McDonald’s tells U.S. restaurants it’s not a ‘political brand’ after Trump visit

“Upon learning of the former president’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,” the company said.

When you're door is open to fascist demagogues, it's not open to everyone.

It was a franchise that did it, and a shitty one at that.

They did know beforehand, an AP article said as much:

“Upon learning of the former president’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,” the company said. “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next president. We are not red or blue – we are golden.”

Nope the corporate had to have been fully aware since there was a joke on SNL about his visit happening the next day. It was in the news that it was gonna happen and McDonald's did nothing to stop it.

It is a difficult position to be in.

So the crazy makes a plan with a local franchise owner. Tells corporate he has already said yes. Even though they likely don't want anything to do with it, as it is a no win situation for them, they are fucked either way.

They have the shit job of saying no one of the most petty people in the world; who may be the next president. He could tell his cult to avoid McD's because they snubbed him etc...so now it is either piss off the MAGA crowd, quite possibly their biggest market, or piss off the dems...

McD's is not great food, but it isn't terrible either. I don't envy the higher ups having to make this situation palatable.

Their statement is pretty good though.

we open our doors to everyone

This is basically saying even though he is a criminal, we would still give him a chance. That is a dem dog-whistle if ever I saw one.

They could have made their "we're not political" announcement the day after it was announced, instead of after the event already happened.

They're all franchises

I can't imagine there is anything in the contract they violated either.

But, that being said, I would certainly avoid that Macca's and the franchise owners ones

I still hate the chicken place more. On top of the other overtly political shit, I really dislike how they get their shitty restaurants into airports and thruways and other places with captive audiences and then still close on Sunday just for their virtue signalling bullshit. If they were actual Christians they would pay their employees more and open on Sundays to give food to the hungry. Hell even Ronald gives some money to orphans.

You know I’ve been thinking about this since the memes are really driving home this association between the Hamberdler and McD’s. I wonder if this will push people away from buying their food on the long term and inadvertently lead to some subset of the population eating healthier than they otherwise would have. Probably just wishful thinking on my part though.

He'll paint the building red white and blue, rename it Magadonalds,

I'm not saying that won't happen, but it would be a colossal fuck up. McDonald's owns most of the buildings and leases them out to franchisees. https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/

The point is to not have a lobby anymore.

The US has always been obsessed with the drive-thru (nothing says good eats quite like huffing car fumes) and covid pushed a shift toward people just buying fast food to take home and eat.

So discourage people from dining in until "The demand is low so we are being more green or some shit by getting rid of it".

They've also been supporting the IDF for a while now. Fuck McDonalds.

i believe this is simplification for automation. dont need humans if you dont need resources in the lobby.

People hate on burger king but the last time I went in there, it was nicely renovated, clean, had all the refill machines available. Much better experience than McDonald's

A sack of shit serving sacks of shit

I went to McDonald's two years ago because I was craving fries. The "value meal" was $12. Or I could pay that much for regular food that doesn't give me diarrhea.

Last time I shared this, some McFanboy recommended the app for the real savings and I just... No.

That's not how franchising works

They're as delicious as they are bad for you lol, but yeah, I get that.

I can make a passable facsimile of them at home as an occasional treat.

Eggo used to make waffles with “built in” syrup. A breakfast sandwich made with those as the bread is a close approximation, imo. Plus, you can use better cheese

I cannot justify paying ten times the amount for shitty food I can make better at home for fractions of that cost. Maybe before the pandemic, but fast food places seem to have gotten this idea that their food is now good enough to charge $15 for a one person meal of salt and fat, when I can take that over to iHOP and get something decent for that money that's at least a step up.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but we are definitely now paying sit-in restaurant prices for garbage.

As far as the politicizing goes, it's mostly because most people don't know what you just said. They see "McDonalds" and don't think of local franchises; they think Big McD (corporate/the whole company).

I think the other point of controversy is that franchises typically aren't allowed to sub-lease, so to speak, the name/brand. They represent corporate, basically, and anything they'd do that may harm the reputation would not be viewed favorably by the higher ups. I'm not clear on the franchise agreements, but it wouldn't be out of the question for those to be revoked / refused to renew if a particular location was causing headaches for the main brand.