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> Not as much has changed in Europe. These cultural values of beautifying your surroundings never went away. With regard to the GP’s remark, I noticed this wit
by Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> Not as much has changed in Europe. These cultural values of beautifying your surroundings never went away.
With regard to the GP’s remark, I noticed this with fast food places in the United States. McDonalds there seem to have a much lower level of cleanliness than in parts of Europe. I assumed that running a McDonalds franchise is completely systematized: corporate gives you a series of three-ring binders that tells you exactly how clean everything must be, but if that is so, then enforcement still differs from country to country.
Furthermore, US McDonalds were often staffed by unattractive people (the disturbingly obese or the merely unphotogenic), while in Eastern Europe – whether due to lax laws or the specifics of the labor market – McDonalds often hires fairly nubile young women.
- teruakohatu 6y ago> McDonalds there seem to have a much lower level of cleanliness than in parts of Europe Some McDonalds I have been to in Europe were a whole dirtier than the ones I have frequented at home in New Zealand, but I put that down to frequenting the extremely high traffic tourist mcds rather than the normal traffic suburban restaurants.
- pjc50 6y agoThe market positioning is different; remember that the first McDonalds to open in the USSR had queues round the block. Those staff probably weren't born when the USSR existed. But the value of American coolness still remains. As does the value of "keeping up appearances" in public.
- jldugger 6y ago> Furthermore, US McDonalds were often staffed by unattractive people (the disturbingly obese or the merely unphotogenic), while in Eastern Europe – whether due to lax laws or the specifics of the labor market – McDonalds often hires fairly nubile young women. Or maybe US labor law doesn't favor hiring employees based on fuckability particularly highly.
- Der_Einzige 6y agoHow does hooters get away with it?
- jldugger 6y agoThey've been sued a lot about it, right? It seems they've argued in courts that the Hooters Girl persona is a 'bona fide occupational qualification.' I just don't see how McDonalds can pull that off. EDIT: and anyways, its probably important to situate McDonald's in context: the vast majority of sales, even pre-pandemic, in the US, is drive through. It doesn't matter what your staff looks like, since customers and employees only see each other only after the order is completed.
- cpursley 6y agoAmerican living in Russia; can confirm.