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Will it fare better than McDonald’s has?Taco Bell has entered a brave new world: China. The Doritos Locos taco inventor just unveiled a new store in in Shanghai and plans to have 1,000 restaurants operating in the country by 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal. This new push is a leap of faith for Yum China, which also oversees the KFC and Pizza Hut brands in the country. Yum previously operated a handful of concepts in China under the name Taco Bell Grande, but all closed by 2008. The menu at this new Taco Bell is different from the...

An article by Lance Selfa, a columnist at the "Socialist Worker", argues that economic growth does not help working people: “One of the orthodox assumptions of both liberal and conservative economics is that a more productive economy leads to higher living standards. According to the theory, when workers are better educated and better trained, and when technology is intelligently deployed to increase economic efficiency, the overall economy produces more and workers earn more. Or so the theory goes. What's the evidence?” In fact, Selfa's argument has been routinely rejected by economists for the following reasons. First, the article ignores the...

In light of several cities passing $15 an hour minimum wage laws, McDonald's will install self-serve kiosks at many locations around the country. Wendy's has already gone the automated ordering route and othe fast food outlets are seriously considering it. Supporters of the $15 hourly wage claim that few jobs will be lost as  result of automation. They say the self serve kiosks will make workers more efficient in dealing with the ordering process. That may be true (as explained here). But the near doubling of the minimum wage in most cities will be done incrementally, ostensibly to soften...

A former McDonald's CEO is laying the blame on the "Fight for $15" movement as for why the company is embracing automation in its restaurants. McDonald's will install self-serve kiosks in its restaurants around the country to replace human cashiers. Let’s start with automation. In 2013, when the Fight for $15 was still in its growth stage, I and others warned that union demands for a much higher minimum wage would force businesses with small profit margins to replace full-service employees with costly investments in self-service alternatives. At the time, labor groups accused business owners of crying wolf. It turns...

THE inventor of the Big Mac has died at the age of 98. Michael “Jim” Delligatti came up with the iconic McDonald’s burger nearly 50 years ago. The franchise-owner from Uniontown Pennsylvania put the stacked treat on sale at one of his restaurants in 1968. McDonald’s initially did not approve of deviating from its strict formula of simple hamburgers, cheeseburgers and milkshakes. But the creation of a two-patty burger with lettuce, cheese, gherkins, onions and “special sauce” proved an instant hit, and was rolled out to his other 47 outlets across the US.

THE inventor of the Big Mac has died at the age of 98. Michael “Jim” Delligatti came up with the iconic McDonald’s burger nearly 50 years ago. McDonald’s initially did not approve of deviating from its strict formula of simple hamburgers, cheeseburgers and milkshakes. But the creation of a two-patty burger with lettuce, cheese, gherkins, onions and “special sauce” proved an instant hit, and was rolled out to his other 47 outlets across the US. McDonald’s spokeswoman Kerry Ford confirmed that Delligatti died at his home in Fox Chapel, Pittsburgh, surrounded by his family on Monday night. He opened his...

The recent actions of a McDonald's employee in Kansas are leaving a bad taste in the mouths of police officers and their supporters. A Topeka employee at the fast food chain has been fired and is currently facing criminal charges after local law enforcement say the worker put mustard in an officer’s beverage. . . . Tom Dobski, the franchisee owner of the north Topeka McDonald's where the officer found mustard in his Dr. Pepper, says the company is "shocked by the isolated actions of a single employee."

McDonald’s is testing the use of fresh, never frozen beef for its Quarter Pounder hamburgers. The fast food giant says the tests are being carried out in 75 of its restaurants in the Tulsa, Oklahoma-area. It says Quarter Pounders in the restaurants will be made with fresh beef that’s cooked when ordered. …

ROCK TAVERN - A strike that could have interfered with food deliveries this week to McDonald's franchises in the Hudson Valley, New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey has been averted. The 75 drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 445 in Rock Tavern, voted in late October to reject the contract offer made by Martin-Brower Inc. Teamsters representative Jerry Ebert said the company significantly improved the offer after its initial rejection. "We won much better pay, more time off, an easier grievance process, and a $1000 signing bonus for each driver, among other increases, with no givebacks," Ebert said....

Every iconic franchise began somewhere. Every one started with a single store opening its doors to a public that had never heard of it and didn’t know what to expect. These entrepreneurs had no idea what they were launching—and no inkling that their concept would take the world by storm. What did these original outlets look like? What do they look like now? Some of the world’s biggest chains have preserved their first stores so customers can get a look.

CHAMBLEE, Ga. - A special celebration took place in Chamblee Thursday morning in honor of a beloved McDonald's employee. October 27 not only marked Willie Calhoun's 73rd birthday, but also his 59th anniversary working at the fast-food chain. "Mr. Willie," as his friends call him, started working at McDonald's when he was 14-years-old and has been at the Chamblee location on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard for more than two decades. "I started off in Sandy Springs, to two more stores and ended up here," he said. "This is where I've been a very long time." Thursday morning, a party was held...

McDonald’s plan to open its first restaurant in Vatican City has prompted criticism from cardinals living above the proposed site. The fast food giant is reportedly willing to pay “a few tens of thousands of euros per month” to rent a property within sight of St Peter’s Square, according to the Guardian. Cardinals claim that they were not consulted by APSA, the Vatican agency that owns the property, about the plans. Instead, residents were only informed after APSA had agreed to rent the ground floor of the property to McDonald’s. Cardinal Elio Sgreccia told LaRepubblica: “It’s a controversial, perverse decision...

Blame Heston Blumenthal for turning every munchies-stricken yahoo in the world into a pioneering experimental foodie. Or blame the gourmet burger fad, threatening McDonald’s long-held position as global burger overlords, and forcing them to come up with ever-more elaborate ways to stand out from the competition. Last week, the never-knowingly-controversial McDonald’s UK Facebook page prompted howls of outrage when they asked followers to answer this question: which flavour milkshake would you prefer to dunk your fries in?

The death knell has tolled for the Big Mac. Only one in five millennials, aged 18 to 34, has ever tried or knows what a Big Mac tastes like, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ronald McDonald, the iconic clown mascot of McDonald’s, is laying low until the clown craze in the country dies down, the fast-food giant said Tuesday. McDonald’s said Americans will see less of the recognizable red-haired jester in the yellow suit as the company remains “thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events” as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities,” according to the Associated Press. Sightings of creepy clowns have been on the rise and have spread to more than two dozen states since late August when reports surfaced that clowns were trying to...

I can't copy from Breitbart for some reason. Their site is so buggy. If someone can post an excerpt I'd be grateful.

McDonald's Assault VIDEO Angry Woman Attacks Drive-Thru Employee Caught On Tape McDonald's Assault VIDEO Angry Woman Attacks Drive-Thru Employee Caught On Tape McDonald's Assault VIDEO Angry Woman Attacks Drive-Thru Employee Caught On Tape Associated Press: TOLEDO, Ohio — A security video from a McDonald's in Ohio shows a woman punching two restaurant employees and smashing a drive-thru window because she couldn't get Chicken McNuggets. The tantrum caught on tape in Toledo earlier this year shows the customer reaching through the drive-thru window, slugging one worker and then another. She then grabs a bottle out of her car and tosses it...

An iconic American company, McDonald’s, has quietly outsourced the jobs of 70 white-collar professionals in Ohio to foreign H-1B workers. The H-1Bs outsourcing in the nation’s heartland showcases the growing corporate effort to use foreign H-1B workers to cut workforces of American white-collar professionals, and it comes after companies have used waves of legal and illegal migrants to slash blue-collar jobs and wages in Ohio and around the country. Also, the 70 Ohio jobs that McDonalds outsourced to lower wage foreign graduates are not Silicon Valley technology and software jobs — they’re white-collar accounting jobs performed by graduates from mainstream...

A Massachusetts McDonald’s worker with Down syndrome is finally retiring after more than three decades at the restaurant, according to WBZ-TV. After 32 years working at the fry station, Freia David’s face is a familiar one for many of the customers. “She is one of the most beautiful and upbeat people you could ever hope to know and I know,” wrote loyal patron Christopher Sheehan on Facebook — Sheehan grew up with David and the two are still close. His post inspired a stream of memories in the comment section from other Needham residents who met David over the years....

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no...