If you’d like fast food and chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards, Jim Skinner, the CEO of McDonald’s thinks you’re a “naysayer” and a “CAVE person,” — meaning Citizens Against Virtually Everything, says theChicago Tribune.
Skinner called such regulatory activists “professional naysayers” and “CAVE people — Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”
Why so hostile, Jim? Worried that people will start ordering medium drinks?
McDonald’s chief: Menu calorie rules are ‘flawed’ [Chicago Tribune via WSJ Health Blog]
(Photo: *nomad* )
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Please don’t list the McGriddle, I just don’t want to know!
Our local Dairy Queen has a big poster with nutritional info on a stand at the beginning of the order line. It’s interesting stuff.
You know, that’s not so bad… McDonald’s could just bring out the old “shrinking ray” that we’ve seen in this economic downturn. Only this time, it might mean that some people consume fewer calories and live longer – only to buy more McDonald’s stuff in the long-run.
If I recall correctly, Supersize Me has quite a segment describing the differences between what used to be a “large” when they first opened, and now…
Cave people eh?
Ook, ook, this bitch.
We’ll eat elsewhere and take our hard-earned dollars and spend them on more healthy foods.
…
How about this, Mr. Skinner.
Instead of making the information readily available in printed form, you have to train all your employees to spew the information on demand and furthermore, you need to have a representative of the three most common languages of any market in the store.
See, I know you can’t comply on that. Your company has a hard-earned reputation of hiring the absolute dumbest members of society to interface with customers. Some of your locations go so far as to ensure the clerks don’t even speak English. That’s always a pleasant surprise! Good thing I speak Spanish! (I’m wondering when the Santa Barbara stores are going to start hiring folks from Thailand or Myanmar.)
So, really, Mr. Skinner… you have an obligation to your customers to provide factual information. The cheapest way for your company to do that is to print it out and have PDFs available for every manager to print as the need develops.
You owe me $15K for this consultation.
@parad0x360: Considering that the only reason at all to use oils with trans fats is because they are cheaper and more stable (also why they are bad for you), this sounds more like the placebo effect.
@FilthyHarry: Isn’t that what they really mean by the 99 billion “served” (or billions and billions “served”) on their signs?
(sorry if this is a double post)
As for the whole “McDonalds is unhealthy by default, so therefore it’s pointless to post health information” is a silly argument.
If I, for some reason, go to McDonalds sure, health isn’t foremost on my mind. But if I’m deciding between a big mac and a chicken sandwich, then calorie information is going to be useful additional information when making that decision. And there’s also the whole human psychology aspect of it. People may not care enough to check calorie information before hand (come on, we’re exceptionally lazy), but if it’s presented to them directly – they’re more likely to make a healthier choice.
Put me in the column of people that doesn’t understand why it’s stupid to make simple information immediately available to the customer.
I think I have to side with Jim on this one. You know what you’re in for when you go to McDonald’s. Not that I eat there all that much anymore, but it’s not going to make a difference to me. I want food, I want it quickly, fast food placates me in a pinch.
They already got rid of Supersized meals, what more do you want people?
Sorry to be brutally honest, but anyone with half a brain knows that if they want to eat healthy, they need to stay the hell away from McDonald’s.
You know what you’re eating. Not that I side with McD on this, because I think it is funny that they are fighting tooth and nail to not expose how crappy their food really is.
Because warning labels on cigarettes have worked so well….
It’s an cunning plan really to make fast food not fast. Just picture some high school drop out as he holds up the whole line while he tries to add up the caloric value of a double quarter pounder with cheese, a large fries and diet coke.
It’s your body, it’s your health, it’s your responsibility. If you don’t know if something is healthy and care about such things don’t eat it!
@BigElectricCat: They DO already provide this information in multiple ways. Every McDonald’s I’ve ever been in has a giant poster with very detailed nutritional statistics of all of their food items, and it can usually be found on the backs of most tray liners and on the McDonald’s web site as well. Sometimes brochures on the counter as well.
McDonald’s is doing more than enough to inform you that cheeseburgers will make you fat. Government imposition is not the answer.
I would request the calories only because I’m on weight watchers and it makes it easier to count. Now before people go “Well if you’re on weight watchers you shouldn’t be at Mcdonalds!” The point of Weightwatchers is eating whatever you want just controlling the portions (It works, i lost 60 lbs on it I was a fat bastard.)
I don’t go to McDonalds at all now, ever. (Wendy’s I do on the otherhand since their point values are readily available) but if they had a calorie count so I knew what I could and couldn’t get away with, I’d be more inclined to go there for food.
I am on McD side on this one. Where the hell are you going to install this info on an already crowded menu board?
Fast food were never intended for healthy meals, yet us fat fuck Americans think these places are supposed to be feeding us 7 to 10 meals a week because they are too damn lazy to cook at home. McD has change their ways to meet many of the health freaks demands yet they still whine. I haven’t enjoyed McD in years now because they no longer taste as good.
You know, Julia Child said the best thing about McD was their fries. I bet if Julia had one of their cardboard tasting fries today, she would never have made that comment.
@chrispiss: BRILLIANT. I hope somebody says that to him in response to this!
@graymulligan: MORON. So because a company makes MOST of their food unhealthy, they shouldn’t be responsible for telling their consumers which options are more or less healthy than others? Where did you find your logic, in your pants?
@whuffo: THAT’S IT. Thank you for saying it so I didn’t have to. This is about INFORMED CONSUMERISM, which is, I dare say, something everyone who reads this site is either in favor of or stupid for not being in favor of.
Anyone else having trouble seeing the second page of comments?
, I know what you were saying. It’s still silly. McDonald’s food isn’t organic free-range salad, so how dare a consumer expect to know the nutritional content of what they’re eating? Please explain why this makes the least bit of sense.
I eat fast food because I travel a lot on business–sometimes fast food restaurants are the ONLY thing open. (And sometimes the alternatives aren’t all that great. Denny’s anyone?) Sometimes I’m stuck at an airport for a layover, and I would rather suck it up and eat a cheap Happy Meal than spend $39 for a ‘gourmet’ meal, since I’m eating on my client’s tab.
So what’s so awful about the notion that I might want to know whether one item really is healthier than another? That it offends certain posters’ pathological desire to scream at anyone whose habits or body type don’t mean their own perfect, perfect standards?