7 ms·

The Year of McDonald's

71 points by secondary 2y ago

Neonlicht 2y ago
There is a McDonald's drive in next to my gym. It gives me the motivation I need not to become overweight. Expensive, shitty, loud I will never understand why they are so loved.
RajT88 2y ago
> As a walker, I use them for the same reason everyone else does—they are welcoming, social, inexpensive, and have Wi-Fi, good food, great coffee, and clean bathrooms. Great article, but McD's has mediocre coffee. I am no coffee classist; Starbucks also has bad coffee. Who has the best coffee? Dunkin Donuts.
- canucker2016 2y ago
  One of my old managers told me the story of how McDonalds was doing tests to improve their coffee. They asked people to taste-test the McDs coffee, but the cup disguised the fact that the coffee was from McDs. The ratings were generally good. When they did another taste-testing but the coffee came in McDs-branded cups instead, the ratings were bad.
CrispyKerosene 2y ago
The author is so out of touch its maddening. The article is full of out dated and offensive generalizations. "I find most convincing is that Mangione could be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. I’ve met a lot of people like this in McDonald’s, because the franchise is often one of—if not the only—place in the “real world” where they can go, grab a cup out of the garbage can, sit at their corner table, and fit in, at least for an hour or two, without encountering too many dangers. It becomes, for many deeply troubled people, their only lifeline to normal society." This is so offensive to anyone who is living with mental health challenges, and to anyone living in this late-stage capitalist society. Oh your questioning the status quo and killed a man responsible for one of the biggest death for profit schemes ever? You must be a crazy person who eats out of the garbage bn.
etempleton 2y ago
For better or worse McDonald’s and other fast food and fast casual restaurants are some of the only places where you don’t get kicked out or at least hassled for sitting too long or not buying anything more than a cup of coffee. The food is also relatively cheap, though that has been changing. You see a lot of elderly people use McDonalds and similar as their morning meeting place. They sit and drink coffee for 5 hours and chat. You can’t do that at most restaurants without annoying the wait staff.
tetris11 2y ago
One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs. On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason and are sitting next to each other without any tension or fanfare. There really is a certain community magic to it.
- chasd00 2y ago
  Sounds like a Waffle House an hour after last call except replace "without any tension or fanfare" with "overwhelming aggressive unpredictability" hah.
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    In my home town the joke was waffle house is for when you want denny's but don't know how to fight.
- muhamedgg 2y ago
  [dead]
- paulpauper 2y ago
  McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for Starbucks.
  - galago 2y ago
    I walked by the Starbucks in my neighborood recently and there were about 30 customers inside sitting at long tables. Every single person was staring at an electronic device. Maybe that's how a public square works nowdays.
  - roughly 2y ago
    The author suggests the opposite, at least for McDonald's - the employees do care and are attentive to the needs of the people in the restaurant, and that's part of why the community springs up there. I'd expect McDonald's corporate policy is to hustle people along, and it's inattentiveness to that policy that enables the public square, not inattentiveness to the people in the square.
Lammy 2y ago
I got “in” to McDonald's when I was studying the Freeway revolts and realized how skilled McDonalds Corporate were at real estate speculation way back in the 1950s. In San Francisco there was (key word: was) a McDonald's along every corridor that would have been more highly traveled had the freeways been built as planned: Haight & Stanyan, Turk & Golden Gate, Van Ness (this one was actually unironically beautiful, look it up). I would get breakfast at that former Haight location on my way to work every morning, Bacon Egg & Cheese biscuit and a large black coffee — my fav. Also recommended: “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America” http://www.marciachatelain.com/ http://www.marciachatelain.com/ (2021 Pulitzer Prize winner)
Waterluvian 2y ago
When I was quite young (maybe 5-9) my family did a lot of trips to the U.S. for my dad’s IBM server training stuff. Something that made me anxious was the border crossing because my dad got all serious and told us to be quiet and it felt intimidating. As a consequence of being so young I couldn’t distinguish between Customs and a toll booth so they made me anxious too. And one day we were driving up to what looked like a huge toll booth or Customs stop and I was terribly anxious until we got close enough and it was this super weird McDonald’s. A gas station below, restaurant on top. It had such an impact on me that I spent the years after being hopeful any time I saw customs or tool booths that it was this fantastical McDonald’s. Also I once went to a McDonald’s with model trains running along the top of the walls. That was super cool.
- euroderf 2y ago
  > Also I once went to a McDonald’s with model trains running along the top of the walls. That was super cool. I'll bet! I wonder where this was/is.
- caseyohara 2y ago
  My favorite unique McDonald’s is in Freeport, Maine. > When the town wouldn't allow the fast-food behemoth to build a new restaurant, they put one inside an 1850 home. > The year was 1984. McDonald's was looking to build a location in the town of Freeport, Maine. There was only one problem: The Freeport building design restrictions were strict, and the town wanted the fast-food giant to maintain the area's aesthetic. In other words: No golden arches. McDonald's solution? Remodel an existing structure. Pictures here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mcdonalds-freeport-mansion https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mcdonalds-freeport-mansi...
  - b112 2y ago
    What a classy McDonalds, makes me feel like I'd need a tie.
- indrora 2y ago
  You may enjoy Nonstandard Mcodonads: https://x.com/nonstandardmcd https://x.com/nonstandardmcd https://www.npr.org/2021/09/04/1028769806/one-mans-journey-to-document-the-strangest-mcdonalds-in-the-world https://www.npr.org/2021/09/04/1028769806/one-mans-journey-t...
munk-a 2y ago
What a bizarre statement about a place of business that's tried to irrelevance themselves into non-existence this year. Fast food pricing is now equal or beyond the prices of quality food with non-chain fast food (i.e. doner/local pizza joints) becoming the new affordable option.
- jajko 2y ago
  Yes but they are not everywhere. As much as hate the below mediocre junk McD mostly produces, sometimes they are the only place open for miles around.
- markus_zhang 2y ago
  Costco is my new restaurant. Food is more fresh and costs way less.
  - paulpauper 2y ago
    but not as convenient as McDonald's . fewer locations, need membership afik for food
    - markus_zhang 2y ago
      Yeah that's true. Fortunately we have one 15 mins of drive away.
  - calmworm 2y ago
    If only they had a $1.50 hamburger option!
  - AnimalMuppet 2y ago
    I have thought that, if you're on a road trip, Costco could be pretty good. Stop there, get a rotisserie chicken, feeds 2-4 people, costs $5. (I mean, you still need a trash bag, paper plates, and a large number of napkins...) And you were going to stop for gas anyway, and they have that.
    - 2y ago
shreddit 2y ago
I once worked for two hours out of a mc donalds, even had a 30 minute teams meeting (it was completely empty at 10 in the morning) and the wifi was quite fast
- 1123581321 2y ago
  The Internet is good, and it’s quieter than a Starbucks. Back when more McDonald’s had 24-hour lobbies and my work habits were worse, I’d head over there to get a black coffee and ice cream to program or write.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2y ago
  Wherever my internet at home goes out, the McD down the way is my "office." Hasn't happened in 5 years or so, but I've had to do it 4-5 times over the years. Take customer calls, write code, have team meetings. Works fine, and the $1 coffee ain't bad.
paulpauper 2y ago
Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Isn't it pretty obvious it's him? Is there any possibility he was framed or something. McDonald's plays a big role because it also happens to be extremely popular and has many locations all over America. It's brand is an iconic and big as ever. It also shows how America has a sort of love-hate relationship with fast-food. We know it's unhealthy and overpriced but we cannot stop eating it.
- nickvec 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence
- Dosenpfand 2y ago
  Innocent until proven guilty.
- alwa 2y ago
  The people who would know that best are the people investigating, prosecuting, and judging him. In real life, not through rumor and media (social or otherwise). I’m not aware of evidence to the contrary, but then I wouldn’t be, because I’m not involved with the investigation or the trial. Neither is most anyone commenting publicly right now. It’s alleged until it’s proven, and in the US that’s a formal process that concludes with a guilty plea or verdict.
- wk_end 2y ago
  It’s an established practice in journalism to describe accused who haven’t been convicted as “alleged” criminals, regardless of how damning the evidence is. The legal basis of this is a fear of libel lawsuits. But I think even when a libel lawsuit is extremely unlikely the practice is still followed - out of an abundance of caution, out of convention, or perhaps out of principle - that is, out of deference to the presumption of innocence on a fundamental level.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  Journalists generally say "alleged", even when it's real obvious someone did the crime, in order to limit liability. They don't want to risk the off chance that the person is found not guilty and then comes after the journalists for libel.
rdtsc 2y ago
> At the end of October, there was the viral, and controversial, Trump campaign stop, where he “worked” for 30 minutes at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was caught in a McDonald’s—also, coincidentally, in Pennsylvania—because he was spotted by a group of morning regulars and employees Didn't Kamala Harris also work at McDonalds https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-mcdonalds-in-her-20s.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-...? Pretty sure Trump's stunt was because of that. But I guess it's fair to assume everyone who followed that story knows the context. Or perhaps the author is more sympathetic to one candidate and would rather not air unproven claims: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-mcdonalds-college/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-mcdonalds-college/
- anonu 2y ago
  Trump was an actual campaign stop photo op... Harris didn't do a McD photo op. So not clear on your point. Also Trump rode in a garbage truck around the same time. Was he one upping Harris? Or just trying to appeal to the working class? Probably the latter...
  - gowld 2y ago
    The garbage-truck photo op was Trump's a followup to his campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage", and in particular to Biden calling that behavior "garbage".
    - epcoa 2y ago
      Your chronology does not fit.
    - ifyoubuildit 2y ago
      This comment illustrates pretty well how much of a game of telephone american political culture is. The person whispering in my ear said that a roast comedian at a trump rally told a joke where Puerto Rico was called an island of garbage. I wonder how many levels it had to go to become "[trumps] campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage"".
bhouston 2y ago
McDonald’s has also seen a major boycott because of its Israeli branch’s support for the Israeli actions in Gaza: https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel-muslims-france-quarterly-sales-kempczinski/ https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel... Apparently it was so bad that global McDonalds bought back all the Israeli franchises.
- gowld 2y ago
  McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023 Sales growth slowed a bit, but the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term.
  - bhouston 2y ago
    > McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023 > the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term. Are you making stuff up on purpose? I've rarely seen such a poorly argued and fact free reply on hacker news. 1. "McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023." Why start on October 7? The formal boycott calls only came in January (https://bdsmovement.net/Boycott-McDonalds https://bdsmovement.net/Boycott-McDonalds) and why would a boycott start on October 7th anyways? McDonalds had nothing to do with the attack. Rather it was McDonald's that supported the Israeli invasion of Gaza after that attack. If you start from January 2024 there is no growth in MCD stock. Second, you need to compare to the market. It has dramatically underperformed the rest of the market which is in a boom. Thus it actually is like negative 20% compared to the market from that point onwards. 2. It was so bad that McDonalds acquired the Israeli franchises and it says in the articles it was because of sales misses: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/israel-boycott-mcdonalds-will-buy-all-225-restaurants-from-franchise.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/israel-boycott-mcdonalds-wil... It was a franchisee decision to support the IDF via McDonald's promotions, that likely won't happen any more. 3. "Sales growth slowed a bit... temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term"? How did you get that? Sales growth is negative this year and continues, McDonald's says so themselves. Their global comparable sales (which looks at same stores, ignoring price increases) have actually been decreasing this past year, especially in International markets: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/Q2-2024-results.html https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/... https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/Q2-2024-results.html https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/...
santoshalper 2y ago
The author is really laying the populist manipulation on thick. After about two paragraphs, I felt as greasy as a McDonald's hash brown.
- eej71 2y ago
  Chris Arnade, who is the author of the article, has been writing about some of these topics for almost a decade now. He is worth checking out.
erulabs 2y ago
> These communities are the flowers growing between the cracks of the cement parking lot: a reminder that life survives, and often thrives, in the harshest environments, such as the modern world Lovely writing here. I am fascinated by the idea that the porousness of any system is its lifeline or even possibly its great enabler. There's a legend that during the Chinese revolution, extremely rural and difficult to travel to villages simply lied about their yearly rice yield, and thus were taxed less and avoided what would have sent them into the same starvation cycle as other areas, and this enabled the Maoist system to survive much longer than it would have otherwise. Similar stories from Stalist Russia, but the idea isn't limited to totalitarianism; as the story notes it applies to our paved-over modern American life as well. Contrary to the article, I somewhat feel that our current world is far too porous: we lack virtually any structure; we feel adrift rather than locked up. A coffee meetup in a McDonalds is an attempt to build a community in a cultural ghost-town, not a rebellion against perfect order.
- paulpauper 2y ago
  Life endures? Sounds a little overwrought for something like McDonald's. It's a community in so far as people gather there, but otherwise people interact little with each other except when ordering food.
- wvenable 2y ago
  I believe we live in hyper-optimized times. We are at the stage of capitalism where every single crumb is accounted for, every single blueberry on a muffin is tallied, and it's taking the joy out of life and of society. Even McDonald's is affected. It seemed a lot more joyful when I was younger and it was certainly more staffed. People are managing to create community out of a spaces that are getting more and more sterile, transactional, and minimalist.
  - hiatus 2y ago
    > We are at the stage of capitalism where every single crumb is accounted for, every single blueberry on a muffin is tallied, and it's taking the joy out of life and of society. I ask in earnest: when was it any different?
TheGRS 2y ago
This is an interesting read, I kind of feel like the author is capturing something interesting about what Mickey D's has become in the last decade or two, but also laying it on a little too thick with the "what does it all mean for America". They're a franchise and huge corporation that keeps a lot of storefronts clean and open, employs a lot of people in thankless low-paying jobs, and puts out pretty middling food that I swear was so much better back in the 90s. I'll share a quick personal story of my relationship with the restaurant. About 15 years ago I was struggling to find any jobs after college, my bank account was bone dry, and I felt fat from my habit of eating too much fast food. I went to a McDonald's and got some 20-piece chicken mcnugget special (I think it was less than $5). I ate one piece and suddenly felt overwhelmed at all these thoughts and threw the rest of it out. I felt like I was at the bottom. I didn't eat at a McDonald's or any other fast food for another 5 years, lost a bunch of weight and got my career moving. On the rare occasion I go there anymore (usually because someone else wants to go), I feel like I'm eating bland nothing food and some deeper part of me feels sick.
- thefaux 2y ago
  Yeah, it isn't elitism that makes my stomach feel horrible when I eat fast food.
  - aidenn0 2y ago
    Are you sure? The brain plays a huge part in nausea.
solarkraft 2y ago
Terry Davis had his last interview (I’m aware of) at a McDonald’s.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

71 points by secondary 2y ago

There is a McDonald's drive in next to my gym. It gives me the motivation I need not to become overweight. Expensive, shitty, loud I will never understand why they are so loved.

RajT88 2y ago

> As a walker, I use them for the same reason everyone else does—they are welcoming, social, inexpensive, and have Wi-Fi, good food, great coffee, and clean bathrooms. Great article, but McD's has mediocre coffee. I am no coffee classist; Starbucks also has bad coffee. Who has the best coffee? Dunkin Donuts.

canucker2016 2y ago
One of my old managers told me the story of how McDonalds was doing tests to improve their coffee. They asked people to taste-test the McDs coffee, but the cup disguised the fact that the coffee was from McDs. The ratings were generally good. When they did another taste-testing but the coffee came in McDs-branded cups instead, the ratings were bad.

CrispyKerosene 2y ago

The author is so out of touch its maddening. The article is full of out dated and offensive generalizations. "I find most convincing is that Mangione could be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. I’ve met a lot of people like this in McDonald’s, because the franchise is often one of—if not the only—place in the “real world” where they can go, grab a cup out of the garbage can, sit at their corner table, and fit in, at least for an hour or two, without encountering too many dangers. It becomes, for many deeply troubled people, their only lifeline to normal society." This is so offensive to anyone who is living with mental health challenges, and to anyone living in this late-stage capitalist society. Oh your questioning the status quo and killed a man responsible for one of the biggest death for profit schemes ever? You must be a crazy person who eats out of the garbage bn.

etempleton 2y ago

For better or worse McDonald’s and other fast food and fast casual restaurants are some of the only places where you don’t get kicked out or at least hassled for sitting too long or not buying anything more than a cup of coffee. The food is also relatively cheap, though that has been changing. You see a lot of elderly people use McDonalds and similar as their morning meeting place. They sit and drink coffee for 5 hours and chat. You can’t do that at most restaurants without annoying the wait staff.

tetris11 2y ago

One of my favourite places in the world is this one particular McDonalds in Camberwell that's open 24 hrs. On a Friday night at 2am, its full of people from all walks of life - from delivery workers taking a 5 minute break, to wedding party socialites looking for a quick food fix since everything else is closed - and they're all there for the exact same reason and are sitting next to each other without any tension or fanfare. There really is a certain community magic to it.

chasd00 2y ago
Sounds like a Waffle House an hour after last call except replace "without any tension or fanfare" with "overwhelming aggressive unpredictability" hah.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  In my home town the joke was waffle house is for when you want denny's but don't know how to fight.
muhamedgg 2y ago
[dead]
paulpauper 2y ago
McDonald's functions as sort of public square, which is missing elsewhere in society, as the employees are to detached or inattentive to care if people are loitering too long. Same for Starbucks.
- galago 2y ago
  I walked by the Starbucks in my neighborood recently and there were about 30 customers inside sitting at long tables. Every single person was staring at an electronic device. Maybe that's how a public square works nowdays.
- roughly 2y ago
  The author suggests the opposite, at least for McDonald's - the employees do care and are attentive to the needs of the people in the restaurant, and that's part of why the community springs up there. I'd expect McDonald's corporate policy is to hustle people along, and it's inattentiveness to that policy that enables the public square, not inattentiveness to the people in the square.

Lammy 2y ago

I got “in” to McDonald's when I was studying the Freeway revolts and realized how skilled McDonalds Corporate were at real estate speculation way back in the 1950s. In San Francisco there was (key word: was) a McDonald's along every corridor that would have been more highly traveled had the freeways been built as planned: Haight & Stanyan, Turk & Golden Gate, Van Ness (this one was actually unironically beautiful, look it up). I would get breakfast at that former Haight location on my way to work every morning, Bacon Egg & Cheese biscuit and a large black coffee — my fav. Also recommended: “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America” http://www.marciachatelain.com/ http://www.marciachatelain.com/ (2021 Pulitzer Prize winner)

Waterluvian 2y ago

When I was quite young (maybe 5-9) my family did a lot of trips to the U.S. for my dad’s IBM server training stuff. Something that made me anxious was the border crossing because my dad got all serious and told us to be quiet and it felt intimidating. As a consequence of being so young I couldn’t distinguish between Customs and a toll booth so they made me anxious too. And one day we were driving up to what looked like a huge toll booth or Customs stop and I was terribly anxious until we got close enough and it was this super weird McDonald’s. A gas station below, restaurant on top. It had such an impact on me that I spent the years after being hopeful any time I saw customs or tool booths that it was this fantastical McDonald’s. Also I once went to a McDonald’s with model trains running along the top of the walls. That was super cool.

euroderf 2y ago
> Also I once went to a McDonald’s with model trains running along the top of the walls. That was super cool. I'll bet! I wonder where this was/is.
caseyohara 2y ago
My favorite unique McDonald’s is in Freeport, Maine. > When the town wouldn't allow the fast-food behemoth to build a new restaurant, they put one inside an 1850 home. > The year was 1984. McDonald's was looking to build a location in the town of Freeport, Maine. There was only one problem: The Freeport building design restrictions were strict, and the town wanted the fast-food giant to maintain the area's aesthetic. In other words: No golden arches. McDonald's solution? Remodel an existing structure. Pictures here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mcdonalds-freeport-mansion https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mcdonalds-freeport-mansi...
- b112 2y ago
  What a classy McDonalds, makes me feel like I'd need a tie.
indrora 2y ago
You may enjoy Nonstandard Mcodonads: https://x.com/nonstandardmcd https://x.com/nonstandardmcd https://www.npr.org/2021/09/04/1028769806/one-mans-journey-to-document-the-strangest-mcdonalds-in-the-world https://www.npr.org/2021/09/04/1028769806/one-mans-journey-t...

munk-a 2y ago

What a bizarre statement about a place of business that's tried to irrelevance themselves into non-existence this year. Fast food pricing is now equal or beyond the prices of quality food with non-chain fast food (i.e. doner/local pizza joints) becoming the new affordable option.

jajko 2y ago
Yes but they are not everywhere. As much as hate the below mediocre junk McD mostly produces, sometimes they are the only place open for miles around.
markus_zhang 2y ago
Costco is my new restaurant. Food is more fresh and costs way less.
- paulpauper 2y ago
  but not as convenient as McDonald's . fewer locations, need membership afik for food
  - markus_zhang 2y ago
    Yeah that's true. Fortunately we have one 15 mins of drive away.
- calmworm 2y ago
  If only they had a $1.50 hamburger option!
- AnimalMuppet 2y ago
  I have thought that, if you're on a road trip, Costco could be pretty good. Stop there, get a rotisserie chicken, feeds 2-4 people, costs $5. (I mean, you still need a trash bag, paper plates, and a large number of napkins...) And you were going to stop for gas anyway, and they have that.
  - 2y ago

shreddit 2y ago

I once worked for two hours out of a mc donalds, even had a 30 minute teams meeting (it was completely empty at 10 in the morning) and the wifi was quite fast

1123581321 2y ago
The Internet is good, and it’s quieter than a Starbucks. Back when more McDonald’s had 24-hour lobbies and my work habits were worse, I’d head over there to get a black coffee and ice cream to program or write.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2y ago
Wherever my internet at home goes out, the McD down the way is my "office." Hasn't happened in 5 years or so, but I've had to do it 4-5 times over the years. Take customer calls, write code, have team meetings. Works fine, and the $1 coffee ain't bad.

paulpauper 2y ago

Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Isn't it pretty obvious it's him? Is there any possibility he was framed or something. McDonald's plays a big role because it also happens to be extremely popular and has many locations all over America. It's brand is an iconic and big as ever. It also shows how America has a sort of love-hate relationship with fast-food. We know it's unhealthy and overpriced but we cannot stop eating it.

nickvec 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence
Dosenpfand 2y ago
Innocent until proven guilty.
alwa 2y ago
The people who would know that best are the people investigating, prosecuting, and judging him. In real life, not through rumor and media (social or otherwise). I’m not aware of evidence to the contrary, but then I wouldn’t be, because I’m not involved with the investigation or the trial. Neither is most anyone commenting publicly right now. It’s alleged until it’s proven, and in the US that’s a formal process that concludes with a guilty plea or verdict.
wk_end 2y ago
It’s an established practice in journalism to describe accused who haven’t been convicted as “alleged” criminals, regardless of how damning the evidence is. The legal basis of this is a fear of libel lawsuits. But I think even when a libel lawsuit is extremely unlikely the practice is still followed - out of an abundance of caution, out of convention, or perhaps out of principle - that is, out of deference to the presumption of innocence on a fundamental level.
bigstrat2003 2y ago
Journalists generally say "alleged", even when it's real obvious someone did the crime, in order to limit liability. They don't want to risk the off chance that the person is found not guilty and then comes after the journalists for libel.

rdtsc 2y ago

> At the end of October, there was the viral, and controversial, Trump campaign stop, where he “worked” for 30 minutes at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Then, this week, there was the news that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was caught in a McDonald’s—also, coincidentally, in Pennsylvania—because he was spotted by a group of morning regulars and employees Didn't Kamala Harris also work at McDonalds https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-mcdonalds-in-her-20s.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/kamala-harris-on-working-at-...? Pretty sure Trump's stunt was because of that. But I guess it's fair to assume everyone who followed that story knows the context. Or perhaps the author is more sympathetic to one candidate and would rather not air unproven claims: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-mcdonalds-college/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-mcdonalds-college/

anonu 2y ago
Trump was an actual campaign stop photo op... Harris didn't do a McD photo op. So not clear on your point. Also Trump rode in a garbage truck around the same time. Was he one upping Harris? Or just trying to appeal to the working class? Probably the latter...
- gowld 2y ago
  The garbage-truck photo op was Trump's a followup to his campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage", and in particular to Biden calling that behavior "garbage".
  - epcoa 2y ago
    Your chronology does not fit.
  - ifyoubuildit 2y ago
    This comment illustrates pretty well how much of a game of telephone american political culture is. The person whispering in my ear said that a roast comedian at a trump rally told a joke where Puerto Rico was called an island of garbage. I wonder how many levels it had to go to become "[trumps] campaign calling Puerto Rico "garbage"".

bhouston 2y ago

McDonald’s has also seen a major boycott because of its Israeli branch’s support for the Israeli actions in Gaza: https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel-muslims-france-quarterly-sales-kempczinski/ https://fortune.com/2024/07/30/mcdonalds-gaza-boycott-israel... Apparently it was so bad that global McDonalds bought back all the Israeli franchises.

gowld 2y ago
McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023 Sales growth slowed a bit, but the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term.
- bhouston 2y ago
  > McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023 > the boycott effort was a temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term. Are you making stuff up on purpose? I've rarely seen such a poorly argued and fact free reply on hacker news. 1. "McDonald's stock is up 20% since Oct 7, 2023." Why start on October 7? The formal boycott calls only came in January (https://bdsmovement.net/Boycott-McDonalds https://bdsmovement.net/Boycott-McDonalds) and why would a boycott start on October 7th anyways? McDonalds had nothing to do with the attack. Rather it was McDonald's that supported the Israeli invasion of Gaza after that attack. If you start from January 2024 there is no growth in MCD stock. Second, you need to compare to the market. It has dramatically underperformed the rest of the market which is in a boom. Thus it actually is like negative 20% compared to the market from that point onwards. 2. It was so bad that McDonalds acquired the Israeli franchises and it says in the articles it was because of sales misses: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/israel-boycott-mcdonalds-will-buy-all-225-restaurants-from-franchise.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/israel-boycott-mcdonalds-wil... It was a franchisee decision to support the IDF via McDonald's promotions, that likely won't happen any more. 3. "Sales growth slowed a bit... temporary scare to the business that didn't have significant impact on sales long term"? How did you get that? Sales growth is negative this year and continues, McDonald's says so themselves. Their global comparable sales (which looks at same stores, ignoring price increases) have actually been decreasing this past year, especially in International markets: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/Q2-2024-results.html https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/... https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/Q2-2024-results.html https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/...

santoshalper 2y ago

The author is really laying the populist manipulation on thick. After about two paragraphs, I felt as greasy as a McDonald's hash brown.

eej71 2y ago
Chris Arnade, who is the author of the article, has been writing about some of these topics for almost a decade now. He is worth checking out.

erulabs 2y ago

> These communities are the flowers growing between the cracks of the cement parking lot: a reminder that life survives, and often thrives, in the harshest environments, such as the modern world Lovely writing here. I am fascinated by the idea that the porousness of any system is its lifeline or even possibly its great enabler. There's a legend that during the Chinese revolution, extremely rural and difficult to travel to villages simply lied about their yearly rice yield, and thus were taxed less and avoided what would have sent them into the same starvation cycle as other areas, and this enabled the Maoist system to survive much longer than it would have otherwise. Similar stories from Stalist Russia, but the idea isn't limited to totalitarianism; as the story notes it applies to our paved-over modern American life as well. Contrary to the article, I somewhat feel that our current world is far too porous: we lack virtually any structure; we feel adrift rather than locked up. A coffee meetup in a McDonalds is an attempt to build a community in a cultural ghost-town, not a rebellion against perfect order.

paulpauper 2y ago
Life endures? Sounds a little overwrought for something like McDonald's. It's a community in so far as people gather there, but otherwise people interact little with each other except when ordering food.
wvenable 2y ago
I believe we live in hyper-optimized times. We are at the stage of capitalism where every single crumb is accounted for, every single blueberry on a muffin is tallied, and it's taking the joy out of life and of society. Even McDonald's is affected. It seemed a lot more joyful when I was younger and it was certainly more staffed. People are managing to create community out of a spaces that are getting more and more sterile, transactional, and minimalist.
- hiatus 2y ago
  > We are at the stage of capitalism where every single crumb is accounted for, every single blueberry on a muffin is tallied, and it's taking the joy out of life and of society. I ask in earnest: when was it any different?

TheGRS 2y ago

This is an interesting read, I kind of feel like the author is capturing something interesting about what Mickey D's has become in the last decade or two, but also laying it on a little too thick with the "what does it all mean for America". They're a franchise and huge corporation that keeps a lot of storefronts clean and open, employs a lot of people in thankless low-paying jobs, and puts out pretty middling food that I swear was so much better back in the 90s. I'll share a quick personal story of my relationship with the restaurant. About 15 years ago I was struggling to find any jobs after college, my bank account was bone dry, and I felt fat from my habit of eating too much fast food. I went to a McDonald's and got some 20-piece chicken mcnugget special (I think it was less than $5). I ate one piece and suddenly felt overwhelmed at all these thoughts and threw the rest of it out. I felt like I was at the bottom. I didn't eat at a McDonald's or any other fast food for another 5 years, lost a bunch of weight and got my career moving. On the rare occasion I go there anymore (usually because someone else wants to go), I feel like I'm eating bland nothing food and some deeper part of me feels sick.

thefaux 2y ago
Yeah, it isn't elitism that makes my stomach feel horrible when I eat fast food.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  Are you sure? The brain plays a huge part in nausea.

solarkraft 2y ago

Terry Davis had his last interview (I’m aware of) at a McDonald’s.

deleted 2y ago

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