Other cultures

[BlueTrain]

Only 40 years ago.

 

[Edward]

According to one unimpeachable source, McDonald's does not own Pret a Manger, although it had a part ownership at one time. Your local McDonald's is probably not owned by McDonald's, either.

Interesting; they must have quietly offloaded. I believe McDs in the UK are 50/50 franchise/company owned, or so at least it is popularly believed.

 

[sheeplady]

I really don't mind going to a franchise once in a while, particularly on a road trip. The restaurant business is difficult to survive in, and franchises give owners/operators who participate a leg up and share their risk.

To my benefit, I get consistency and quality control. When you are on the road and must stop for lunch or dinner, searching out a decent local place that's in the budget is time consuming (and can be risky). I've been to local establishments that are filthy and a few times others have made me sick. It is also hard to spot somethong that fits in the budget if its not obviously a diner. This is a small portion, obviously, but when my goal is point a to point b and I (or myself and my kids) need to eat, I go with a chain.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm compromised by the fact that I can't eat onions -- they trigger a very dangerous reaction that can stop me dead in my tracks -- so franchise restaurants are helpful to me in that I know exactly what to expect, and what I can order that's safe for me to eat. This isn't always the case in an independent eatery -- some places might put onions in the macaroni and cheese, for example, or they might mix onions directly into the hamburger meat, or serve it on an onion roll. Knowing beforehand what I can safely choose off the menu gives franchise places an advantage for me.

 

[BlueTrain]

Superman had kryptonite and you have onions. Given how much kryptonite there is, you're probably at greater risk than Superman.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's terrible. I have to literally watch everything I eat, because onions get put into just about everything in restaurants. Even a small flake of onion is enough to make me violently sick -- I spit up right at the table, and god forbid I should swallow it because I'd be sick for two days. Once I took a bite of a bagel where the cream cheese had been spread with a knife used to cut onions, and my throat closed up to the point where I couldn't breathe.

I can, however, eat small amounts of onion *powder,* suggesting that it's something in the actual unprocessed onion or its juice that's the problem. I can eat "Funyuns" until they come out of my ears, because there's no actual onion in them.

 

[BlueTrain]

That's not funny and it's no joking matter. I feel sorry for you. Nothing bothers me like that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's something you learn to live with. When I was little my mother would force-feed me onions because she thought I was just being picky. That's how such things were handled in the Good Ol Days.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I've always wanted to own a greasy spoon and name it "Joe's Eats." My name isn't Joe.

 

[Big Joe M]

One of my favorite artists. I am fortunate to live in a city where his permanent collection is housed which has allowed me to see many of his incredible paintings.

I love Edward Hopper and I remember going to an Automat in Philadelphia as a kid.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

Whoa, I was away from online message boards for a while and I come back to a whole bunch of alerts!

Anyway, speaking of fast food chains...

The development of the national structure of McDonald's was depicted in the recent movie "The Founder." While not necessarily accurate in all its details of Kroc and the McDonald brothers' business and personal dealings, I found it very interesting and entertaining. At first it seems almost like some nostalgic publicity piece for McDonald's, but then it turns rather dark as the cutthroat business tactics begin. The same character is both the hero and the villain! If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it.

I generally avoid chain establishments, myself, unless they are very local chains with a classic character. In the Seattle WA area, there is Dick's Drive-in, which has six locations and is family-owned rather than franchised. The oldest one dates to 1954. And they were cash-only until very recently. Going there is like going to the original McDonald's decades ago.

There is also Burgermaster, which goes back to 1952 and has only six locations. They are the classic drive-ins that you remember; where you can order from the parking lot and just sit in your car the whole time.

While Sonic Drive-in also dates from the early fifties, and all of their locations are drive-ins (with carhops on roller skates), I think they must have lost something in their big expansion. To me, the food tastes like it was mass produced in a factory instead of made there, and the restaurants just feel too "corporate" for lack of a better word. I prefer places that make you feel like you stepped back in time.

Occasionally you encounter an older A&W that's still run the old-fashioned way, including drive-in service. The closest one I can think of is about five hours away, though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I saw "The Founder" on DVD the other night, and although it's a simplified condensation of how things really worked out for the McDonald brothers, I think it was pretty close to factual in depicting Kroc's fanatical, power-driven personality. An excellent sober-sided history of the whole operation is John F. Love's "McDonald's Behind The Arches," published in the 1990s. It's not a hatchet job by any means, and does give the devil his due in showing how Kroc's monomania helped raised the overall standard for hamburger meat in the US (believe it or not). But it's also uncompromising in demonstrating that Kroc was not, by any means, a nice guy, and that he did, in fact, do the brothers out of what they had coming to them.

The fast-food racket seems to attract such types. Harland Sanders got a similarly raw deal from the suits who bought him out in the 1960s, and spent the rest of his long life cussing them out as only he could. But the suits got the last word by turning the Colonel into a ridiculous caricature/mascot who many people don't even realize was ever a real man.

 

[vitanola]

I saw "The Founder" on DVD the other night, and although it's a simplified condensation of how things really worked out for the McDonald brothers, I think it was pretty close to factual in depicting Kroc's fanatical, power-driven personality. An excellent sober-sided history of the whole operation is John F. Love's "McDonald's Behind The Arches," published in the 1990s. It's not a hatchet job by any means, and does give the devil his due in showing how Kroc's monomania helped raised the overall standard for hamburger meat in the US (believe it or not). But it's also uncompromising in demonstrating that Kroc was not, by any means, a nice guy, and that he did, in fact, do the brothers out of what they had coming to them.

The fast-food racket seems to attract such types. Harland Sanders got a similarly raw deal from the suits who bought him out in the 1960s, and spent the rest of his long life cussing them out as only he could. But the suits got the last word by turning the Colonel into a ridiculous caricature/mascot who many people don't even realize was ever a real man.

The Better Half's maternal grandfather was a prominent physician in Corbin KY back in the 1920's and 1930's. Mr. Sanders left town owing Doc Terrell a considerable amount for treatment of a long term illness. A night with Venus, a life with Mercury, you know.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The fast-food racket seems to attract such types. Harland Sanders got a similarly raw deal from the suits who bought him out in the 1960s, and spent the rest of his long life cussing them out as only he could. But the suits got the last word by turning the Colonel into a ridiculous caricature/mascot who many people don't even realize was ever a real man.

Had a friend/ fellow traveler in college whose father got a less than royal shaft in that same takeover of Kentucky Fried (mid- 1970's).