r/interestingasfuck • u/Charming_History7423 • 11d ago

/r/all McDonald's in the 80s compared to today

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24

u/AyCarambin0 11d ago

Remember you are to them, what cows are for their burgers. You are there to spend money as efficient as possible. That's it. You are raised as spending cattle.

25

u/sh513 11d ago

I'm not sure how old you are but as a 35yo, looking back to my kid years in the 90s, it felt like customer experience was a differentiator for McD's. Maybe not on the same par as Chick-fil-Atoday, but it was part of their business plan, something the company strive to provide... the toys in Happy Meals, the coupons for school attendance, the play places, the "art" on the walls of smiling families.

Somewhere along the way that was all thrown out the window for the drab, right-angled, millennial greige model of maximum money extraction while ushering you out the door as quickly as possible. It truly wasn't always this way

13

u/Syssareth 11d ago

The one around the corner of my childhood home used to have a big fishtank. It was there for as long as I can remember, with some of the fish living for at least 20 years (unless they managed to consistently find replacements that were the same size, which wouldn't be easy to do). They clearly took very good care of it.

They got rid of it when they switched to coffee shop mode. I asked about the fish, and not only did nobody there know what happened to them, nobody seemed to know they ever existed. It was honestly pretty weird; you're telling me A, literally nobody here was working here before the renovation, and B, none of you once, in your entire life, came to this place you're working at now?

I can only hope they got a good home. :(

2

u/seifd 11d ago

Yeah, I'm about the same age. Mine had an indoor play place with two Super Nintendos and an outdoor playground. Even their ads were kid friendly. My favorite was McWorld, especially the cartoons they ran in Nickelodeon Magazine showing what various things would be like if kids took over.

2

u/ThatCheesecake8530 11d ago

HAPPY CAKE DAY!!!

2

u/gvsteve 11d ago

I took my son and his friends to McDonalds for his birthday after the trampoline park. It was like eating in a Soviet cafeteria. Old, grimy, brutalist, not the slightest bit of fun. And on top of that it was EXPENSIVE. For the same money we could have gone to Culver’s and gotten much higher quality food in a much friendlier atmosphere. So that’s what we do from then on.

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u/TheDonutDaddy 11d ago

I mean how exactly are you wanting to be seen by fast food chains that would make you feel better? Are you going in there looking to become best friends with the fry cook and gossip with the cashier or something?

1

u/AyCarambin0 11d ago

It's not about what I want. It's how we are seen by them. They don't even try any more. They test how far they can push the consumer. How much are they willing to pay for the absolute minimum we have to provide.