Come as you are” slogan
- • Happy Meal Box Man
- • Stay and eat, socialize mentality.
- • Elevated price because food is local.
- • Limited sauce and drinks.
- • Red Logo
- • “I’m lovin’ it” slogan
- • Ronald McDonald
- • Fast Food, in-out no hassle.
- • Dollar menu
- • Unlimited drinks/sauces
•Article Title: “Life near fast food restaurants unhealthy”
January 24, 2012
Edited for
use
A McDonald's breakfast meal in
Villeurbanne, France includes fresh baguettes and
jam spreads with coffee for $4.55.
Greetings from McDonald's, or
"MacDo," as they call it here in Paris, where I am comfortably ensconced in a
McCafé enjoying a croissant and a grand crème coffee. I'm surrounded by
people of all ages who are talking with friends, reading, or typing away on
their laptops like me.
The beauty of McDonald's in France
is that it doesn't feel like a fast food joint, where hordes of people shuffle
in and out and tables turn at a fast clip.
McDonalds is the world's
largest food chain. It operates in 123 countries around the world, and just
this week the company said it plans to open another
1,300 restaurants in 2012.
Naturally, the U.S. is
its no. 1 market, but guess who is no. 2? You got it: France.
A paper out this month by three
graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's
Wharton School of Business says McDonald's is such a success in the land of Michelin
three-star restaurants because it has adapted to French eating habits and
tastes. There are now 1,200 franchises in France;
the company opened 30 restaurants per year in the past five years alone.
Even in these harried times,
the French spend more than two hours a day at the table. Sitting down to a meal
is a cornerstone of French culture, and McDonald's seems to get that. French
McDonald's are spacious, tastefully decorated restaurants that encourage people
to take their time while eating. And the cozy McCafe's with their plush chairs and
sofas have become an extension to many restaurants.
I remember there used to be a
few Burger Kings in Paris, but McDonald's
closest competitor went belly up years ago. The Wharton study says it's because
they tried to transplant the total American dining experience to France, without taking into consideration French
preferences.
McDonald's, meanwhile, offers all kinds of Frenchified
dishes, from the Alpine burger with three different kinds of cheese to tasty
little gallette des rois, or King's Cakes, popular after Christmas and
sold by all the bakeries. Last year, it introduced the McBaguette.
Another reason McDonald's
works so well here is that the food is locally sourced and very high quality.
As we all know, France is the land of haute
cuisine. But it's also the land of good cuisine. The French appreciate quality
in any category, even fast food. Restaurateurs in France
know they'll go bust if they offer substandard products. I've had friends from India tell me that the Indian restaurants in Paris are among the world's best.
And if you like good meat (who doesn't?!), then
McDonald's France is clearly superior. In the U.S., McDonald's says its cattle are mostly
corn-fed. While the company doesn't address on its site whether growth hormones
and growth-promoting antibiotics are added to the animal feed consumed by the
animals it buys, it's a reasonable assumption that they are.
French cattle are all grass
fed, which many argue makes them tastier. Growth hormones are illegal here and
each animal has a passport showing where it was born, raised, and slaughtered,
according to McDonald's France. That's called
traceability, and we don't yet have such a national system in place.
As for chicken nugget lovers, French chickens, unlike
some of their American counterparts, are not rinsed in chlorine to disinfect
them. The regular use of chlorine in the U.S.
chicken industry is why poulet americain has long been interdit in
the European Union.
Of course you can still find
French people who dislike McDonald's because it represents American hegemony in
a globalized world and the homogenization of food and culture. French
anti-globalization activist Jose Bove actually served prison time a couple
years back for sacking a McDonald's
restaurant in southern France. For a friend of
mine who lives in Burgundy — pretty much the
French heartland — MacDo is the symbol of malbouffe, or bad food and bad
eating — a major slur here. He says he'd never take his two young sons to eat chez
Ronald.
But this McDonald's in Paris' 15th arrondissement is brimming with
parents who've brought their kids in for lunch. There's a good dose of
teenagers too. Like teenyboppers back home, French adolescents, or ados, love
to hang out at MacDo — they just gather in the café instead of the parking lot.
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