Friday, May 05, 2006

Mcdonalds: An Observation

I went to McDonalds for the first time in 9 Months on Saturday. Now, this all stems from reading Don't Eat This Book and watching Supersize Me: both by Morgan Spurlock (if you haven't read or watched either of these, please do. They are highly, highly reccommended), and after - specifically - reading the book (I went to McDonalds straight after watching the film actually), I stopped eating McDonalds. For good. I was deadly serious, so much so that I had a Marks & Spencer Sandwich on my own as opposed to go to McDonalds with my family on our holiday last summer to Edinburgh. I'm passionate about very little (just ask Sarah and Alyson), but by god, I'm passionate about not going to McDonalds. Since then, it's gotten easier and easier to stop going there: the 'food' now gives me a nauseous feeling. A happy relationship is had: I don't agree with McDonalds food, and McDonalds food doesn't agree with me.

Truth be told, we were in the middle of deepest darkest Lancashire for a comfort stop in a service station (the only one without any fruit machines. Boo!), and my mum was hungry for some hot food. I wasn't in a position to argue, so I went in. But I wasn't going to eat, despite my mum wanting me to. Instead, I listened to crappy hard house version of the excellent Hard Fi album, whilst watch my mum order.

Now, McDonalds has recently changed it's menu from just burgers, chips and coke. Reason being is to try and persuade the ever-diminishing numbers of people going there that their food is healthy. They've introduced Subway style sandwiches (which is a bit of a joke - I had a Roast Beef Delistyle Sandwich in Burger King - turns out they got a burger, cut it in half and put it lengthways in a baguette, that's not roast beef) and Salads. You can now have salads with your sandwich and coke. However, I suspect their not as popular as fries. Why?

Well, when my mum ordered, she said "Chicken McSandwich Extra Value Meal". The assistant assumed she wanted fries. As such, she just got fries. They asked what she wanted to drink, just not whether she wanted fries or a salad. I mentioned that to her when we sat down. She had no idea that you can have salad with it (she goes to McDonalds only a little bit more than I do). Of course, most people who go to McDonalds know the menu off by heart. And - looking at the general size of the people in the place on Saturday - they knew about salads. They just didn't want them.

Of course, that's assuming the salads are amazingly healthy. They're not brilliant. And loaded full of cheese and cream it makes me feel queasy too.

I don't know what I'm trying to say with this entry, just found it very strange that McDonalds who are supposed "McDonald's is committed to reinforcing the importance of energy balance - that is the food you eat balanced with the activity you do." (according to this website would not allow a customer to make an informed choice about their food.

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