5 ms·

How McDonald’s Succeeds in the Land of Michelin Stars (2012)

46 points by rustoo 5y ago

NikolaeVarius 5y ago
What the hell is happening where we have McD stories on the front page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596178
- vimy 5y ago
  Often popular submissions are followed by more of the same.
- cactus2093 5y ago
  Happens all the time, one story makes it to the front page and then people post other related stories about the same topic. It's also not just about McDonalds food, it's a business growth case study which is fairly on brand for HN even if it's not a traditional technology company.
- Retric 5y ago
  When someone posts something on topic X people are reminded of another story on topic X and post that. X could be Ruby, Woodworking, Bitcoin, or McDonalds it’s just associative.
- kergonath 5y ago
  Some people submitted them, and other people upvoted the articles. I am not particularly interested in McD in general, but both articles were interesting.
- hbn 5y ago
  Not sure if it's coincidence or not that it's McHappy Day in Canada (where a chunk of sales go to their charity)
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  People see links or references to events posted in the comments of an article then post it as a submission because you can easily tell based on the reception of said comment whether the submission will go over well or not.
butokai 5y ago
The story of McDonald's success in Italy is largely similar, with all marketing devoted to adding a "local" feeling to the experience after being labelled junk food. Even more, McDonald's entered the Italian market by acquiring a local burger company from the very beginning. Many more success story of American brands in Europe thanks to heavy investing on local content come to mind (think Netflix vs competitors).
- unfunco 5y ago
  I went to Italy for the Formula 1 in 2019 and the McDonalds in the centre of Milan had actual chicken wings, it honestly felt mind-blowing at the time.
  - nly 5y ago
    In China KFC sell rice.
- globular-toast 5y ago
  This is also how the British empire was so successful.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Netflix's first European market was the UK. IIRC, we did some advertising, but beyond that there was significant local demand, with 250,000 paid signups the first week. After looking at the wild metrics graphs, I asked an engineer how that was possible, and he said, "We're that good." :) Source: former Netflix engineer on the UK rollout, shortly after the new AWS region started there.
rickspencer3 5y ago
My experience living in France (now about 9 years out of date) is that they did like McDonalds their ("McDoe" as they said), but they LOVED Subway.
- Bayart 5y ago
  As a Frenchman, I wonder where you got that perception. Perhaps you were there at the time it was novelty. If you asked now Frenchmen who had experience with Subway, the majority of opinions would refer to it as « meh » or « pretty shit ». The so-called bread in particular has an especially grim reputation. But the rest of the ingredients also taste mediocre, especially compared to McDo. McDonald's is such a part of the cultural landscape it might as well be French nowadays. It has much better staying power than any other fast food chain.
  - dr-detroit 5y ago
    When Americans post on the internet about European cuisine they lose their minds. Politics is a safer topic for rational discussion.
  - rickspencer3 5y ago
    From the long lines at all of the Subway restaurants around Toulouse where I lived, and the fact that my friends in Lyon ate at Subway regularly and took me there often when I visited.
  - OldHand2018 5y ago
    Subway in America also has terrible bread and it makes no sense at all. Even the smell of Subway baking bread almost makes me sick. There are plenty of American sandwich places that have similar prices, and they all have better bread.
- kergonath 5y ago
  There was some initial enthusiasm about their build-to-order approach to sandwiches (which is probably what you have witnessed), but it has faded over time and now it’s nothing special. It does have a reputation of making edible sandwiches, but not much more and not cheap. [edit] oh yeah, their bread is terrible. It seems to be difficult for a foreign food company to understand how important decent bread is in France. McD got a ton of goodwill when they introduced baguette sandwiches.
azinman2 5y ago
Interesting how they adapted to local culture and increased the quality of their offerings in the process. If only Americans demanded more, perhaps our obesity levels wouldn’t be so high.
- wil421 5y ago
  McDonalds is probably not a very big cause of the obesity problem in the US. Sugary soft drinks and switching out animal fats like butter and lard with cheap seed oils is a bigger issue. When Ancel Keys did his 7 countries he discarded results from France and Norway because it didn’t fit his study. They both consume higher natural fats than say the US and UK, French fat paradox.

46 points by rustoo 5y ago

What the hell is happening where we have McD stories on the front page https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28596178

vimy 5y ago
Often popular submissions are followed by more of the same.
cactus2093 5y ago
Happens all the time, one story makes it to the front page and then people post other related stories about the same topic. It's also not just about McDonalds food, it's a business growth case study which is fairly on brand for HN even if it's not a traditional technology company.
Retric 5y ago
When someone posts something on topic X people are reminded of another story on topic X and post that. X could be Ruby, Woodworking, Bitcoin, or McDonalds it’s just associative.
kergonath 5y ago
Some people submitted them, and other people upvoted the articles. I am not particularly interested in McD in general, but both articles were interesting.
hbn 5y ago
Not sure if it's coincidence or not that it's McHappy Day in Canada (where a chunk of sales go to their charity)
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
People see links or references to events posted in the comments of an article then post it as a submission because you can easily tell based on the reception of said comment whether the submission will go over well or not.

butokai 5y ago

The story of McDonald's success in Italy is largely similar, with all marketing devoted to adding a "local" feeling to the experience after being labelled junk food. Even more, McDonald's entered the Italian market by acquiring a local burger company from the very beginning. Many more success story of American brands in Europe thanks to heavy investing on local content come to mind (think Netflix vs competitors).

unfunco 5y ago
I went to Italy for the Formula 1 in 2019 and the McDonalds in the centre of Milan had actual chicken wings, it honestly felt mind-blowing at the time.
- nly 5y ago
  In China KFC sell rice.
globular-toast 5y ago
This is also how the British empire was so successful.
redis_mlc 5y ago
Netflix's first European market was the UK. IIRC, we did some advertising, but beyond that there was significant local demand, with 250,000 paid signups the first week. After looking at the wild metrics graphs, I asked an engineer how that was possible, and he said, "We're that good." :) Source: former Netflix engineer on the UK rollout, shortly after the new AWS region started there.

rickspencer3 5y ago

My experience living in France (now about 9 years out of date) is that they did like McDonalds their ("McDoe" as they said), but they LOVED Subway.

Bayart 5y ago
As a Frenchman, I wonder where you got that perception. Perhaps you were there at the time it was novelty. If you asked now Frenchmen who had experience with Subway, the majority of opinions would refer to it as « meh » or « pretty shit ». The so-called bread in particular has an especially grim reputation. But the rest of the ingredients also taste mediocre, especially compared to McDo. McDonald's is such a part of the cultural landscape it might as well be French nowadays. It has much better staying power than any other fast food chain.
- dr-detroit 5y ago
  When Americans post on the internet about European cuisine they lose their minds. Politics is a safer topic for rational discussion.
- rickspencer3 5y ago
  From the long lines at all of the Subway restaurants around Toulouse where I lived, and the fact that my friends in Lyon ate at Subway regularly and took me there often when I visited.
- OldHand2018 5y ago
  Subway in America also has terrible bread and it makes no sense at all. Even the smell of Subway baking bread almost makes me sick. There are plenty of American sandwich places that have similar prices, and they all have better bread.
kergonath 5y ago
There was some initial enthusiasm about their build-to-order approach to sandwiches (which is probably what you have witnessed), but it has faded over time and now it’s nothing special. It does have a reputation of making edible sandwiches, but not much more and not cheap. [edit] oh yeah, their bread is terrible. It seems to be difficult for a foreign food company to understand how important decent bread is in France. McD got a ton of goodwill when they introduced baguette sandwiches.

azinman2 5y ago

Interesting how they adapted to local culture and increased the quality of their offerings in the process. If only Americans demanded more, perhaps our obesity levels wouldn’t be so high.

wil421 5y ago
McDonalds is probably not a very big cause of the obesity problem in the US. Sugary soft drinks and switching out animal fats like butter and lard with cheap seed oils is a bigger issue. When Ancel Keys did his 7 countries he discarded results from France and Norway because it didn’t fit his study. They both consume higher natural fats than say the US and UK, French fat paradox.