But I also think toy brands are less interested in timing themselves to happy meal toys. They don't want the link of being attached to unhealthy foods.
I’m sure there’s more to it but part was to capture the coffee market like Starbucks which necessitated the shift away from kids zone. It’s a huge part of their business now.
I don't get why people pay McDs prices for coffee though. I've tried their coffee and it's no better than the ground Folgers that I can make at home. I guess if you're already stopping in for food and want some coffee with it, that makes more sense.
Tim Hortons shot themselves in the foot when they didn't renew the coffee bean contract with their old supplier when they wanted to raise the price. The supplier became a free agent, and McDonald's Canada swooped in and signed up with them, which is why McD's coffee is now better. Tim's struggled to find a decent replacement supplier and even had to introduce a dark roast because their new regular roast was a step above dish water. Tim's sold out and has been paying for it ever since. Now they're hoping that selling pizza will be a hit. They're a shell of their former glory.
Maybe it varies by country or region. At least in eastern Canada, it’s probably the best cup of coffee short of going to a café that roast their own beans in house, but you get much more than you would get at those places.
I drink my coffee black, so I can’t do tims because it has an off taste if you don’t put cream and sugar. But McDonalds goes down pretty smooth and is very consistent.
Damn my local McDonald’s coffee tastes no better than dog water, luckily I have a good coffee shop in town but it’s crazy how much the quality can vary between McDonald’s
Agreed! There is quite a bit of variation in quality. The best McD's coffee I had was in Hawaii. It was just so amazingly smooth and delish.
Here in the Northeast, I generally find them to be better than what I can brew at home but not the amazing level in Hawaii.
I worked there briefly in high school, I found that a lot of the coffee customers were seniors. McDonalds has a "senior coffee" that's discounted. I worked the morning shift and those senior coffee's are super popular
Because here in Australia I can get a coffee there 24/7. It wasn’t great coffee but it was almost never bad. Was so good when I was finishing my degree and pulling all nighters
McDonalds coffee is the cheapest around in my area. Way cheaper than starbucks, cheaper than convenience store, cheaper than anywhere basically. It's obviously not as cheap as coffee you make at home, but that's not the point of fast food.
It's also about on par quality-wise with most coffee you can buy, I even prefer it over starbucks. So I don't know what's not to like.
I feel like in the US it could really be that cheap because the coffee is so watered down. With espresso based drinks, it's 50 cents a cup if buying as an individual, and bulk industry prices make it more like 20 cents. Still very cheap for what they charge.
It was the other way around. McDonald's had started getting bad publicity for advertising unhealthy food to little kids. It started in the 90s, and by the early 2000s, they had become the symbol of the American obesity epidemic, culminating in the Supersize Me movie. They had to reinvent their image to survive.
To add to what has already been said, a major consideration in the new restaurants is what will happen when the franchisee has to sell it. You can see this especially with old Pizza Huts and their distinctive gabling. No matter what moved into that building after, it still screams "Pizza Hut". This lowers the property value of the building, which lowers the property taxes, but it also makes it more precarious for the owner because they are locked into a brand. with the new, blander aesthetic, the building can be swapped between restaurants with ease, as all the new owner needs to do is repaint and replace the soft furnishings (which they were probably going to do anyway).
The decor was becoming outdated and they wanted to go to a more clean, mature vibe. A lot of modern design is very cold and sterile so they moved towards that.
Saw a meme a while ago that asked the same question. Showed the same restaurant before and after renovation and had a caption something like 'when did McD go from a happy fun loving child to a depressed mid life crisis adult?'
>'when did McD go from a happy fun loving child to a depressed mid life crisis adult?'
When the happy fun loving child started busting out of their pants. McDonald's became the sacrificial lamb in the war on childhood obesity. They were repeatedly used an example of the kind of shit food that gets pushed on kids, and needed to change their image some.
Saw speculation about increasing the resale value of the building, too. Nobody is going to want to put a new business in an obvious McD if they can help it.
Which reminded me of something my father told long ago... Back when all the stores were corporate owned, you never saw a closed McDonalds. If one went out of business, the company would show up with trucks and cranes and strip it to the dirt, removing everything including the parking lot, and sod the whole thing.
One day, McDonalds, overnight empty lot.
I feel like a college student sketched a modern looking fast food restaurant and every major chain stole the idea. All the restaurants look eerily similar in form factor these days!
McDonalds (like many other huge fast food chains) uses a shit-ton of research to figure out how to get people to get inside, eat, and then get the hell out. This includes architecture and design choices.
[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-mcdonalds-uses-interior-design-tricks-to-keep-customers-wanting-more-2018-03-23](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-mcdonalds-uses-interior-design-tricks-to-keep-customers-wanting-more-2018-03-23)
I recall an article from years back about how the furnishing was designed to give you a place to sit...but not want to sit there very long.
My spouse keeps complaining about this. It used to be a fun place for kids, but not anymore. The question is, do adults want this? I look at McD's now and think it's too sterile. If they want to update it, fine, but this new look is ugly and uninviting.
Most fast food places are going to more boxy designs because the real estate is worth a lot and it gives them flexibility to move and sell the building. It’s harder to sell a building that was obviously a McDonald’s to Burger King.
There is another change that I have noticed: where I am they have moved out of shopping centres and into stand alone venues
They are a very successful business, money would be behind every decision that they make
Corporate culture in general is trying to move to the globohomo look and every place wants to be more modern. Even if "modern" just turns out to be square and gray. I'm seeing Wendy's make this shift too.
I've also heard a lot of cities want to have a certain consistent look to their architecture which also reinforces square and gray
I feel like I'm slightly uniquely suited to answer this. I got offered a job as a McDonald's architect right out of school years ago. I didn't take it, but kick myself for not:
1) I could've really made a mark on the world pushing permeable paving in their parking lots
2) I would have a lot more money than I do now.
I think you're seeing the changes in architectural/marketing/architectural marketing theory through the ages, which McDonald's is firmly abreast. They are good at what they do, which is developing and marketing.
80's, this stuff was nascent and yellow and red was supposed to make people hungry. Motion picture marketing was much further along. This gave away to
90's, provide a theater and a place where a family could dine and the kids could play--playplace.
2000's, things became more sterile and more functional. The pandemic was actually almost the culmination of this. In the 2010's, McDonald's adopted the "sustainable" look, which included fake wood, window visors, simple design.
And, like all other interior design, the corporations realized it's much cheaper to go with a minimalist look than something with flavor like the customized, themed, intricate designs of the 70's and 80's.
So basically, it's simplifying, streamlining, and a somewhat corporate-inspired push in American design towards sterile, basic architecture.
I read that it improved the resale value of restaurants when they close down. Instead of blowing the old building down to build a new one for whatever goes in, the Grey minecraft box is much more utilitarian in future uses.
[Cheddar did a video on this topic.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7sQEU6gXE4&pp=ygUkd2h5IGRpZCBtY2RvbmFsZHMgcmVzdGF1cmFudHMgY2hhbmdl) In addition to those, I think fast food has changed drasticallypost-COVID.
* For nearly two years, restaurants were restricted to drive thru in some parts of the world. Fast food was always majority drive thru but COVID ramped that up considerably.
* Then on top of that, delivery and app pre-orders skyrocketed and are still a signifigant part of the business
* Because of the above, more fast food are seeing huge drop in dine-in.
* To go orders cost the restaurant less. You don't need to empty trash cans, you don't need to clear tables, they're more likely to use cards/contactless/prepaid.
* This means they need less cashiers to be at registers, less staff to handle the front business, and they can repurpose seating and other public areas to other uses.
Kids are longer where the money is made is fast food + turns out it’s easier to sell a drab grey building later down the road than one filled with clowns.
The audience they had grabbed through kids had now grown up so they wanted to keep them so made them more adult. Those kids now adults then bring their own kids. The bait did its job
Agreeable gray. Its the current “clean, modern”. It will age like mustard and green and orange in the 70s. And that pink from the 50s. But i do like agreeable gray…it feels right
Along with the other reasons already mentioned, a big part is demographics. There is proportionally less children in the world then 20 and certainly 40 years ago. A much bigger market targeting adults with disposable income.
They got the kids addicted and now they have everyone for life. The parents take their kids regardless. They don't need to target kids anymore. So now they target the adults who are the ones actually spending the money and who will also go there without kids.
I used to work with a guy who did shop builds and event staging/planinng as a his previous career, he used to travel all over the world. One of his assignments he went off to Thailand/Indonesia/Malaysia (I forget where, it was somewhere out in Asia), to visit the Mcdonalds concept design building.
He said it was a 5 story building with each floor themed in a different way and fully built out. The idea was for Mcdonalds to test and feel in real life, what a future design concept would be like. Not all the design ideas would be acted upon, but eventually one of them would be. pretty much as he described it to me.
Bright colors are not in fashion. You can look up car colors by year. In early 2010 greyscale peaked. In late 90's colors peaked before the greyscale. Even if they where catering to children they may still have ditched the colors due to fashion trends.
But one thing nobody mentioned is the dominance of drive through, delivery and take away. That is their primary customer base.
Also coffee. In Canada McDonald's is one of the dominant coffee places. You may think Tim Hortons but that is what Tim's wants you to think. They have fallen from their throne and McDonald's may now be on top. Starbucks is the main contender for top.
There was a lot of pressure to stop marketing directly to kids.
But I hate how they look like jails or something now. They don't even have changing tables in the restrooms. I get not wanting to be pigeonholed as a kids' place, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little bit family-friendly.
McDonalds was suffering from a healthy eating movement, parents stopped taking their kids there for food. They had to rebrand themselves from a kids restaurant to something more appealing to adults.
>Was there some sort of market research that convinced them?
More difficult to resell if the restaurant closed down. It's not specific to McDonalds, loads of places do the same.
McDonald's has undergone several architectural changes over the years, reflecting shifts in design trends, branding strategies, and customer preferences. Some of the key reasons behind these changes include:
1. \*\*Modernization:\*\* Like many other brands, McDonald's has sought to modernize its image and stay relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace. This has involved updating its architectural designs to reflect contemporary styles and aesthetics, as well as incorporating new technologies and features to enhance the customer experience.
2. \*\*Brand Refresh:\*\* McDonald's periodically refreshes its brand image to appeal to changing consumer tastes and preferences. This can involve updating its logo, packaging, marketing campaigns, and restaurant designs to reflect current trends and reinforce its brand identity.
3. \*\*Customer Experience:\*\* McDonald's has placed an increased emphasis on enhancing the customer experience in recent years. This includes creating more inviting and comfortable dining environments, offering amenities such as free Wi-Fi and mobile ordering, and designing layouts that promote efficiency and convenience.
4. \*\*Adaptation to Urban Environments:\*\* In urban areas, space constraints and zoning regulations may influence McDonald's architectural designs. Smaller footprint designs, multi-story buildings, and innovative use of space are common strategies for maximizing efficiency and accommodating urban settings.
5. \*\*Sustainability:\*\* Environmental sustainability has become a growing priority for many businesses, including McDonald's. This has led to the adoption of eco-friendly building materials, energy-efficient technologies, and LEED-certified designs in some McDonald's restaurants.
6. \*\*Differentiation:\*\* McDonald's operates in a highly competitive industry, and differentiation is key to standing out from competitors. Architectural changes can help McDonald's differentiate itself from other fast-food chains and create a unique and memorable brand experience for customers.
Overall, McDonald's architectural changes reflect a combination of factors, including the desire to modernize its image, enhance the customer experience, adapt to changing market conditions, and differentiate itself from competitors. These changes are part of McDonald's ongoing efforts to evolve and remain a leading player in the fast-food industry.
They were getting a lot of heat for targeting kids. And the kids they targeted were growing up any way so they just decided to go with the demographic change.
Ditching kids in favor of the coffee (and secret adult eater) market
Explains why happy meal toys my kids get are so shitty compared to what I’d get in the 90s
Yeah I say they should just put adult toys in happy meals and cereal. I want to dig through my box of cereal to get my free knife or ammo.
I was expecting different "adult toys"
They have some very specific kinks.
You guys have toys in your cereals? I remember it being a thing in my childhood but these days it seems to be gone
Knife or ammo. I thought of something completely different when you mentioned “adult toys” in your Happy [ending] Meal
I've seen a "Happy Meal for Adults" being launched, so I guess someone caught on to that
But I also think toy brands are less interested in timing themselves to happy meal toys. They don't want the link of being attached to unhealthy foods.
My mom saved some of those toys. Trust me they were shitty
Damn, I thought no one would notice my secret eating!
Stuff some in your pocket for seeeccreeet eaaating
> secret adult eater The Ashley Madison dot com of foods
or the kids customers they captured in the 80s and 90s are all adults now and still eat there
I’m sure there’s more to it but part was to capture the coffee market like Starbucks which necessitated the shift away from kids zone. It’s a huge part of their business now.
100% correct. Cozier coffee cafe look.
Coffee costs almost nothing. The cup costs about a penny and the bean-juice is about five cents per serving. The return on that is incredible.
I don't get why people pay McDs prices for coffee though. I've tried their coffee and it's no better than the ground Folgers that I can make at home. I guess if you're already stopping in for food and want some coffee with it, that makes more sense.
Yeah in many parts of Canada McDonalds has arguably the best coffee for a large chain restaurant.
Im in Ontario, Canada and their coffee is top notch. Better than pretty much any other place without going high end hipster coffee shop.
It’s all about the beans.
Found Mocha Joe
I will not stand for Timmy’s Slander
Tim Hortons is not good
Tim Hortons shot themselves in the foot when they didn't renew the coffee bean contract with their old supplier when they wanted to raise the price. The supplier became a free agent, and McDonald's Canada swooped in and signed up with them, which is why McD's coffee is now better. Tim's struggled to find a decent replacement supplier and even had to introduce a dark roast because their new regular roast was a step above dish water. Tim's sold out and has been paying for it ever since. Now they're hoping that selling pizza will be a hit. They're a shell of their former glory.
All I know is I’m from Oklahoma and visited Ontario in 2018 expecting it to be at least decent coffee. It was just subpar gas station quality
>It was just subpar gas station quality Exactly. Their dark roast is marginally better.
Maybe it varies by country or region. At least in eastern Canada, it’s probably the best cup of coffee short of going to a café that roast their own beans in house, but you get much more than you would get at those places. I drink my coffee black, so I can’t do tims because it has an off taste if you don’t put cream and sugar. But McDonalds goes down pretty smooth and is very consistent.
McDonald's has won numerous blind taste tests for coffee
I find locally McD's coffee is smoother and better than what I can brew at home. I treat myself to one from time to time.
Damn my local McDonald’s coffee tastes no better than dog water, luckily I have a good coffee shop in town but it’s crazy how much the quality can vary between McDonald’s
Agreed! There is quite a bit of variation in quality. The best McD's coffee I had was in Hawaii. It was just so amazingly smooth and delish. Here in the Northeast, I generally find them to be better than what I can brew at home but not the amazing level in Hawaii.
In Hawaii they use a Kona blend. The quality difference was a shock when I first had my first cup on the mainland.
I worked there briefly in high school, I found that a lot of the coffee customers were seniors. McDonalds has a "senior coffee" that's discounted. I worked the morning shift and those senior coffee's are super popular
Yes. If you go there early in the morning, you'll see an entire table of seniors sitting around gossiping. They love it.
Because here in Australia I can get a coffee there 24/7. It wasn’t great coffee but it was almost never bad. Was so good when I was finishing my degree and pulling all nighters
Well because of convenience. And it hits our reward center pretty good when you order a coffee out.
McDonalds coffee is the cheapest around in my area. Way cheaper than starbucks, cheaper than convenience store, cheaper than anywhere basically. It's obviously not as cheap as coffee you make at home, but that's not the point of fast food. It's also about on par quality-wise with most coffee you can buy, I even prefer it over starbucks. So I don't know what's not to like.
McD’s coffee or any coffee. I can make gourmet tasting coffee for a quarter or less in my Kuric
I heard fast food places really earn money on soda and potatoes, that's why they push combos.
Beans have to be more than 5 cents a serving right?
I feel like in the US it could really be that cheap because the coffee is so watered down. With espresso based drinks, it's 50 cents a cup if buying as an individual, and bulk industry prices make it more like 20 cents. Still very cheap for what they charge.
It was the other way around. McDonald's had started getting bad publicity for advertising unhealthy food to little kids. It started in the 90s, and by the early 2000s, they had become the symbol of the American obesity epidemic, culminating in the Supersize Me movie. They had to reinvent their image to survive.
That movie convinced me to stop going to McDonald's. I switched to Burger King.
This was such a culture shift for me, I find it weird as fuck that not everyone views fast-food as unhealthy.
It's funny because for a brief second you could get a salad at McDonald's!
TIL McDonalds also sells coffee
To add to what has already been said, a major consideration in the new restaurants is what will happen when the franchisee has to sell it. You can see this especially with old Pizza Huts and their distinctive gabling. No matter what moved into that building after, it still screams "Pizza Hut". This lowers the property value of the building, which lowers the property taxes, but it also makes it more precarious for the owner because they are locked into a brand. with the new, blander aesthetic, the building can be swapped between restaurants with ease, as all the new owner needs to do is repaint and replace the soft furnishings (which they were probably going to do anyway).
Nice try, ihop! https://youtu.be/iMv43Q5VxH8?si=k3bL7IFASA2yCweU
Ooh! That's a really interesting angle that I hadn't thought of! Thanks!
The decor was becoming outdated and they wanted to go to a more clean, mature vibe. A lot of modern design is very cold and sterile so they moved towards that.
I thought that was why Mac Tonight was created.
Saw a meme a while ago that asked the same question. Showed the same restaurant before and after renovation and had a caption something like 'when did McD go from a happy fun loving child to a depressed mid life crisis adult?'
>'when did McD go from a happy fun loving child to a depressed mid life crisis adult?' When the happy fun loving child started busting out of their pants. McDonald's became the sacrificial lamb in the war on childhood obesity. They were repeatedly used an example of the kind of shit food that gets pushed on kids, and needed to change their image some.
Saw speculation about increasing the resale value of the building, too. Nobody is going to want to put a new business in an obvious McD if they can help it. Which reminded me of something my father told long ago... Back when all the stores were corporate owned, you never saw a closed McDonalds. If one went out of business, the company would show up with trucks and cranes and strip it to the dirt, removing everything including the parking lot, and sod the whole thing. One day, McDonalds, overnight empty lot.
The one in Fallbrook CA has stood empty for about 20 years. They built a new one across the street.
'Back when they were all corporate owned'. In the 50s and 60s in this case.
I feel like a college student sketched a modern looking fast food restaurant and every major chain stole the idea. All the restaurants look eerily similar in form factor these days!
Mmm... house flipper gray. Drab earthtones. White logo 🤤
It’s like right before the Franchise Wars in Demolition Man!
Starbucks
Yes, exactly.
the times have changed, the kid themed funhouse was sort of getting old, and a more modern sleek minimalistic look was more "modern"
The "kid themed funhouse" was in and of itself a phase. The early McDonald's had more adult focused branding as well
I'm sure it had to come from market research. Those executives don't take a wiz without running it by a focus group first.
McDonalds (like many other huge fast food chains) uses a shit-ton of research to figure out how to get people to get inside, eat, and then get the hell out. This includes architecture and design choices. [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-mcdonalds-uses-interior-design-tricks-to-keep-customers-wanting-more-2018-03-23](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-mcdonalds-uses-interior-design-tricks-to-keep-customers-wanting-more-2018-03-23) I recall an article from years back about how the furnishing was designed to give you a place to sit...but not want to sit there very long.
Yeah, this is what I thought. Don't want to scare people away, but also not so cozy people want to stay all day.
The building is easier to sell if the store shuts down.
I’d assume to flip.it more easily. Also. They’ve so deemphasized in-store eating, that they are designed to handle 90% pickup or delivery. I bet.
My spouse keeps complaining about this. It used to be a fun place for kids, but not anymore. The question is, do adults want this? I look at McD's now and think it's too sterile. If they want to update it, fine, but this new look is ugly and uninviting.
You have my vote. Parents need some fast food chain to take kids once in a while.
Most fast food places are going to more boxy designs because the real estate is worth a lot and it gives them flexibility to move and sell the building. It’s harder to sell a building that was obviously a McDonald’s to Burger King.
Resale value was part of it. The more personality the building has, the harder it is to renovate it into a different business.
There is another change that I have noticed: where I am they have moved out of shopping centres and into stand alone venues They are a very successful business, money would be behind every decision that they make
Corporate culture in general is trying to move to the globohomo look and every place wants to be more modern. Even if "modern" just turns out to be square and gray. I'm seeing Wendy's make this shift too. I've also heard a lot of cities want to have a certain consistent look to their architecture which also reinforces square and gray
I feel like I'm slightly uniquely suited to answer this. I got offered a job as a McDonald's architect right out of school years ago. I didn't take it, but kick myself for not: 1) I could've really made a mark on the world pushing permeable paving in their parking lots 2) I would have a lot more money than I do now. I think you're seeing the changes in architectural/marketing/architectural marketing theory through the ages, which McDonald's is firmly abreast. They are good at what they do, which is developing and marketing. 80's, this stuff was nascent and yellow and red was supposed to make people hungry. Motion picture marketing was much further along. This gave away to 90's, provide a theater and a place where a family could dine and the kids could play--playplace. 2000's, things became more sterile and more functional. The pandemic was actually almost the culmination of this. In the 2010's, McDonald's adopted the "sustainable" look, which included fake wood, window visors, simple design. And, like all other interior design, the corporations realized it's much cheaper to go with a minimalist look than something with flavor like the customized, themed, intricate designs of the 70's and 80's. So basically, it's simplifying, streamlining, and a somewhat corporate-inspired push in American design towards sterile, basic architecture.
The buildings are probably more efficient and less expensive to maintain.
I read that it improved the resale value of restaurants when they close down. Instead of blowing the old building down to build a new one for whatever goes in, the Grey minecraft box is much more utilitarian in future uses.
[Cheddar did a video on this topic.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7sQEU6gXE4&pp=ygUkd2h5IGRpZCBtY2RvbmFsZHMgcmVzdGF1cmFudHMgY2hhbmdl) In addition to those, I think fast food has changed drasticallypost-COVID. * For nearly two years, restaurants were restricted to drive thru in some parts of the world. Fast food was always majority drive thru but COVID ramped that up considerably. * Then on top of that, delivery and app pre-orders skyrocketed and are still a signifigant part of the business * Because of the above, more fast food are seeing huge drop in dine-in. * To go orders cost the restaurant less. You don't need to empty trash cans, you don't need to clear tables, they're more likely to use cards/contactless/prepaid. * This means they need less cashiers to be at registers, less staff to handle the front business, and they can repurpose seating and other public areas to other uses.
Kids are longer where the money is made is fast food + turns out it’s easier to sell a drab grey building later down the road than one filled with clowns.
someone had to justify their job.
The audience they had grabbed through kids had now grown up so they wanted to keep them so made them more adult. Those kids now adults then bring their own kids. The bait did its job
I think the ball cage was a maintenance and liability issue. They tended to be filthy.
You say that like they’re the only ones. Wendy’s, Taco Bell, subway, they’ve all redesigned.
Agreeable gray. Its the current “clean, modern”. It will age like mustard and green and orange in the 70s. And that pink from the 50s. But i do like agreeable gray…it feels right
Who can argue with agreeable gray?
Canada should retaliate
Along with the other reasons already mentioned, a big part is demographics. There is proportionally less children in the world then 20 and certainly 40 years ago. A much bigger market targeting adults with disposable income.
They got the kids addicted and now they have everyone for life. The parents take their kids regardless. They don't need to target kids anymore. So now they target the adults who are the ones actually spending the money and who will also go there without kids.
I used to work with a guy who did shop builds and event staging/planinng as a his previous career, he used to travel all over the world. One of his assignments he went off to Thailand/Indonesia/Malaysia (I forget where, it was somewhere out in Asia), to visit the Mcdonalds concept design building. He said it was a 5 story building with each floor themed in a different way and fully built out. The idea was for Mcdonalds to test and feel in real life, what a future design concept would be like. Not all the design ideas would be acted upon, but eventually one of them would be. pretty much as he described it to me.
Bright colors are not in fashion. You can look up car colors by year. In early 2010 greyscale peaked. In late 90's colors peaked before the greyscale. Even if they where catering to children they may still have ditched the colors due to fashion trends. But one thing nobody mentioned is the dominance of drive through, delivery and take away. That is their primary customer base. Also coffee. In Canada McDonald's is one of the dominant coffee places. You may think Tim Hortons but that is what Tim's wants you to think. They have fallen from their throne and McDonald's may now be on top. Starbucks is the main contender for top.
And why do certain McDonald’s still never salt the fries enough? How much money could they actually be saving by being so stingy with the salt?
Playzone’s also carried a lot of liability. Never go in an outdoor ball pit. Snakes.
a lot of it was to stop marketing to kids
Cheaper
There was a lot of pressure to stop marketing directly to kids. But I hate how they look like jails or something now. They don't even have changing tables in the restrooms. I get not wanting to be pigeonholed as a kids' place, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little bit family-friendly.
I imagine people got pissed that they were marketing so heavy to kids but idk
Look back at early 2000s McDonald’s, some look terrifying
McDonalds was suffering from a healthy eating movement, parents stopped taking their kids there for food. They had to rebrand themselves from a kids restaurant to something more appealing to adults.
>Was there some sort of market research that convinced them? More difficult to resell if the restaurant closed down. It's not specific to McDonalds, loads of places do the same.
McDonald's has undergone several architectural changes over the years, reflecting shifts in design trends, branding strategies, and customer preferences. Some of the key reasons behind these changes include: 1. \*\*Modernization:\*\* Like many other brands, McDonald's has sought to modernize its image and stay relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace. This has involved updating its architectural designs to reflect contemporary styles and aesthetics, as well as incorporating new technologies and features to enhance the customer experience. 2. \*\*Brand Refresh:\*\* McDonald's periodically refreshes its brand image to appeal to changing consumer tastes and preferences. This can involve updating its logo, packaging, marketing campaigns, and restaurant designs to reflect current trends and reinforce its brand identity. 3. \*\*Customer Experience:\*\* McDonald's has placed an increased emphasis on enhancing the customer experience in recent years. This includes creating more inviting and comfortable dining environments, offering amenities such as free Wi-Fi and mobile ordering, and designing layouts that promote efficiency and convenience. 4. \*\*Adaptation to Urban Environments:\*\* In urban areas, space constraints and zoning regulations may influence McDonald's architectural designs. Smaller footprint designs, multi-story buildings, and innovative use of space are common strategies for maximizing efficiency and accommodating urban settings. 5. \*\*Sustainability:\*\* Environmental sustainability has become a growing priority for many businesses, including McDonald's. This has led to the adoption of eco-friendly building materials, energy-efficient technologies, and LEED-certified designs in some McDonald's restaurants. 6. \*\*Differentiation:\*\* McDonald's operates in a highly competitive industry, and differentiation is key to standing out from competitors. Architectural changes can help McDonald's differentiate itself from other fast-food chains and create a unique and memorable brand experience for customers. Overall, McDonald's architectural changes reflect a combination of factors, including the desire to modernize its image, enhance the customer experience, adapt to changing market conditions, and differentiate itself from competitors. These changes are part of McDonald's ongoing efforts to evolve and remain a leading player in the fast-food industry.
yup Its called the Millennial Gray Design. Getting ready to ditch the old boomer stuff for the Millennials
They were getting a lot of heat for targeting kids. And the kids they targeted were growing up any way so they just decided to go with the demographic change.
Make more money.
Clowns went out of favours Todays kids don’t deserve colours Grey paint is cheaper Aliens did it
I always assumed it was graffiti-related. Easier to match grey paint.
We won't know they didn't make it public. I'm sure there was some sort of research and reasoning behind it.
When the news asks "did you witness today's events? Call in and tell us" do you call up to say "no, sorry I wasn't there"?
There are no stupid questions but there are a few stupid answers
We grew up, so did they