[Robert A Cook PE]

NO french fry in the past 6 months in ANY store in ANY of seven different states has been “good” ... all have been soggy, greasy, “wet” with grease = nothing is right. And the fries used to be the only thing tolerable at McD’s.

[ameribbean expat]

Bucket of Fries. That was a stroke of pure genius.

[Dr. Sivana]

NO french fry in the past 6 months in ANY store in ANY of seven different states has been “good” ... all have been soggy, greasy, “wet” with grease = nothing is right. And the fries used to be the only thing tolerable at McD’s.,/i>

I had avoided McDonald's for years because of the way widow Kroc willed her money, and because there's better stuff out there. I have since relaxed my standard in this regard as the owner of the local McDonalds' around here are owned by a conservative Georgia pol who more than counteracts those bad expenditures on good expenditures (same with the local Lowe's that provided paint for the new pro-life crisis pregnancy center...I hove that about Georgia!).

Anyway, the unsweetened iced tea is still good. I know the fries are cooked in different oil, with no beef tallow and less salt. I don't even bother. I had a car pool buddy who got the Egg McMuffin, which is how I can tell the Canadian Bacon is electroplated on the low quality English Muffin. The burgers are smaller (and the patties were 1.6 ounces before) and dryer.

Besides the quality of the food, here is where the dollar counters have betrayed Ray Kroc.

Some McDonald's are serving old/cold food. Some are not. Ray Kroc was about standardization on the quality and quantity of the food, allowing only for an occasional test sit or regional menu item.

Some bathrooms are dirty. Some are not. Kroc would rather provide a clean bathroom than a good burger. The first dirty McDonald's bathroom I saw was in Danbury, CT in about 1985. Until the 2000s, that was the anomaly. Now they are above average, but not the slam dunk they used to be.

LCD tv screens showing programming, payphones, newspaper vending boxes. Verboten in Kroc's world. When the McDonald's went up in Wallingford, CT in '74 or so, the payphone was put on the edge of the property line at the low-traffic Gulf gas station that was there, but was not on actual McDonald's property. For Kroc, McDonald's was a place to "get up and get away", even if it meant that getting away involved being surrounded by bright plastic chairs and McDonaldland characters, it did not involve vending machines.

I don't know how Kroc would have responded to having to deal with more than Wendy's, Burger King and local hamburger stands, but it wouldn't have turned out like it did.

[treetopsandroofs]

IIRC, muslims sued to ruin the McDonald’s fries.

[When do we get liberated?]

One word.....Bojangles