While we certainly understand the appeal of looking at the human form sans clothing, we don't really get why anyone would feel the need to do so while chowing down on a Big Mac at a crowded McDonald's. But then again, we've never been a sex offender who was already wanted for failing to register. More »
If you're an attentive reader of this site, you know that people are always bringing inappropriate things to fast-food drive-thrus, hoping to get served. Mobility scooters.Snakes. Even pedestrians have tried and failed to acquire food. But when Darcy wandered up to the drive-thru window at a Colorado McDonald's on foot, employees didn't just wearily tell her to go inside the restaurant to order like all of the other pedestrians. That's because Darcy is a dairy cow. More »
How exciting is it when the Shamrock Shake hits the McDonald's menu every year? It's unfreakingbelievably exciting, because it only happens annually and then goes away, leaving our mouths bereft of mint. To that point, McDonald's is betting on our collective love of limited-time items to lure more customers in. They know we get bored if something sits on the menu for too long. More »
Nothing says athletes in peak physical condition like a Big Mac and large fries, right? As such, McDonald's is building the world's largest McDonald's restaurant in London's Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics. No other brand name food will be sold at the Olympic Park. More »
While the everyday customer likely won't face a felony charge for swiping a $1 soda from McDonald's, woe betide the alleged thief who already has a slew of petty thefts racked up. A Florida man could see five years in jail and $5,000 fine for filling his courtesy cup with soda instead of water. More »
The history of spit-in-food goes back approximately 2,700 years, with the first known instance often attributed to a disgruntled fry cook at a lamb burger joint in a suburb of Babylon. That storied tradition continues to this day, with an employee at a South Carolina McDonald's arrested for allegedly leaving behind his phlegm in two customers' teas. More »
It's been a while since we heard about that lawsuit against McDonald's alleging that the fast food company exploits children by using toys and other kid-centric marketing techniques to get them to want Happy Meals. But earlier today, a judge in San Francisco dismissed the suit. More »
If you were to flip open the pages of your TV Guide and see that there was a documentary called "McDonald's Gets Grilled" airing in prime time, you might assume that it's a bit of McMuckraking, or at least a news organization's look behind the counter at the fast food giant. But as viewers of Australian TV found out this week, it's really just a 30-minute infomercial paid for by McDonald's. More »
We've heard of people blaming McDonald's for getting them fat or burning their grandchildren with hot liquid, but rare is the occasion that the fast food giant is accused of leading one into a life of prostitution. But if you live long enough, you see everything, hence a federal court case in which a woman accuses McDonald's and her franchisee ex-husband of pushing her into the world's oldest profession in the 1980s. More »
A woman in the Chicago area is suing McDonald's over hot coffee — something they're not unfamiliar with — claiming that her four-year old granddaughter was burned after an employee gave her a refill of the liquid that is only supposed to be served to adults. More »
Both Burger King and Wendy's have been attempting to revamp their look and their menus in recent years, but it looks like whatever Wendy's is doing is working slightly better as the fast food company edged out Burger King to become the second-largest burger chain — and the #3 overall fast food joint — in the country. More »
McDonald's turned into a wrestling ring during a scuffle that started when a man tried to steal a backpack filled with "dirty laundry and resumes" from a homeless man. When a cop tried to arrest the alleged thief, things went into full on smackdown mode. More »
Somewhere out there, a person who covets and collects quirky representations of U.S. presidents must exist. Otherwise, we can't think of a reason why anyone would shell out $8,100 for a chicken McNugget shaped like America's first commander-in-chief, George Washington. More »
After 12 years of legal wrangling over an altercation between a customer and a McDonald's employee, the Mississippi Court of Appeals has confirmed that the restaurant chain can not be sued over the fast food fisticuffs. More »
Every time McDonald's trots out its McRib sandwich, fans clamor for the saucy, vaguely pork-y delicacy. But will they be wiling to go to Austria for the McRibster? More »
Sure, you're eating at a fast food joint, but that doesn't necessarily mean you want to go for broke and pack in as many calories as you can. For those health conscious diners at one McDonald's location in North Texas, perusing the nutritional info for each menu on the item will be a lot easier with the digital kiosk the franchise owner has installed. More »
For those little piggies staying home, where home in this case is a pig pen, there's some good news — McDonald's has announced they're going to require their park suppliers to get rid of gestation pens, long decried as cruel by animal-rights groups. Joyful oinks all around! More »
This is exactly why St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland and spread Catholicism across its verdant hills and magical, leprechaun-filled valleys — so that McDonald's could one day offer its syrupy green mint concoction known as the Shamrock Shake to its customers throughout the United States. More »
A North Carolina woman is probably still feeling the sting — at least the sting of public humiliation — from being Tased by police for refusing to budge from the McDonald's drive-thru. More »
Pit bulls have gotten a bad rap over the years and are too often associated with dog fights and violence, though that has significantly more to do with horrible owners than the rather pleasant pit bulls they mistreat. Somehow this escaped the people at McDonald's, who thought that these dogs would be a good way to epitomize the idea of "danger." More »
If you've been rolling up to McDonald's thinking, "Mmm, can't wait for that pink slime made from all the leftover parts of the cow that no one wants to eat until they've been chemically treated," you're out of luck. McDonald's grody practice of using ammonium hydroxide solution to kill bacteria in scrap meat is at an end, so no more pink goo for you. More »
Many of Loma Linda, Calif.'s citizens don't drink and don't smoke, so what do they do when McDonald's comes to town? They get up in arms and start complaining about the Golden Arches breaching their haven of health. More »
A fired employee of a Philadelphia McDonald's gave a news station a cell phone video of a mouse stuck in hamburger buns and says he shot it while he was on the job. He says it was common to find mouse droppings on bread in the three months he worked there, and that management knew about the problem, telling employees to brush off the droppings before they served customers. More »
In the over 40 years since Wendy's began slinging burgers, the fast food chain has never been able to slip past competitor Burger King, which seemed to have a permanent lock on the runner-up slot behind McDonald's. But the newest numbers indicate that while the Ohio-based burger joint is set to leap-frog BK into the number two spot in total sales, even though it has almost 1,400 fewer stores in the U.S. More »
Less than a month after McDonald's dropped one of its largest egg suppliers over concerns about conditions at the facility, a group of celebrities — ranging from bona fide stars to "oh yeah... them" on the fame scale — has penned a letter to Jim Skinner, CEO of the fast food giant, about what they view as inhumane treatment of chickens at egg farms used by the Golden Arches. More »
In a bid to woo more customers into chomping their bits of french fry goodness instead of a competitor's fried offerings, McDonald's is launching a new ad campaign to show how their fast food isn't just about grease and speed, but that it comes from actual plants grown in the ground. More »
Earlier this week, five teens were killed in a car crash in the town of New Oxford, PA. In an effort to bring the community together, the owner of a local McDonald's franchise hosted a fundraiser last night, where 100% of his proceeds for the evening went to offer financial support to the families of those lost in the horrible incident. More »
Looks like San Francisco isn't the only place that has a problem with McDonald's including free toys in its Happy Meals. The fast food giant has been fined approximately $1.8 million by a Brazilian agency that claims the freebies in McDonald's kids' meals promotes bad eating habits in children. More »
After a seemingly endless amount of debating, various votes, a mayoral veto and whatnot, the San Francisco that puts an end to the practice of including toys and other giveaway gimmicks in Happy Meals (and many other fast food kids' meals with similar freebies) kicks in later this week. But the folks at McDonald's have devised a clever plan to get those Shrek movie promo toys in your little ones' hands — by simply charging for them. More »
A lot of people are still a bit touchy about eggs following last year's salmonella outbreak and subsequent massive recall. Thus, when the folks at McDonald's saw an upcoming ABC News report on — and learned of an FDA warning against — one of their major egg suppliers, the fast food giant decided it was time to take its business elsewhere. More »
It's not exactly Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but when a Mississippi woman's car caught on fire at a McDonald's drive-thru, she stayed and ate her food — and then got arrested for allegedly punching a police officer. More »
If you've ever felt like chowing down on a McDonald's Big Mac but didn't feel like paying the Big Mac price, here's an easy work-around that might save you some coin and some calories. More »
A number of the new or increased banking fees, including Bank of America's scrapped attempt to charge debit card users $5/month, that have popped up recently have been financial institutions' reactions to recently enacted regulations that cap swipe fees — the amount banks charge retailers each time a debit card is used to make a purchase. While the goal is to put billions back into retailers' coffers, some of the nation's biggest chains say it may end up hurting them. More »
McRib fever is sweeping the nation. In the area in upstate New York where Harold lives, this situation has become desperate. His local McDonald's is clearly so overwhelmed that they've run out of the proper-sized buns for the McRib and slapped his delicious meat log in a hamburger-sized bun. More »
Can you taste the tears in your McRib? The supplier of pork products to McDonald's, Smithfield Farms, just got hit by a complaint filed with the SEC by animal rights group Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Citing their own shocking undercover investigative video, HSUS allege that Smithfield is making false and misleading claims to shareholders and consumers about how well they treat their pigs and that those claims are in violation of federal securities law. More »
There's no rib in a McRib. There are about 70 other ingredients. The greatest amount of them come from ground-up low-value pork trimmings mixed together with salt and water to create "meat logs" that are then carved to size. So in what forest do you find a meat log? More »
In the world of chocolate chip cookies, an eternal war rages between those who prefer their cookies light and crispy, and those who defend their right to a chewier treat. And, at least in one battle waged in the Consumer Reports tasting lab, a single crispy chocolate chip cookie won the day. More »
The McRib is a flirtatious little pile of pork. On the menu, then off again, then up to individual franchises to decide whether to offer it, the boneless pork patty on a sesame bun is going to be back at McDonald's again starting today through November 14th. More »
A Chicago-area man recently attempted to sue McDonald's, alleging that his civil rights were violated when the eatery called the cops after he became angry because he didn't receive the free burgers he'd been promised. But the judge in the case basically said that if he didn't want the cops called, he shouldn't have gotten so upset over a cheeseburger. More »
The McDonald's corporate types must think the ambiance of their dining rooms may be a little lacking. Perhaps that's why they are testing the McDonald's Channel, a roundup of news and entertainment segments, tailored to each community, that will play as you succumb to the siren song of empty calories. More »
For the second year in a row, we asked you to tell us which TV commercials get on your last nerve, and you didn't hold back. After sifting through hundreds of comments and e-mails, we've finally whittled down all those annoying ads to the elite few worthy of recognition in the Second Annual Consumerist Worst Ad In America Awards. More »
A Houston-area gourmet macaroni and cheese eatery is involved in a trademark battle with fast food behemoth Big Mac because it dared to use the word "mac" in the restaurant's name. More »
"Coneing" is a "trend" where "people" have their "friends" YouTube them grabbing an ice cream cone from a fast food place by the top of the ice cream instead of the cone. The "comedy" arises out of the shocked reactions from the unsuspecting fast food workers seeing the customer get ice cream all over their hand on purpose. But here's a video of McDonald's manager who was hip to the game. He totally "coneblocks" an attempted coneing. More »
If you're not happy with the service at your McDonald's drive-thru, there are many, many ways to express your frustration. One that we most definitely do not recommend is repeatedly ramming your car into the building. More »
Smaller fast-food chains that make "better" burgers are growing faster than their larger rivals, according to a new report — though in some cases, the chains are still very small. Shake Shack grew by 133% in 2010, and now has seven stores. Smashburger had the second highest growth rate, at 116%. and now has 93 branches. More »
It's been more than four years since we first posted The Really Big Guide To Secret Menu Items, in which readers shared their inside scoops on how to score hidden fast food gems like "Naked Chicken" at Popeyes or take advantage of TGIFriday's Five Easy Pieces policy. There have been several requests to update and expand the list, so we're going back to the source: you. More »
With surveys like Zagat's and Consumer Reports' putting Five Guys among the best-tasting burgers available, it's perhaps not surprising that the chain is the fastest-growing hamburger shack in the country. In fact, a new report says that new Five Guys eateries outnumbered new McDonald's by greater than 4:1 in 2010. More »
Besides sitting in a cafe smoking a pack of Gauloises while wearing a striped shirt and brooding, what's the best way to lure the French? McDonald's is going with the bread method, adding baguettes to their menu in France. More »
With at least one lawsuit pending and some municipalities trying to ban Happy Meals and other fast food kids' meals that offer some sort of prize or gift, McDonald's has announced that it wants to healthy-up your kids' food by making some menu tweaks, like automatically including apple slices in Happy Meals. More »
It's rarely wise to punch someone, but doing so is especially ill-advised if you happen to manage a restaurant and the recipient of the punch is a customer. Police say a female manager of an Atlanta McDonald's slugged a female customer in the face amid an argument over the presence of her autistic twin boys' service dog. More »
Of all the things you'd expect to find in a McDonald's bathroom, the miracle of birth isn't high on the list. But Newark, N.J. is a place where miracles happen. A police officer came to the rescue of a woman in labor at the restaurant, delivering the two-months-premature boy. More »
Packing as many descriptors into a burger name doesn't always work, but we've gotta say, the sound of a Zesty BBQ Cruncher Burger has ignited the Consumerist salivary glands. McDonald's is now said to be testing the new offering, so keep your eyes peeled! More »
Anyone who thinks playgrounds are clean either doesn't remember being a kid or is seriously deluding themselves. But one Arizona mom is so fed up with the crap-tastic conditions at the playgrounds found at fast food restaurants that she's turned her summer vacation into a research project. More »
Consumerist reader Courtney is scratching her head at the bone-headed service she's received at multiple McDonald's when trying to buy her 3-year-old daughter a Happy Meal. More »
On the heels of yet another devastating last-place finish among burger chains, McDonald's may be trying to spice up their gray meat by going even grayer — or rather, greyer — with the English Pub Burger it's testing in at least one Illinois town. More »
Noticing how a spare syringe was sitting on his desk right next to his box of McNuggets and dipping sauces, Kenji over at Serious Eats was struck by inspiration. He picked up the syringe, dipped it in the Tangy Barbecue sauce, and loaded the syringe with sauce. Then he injected it directly into the McNugget to create a dipping sauce-filled fried chicken nugget. Genius! More »
Almost a year ago, our survey-loving siblings at Consumer Reports asked several thousand readers to rate burgers from 18 burger chains and to no one's surprise, McDonald's came in dead last. Not satisfied with merely finding the best and worst beef-on-a-bun, CR decided to go for the super-sized option, rating 53 restaurants in five categories to find which ones provide the best food, service and value to customers. More »
Earlier today, the lovely folks at the American Customer Satisfaction Index released their latest data for airlines and fast food restaurants. And judging by the companies that came in last in each category, being the biggest doesn't make you any better. More »
This recruitment video for McDonald's is simply amazing. It is a full-on miniature drama tracing the arc of a young woman who starts at the bottom at McDonald's, overcoming the snark and condescension of her friends and her mother, and rises to become a floor manager who trains other new employees, joining part of a community of other happy workers. All who doubted her are forced to eat their words. The production is slick, with emotive cinematography and lots of rising crane shots. It should get the Oscar for best internal corporate propaganda. More »
Up until the other day, there was only one Sonic restaurant in the entire state of Connecticut. And now that a second one has opened, the locals are showing up to see if they like it. But the staff at a nearby McDonald's decided to turn a problem into an opportunity by standing outside the new Sonic with signs directing hungry diners to the Golden Arches. More »
If you noticed that the play area at your local fast-food restaurant was unacceptably filthy, what would you do? Sure, you might keep your children off the equipment and stop visiting that restaurant, and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. But when one Arizona mom repeatedly complained about the conditions at her local McDonald's and still nothing changed, she went further. She paid for testing by an independent lab to see exactly what was crawling around in that playground. She also climbed through the playland tubes herself, filming the graffiti, discarded food, and filth her children had been romping around in. More »
If today's Ronald McDonald looked more like his original incarnation, the McDonald's CEO might have a tougher time defending against those asking for the burger clown's resignation. Have you seen the first Ronald? Played by Willard Scott, he's a clown with a soda cup for a nose and a tray of food as a hat. He also has a food tray attached to his belt which will magically produce three hamburgers in a row on demand. You can see why this Ronald was streamlined into the version we know today. Because he looks like a serial killer. More »
Americans are used to super-sizing things by now, a fast food tactic many point to as a catalyst in the country's obesity epidemic. But there's a new trend on the scene, and hopefully this one will tip the scales in the opposite direction — mini-sizing. More »
In America we associate McDonald's with three things, burgers, fries, and self-aggrandizing homogeneity. But the iconic chain is actually quite adaptable to local tastes, flavors and customs as it coats the globe with franchises. More »
Although McDonald's has repeatedly insisted that the company's red-headed mascot is not about to suffer the same fate as the Frito Bandito, activists that say the clown encourages childhood obesity continue to call for his ouster. At the company's annual meeting last week, CEO Jim Skinner defended Ronald against the charges, declaring him an "ambassador for good." More »
Yesterday Don Gorske set a new world record by eating his 25,000th Big Mac in his lifetime. The news reports are full of charming anecdotes surrounding this man and his accomplishment. My favorite is the one where his brother recounts how he once asked Don, doesn't he ever get tired of eating the same thing over and over again? Don reportedly replied, "Sometimes I eat them upside down." Turning the burger over 180 degrees is enough to rearrange the order in which the flavors enter his mouth. Here are some other fun facts about this story: More »
At 4pm Eastern, Don Gorske, 57, will have eaten his 25,000th Big Mac, reports Wisinfo. He has timed the event to coincide with the exact anniversary, down to the hour, of the very first time he ate, and fell in love with, Big Macs 39 years ago. Despite daily doses of Big Macs consisting of "90% of his solid food intake," Gorske is not obese and he runs in races. How is this possible? More »
Last year, McDonald's made headlines when its burgers came in dead last out of the 20 chains surveyed by our kin over at Consumer Reports. So to improve its image, is the grease goliath falling on its own sword like Domino's and coming out with a better product? Nope. It's dumping over a billion dollars into remodeling its restaurants. More »
McDonald's reports that it has hired 62,000 people who applied during its April 19 nationwide job event. If that sounds like a lot of people who want to work at McDonald's, get a load of this number. They say they got over a million applications, meaning they turned down over 938,000 wanna-be burger flippers. More »
McDonald's wants to be your caffeine pusher of choice, and promotes their inexpensive brewed coffee and frozen creations as quick, convenient, and cheap. $1 is the price point advertised on billboards. Cheap! What they don't mention in these ads, though, is that price applies if you want your coffee black or with cream or half and half. If you prefer milk in your coffee, some franchises will accommodate you, but at others, you're going to have to pay for a half-pint carton of milk. More »
Paying "in Monopoly money" may cease to be a pejorative after McDonald's Canada started selling fast food in exchange for bills from the classic board game. More »
Months after San Francisco's city government voted to effectively ban fast food kids' meals by requiring that they meet certain health requirements, legislators in New York City may soon face a similar decision. More »
Confirming that no matter how bad the job market gets, America's hunger for fast food makes burger-flipping a growth industry, McDonald's announced plans to hire 50,000 new American employees April 19. More »
Did you think that no good could ever come from the McDonald's dollar menu? Not so. Check out the art of Christopher Chiappa, who made arc and skull sculptures from burgers and fries, photographed himself with them, and calls the diptych "McMiracles." It's certainly healthier than eating them. More »
It's kind of the anti-Super Size Me: Calling himself the McRunner, a 36-year-old man from the Chicago area is eating only McDonald's food products while training for the upcoming Los Angeles Marathon. More »
Subway's Jared may boast about how fit he is, but in the battle of the corporate mascots, he's now much bigger than arch-rival Ronald McDonald. Subway is now the world's largest fast-food chain, with 33,749 restaurants. McDonald's trails by over a thousand, with 32,737 restaurants worldwide. More »
A bunch of food activists and artists in Finland kidnapped a Ronald McDonald statute from McDonald's and held it hostage in a series of Al-Qaeda style ransom videos. They demanded answers to questions about how McDonald's produces it food or they would guillotine the statue. Two members of the group were arrested by police and the statue was recovered, but the group went ahead and guillotined a replica anyway. More »
After getting hitched at the register office in the English city of Bristol on Saturday, a pair of newlyweds and their party of 30 strolled on over to KFC to chow down on various forms of fried food. But for the new bride, having her wedding reception at a fast food joint wasn't just an inexpensive way to celebrate, it's also a family tradition. More »
An Illinois woman has been the latest to file a lawsuit against fast food giant McDonald's after she claims to have injured herself biting into a "large shard of glass" in her McChicken sandwich. More »
We've already talked about the place in the lower 48 states farthest away from a Big Mac, but what about those cities where you couldn't swing a cat (not that we'd ever recommend swinging a cat or any other animal) without hitting a fast food joint? More »
DJ must have used tweezers and a microscope to set up this shot of this microscopic breakfast burrito, which he says have been hit by a Grocery Shrink Ray of sorts. At its side is a salsa packet. More »
An assistant manager at a Minnesota McDonald's found herself kicked to the curb recently after her boss found out that she'd broken the rules by letting Minnesota Vikings superstar Adrian Peterson use the restaurant's restroom after hours. More »
Many of us are fully aware that a lot of food products that say "maple" rarely contain even a drop of real maple syrup. Such is the case with McDonald's new Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. But the people of Vermont take their maple seriously and they're demanding that McDonald's make changes to the product or its labeling. More »
A 27-year-old man in Missouri has been arrested on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and driving while intoxicated after he allegedly used a shotgun to threaten employees at McDonald's, demanding the restaurant reopen and give him some food to take home to his pregnant wife. More »
Rose has a problem with McDonald's. It's a relatively tiny one, but something that she wishes McDonald's would fix. See, for her occasional visits to buy Happy Meals for her kids, she would prefer not to be asked whether she wants a "girl toy" or a "boy toy." More »
From strange sandwiches to even stranger luggage, from rude receipts to corporate misdoings, here's a look back at the 10 most read stories on Consumerist for 2010. More »
People can get particular when it comes to ordering food — no salt, extra pickles, hold the bun. This was a lesson learned the hard way by employees at a McDonald's in Ohio who felt the wrath of a customer who demanded fresh fries. More »
Almost six months ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest gave McDonald's an ultimatum: Remove toys from your Happy Meals or we'll sue. Now the group has made good on its threat. More »
It's becoming more and more rare for customers to walk into a fast food restaurant and order individual meal components off the menu. Why do that when you can just order a #4 and get the sandwich, fries and drink together? It makes sense, but a new study says our penchant for buying bundled meals is causing us to eat more than we should. More »
Here's what you might call an unlikely sequence of events. A man enters a McDonald's in the Florida Keys. The man orders breakfast. The man shoots himself in the leg. The manager asks the man to leave the restaurant, then calls police. Police pull the man over and only then does he realize he shot himself. More »
A Chicago woman is suing McDonald's because an employee spit in her face at the drive-thru while she was in a taxi. The topic of the disagreement was whether or not the woman should be able to order a hamburger just before 4 in the morning. The employee said only breakfast items were available, but the customer wanted a burger. More »
An anonymous tipster whom we'll call Deep Oat forwarded us a shot of this memo, which reveals that McDonald's — at least in Indiana — is readying oatmeal servings at $2 a pop. More »
While politicians in San Francisco go back and forth about whether or not to effectively ban the sale of kid's meals that include toys, the city council of Superior, WI, has roundly dismissed a similar proposal. More »
Some students at Westfield State University in Massachusetts are barking mad after they claim they received a serving of dog biscuits with their fries during a visit to their local McDonald's. And to make matters worse, they were told to scram and never return when they complained to employees about it. More »
You probably never wanted to see what the insides of a raw McDonald's McRib sandwich looked like. Neither did Consumerist reader Russell, but he didn't really have a say in the matter. More »
With only a couple weeks to go before the McRib disappears into obscurity again, true fans of the pork-ish McDonald's sandwich are trying to get their fill. And now, thanks to Erik Trinidad, the mad genius behind Fancy Fast Food, they can even enjoy their favorite treat on Thanksgiving. More »
In a move that seems as sensible as asking your creepy uncle who just got out of jail to babysit for the weekend, the UK is looking to such luminaries in the health food industry as McDonald's, KFC and Pepsi for assistance in writing government policy on obesity and other health problems. More »
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has made good on his earlier promises that he would veto the recently passed kids meal ban (which isn't actually a ban, but new regulations that would effectively ban most kids meals from being sold in the city as they are currently configured). More »
McDonald's may be the fast food chain most are associating with the recently approved kid's meal regulations in San Francisco, but when it comes to calories in meals targeted to youngsters, the Golden Arches is nowhere near the worst. More »
Consumerist reader Dan decided to McRib it for lunch today, so he drove through the drive-thru at a Chicago McDonald's to pick one up. Unfortunately, what he got was a half-covered sandwich on a bun he can't eat. More »
Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity says that 84% of parents surveyed for their epic new study of fast food nutrition and marketing said they'd fed their kids fast food at least once in the past week. 66% of parents surveyed took their kids specifically to McDonald's. More »
McDonald's promised to bring back the McRib on November 2nd, and, sure enough, the "legendary" pork sandwich has returned (for just six weeks), along with a new marketing campaign and contest built around the "mysterious" origins of the meal. Legendary? We always assumed it was cooked up in some test kitchen in the early 80s, after the Boneless Pig Farmers of America lobbied McD to pick up their product. More »
After months of talking about the topic, San Francisco's board of supervisors has gone and done it, approving a measure that would effectively end the sale of most McDonald's Happy Meals — and most other fast food kids' meals — within city limits. More »
The owner of a McDonald's restaurant in Canton, OH, may have gone a little too far in attempting to get out the vote for the candidates he supports in tomorrow's election when he placed notes in his employees' pay envelopes saying their pay and benefits were at risk if certain nominees didn't win. More »
A former manager at a McDonald's in Brazil won a lawsuit against the fast food giant, in which he claimed the company was the cause of the 65 pounds he packed on during his 12 years on the job. More »
In June, we wrote about the Frankenburger, an experiment in which the Village Voice attempted to form a Voltron sandwich from the best bits of many fast food burgers. But the folks behind this video seem to be on the hunt for the most atrocious combination of fast foods — and they just might have succeeded. More »
Anyone who reads this site regularly knows that fast food restaurants are prime targets for the criminal element. Now McDonald's eateries in the Dutch city of Rotterdam are using a new-fangled way to fight crime — spraying crooks with a so-called artificial DNA that can be used by authorities to identify them. More »
Recently photos of a McDonald's burger left out for 180 days with no visibile signs of decomposing went viral. Consumerist reader GitEmSteveDave decided to recreate the experiment using time-lapse photography and came up with drastically different results. The burger was completely gone within just a short period of time! Also discovered? Time-lapse cats are hilarious. More »
If you've become addicted to McDonald's Monopoly promotion, you may wonder roughly how many Big Macs you'll have to eat until you can realistically hope to win a major prize More »
With folks now getting hitched in Walmarts, Taco Bells and Home Depot, it would make sense that McDonald's would eventually get around to adding weddings to their menu. And that's exactly what the fast food chain is doing in Hong Kong, where happy couples will soon be able to say "I do" under the Golden Arches. More »
Nope, this isn't a hoax like those McRibble stories from early summer. Fans of McDonald's sorta-rib-like McRib sandwich will no longer have to drive hours out of their way to find a Golden Arches that carries the saucy delicacy; the fast food chain is bringing it back (for six weeks) nationwide on Nov. 2. More »
For strictly journalistic purposes not having anything whatsoever to do with me being a sucker for silly, addictive promotions, I visited McDonald's four times over the past week to collect Monopoly game pieces. Emboldened by the ubiquitous ads that say one in four game pieces are winners, I racked up 40 chances to become a millionaire, or at least a Redbox free rentailaire. But all I have to show for my endeavors are five pounds gained and a free medium fry. More »
It seems snippy threats can get you places. After McDonald's threatened to drop health coverage for 30,000 workers unless the government granted it an exemption from a mandate to spend 80 to 85 percent of premiums on benefits, the Department of Health and Human Services granted a waiver to the company and 29 others. More »
Mmm yummers, after the jump, here's a picture of some mechanically separated poultry. We didn't want to put it on the front page because it is so gross, so if you click through, that is your fault. More »
McDonald's is or was at least kicking around the idea of dropping health care for 30,000 workers, in what seems to be a nose-thumbing reaction to government health care reform. More »
Last week, we wrote a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine that had produced an ad that made a direct link between McDonald's food and heart disease by showing a corpse in a morgue clutching a partially eaten Big Mac. Believe it or not, McDonald's was not pleased with the TV spot. More »
If car companies and Ikea can make money selling pre-owned products, why not McDonald's? Oh yeah... that would be disgusting. Just ask the Arkansas man who was sold a pre-owned, pre-bitten burger. More »
An Iowa woman got more than a mouthful when she bit into a McDonald's burger. She also got some extra protein, thanks to the maggots crawling around inside it. More »
Because we apparently don't already know that McDonald's and other fast food aren't exactly wonderful for your health, a non-profit physicians' group in Washington, D.C., has cooked up this ad that directly links McDonald's to heart disease. More »
In the current issue of Consumer Reports, our science-minded siblings asked readers to rate the burgers at 18 different restaurant chains on a scale of 1-10. More »
Pictures of McDonald's burgers that have been sitting around for years with no visible sign of decay, like the 7-year old one at left, have shocked and delighted the internets, but what's the science behind the madness? Is it because McDonald's is a lab experiment that we collectively hallucinate as being actual food? Salon asked the experts to find out. More »
The Hidden Menu blog went on a field excursion to see if they could track down the "Mc10:35" - an Egg McMuffin inside a double cheeseburger you can only order at the changeover between breakfast and lunch. They lived to tell the tale and returned with photographic evidence. More »
We say it a lot around here these days: Times are tough. And they just got tougher for the homeless people in San Francisco who had relied on a local McDonald's for their discount sustenance. A few weeks back, that particular Golden Arches — located in the city's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood — jacked up the price on their former Dollar Menu items to $1.50, much to the consternation of the homeless. More »
Almost 16 years to the day after a jury ordered McDonald's to pay a customer $2 million in the infamous hot coffee lawsuit, it's deja vu all over again for the fast food giant. A Chicago-area woman has filed a lawsuit against the Golden Arches over a spilled hot beverage; the difference this time is that it's hot chocolate. More »
Next time you're grabbing some breakfast with your children at McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King, you might want to pay attention to the nutritional information for the kids meals you order. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine just released its list of the Five Worst Fast Food Meals to highlight those G-rated meals with R-rated calorie counts. More »
A manager at a McDonald's in Glendale, AZ, recently asked a woman to leave the building after she began nursing her baby in the restaurant. That manager is obviously not a reader of Consumerist, or else they would have been prepared for the inevitable backlash, which came this weekend in the form of dozens of moms staging a "nurse-in" inside the McD's. More »
Gregory writes that he made a trip to a 24-hour McDonald's after 4 AM because, well, it was a 24-hour McDonald's and would ostensibly be open. This particular McDonald's apparently shut down between 4:00 and 4:30, simultaneously ignoring the concepts of "open 24 hours" and "fast food." More »
British researchers are recommending that fast food joints pass out cholesterol-reducing statins to be consumed alongside cheeseburgers and the like in order to "neutralize" the heart risks of fatty foods. More »
Earlier this year, the burgers at quickly growing fast foodatrorium Five Guys made the Center for Science in the Public Interest's list of most calorie-filled meals in the country. Perhaps that's why the voters at the Zagat Guide recently chose Five Guys as the best burger in the country. More »
While the Center for Science in the Public Interest hasn't yet made good on its threat to sue McDonald's for continuing to put toys in their Happy Meals, the city of San Francisco is considering a law that could have your children asking "where's my toy?" the next time you head to the Golden Arches and other fast food joints. More »
Remember the McDonald's drive-thru customer who went all 28 Days after she was told they'd stopped serving Chicken McNuggets? Obviously a story like this is a hundred times more awesome if you can watch the actual attack, and fortunately for us the security footage of the event is now available. More »
I'm having trouble telling whether the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is serious, or whether someone at the organization saw that Venture Brothers episode and got confused, so I'll just describe what they're doing and you can decide for yourselves. The group has launched a letter writing campaign to demand that McDonald's stop giving out Marvel superhero toys, specifically The Thing and The Human Torch, because they're too violent. More »
It takes balls to rob the McDonald's you've been working at for months. It takes balls of steel to do it twice in one month. And it takes balls of steel the size of large boulders to keep showing up for work afterward. Alas, your big mouth will ultimately get you and your massive balls arrested for armed robbery. More »
According to the Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner, a bracelet that comes with the "Last Airbender" Katara toy could be dangerous if your child wraps it around his/her neck. That's what allegedly happened to one CT toddler. His mother says he passed out after the bracelet cut off the blood to his head. More »
Perhaps in an effort to hearken back to her bandanna-sporting bank robber forebears, a woman in Oklahoma decided to fashion a mask out of a pair of undies for her late-night burglary of a McDonald's drive-thru. Thank God it was caught on camera. More »
If you had planned on taking advantage of McDonald's planned giveaway of samples of their new line of smoothies, you're out of luck. Perhaps in an attempt to avoid a debacle like the Oprah/KFC clusterf*ck from last year, the Golden Arches has preemptively pulled the plug on the event to avoid shortages. More »
Almost two years two the day after she claims she chomped into something hard in a McDonald's double cheeseburger, a woman in Illinois has filed a lawsuit against the fast food giant. More »
If you haven't had the chance to feast on a Mac Snack Wrap or a Big N' Tasty at McDonald's, you don't have much time left. The Golden Arches has decided to put a bullet in these two low-selling items, along with others. The fast food Goliath is also planning to go wide with its currently testing oatmeal breakfast. More »
Emboldened by its success with coffee and lattes, McDonald's is about to take on Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and your local coffee shop, and grab a bigger chunk of the $153 billion beverage market. Coming next month: McDonald's smoothies, which the company hopes will lure customers away from Jamba Juice and other smoothie chains. More »
When one thinks of British cuisine — bangers and mash, fish and chips, shepherd's pie — one doesn't necessarily think of health food. But, at least when it comes to McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, our funny-speaking friends across the Atlantic are getting the less-caloric end of the deal. More »
Perennial buzzkills at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have decided to set their sights on McDonald's, issuing the fast food giant an ultimatum: Stop putting toys in their Happy Meals in the next 30 days or face a lawsuit. More »
When McDonald's recently began airing a TV spot in France that not only admitted the existence of homosexual men, but also that they eat at — and are welcome at — the fast food eateries, it received many plaudits from gay rights advocacy groups on this side of the pond. But now that bigwigs out of Oak Brook have made it clear the ad, or nothing like it, will air stateside anytime soon, the tide has turned against the golden arches. More »
McDonald's is offering $.99 6-piece McNugget Mondays regional promotion, good now through Sept. 30, limited to the Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties of Florida. Normally it's $.99 for 4, so it's basically two free nuggets. More »
While Domino's has scrambled to re-imagine their pizza recipes and Pizza Hut continues to basically give away their pizzas for a pittance, it was Papa John's who apparently made the best impression on eaters in the last year. The Kentucky-based chain has topped not only its pizzeria rivals, but all fast foods in an annual survey of customer satisfaction. More »
Personal finance blogger Carrie on the Cheap believes her McDonald's breakfast knocked her off her feet with possible food poisoning. She didn't check her sickness out with a doctor but didn't need medical advice to decide that the meal made her feel so bad she'll never eat there again. She brought her complaint to the restaurant's management but feels she wasn't taken seriously and has yet to even get her money back. More »
Forget the Double Down or the McGangBang, the ultimate fast food burger has been found — the Frankenburger. And when I say "ultimate," I literally mean this could be the final thing you ever eat. More »
Though it's just come to our attention, long before anyone had ever gotten their hands slick with a KFC Double Down, some folks out there were loosening their belts because of the McGangBang — an entire McDonald's McChicken sandwich that is then sandwiched between the halves of a double cheeseburger. More »
Who can beat the amazing McDouble? The answer may well be no one, but we'll put it to a vote to settle the score as to which fast food value menu is king. Yesterday we put a call out for nominations, and these are the contenders that emerged from the crop. More »
McDonald's has lost at least two customers in the San Francisco area. The fast food Goliath has threatened to sue a pair of hopeful restaurateurs if they go ahead with the plan to name their plan to name their small macaroni and cheese-themed restaurant "Little Mac." More »
Fast food. None of us who partake in its hot, dirty deliciousness are proud of what we do, but life is fast and hard and sometimes you need to hunt and gather your nourishment in a drive-thru. More »
McDonald's is upping the ante in its recall of the not-so-collectible Shrek drinking glasses. Although the four glass designs were recalled officially on June 4th by the CPSC, McDonald's has announced that starting tomorrow you'll be able to bring them back to the restaurant, fill out a refund form, and get a $3 refund per glass. More »
No, this isn't a hoax like yesterday's McRibbles reports. McDonald's, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has announced a voluntary recall of their Shrek Forever After Collectible Drinking Glasses because of a risk of exposure to cadmium. More »
A group of concerned individuals have politely suggested that Ronald McDonald should be retired along with the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel. McDonald's has responded calling the clown "a force for good." More »
Chaz thought he'd like a little mayo on his McDoubles, and had to shell out an extra 15 cents for the honor of having an employee smear the white stuff on his burger rather than hand him a free packet so Chaz could do the honors himself. More »
A Utah teenager who was arrested after rapping his order at a McDonald's drive-through was found not guilty of disorderly conduct,after a judge ruled that his behavior was not threatening and didn't create any unreasonable noise. The judge didn't rule on the skills of the teen, who was attempting to imitate the YouTube classic "Fast Food Freestyle" (aka "The McDonald's Drive Thru Rap"). More »
Wherever Craig lives, that's where the most Hamburgler-proof McDonald's in the country is located. He says he was there the other night and a police officer got up from the seating area, went around behind the counter, and prepared his order for him. When Craig asked why the officer was also a McDonald's employee, the officer followed him outside and asked why he cared. That officer probably thought you were the Hamburglar, Craig. More »
Consumer Reports subjected its team of trained taste-testers to more than a dozen varieties of chicken nuggets, including both supermarket brands and those from McDonald's. The winner among the frozen nuggets: Target's Market Pantry. Soy nuggets from Boca and Morningstar were judged to have "very little chicken flavor." More »
For five years, the people at BrandZ (you know they're in branding because of the "Z") have been evaluating customer opinion and awareness of various global brands, and then putting a dollar value on that evaluation for their annual Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report. Here are the top 10 brands on the BrandZ list. More »
If your kids pester you into purchasing McDonald's Happy Meals, they could be severely disappointed the next time they visit Santa Clara County in California, where the county supervisors have voted to pass a law forbidding toys in Happy Meals and other fast food kids meals that don't meet the county's nutritional guidelines. More »
A prank involving some sort of smoke bomb recently sent four employees of a Maryland McDonald's to the hospital and has authorities on the hunt for suspects. More »
A new study has determined that just looking at the logos of fast-food companies like McDonald's and KFC can trigger behavior associated with your expectations from the brand — namely immediate gratification, even if that means getting something that isn't as good as what you could get by waiting. More »
KFC's Double Down — the bacon sandwich where two pieces of fried chicken replace the bread — has been catching a lot of flack lately; much of it deserved. But a quick comparison of the nutritional (for want of a better word) info between the Double Down and some items on the menus at other fast food joints shows that the "warped creation of a syphilitic brain" might not be as bad for you as a salad at Wendy's. More »
A new study in the American Journal of Public Health states that several of the biggest U.S. health insurers are heavily invested in fast food companies, to the tune of $2 billion. This news has caused some to ask whether or not the insurance companies' vested interest in the growth of fast food stands in direct contrast to their interest in having healthy policy holders. More »
While most of their competitors are at least paying lip service to the idea of using cage-free eggs in their food, the board of directors for McDonald’s telling shareholders to vote against a proposal that would require McD's to use at least 5% cage-free eggs in its U.S. restaurants. More »
The picture on McDonald's 10-piece chicken nugget box shows 11 nuggets. Obviously this is a careful piece of psychological chicanery so that consumers feel a subconscious longing for that "missing nugget," sowing the seeds of future return trips to the Golden Arches. UPDATE: The mystery has been solved... one of the nuggets is cut in half, obviously to reveal its tender separated and recoagulated chicken meat goodness. [via Reddit] (Thanks to Bargaineering!)
A new study of brand recognition in kids shows that even kids who can't read can recognize corporate logos like Disney, McDonald's and randomly... Toyota. More »
McDonald's: Taking his cue from both Cheeseburger Josh and that irritating "Gimme That Filet-o-Fish" ad, a dude in South Brunswick, NJ, got so impatient with the service at the drive-thru that he crawled through the window, slapped the employee and then escaped with his precious fish sandwich. More »
After a half century of scaring/entertaining children for McDonald's, a health advocacy group is saying it's time for Ronald McDonald to retire, not because he's getting long in the tooth (and hasn't managed to get any less creepy after all these years), but because they believe he's enticing young kids into eating fast food. More »
Looks like the Nintendo DS isn't just for MarioKart and Brain Age. According to a new report, burger biggie McDonald's is looking to use the handheld gaming device as an employee-training tool. More »
Free Refills spotted this sign at a Michigan McDonald's. This doesn't seem like a national policy, but rather a site-specific thing aimed at combating a loitering problem at this location. More »
Have you ever wondered what a McDonald's Happy Meal looks like after it's sat on a shelf (not in a freezer) for a year? This seems like one of those things I would learn accidentally, but writer Nonna Joann Bruso decided to find out on purpose.
The results? Not as disgusting as you might think, which itself is sort of disgusting. More »
Have you ever had McSpaghetti? How about a basket of piping hot, deep-fried chicken livers from your local KFC? These are just a few of the not-so-popular menu items that made ChicagoNow's list of the 15 Worst Fast Food Fails. More »
As the world grows more and more technologically savvy, thieves continue to have success with old-fashioned methods. First there was the guy who robbed a Walmart with their own crowbar and now comes report of a man who not only managed to burgle a McDonald's through the drive-thru window, but who did it with a broken beer bottle. More »
For every ounce of common sense inside of you that knows the last thing you should eat when trying to watch your weight is a deep-fried, battered piece of processed chicken "meat." But don't tell that to the folks at Weight Watchers who have actually given their seal of approval to three separate meals available at McDonald's in New Zealand and Australia. More »
I had always assumed that McDonalds' hamburger hegemony of the United States, if not the world, was complete. I was wrong. Clearly, I need to leave the Northeast more. The above map shows the dominant burger chains in different parts of the United States. The black dots represent the density of McDonald's, and other colors represent...everyone else. More »
Peter has stumbled upon a McDonald's secret menu item that can only be ordered during the changeover from breakfast to the standard menu. The Mc10:35 is the unholy but oh-so-hot union between the McDouble and Egg McMuffin. More »
What does prosperity taste like? According to McDonald's in Singapore, it tastes like beef. From a historical point of view, I suppose that's true.
What's a Prosperity Burger? It's a beef or chicken burger on a long bun, almost like a small sub sandwich, with onions and a black pepper sauce. If you want mega prosperity, apparently you need to add some twisty fries.
A woman in Oregon has sued her local McDonald's franchisee after spilling hot coffee from the drive-thru window on herself. She claims that the coffee was too hot and the lid too loose, and seeks $7,500 in damages. More »
A McDonald's worker from the Netherlands was fired after she gave a cheeseburger to a colleague who only paid for a hamburger. A court has found that this is not a good enough reason to fire someone. More »
After a McDonald's microsite licensed one of Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand's without their direct approval, as record labels are wont to do, singer for the group Alex Kapranos tweeted some infelicitous words about the fast food joint. Specifically, "Dirty bastards. Stupid arrogant motherf***ing pig-brained arseholes. I'd rather eat a cowpat on a bun than a bloody McDonalds." I dunno, Alex, have you tried their new Angus burgers? They're pretty tasty and they come with a big slice of fresh onion. [@alkapranos via NME via Eater]
Kain says he and his girlfriend went to an Illinois McDonald's and were served a raw double quarter pounder with cheese. They snapped this photo with a cell phone camera. More »
Last week I posted a clip of an angry McDonald's customer throwing water at the cashiers. Here's a new clip of her tirade—sort of a greatest hits compilation. It turns out it wasn't mop water, so that's a plus, but she did manage to push all three registers off the counter.
If you were looking for a reason other than the ridiculous price markup to avoid soda fountains, microbiologists from Hollins University — publishing in the International Journal of Food Microbiology — have got it for you: There's poo-related bacteria in half of them, the Huffington Post reports, citing blogger Tom Laskawy. More »
A bucket of dirty mop water is nobody's friend, which is exactly why you shouldn't leave it out where customers can reach it. Because eventually someone will get angry over an order and feel a need to throw something, and oh look, mop water. More »
Here is a suggestion from the experts here at Consumerist. Do not punch out the drive thru window of your local McDonald's because they are unable to provide you with McNuggets. More »
Thanks to findings presented by the New York Times, the USDA took away an exemption from routine testing it had given to meat from Beef Products, Inc., which supplies ammonia-injected beef to grocery stores and fast food chains including McDonald's and Burger King. More »
What goes better with greasy fries and corn syrupy sodas than delicate electronic equipment? McDonald's announced today that they plan to roll out free wi-fi in their outlets that currently offer it for a fee. The goal is to make their restaurants more amenable to people hanging out, and gobble up more of Starbucks' share of the latte-sipping market. More »
Michael Polakovs, a man credited with creating and playing Ronald McDonald in several 1960s commercials, has passed on to that big play area in the sky, the Telegraph reports. More »
A Florida McDonald's has been sued for refusing to hire a transgender woman. The applicant, 17-year-old Zikerria Bellamy, says that after she didn't check a gender box on the application, then reluctantly selected male, she was refused an interview by two managers, one of whom then left her an bigoted voicemail. More »
The always informative QSR magazine informs us that McDonald's is "adding music to its children's PlayPlace with a new music-themed interactive play area for children that combines play with the musical arts." More »
This is what happens when you let robots select up-and-coming stories for your banner ad on Digg. Although now that I think about it, I'm not sure I'd ever let a Digg story be assigned to my brand, automatically or otherwise, without looking at it first. (Thanks to Jeff!)
—>This summer a woman in an SUV drove almost two miles down the wrong way of an expressway before killing eight people in a horrible crash. The autopsy suggests she was drunk and high at the time, but her family says that isn't possible and to prove it, they say she was sober enough to convince McDonald's to make her son an order of Chicken Selects in the morning, right before the accident. More »
—>The WSJ says they have their hands on a document that shows that a nationwide McDonald's Breakfast Dollar Menu is coming. The fast food giant has already tested these menus in several markets. More »
—>A worker at a McDonald's branch in Japan died of "karoshi" — the Japanese term for death from overwork — according to officials at the local government labor bureau. The employee, a 41-year-old woman, had put in about 80 hours a month in overtime for six months before she died. "We determined her work caused the illness," said an official at the agency. More »
—>Calorie posting is supposed to help people make healthier eating choices, but study of fast food joints in poor New York neighborhoods saw customers eating more calories after the calories went up on the sign. More »
—>The French arm of McDonald's may no longer be the target of local farmers and gastronomes who attacked it in decades past. But next month, the chain will ask the French if they'd like frites with their Mona Lisa, as it prepares to open a branch at what could be called Ground Zero of French culture: the Louvre. As one art historian said, the move represents "the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours in the context of a museum." More »
—>The Chicago Tribune informs us that the quick-service industry publication QSR Magazine ranks fast food restaurants based on the follwoing drive-through attributes: speed of service, order accuracy, menu board appearance, and speaker clarity. Chick-fil-A is apparently unstoppable, stealing the top spot for the sixth time in seven years. More »
—>Mickey D's down under wants everyone to know that the parody McDonald's letter making the rounds is indeed prankaliscious. Corporate Communications Manager Bronwyn Stubbs writes: More »
—>Say you're driving along sipping your iced tea when you suddenly realize that your mouth is full of something slimy. You would probably freak out. One McDonald's customer says this happened to her and she is definitely freaking out. More »
—>We assume that the typical, well-prepared, parking-lot kidnapper eats lunch before deciding to look for a victim. But Anthony Gibson clearly wasn't well-prepared, and that's a good thing. According to police reports, Gibson kidnapped a Marine from a Georgia Walmart parking lot, and after failing to get any money from him, decided the best thing to do would be to have his would-be victim drive him to McDonald's. Where the staff recognized him as a frequent customer. And where the Marine was able to ask the drive-through attendant to call the police. Oops. More »
—>We got a tip from someone today with a funny pic of a misspelled McDonald's sign at the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, MO. We thought we'd do a Google search to see if this was old news or not. What we found out was that "Angus" is too ripe a target for word vandals, or even just opportunistic photographers, to pass up. More »
—>A McDonald's worker in Brazil has been awarded $800 by a court, based on a claim that the company's policy of offering staff a diet of the restaurant's food was harmful to his health. The worker, Rafael Luiz, said the company should have given him a grocery allowance or coupons so he could buy his own food during the two years he worked there. The verdict hinged on a viewing of Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me," which apparently so disgusted the court that the judge may have been willing to write a check on the spot just to get Luiz's lawyer to turn it off. More »
—>A South Carolina teenager got more than he expected from a McDonald's in Charleston, according to WIS 10 news in Columbia. And, no, we're not talking supersize fries. After placing his order and paying, he drove up to the pickup window, where the attendant asked him, "who gets the bags?" The customer said it didn't matter, so the Mcster handed him three bags — two containing food for the driver and his passenger, and one with some extras: a loaded handgun and bags of weed. More »
—>Here's the problem with fish: it's delicious. So delicious that we humans like to eat some species until they're nearly endangered. (Mmm...sea bass.) "Sustainable" isn't just an environmental concern when it comes to fish—it's good business, too. Which leads us to the problem of the hoki. The what? More »
—>In a victory for little guys worldwide, the Malaysian restaurant McCurry has won an epic trademark battle against McDonald's. Yes, McDonald's. McCurry has been open for ten years, and has spent eight of those fighting McDonald's. They won on the grounds that nobody could possibly ever confuse the two restaurants. More »
—>Pardon me if I'm late to the party and all of you readers in the test markets (and Canada where it has been available since March) have been happily eating these things for months — but it has just come to my attention that McDonald's is testing a Big Mac "Snack Wrap." This is apparently code for Big Mac Burrito, which no one would eat if you actually called it that. More »
—>Some McDonald's locations just got a breakfast dollar menu. For $1 you can be the proud owner of one of six menu items: two hot cakes, a fruit 'n yogurt parfait, a sausage biscuit, a sausage McMuffin, two hash browns or medium coffee. Reuters says that the change isn't permanent and reports that analysts are claiming that cheaper breakfast is a result of rising unemployment. More »
—>An anonymous reader we'll call Redacted was upsold to a large-sized value meal without his permission. She wrote this letter of complaint to the offending store and corporate: More »
—>Sure, McDonald's operates all over the world now, but that doesn't mean that everyone can afford their products easily. As proof, The Economist has spent years updating its Big Mac Index, which uses the local price of the McD delicacy to estimate the purchasing power of consumers in about 120 countries. Recently, UBS cooked up its own twist on the index, calculating how many minutes the average person would need to work at their job in order to earn that precious, precious Big Mac. Predictably, a worker in Nairobi must work the longest—over two hours—while a worker in Chicago would only need to work 12 minutes. More »
—>Science teacher Jeff Tallman in Arizona ordered an egg McMuffin yesterday morning, and it apparently included a side he didn't order. Not hash browns: a baby scorpion. More »
—>I like to make fun of white people (and, really, who doesn't). Even McDonald's likes to make fun of white people if the white people live in Japan. A new McDonald's advertising there campaign centers on one Mr. James, a bespectacled idiot who tortures the Japanese language and is quite literally crazed for McDonald's burgers. More »
—>McDonald's sales rose 4.3% on the tongues of customers clamoring for a taste of the good life for cheap. McCafe coffees, which offer a proxy of brews found in places like Starbucks, and Angus burgers drove sales. [Bloomberg] (Photo: andinarvaez) More »
—>A few coffee snobs at Slate have done a blind taste test of regular drip and cappuccino coffees at Starbucks, McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts. Results? Dunkin' Donuts had the best regular drip; McDonald's, the best cappuccino. More »
—>Our sister-publication Consumer Reports tested new trans-fat free french fries from Wendy's, BK and McDonald's and have declared that... yeah they basically taste the same as they used to only they don't have trans fats. More »
—>On Mondays through August 3, between 7am and 7pm get a free sample (7 oz. cold or 8 oz hot) of the McCafe Mocha — an espresso with steamed milk, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream with a chocolate drizzle. More »
—>Hepatitis A is an extremely contagious disease that can be passed along by food service workers who don't thoroughly wash their hands — and that may have been the case at a Milan, Illinois McDonald's according to the Quad City Times.More »
—>Did you know McDonald's sold bags of ice? It seems like ice-vending is just the start of that slippery slope down into the pit of conveniencestoredom, presaging the horrific day when you can buy McNuggets and deodorant at the same place. More »
—>One of America's fast-food supersleuths, Carlo Gesualdo, has broke open a secret about McDonalds: the McChicken Value Meal is a scam! At the franchise he visited in Edmond, Oklahoma, a McChicken Value Meal costs $4.09, but the sandwich, drink, and fries—the same items in said Value Meal—cost only $3.49 total. In other words, the Value Meal costs 60¢ more than the individual components! More »
—>Recently, those buzzkills at Time published this mouth-watering article about the massive caloric content of fast food. Apparently, the Senate is considering federal legislation that would require chain restaurants to list calorie counts on menus. More »
—>A Denver police officer, annoyed that his McDonald's order was taking too long, allegedly pointed his gun at the drive-thru attendant. Then he left without paying. More »
—>A 20-year-old in Aloha, Oregon, called 911 on Memorial Day to complain that he wasn't given the orange juice he ordered. While he was on the phone describing this emergency, a McDonald's employee also called 911 to complain that the 20-year-old was blocking the drive-thru. And somewhere in the city, a kitten died in a tree fire because the emergency lines were all tied up. UPDATE: We've located the audio of both calls. More »
—>I'm all for natural beauty and simplicity in my food, but this message on the McDonald's Southern Style Chicken Sandwich box just creeps me out. Thanks to Diana for sending it in. I think. More »
—>Salon has a useful, funny and informative recession-coping series going called Pinched, and the latest entry, by Sarah Hepola, takes on that age old conundrum of fast food. And not that hoity-toity $5 combo fast food, the nasty, ratty stuff on the dollar menu. More »
—>Who pays for a six-piece McNugget with a $20 $50 bill? Counterfeiters, that's who, and the McDonald's near Madison Square Garden is ready for them. Sorry guys, you're going to have to ask Wendy's to anonymously break your shadily large bills. More »
—>Here's some weird news from Switzerland, a seven year old girl has "allegedly" found a condom amongst her French Fries in her McDonald's Happy Meal. More »
—>This website displays photos of soft drinks, smoothies, candy, and even vegetables next to little piles of sugar cubes that represent the total sugar in them. This is a great service, because if you ever go into space you can simply use this site to pack a baggie full of an equivalent amount of cubes. Then you can enjoy your Space McFlurry without worrying about liquid contamination of the spacecraft. More »
—>Either this Burger King in Miami takes the competition really, really seriously, or the owner is into some pretty freaky s#@t. The store gets bonus absurdity points for framing it so handsomely. More »
—>Consumer research company Experian Simmons (yes, owned by Experian), has released a new study of fast food industry covering the past 5 years, and it looks like we still love going to McDonald's more than any other fast food restaurant. More »
—>Lots of readers have been sending us this clip today. It's called "The Filthiest McDonalds in the World," and yes, it pretty much is. On the plus side, you don't have to send your kids to the ball pit—you can just place them on the floor and watch them sink out of sight. More »
—>A Salt Lake City McDonald's drive-thru got an early wake-up call Sunday morning after a customer, furious to discover that he could only purchase *breakfast* items at 2am, retrieved a sawn-off shotgun from his trunk and fired twice at the drive-through window. No one was hurt in the incident, and it's unclear if the guy was seriously jonesing for a QPC, or just insane. In either event, he definitely didn't follow our protocol for complaint resolution, which always advises asking for a supervisor first before escalating. More »
McDonald's: Sales Of Cheap Food Are Up Our 8.1% unemployment rate has helped sales of value meals, chicken sandwiches and Egg McMuffins says McDonald's. Their same store sales grew by 2.8 percent in the US. [Bloomberg] More »
—>We've made it pretty clear that we don't condone Latreasa Goodman's attempt to use 911 to report a McNugget Emergency, but in all fairness to Goodman, she was being shafted by the lying, uncooperative McDonald's employee who said "all sales final" and refused to refund her money. McDonald's has released a statement where they own up to their role in escalating things in the first place, and they're sending her a free meal gift card as well as the refund she originally requested. Now she can enjoy a complimentary lunch on the day she goes to plead "no contest" to the judge for abuse of 911. More »
—>A Florida woman called 911three times because the McDonald's where she was dining ran out of McNuggets. More »
Freebruary? Apparently some McDonald's are offering a free McCafe drink from 5-8am during the month of February. Not all locations are participating, so its best to call first. [Fool] More »
—>CEO Howard Schultz once vowed he would never have value meals at Starbucks. Hey, he lied. As foretold, Starbucks has just unveiled their new "breakfast pairings" which is the Starbucksian code for a value meal. For $3.95 you can get a drip coffee and a hot sandwich or a latte and a bowl of oatmeal or cinnamon swirl coffee cake.More »
—>A Baltimore woman is suing McDonald's for negligence, after she says they served her a cup of kitchen equipment sanitizer instead of iced tea. More »
—>Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recently told investors that they could expect some exciting new "breakfast pairings" at "attractive" prices... which sounds a lot like nice way to say "value meal" to us. More »
—> Reports of the new "McDouble" replacing the Double Cheeseburger on the McDonald's "Dollar Menu" have started to roll into our inbox. The "McDouble" is a double cheeseburger with only one slice of cheese. More »
—>Good food costs more, so people are switching to eating less costly simulacrums of sustenance: McDonald's same-store sales rose 8.2% in October. If you can't afford to eat food, just eat "phood." More »
—>Free cups of water at McDonald's are the next victim of the recession it seems. Reader Michael sent us this photo of a sign at McDonald's that proclaims the end to the free cup of water era. He says the cashier told him it was a "business decision." More »
—>McDonald's has had enough of your sauce-hogging ways. You will get a certain number of packets of sauce with your order, and if you want more you're just going to have to pay up, damn it. More »
—>We know everyone makes mistakes, but this is just sad. Reader Jarrett lives out in the country, so it was pretty disappointing for him when he took a bite into his cheeseburger... only to find that there was no "burger" part of the sandwich. More »
—>You know it was coming and now it's happened to reader Joe. Joe says that his local McDonald's has cruelly taken away both the Double Cheeseburger and the McChicken sandwiches from the cheap-as-hell glory that is the Dollar Menu. More »
Tonight's premiere of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is about cannibalism and hunting men for sport. The unfortunately-placed McDonald's commercial halfway through the show featured a guy swinging a bat at his friend because he smells food, and then everyone else at the party swarming over the fallen friend to feast. Awkward! More »
—>Is there really a need for this? Microsoft says that they've partnered with McDonald's to offer access to the "Zune Marketplace" to Zune owners via a free wifi connection inside 9,800 participating McDonald’s. This is apparently going to "attract new customers whose digital lifestyle extends beyond their home and office,” according to a press release. More »
—> Reader Greg had his first run in with the notorious "no ice" fee, something we've been hearing about more and more lately. This time the culprit was McDonald's and they got around the "Ok, fine. I'll just have one cube of ice" tactic with a sign that specified a "FULL" cup of ice. Clever, McDonald's. Very. Clever. More »
Subway's kids' meals came out on top. Only a third of its Fresh Fit for Kids meals, which include a mini-sub, juice box, and one of several healthful side items (apple slices, raisins, or yogurt), exceed the 430-calorie threshold. Subway is the only chain that doesn't offer soft drinks with kids' meals.So how do you improve the nutrition of your kid's meal the next time you eat at a restaurant? A spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association gave the following advice:
"Don't be too alarmed even when [studies] come out and seem hopeless," said Dawn Jackson Blatner, an American Dietetic Ass>ociation spokeswoman. "With a few swaps and switches, people really can make healthier choices at these fast-food joints, especially when the decisions are made before going in. More »
—>Tip for the savvy traveler visiting New York: all the McDonald's in New York have ATMs with only 99-cent fees. However you will probably have to put up with a freelance "doorman" bumming for change on your way out. More »
THE QUOTE: "Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of my employees and customers," [McDonald's franchise holder Michael Giunta] said. "We take these matters very seriously." More »
—>Double cheeseburger fans are going to have to face a grim reality. The rising cost of raw materials means that McDonald's has to pay more for beef— and the double cheeseburger will probably have to leave the dollar menu. More »
—>Perhaps in attempt to restore his McDonald's karma, a man who once held up a McDonald's at gunpoint is now one of two South Florida finalists in a McDonald's jingle contest. Tamien Bain, age 29, held up a McDonald's store when was 14 and served 12 years for the crime. Want to hear his jingle? More »
—>The band Devo is suing McDonald's over a toy which bears a striking resemblance to the band's signature look made popular in the 80's. The "American Idol" series of happy-meal toys features plastic characters that play their own little tune when activated. "New Wave Nigel" depicts a character wearing the band's famous "energy dome" and even plays a song that sounds Devo-esque. Unfortunately for McDonald's, that little hat is copyrighted and trademarked, according to Rolling Stone. Details, inside... More »
—>Reader Brandon sent us this picture of a McDonald's violating its merchant agreement by charging a fee for using a credit or debit card. The text reads, "FEE ASSOCIATED WITH CREDIT/DEBIT CARD OF 25¢ WILL BE APPLIED TO CARD TOTAL." More »
—>How decaffeinated is your decaf exactly? That's what Consumer Reports aimed to uncover when they sent their shoppers to sample 36 cups of decaffeinated coffee from 6 locations of Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Seattle's Best Coffee, 7-Eleven and Starbuck's near their headquarters in Yonkers, NY. See the results, inside... More »
—>In 2006 we reported that McDonald's was testing a system in which drive-thru orders were being taken by employees at a remote location, usually in another state altogether. Nearly 2 years later, the system has proven successful in some areas and is being used in over half of the McDonald's in Hawaii, according to KITV. Apparently, the system enhances the speed and accuracy of orders and most customers don't even realize the difference. More, inside... More »
—>Apparently, if you want a Sausage McGriddle Happy Meal, you're not necessary going to get it from McDonald's. Reader Alex says his girlfriend ordered the sausage and pancake treat for her 3 year old son, but when they got the sandwich it wasn't actually a sandwich at all — just two small pancake-bun-things and no meat. When they went inside to ask for the meat, the manager wouldn't budge. No sausage on the McGriddle Happy Meal! Is this normal? More »
—>At some undefined point in our fast food history, there was a brief flash and the 2 Hamburger Extra Value Menu slipped into extinction. One theory is that it is McDonald's attempt to involuntarily up-sell us to cheese. The casual observer might conclude that the customer must certainly be able to order a 2 Cheeseburger Extra Value Meal minus the cheese, even if said customer has to pay for the cheese. It is not that easy. "At McDonald's, if there's no button for it on the register it doesn't exist," says "Bagumpity," a Consumerist Forums reader. Not content with letting McDonald's play God with his 2 Hamburger Extra Value Meal, Bagumpity discusses the strange world of confusion and twisted logic he is forced to enter each time he tries to order a 2 Cheeseburger Extra Value Meal with no cheese. His letter, inside... More »
—>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.More »
—>Reader "Thunderpants" says that she was in McDonald's yesterday during their free chicken sandwich promotion. The deal: Buy a medium or large drink and the sandwich itself is on the house. For some reason, however, this particular McDonald's declared that only soft drink purchasers qualified for sandwiches. Nothing, not even a customer who claimed to have written the actual ad copy for the promotion, could convince them otherwise. More »
—>It's morning in America and McDonald's is pretty sure you want to eat fried chicken on a biscuit. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that McDonald's has seen so much cash from their chicken menu items that they're adding some to the breakfast menu. Get ready to sink your teeth into the Southern Style Chicken Biscuit and the Southern Style Chicken Sandwhich. Chicken sandwich experts (or whatever) accuse McDonald's of copying Chic-Fil-A which apparently has been offering a chicken breakfast biscuit since 1986. More »
—>Reader Rachael went into McDonald's today to get her usual morning Coca-Cola and was denied a large cup, despite the fact that she paid the "large" price, because it was "breakfast." Instead, Rachael ended up with a medium Coke which the McDonald's employee called a "breakfast large." More »
Earlier you said to me, the media has made such a huge deal about all of Starbucks' competition. So tell us straight out what the story is here. Have you been hurt by the premium coffee sold at McDonald's (MCD) or by Dunkin' Donuts getting more aggressive?More »
—> When Ethan Wade, who has dwarfism, went into a McDonald's in South Carolina recently to order some food, the cashier took one look at him and ran off, waving her hands in the air and shouting "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She kept shouting from the back, and another employee came up to tell Ethan that she had a phobia of little people. Said Wade:
An employee in the franchise office told Wade about what the woman had said. Wade said, "The employee had stated to her, 'Imagine if you saw a snake or a spider, how would you respond?' And that employee said she understood that. And I said, 'That's unbelievable. I am a human being.'"
—>Googling reveals they've been doing this for over a year, but I ate a cheeseburger yesterday at McDonald's and they had the "nutritional" info right on the hamburger box. They didn't have it on the fries which I thought was silly. Otherwise, neat, and a good move towards more disclosure. Thanks to it I learned that the hamburger contained 50% of my RDA of sodium. Yummy! More »
—>In order to capitalize on all Starbucks being closed today for retraining, Dunkin Donuts is selling $.99 espressos today from 1 to 10pm. And if you're lucky enough to live in Chicago, they're giving away free small lattes. Not to be outdone, Houston area McDonald's are giving away free medium iced coffees from 5-9pm, precisely when all Starbucks will be shut down nationwide. Too bad all three chains taste like crap. More »
—>Stephen Colbert interviewed Susan Pagan, a mother offended by McDonalds' sponsorship of her daughter's elementary school report card, for his segment "People Destroying America." More »
—>We took a look at the big three burger joints—McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King to locate the most butt-blimping, ass-widening, delicious-but-probably-not-worth-it fast food burgers we could find from a top national chain. More »
—>Starbucks recently announced that they would begin selling their "short" cups of brewed coffee for $1 a piece, and offering free refills of brewed coffee as a test in their home market of Seattle. More »
THE QUOTE: "Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers," said Paul Van Sickle, director of operations for McDonald's Florida Region. "This was an isolated incident which we take very seriously. We always strive to give our customers an enjoyable and pleasant restaurant experience in a clean and safe environment." More »
Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food. Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail . More »
—>The school district that approved McDonald's-sponsored report cards has a hot new partnership with Bus Radio, a friendly company that advertises to kids as they ride to school! More »
—>McDonald's has decided to stop branding report card envelopes in a program that gave kids in Florida free food as a reward for good grades after a backlash from parents concerned about exploitive marketing. Teport cards came in an envelope (pictured, click to enlarge) telling kids to check their grades and redeem a free Happy Meal if they got all A's and B's or got good marks in "Citizenship" or attendance. The jacket also showed a smiling Ronald McDonald and mentioned McDonald's several times. More »
McDonald's UK CEO said "video games" should take the blame for the obesity epidemic, not fast food. [MCV via BoingBoing] More »
McDonald's stock hits all time high. Thank you chicken snack wraps, breakfast, and better coffee. [USAToday] More »
—>Not that we'd ever spent very much time thinking about it, but we were sort of under the impression that when making cheeseburgers, the cheese-type toppings are placed on the burger to melt while still on the grill, right before it is done.More »
—>Attention residents of Calgary: Anyone who ate at the McDonald's at Foothills Industrial Park, 5326 72 Ave. S.E., across from the Calgary Soccer Centre from Oct. 1 to 23 is at risk for Hepatitis A after a food handler tested positive for the disease. More »
—>Nope. It sure isn't, but Trent at the Simple Dollar makes a good case for why you should just make yourself a cheeseburger. He went to McDonald's, bought a cheeseburger and then tried to replicate it at home for the same amount of money. (He used real tomato instead of ketchup, however.) More »
—>Reader Christopher snapped this photo of some McDonald's employees making a delivery, via the New York City subway. Christopher is worried that the boxes contained what they say they contained—raw eggs and chicken fillet. More »
—>The California Assembly has passed legislation that will require chain outlets with 15 or more locations to place calorie info on fast food menu boards and nutrition information on restaurant menus. The rule applies only to standard menu items and not to daily specials or custom orders. More »
—>No, "over salting" isn't code for anything nasty. The 20-year-old McDonald's worker literally spilled salt on the hamburger meat that was used to make a "Big 'N Tasty" that was served to a Georgia police officer. More »
—>Sutton vs McDonald's Corporation (PDF) Frank Sutton orders a Mickey D's Chicken Sandwich on August 8th, 2005. Bites into the sandwich and hot lava grease exploded on his lips. When approached about the matter, the McDonald's worker says something to the effect of, "This is what happens to the sandwiches when they aren't drained completely." Sutton wants $2 mil for his damaged puckers. While that might seem steep, McDonald's should make be making sure their employees are properly draining the chicken sandwiches. More »
Supersize Me's effects have worn off. Burger King takes market share by introducing more calorie rich items. And, you need something for the new 42 oz Hugo to wash down. More »
—> McDonald's has been struggling to give themselves an image makeover—they've cut the "supersize" menu and added salads and "apple dippers." But what's this?More »
—>Are you ever sitting around, internetting with your fellow internetters, when all of a sudden you wish you had a corporate-approved "viral" way to challenge said "fellow internetters" to a competitive eating contest? More »
—>A Rockford, IL woman with no arms is suing McDonald's, claiming that employees refused to serve her food because she has no arms and was too "disgusting" to serve. More »
—>McDonalds has announced that all New York City restaurants are serving trans-fat free fries, but if you eat McD's fries in the rest of the country, you're taking your chances with the trans-fat. You might get the trans-fat free fries, you might not. If you ask the people at the restaurant, they're not supposed to tell you. More »
—>Hawaiians love Spam! They love it so much that McDonald's offers it on their breakfast menu in Hawaii, and now Burger King is getting into the act. It's a Spam war! More »
—>Webster's dictionary defines McJob as, "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement," a definition that McDonalds' lobbyists are working overtime to overturn.
The company is leading a "word battle" on behalf of the wider service sector. The object, according to David Fairhurst, a senior vice-president of McDonald's, is to change the definition of McJob to "reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding ... and offers skills that last a lifetime."
The Oxford English Dictionary, which specifically notes that McJobs are "unstimulating," claims that they track the popular usage of words, and do not respond to pressure from interest groups. What do you think? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
—>According to a recent survey, chain restaurants are failing to satisfy their customers. The survey of over 3,000 people showed across the board performance drops from last year; customer satisfaction for McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King all fell by more than 5%. KFC fell by 8.5%. More »
—>McDonald's is pleased with the sales of its Angus Burger (currently available in test markets, such as LA) and is planning to release the beast on the unsuspecting Northeast.
"We're going to be testing Angus burgers later this summer in one of the Northeast markets," said King, McDonald's East Division president. "With all test products we want to get a sense of different geographies and demographics so we're going to take it around the block here in the East."
Just in case you were wondering, the third-pound Angus with Bacon and Cheese packs 820 calories, 43g of fat, and 65g of carbohydrates. Combined with a large package of french fries (570 calories) and a large Coke (310 calories)... Your Angus Bacon and Cheese lunch provides you with 1700 delicious calories in one meal. More »
—>A chubby troll , or giant, or whatever Shrek is supposed to be isn't exactly the best spokesperson for healthy eating, but McDonald's is using him anyway. The McDonald's Shrek themed "Milk and Apples" campaign launches tomorrow. More »
Reader Josh writes us with concerns that a Chicago McDonald's Franchisee committed a crime by offering free hotcakes to "early voters" in Chicago. He writes:In Chicago, some McDonald's restaurants are offering free hotcakes to people who early-vote in the local runoff elections! More »
—>The organization that is always pestering fast food giants to pass some of their profits along to farm workers by paying $0.01 more for tomatoes has scored a major victory with McDonald's. From BusinessWeek:
Under the agreement, a third party will verify that farmworkers who pick McDonald's tomatoes will receive the increase. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's will also require its suppliers to follow a workplace code of conduct that the workers would help create. More »
Glad to see the legal department at Mickey D's HQ is working overtime. They might also want to target the OED's definition of the prefix "Mc," which applies "chiefly to nouns to form nouns with the sense 'something that is of mass appeal, a standardized or bland variety.'" More »
We have to wonder whether it's a cruel joke or if anyone at Quiznos actually read McDonald's: Behind The Arches, a book they include in their Quiznos University Training Kit. More »
Lubbock County farmer, Kelly Kelsey contacted the Lubbock County Sheriff's office, when he discovered this pile of boxes on his land Tuesday evening while he was working in the field. More »
On Monday, McDonald's will launch a line of three premium six-ounce burgers made with 100 percent USDA-inspected Angus beef in restaurants in Orange, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. Cost: $3.99. Here's a list of the offerings. More »
—>On the heels of the success of their special new "not horrific tasting" coffee, Ralph Alvarez, president and chief operating officer of McDonald's Corp, has announced that McDonald's is exploring "destination beverages," as part of a new strategy to provide drinks that don't suck. "Destination beverages" include iced coffee, smoothies, and other "specialty coffee" items. Providing coffee that doesn't taste like burnt cat hair has sent sales soaring 15%.—MEGHANN MARCO More »
Charles made the comments while visiting the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi for the launch of a public health campaign, Britain's Press Association reported. "Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key,'' Charles was quoted as asking one of the center's nutritionists on Tuesday. More »
That request makes sense given the heightened competition, but some franchisees see an unspoken motive behind the program. Their suspicions arise from remarks McDonald's CEO James Skinner made in September, when he told investors that all-day breakfast could be possible with a new cooking system under development in the company's innovation center in Romeoville. After his comments, McDonald's representatives quickly told the press that Mr. Skinner was merely "painting a picture of what is possible" and that all-day breakfast might never happen. More »
—>Planning a road trip across the country but want to make sure you're never too far away from a McDonald's? McDonald's website has just the thing. They've added a "trip planner" to help you make sure that you don't miss a single McDonald's. More »
24/7 McDonald's are growing in profitability as more Americans eat away from home and at weird hours. McDonald's has almost reached a saturation point, after all: How many new locations they can open? What's next? The answer appears to be extending their hours. You can expect to see: More »
The largest U.S. pork supplier, Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, said yesterday that it will require its producers to phase out the practice of keeping pregnant pigs in "gestation crates" — metal and concrete cages that animal welfare advocates consider one of the most inhumane features of large-scale factory farming. More »
Reader Janeka sends in this video from You Tube. Someone was watching Iron Chef America when they noticed their screen flash red, and when they went back to see what it was, they found a McDonald's ad on just one frame! Oooh, scary! More »
Yes, they handed Joel some cheese in a box. Joel, being a sane person, refused cheese in a box. "I handed her the box of cheese, and the one bite missing burger, and asked if you could please remake it...Another minute passes, the lady comes back and hands me a very very hot box with a Home style burger in it, I hand it to the girlfriend and ...She opened the box and guess what! It's her exact same burger! With the bite missing. What they did was take the spare piece of cheese, slap it on the burger, and nuke it for about a minute." More »
—>In late October, we exposed two McDonald's flogs promoting their Monopoly game. One was supposedly written by "Stanley Smith" and followed his quest to collect all four railroads. The other was ostensibly written by 2004 million-dollar winner Marcia Schroeder. More »
" Supermarket operator Safeway Inc. said Tuesday its Blackhawk Network unit agreed with McDonald's Corp. to sell the burger chain's prepaid shopping cards. More »
—>According to a new article in the Engineering Economist, Americans use 938 million more gallons of fuel per annum than in 1960 as a direct result of their increased weight. More »
4railroads follows "Stanley Smith," obsessed with getting all four railroad pieces. The site also boasts a series of cinema verite videos purporting to document Stanley's exploits. More »
—>When I was a kid, I always looked forward to McDonald's Monopoly rolling around. It always seemed like a million bucks was just one Boardwalk sticker on the back of my small fries away. Of course, I didn't know the odds, but as McDonald's Monopoly rolls around again, Fast Food News has been kind enough to tell you exactly how unlikely you are to get anything at all. More »
—>McDonald's Corporate Responsibility Blog made lofty promises when it went live to be transparent and engage with customers about things McDonald's was doing. They seem to be doing a good job with that, if you replace "transparent" with "obtuse" and "engage" with "control." More »
—>A joyless, thankless job, the McDonald's register gimp. Well, "thankless" if you're considering it as an intellectually challenging and socially fulfilling long-term career prospect. But perhaps less so if you get your kicks hawking throat phlegm into the burgers of uppity patrons. More »
—>In a city seething with corrupt officials, rife with crime and poverty, what's public enemy number one to the city alderman? Why, the gelatinous blob of trans fat stalking through the city streets, engorging itself upon hapless citizens. More »
With respect to full journalistic disclosure, we wanted to make sure you got all the views of the McDonald's toilets pulled from Dutchland after a US tourist complained. More »
—>Just stop trying, McDonald's. Go back to selling unhealthy cheese burgers, dripping with fat; tall gelatinous shakes, so cold and sweet they give brain freeze along with diabetes to all who taste them. That's what you did best. You never should have caved to the vegetarians, the health-conscious, the Spurlock Collective: just told them to eat somewhere else. More »
• This MickyDee's didn't realize that giving away free wi-fi didn't mean just selling more milkshakes to kids playing Super Yoshi's Disco Poophouse against each other, it also attracted homeless bloggers. You can't have your honey-slathered butter biscuit and eat it too. [The Homeless Guy] "McDonalds: The Evil Empire Strikes" More »
—>When I was a child, I once accidentally hit Ronald McDonald with a silver crucifix I was whizzing hyperactively about my head. I remember very clearly the Catholic totem flying through the air; the sizzle and smell of sulfur as it impacted upon Ronald's ghoulish visage. Immediately, half his face sloughed off his skull in the oozing liquefaction of corpse-like flesh. The next thing I knew, every child in McDonaldland was sitting in an expanding puddle of their own hysterical evacuations as Ronald McDonald (aka Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies) disintegrated into an anthropomorphic cloud of carrion-carrying flies. Forget Morgan Spurlock, forget Fast Food Nation. That was the event that turned me off McDonald's food forever. More »
—>"Can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and moneys do?" Well, if they are only eating it for a fucking week, they can. More »
—>Because we're petty and jealous of their rampant success and succulent quarterly bonuses, we gave sister site Kotaku some grief when they swallowed hook, line and sinker an obviously too-good-to-be-true story about McDonald's game division splitting from the company over green politics. More »
—>Imagine if this happened: at a British gaming conference, the director of McDonald's nascent video game division divulges that their first project for the chain was to program a fast food empire simulator to help train management. However, during beta testing of the game, McDonald's green-friendly game programmers become more and more disturbed as McDonald's managers time and time again trigger global armageddon within the game. Consequently, McDonald's Interactive publicly calls its parent corporation a bunch of blood thirsty baby murderers and severs their umbilical cord with their righteously gnashing teeth. More »
Man, Ronald McDonald's pretty hot underneath all that ghoulish pancake. Another object lesson illustrating why girls shouldn't wear so much make-up. More »
—>I like the Chicken McNugget. Hey, it's not chicken or anything, but my sole interest in the McNugget is as a flavor carrier of McDonald's brand sweet and sour sauce. I love that stuff. It is for that sauce — looking oh-so-remarkably like the output of a mewling newborn — that I can never bring myself to order any similar gobble-sized chicken parts from Burger King or the like. Their "chicken tenders" (in case you never noticed, a creative marketing euphemism for "chicken genitalia") may taste better than the McNugget, but that pink, orange-flecked sweet and sour sauce is an abomination. More »
A dramatization of Fast Food Nation, the NYT bestseller expose of the inside sluice gate of the expedited meal industry, is due out this fall and the trailer looks pretty tasty. More »
Jason Alexander really does turn-in the most enthusiastic performance of his career as he desperately hustles to get you to buy an innovative new McDonald's sandwich, the McDLT. Keep your hot side hot, your cold side cold! He dances, he sings, he shucks and jives! More »
—>McDonald's is going to makeover its entire line of restaurants, in a bid to "stay forever young." The look takes cues from its classic components, like arches and a "sunny" vibe, combined with modernistic curves and re-imagined seating areas. More »
—>With all the negative publicity swarming like bitey insects about Ronald McDonald's ghoulish coulaphobia-inducing visage, how is McDonald's managing to turn around its sagging profit margins? It's not from selling salads to hippies. It's not from setting up a Corporate Responsibility Blog. It's largely by a return to basics: selling delicious, greasy double cheeseburgers for a buck apiece. More »
We've mentioned McDonald's Grimace before, describing him as "gigantic, anthropomorphic taste bud, loathsomely pulsating through McDonaldland with an unslakeable thirst for frosty, gelatinous ooze." We also mentioned that he used to be evil and initially had small arms. More »
—>Daniel reports receiving a very flawed Chipotle burrito for lunch today. The preparers failed to strain the liquid in his salsa, causing his burrito to 'flood.' Despite 'visual communication of disappointment,' the handlers sent it for wrapping. More »
—>Mickey Dee's is adding a twist to the garbly voice sneaking through the drive through loudspeaker. The person on the other end isn't even inside the restaurant you've pulled up to, they're in Hawaii Santa Maria, California. More »
Companies need to learn that legions of PR weasels, global corporate responsibility initiatives and millions of dollars worth of marketing often make us think even less of them than we did to begin with. We've seen enough of it by now that when McDonald's or Wal-Mart start launching major campaigns to prove to the world how gosh darn lovable, kind and benevolent they are, we see it for what it is: obsequious Eddie Haskel mode until we look away long enough for them to start their trouble-making again. The small human gestures companies make are usually worth a lot more. More »
—>It appears that McDonald's still has a lot to learn about appeasing customers — in an ironic turn of events, McDonald's is now under heavy criticism for not including enough human viscera in their Happy Meals. More »
—>You know, we've always gotten the feeling that things purchased on eBay actually cost more than if you bought them locally. But to what degree exactly do you need to slope your head to have your liquified gray matter start slopping out of your ear to purchase a McDonald's coupon book (value: fifty dollars) for fifty-one dollars off of eBay? That's not including shipping and handling. More »
—>Fast Food News is claiming that the time will soon come when you will no longer need to rely upon a teenage Deadhead taking a break from popping his pimples to cook up your burgers: the fast food industry is moving towards self-service. More »
—>Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker who ate nothing but douche-bags for his Oscar-nominated documentary Supersize Me- wait, we're sorry, that should read "ate nothing but McDonald's meals" - issued an apology for defamatory remarks he may made while addressing a school assembly last Friday. More »
—>McDonald's pulled a "guerilla" stunt to promote its new spicy chicken sandwich. As shown, a boring billboard was sprayed down with by a fireman with a hose from a fire truck. More »
To get you in the mood for the emerald-green, snake-thwacking debauchery of this Guinness-drenched day, a brief endorsement from our sponsor, McDonald's. More »
—>McDonald's employees, tired of eating the nigh-inedible offal which they slop out to customers day after day, have formed a Livejournal community dedicated to sharing with one another the culinary delights they have created for themselves with McDonald's ingredients in a McDonald's kitchen. Amazingly, a lot of it looks pretty good... More »
—>We hate Morgan Spurlock. Hate hate hate hate hate him. We swear to Buddha, 90% of this video of Mortal Kombat 3 fatalities is what would happen to him if John Brownlee ever, ever got his massive, Incredible-Hulk-like hands on the greasy little turd. The last 10% of the video — the part featuring Mortal Kombat 3'sBabalities — is what would happen if Ben Popken ever got the small, playdough-like lumps of his pudgy toddler's fists on Spurlock. Such is our rage. More »
—>Most of the time, we get some truly excellent horror stories from our readers. Compare for a second the comments section of, say, a site like Superficial to our own. On the former, you will find dozens of gelid shut-ins feverishly describing what it might be like if Jessica Alba were to sit on the tip of their penis. On the latter, you will find thoughtful, engaged discussion. We love you guys. More »
—>We're not as hip as our editor, Ben Whatsisface [ed: Popken!]. How could we be? We live in Dublin, for Chrissakes. We don't have a crewcut, we don't have glasses. By extension, we probably don't have his panache with the ladies, nor his disestablishmentarianist fervor. More »
Watch this freakish Mc Donald's commercial. Adults are frozen and a hatch opens in their belly. A child version of themselves goes out and gets McDonalds, brings it back to their hands, crawls back inside the hatch. After the door closes, the adult unfreezes, surprised that McDonald's is in their hands and begin feverishly eating. "Feed your inner child" appears, followed by "I'm lovin' it." More »
Man, it's a great day for disgusting fast food stories. First, the Kentucky Fried Roachwich and now, a customer who ordered a McDonald's strawberry sundae and discovered it was topped with a different crimson liquid entirely—human blood.
According to court documents, Jara bought food, including four hot fudge sundaes, at the restaurant's drive-thru window on Dec. 30, 2004. More »
—>Cool. McDonald's has started up a Corporate Responsibility Blog. Bob Langert, McDonald's Senior Director for Corporate Responsibility, aims to open up the internal workings of McDonald's to the scrutiny of his readers, field questions and talk about what McDonald's is doing to address criticism of its practices. More »
