The problem is that they're hemorrhaging business due to a mindset of being essentially the bottom of the barrel in quality and taste. We don't have to compare McDonalds to Applebees for burgers and find that, we can compare McDonalds to any other national chain and all of them have higher marks in flavor and texture at similar pricepoints.Shockwave wrote:Eh McDonald's taste alright to me. In fact, that's what I had for dinner tonight.
Thing is though, it's not high class food. We all know it isn't. That's not why you eat there. Sure, McDonald's and Applebee's both sell burgers. But, they're not really comparable. Applebee's isn't a fast food restaurant, you don't go there for something quick when you're on the run, you go there for the experience of actually sitting down and eating slowly with other humans. That's not McDonald's. McDonald's is just something to eat when you don't really have time for anything else. And the same is true of all fast food places. You're not gonna get sit down food at a fast food place. No, it's not as good, but the reason for that is because of the processing it all has to go through to satiate our ready-on-a-moments-notice lifestyle. It's precooked and reheated which is why it's often dry and not as flavorful as actual restaurant burgers. I do like their fries though. Especially compared to other fries in the fast food industry. Anyway, my point is, complaining that McDonald's sucks is like complaining that the sky is blue and should be some other color. There really isn't anything we can do about it and as long as your food doesn't have something gross in it(like spit or dirt or something), what's the problem?
You yourself highlighted the problem when you said that the mindset of "McDonalds sucks" is as consistent as the mindset of "the sky is blue". They shouldn't have to suck THAT bad, it shouldn't be so ingrained in customers' minds that they're the worst, they could be a little better with minimal effort, but instead they're following the market's choice instead of getting ahead of it. I think they could actually do something about it by fixing the quality of their main, foundation items; they think they can do something by leaving the shitty items shitty and adding more expensive items, as if gourmet ingredients won't be ruined by the same team that already ruins regular ingredients.
And here's a real bitch, McDonalds' burgers aren't pre-cooked! They're cooked only once and that's at the restaurant within minutes of you ordering them. They suck so bad despite being just chopped, pre-formed and frozen before being cooked - I have used frozen beef on the grill and on the bbq, it's always not just fine but quite good that way, the outside cooks a little extra without overcooking the interior (always use a thermometer kids, ground beef is the least-safe way to eat beef due to the outside of the cut that might pick up problems getting mixed into the inside instead of cooked).
BTW, I often go into fast food joints rather than drive-through, not only can they address the screwups in my order that often appear, but the food is hotter and it's not covering my car (I don't allow eating in my car) or my house.