McDonald's in the 80s compared to today

[u/Charming_History7423]

[u/cheeersaiii]

They went from kids/family vibe to “operating theatre please leave quickly” vibe. In Australia we had one with a train carriage for kid’s birthdays, one with a plane, all sorts of fun. I understand the change and the coffee is better for it but still change isn’t always a good thing

[u/lazytiger40 → u/[deleted]]

Don't know the reasons outside of America but here in the states McDonald's was known for two things, speed of service and marketing to children.

Speed of service came from their original operations plan to streamline to prep/cooking process to put out as.much product as quickly as they can, consistently,.cheaply, and easily (""billions and billions served""). They abandoned this in the late 90's for a more quality conscious model (made for you/right on time). They switched from speed to batch cooking as food waste costs caught up to them. The quality was there in the past just a different process. Like quickly slapping together a juicy sandwich vs. artistically creating one.. of course speed faltered but they countered with trying to put coffee Starbucks, and out ice cream Dairy Queen...instead of doing the one thing they are renowned for prestigiously....they are trying to do all things half assedly.

Kids..the big draw for McDonald's was marketing to children. Toys were good, there were collectibles, plates ,.cups, glasses...it was not just food but a brand. Kids wanting McDonald's brought parents (some reluctantly) to McDonald's. MCD had a huge commercial presence back in the days of afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. Top two.sellers.were fries and Nuggets, which as a father myself, is most 8 year olds major food.groups.

But again, late 90's we had a phenomenal beanie baby toy promotion..McDonald's was THE place...then they inked an exclusivity deal with Disney to promote their movies with happy meal toy tie-ins. But the toys were crap. Many were more sought by Disney-crazed adults, not very "playable" as compared to hot wheels or robot burgers etc...the toys gradually became cheaply China made and boring.

As this was going on they stopped or cut back on marketing to children. They switched from beef tallow to vegetable.shortening which altered the fries taste..they had a period of experimenting with sandwich offerings, basically trying to fix what was never broken in the first place ..people became more health conscious so MCD had tinkered with their salads until they took disappeared. Quality suffered and combined with reliance of "experience" over speed...McDonald's has had a rough couple of decades...but the solution was not to go back to what made McDonald's...McDonald's ..but to go further down this rabbit hole to mediocrity. McDonald's locations, while maybe trendy, look so bland and uninviting. They forgot their identity.

And I'm not saying being more eco friendly or upscale is a bad thing, it's just not McDonald's thing. There are plenty of other places to occupy that space...meanwhile many smaller chains and mom and pops are out-Mcdonaldsing, Mickey D's.

Their problems are more self inflicted than consumer based...