McDonald’s CEO outlines changes as sales slide

Associated Press ^ | Oct 21, 2014 6:11 PM EDT | Candice Choi

[Olog-hai]

After posting yet another disappointing quarter, McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson said Tuesday the company hasn’t been keeping up with the times and that changes are in store for its U.S. restaurants.

Thompson said that starting in January, McDonald’s will “simplify” its menu to make room for restaurants to offer options that are best-suited for their regions. To offer greater customization, he also said the company planned to expand its “Create Your Taste” offering that lets people pick the buns and toppings they want on burgers by tapping a touchscreen. The program is currently being offered in Southern California, and McDonald’s has said it will roll it out nationally in Australia. […]

The changes come as McDonald’s continues to struggle with myriad problems. One of its biggest challenges in the U.S. is long-held perceptions around the freshness and quality of its ingredients. The chain has been fighting to boost sales as people gravitate toward foods they feel are more wholesome. As a result, people have been gravitating to places like Chipotle, which markets its ingredients as being of superior quality. …

[SaraJohnson]

They have overpriced themselves now. Used to be the best deal in town for the poor.

[LostInBayport]

Their problems began when they started kowtowing to the liberal mantra that fast food sucks and isn’t healthy. They took away everything that made their food taste good and substituted “healthy” alternatives.

I shall make this admission in the anonymity of the interwebs. I haven't eaten a burger at McDonald's since the late '80s. But, once in a blue moon when I have to travel for work, I'd always pass the same McDonald's. I would crave some McNuggets, so I would get some of those and a coffee and eat them while driving down the looooong dull drive down the highway. It became a ritual once or twice a year.

But a few years back the taste changed and I no longer care to stop. They are bland and boring. I'm sure they are healthier, but keep 'em. If I'm going to stop for junk food, it had better taste good.

[Wilum]

They could start by cooking the hamburgers to order instead of reheating in a nuker!

[MtnClimber]

I hate onions. When ever I ordered no onions from MCcrap years ago I usually got extra onions. I have worked with people that had worked at mccrap in high school and they said that special orders usually got some spit where they worked. I have not ordered from mcdonalds for over 30 years. I refuse. FUMD!!!!!

[fatnotlazy]

I don't eat out much at all now, but if I'm going to have fast food, it's Chick-Fil-A. Reasonably good food for a fast food joint plus kind and friendly employees.

[reed13k]

not just the nuggets - the burgers changed so much they’re like cardboard now. Ingredients went to hell at the same time they started offering the “healthier” options. Now it’s all crap.

[Parley Baer]

“The program is currently being offered in Southern California”

Does this mean McDonalds is going to start serving tacos?

[tcrlaf]

“McDonalds is so stupid. Their problems began when they started kowtowing to the liberal mantra that fast food sucks and isn’t healthy.”

Remember when McD’s used to advertise how juicy their burgers were?

Today, it’s barely edible cardboard.

[4rcane]

is it just me, but the burgers they sell look much smaller than I remember it

[Tailback]

McDonalds is losing share to chains like “5Guys” and “In-N-Out”. Both of those chains use higher quality hamburger patties, and better toppings. Why would I buy a hamburger from McDonalds when I could get a better burger from somewhere else?

I can order online from 5Guys, set the time for pickup, walk in, pick up burger, walk out. No bleeping brainer.

[Oratam]

All my burps taste the same no matter what I’ve eaten. I suspect it’s dill.

[Secret Agent Man]

they gonna make better food?

mcd’s is dead to me.

[Mastador1]

I'll tell you the whole problem with McD's sales, too much crappuccino added to the menu since Ray died! Used to be a nice tight menu, easy to fix fast and efficiently, but they got sucked into the 99 cent wars, turned their backs on the concept and never looked back. The Corp. doesn't care, they force the Operators to buy more and more equipment from approved vendors, teardown and rebuild into those hideous boxes and then suck their cut off the top, regardless of profit.

[Vendome]

I can’t stand Cr’Apple Bees but, found myself eating at one last near the border.

Touch screen ordering and I got exactly what I wanted.

No freakin dressing or cheese or damned croutons on my salad

[Norm Lenhart]

“I hate onions.”

I embrace you as my brother. ;)

[SamAdams76]

McDonalds is in big trouble. Their brand is becoming associated with lower class, unsophisticated people. Their mass-produced "food product" is disgusting to the palates of most Americans, palates which are far more developed than they were back in the 1960s and 1970s - a time when our diets were so bland that tacos were considered exotic "ethnic food."

The upscale fast food joints like Chipotles and Panera Bread are eating McDonalds' lunch - literally.

Used to be a time when you saw clean-cut families sitting at McDonalds restaurants. Businessmen in suits and ties as well. Now the restaurants are full of shabbily dressed slobs who smell and don't speak English very well.

The restaurants themselves are mostly pigsties. Ray Kroc would have a heart attack if he walked into any one of the stores today. The bathrooms are nasty. The parking lots are full of rubbish. The floors and tables inside are slimy as they are wiped down with filthy mops and dirty dishrags.

Not sure if this ship can be turned around. McDonalds has 35,000 restaurants out there so they are going to be around for a while. But they are definitely in decline.

[Mastador1]

Sell something other than McDonald’s food?

You could always go to Jack in the _______ and buy kibbles and mystery meat tacos. : )

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

McD’s needs to tell the liberals to FU-off. Start a Classic menu that reintroduces food as it was made in the past to include fries cooked in beef tallow.

Right on, right on.

[antidisestablishment]

I miss real Mexican food! I once drove 400 moles to get a green chile cheeseburger from the Owl Bar in San Antonio, and I still dream of the Coyote Moon Cafe in Socorro.

I would never get Chipotle in Albuquerque, but, for the rest of us, real Mexican is hard to find. Chipotle has decent mexican fast food and at least their hot salsa has a little bite. once had Mexican in Minnesota and they served cajun hot sauce—almost spit it on the table!

[GeronL]

bringing back the old fries would be HUGE