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Fast Food Took a Gamble on Fake Meat. It’s Not Paying Off (Why McDonald's McPlant Became a McFlop)
Bon Appetit ^ | August 8, 2022 | Ali Francis

Posted on 08/09/2022 11:03:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway

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1 posted on 08/09/2022 11:03:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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I was waiting for the McPage, McJones and McBonham myself.


2 posted on 08/09/2022 11:04:10 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: nickcarraway

How’s about a McCricket sandwich or a McMealworm Muffin? S/B tried out in San Fransicko, Holyweird and New Yack! See if those left wing whack jobs, who preach climate change, are willing to put their money where their mouths are!


3 posted on 08/09/2022 11:08:19 PM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian ( Ceterum autem censeo Justinius True-dope-us esse delendam)
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To: nickcarraway
I tried a "plant" burger once at BK, and it tasted like sh!t.

Never again, and I'm not eating bugs.

4 posted on 08/09/2022 11:11:47 PM PDT by DallasBiff (Kamala is not the sharpest knife in the drawer)
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To: DallasBiff

I had that veggie burger at BK and it was better than I thought it’d be. I think I had them put some extra cheese on it though. No where near as good as real meat though. Same with supermarket fake meats.


5 posted on 08/09/2022 11:16:23 PM PDT by MDLION ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: nickcarraway

I’ll stick to Culvers where I know I’m getting fresh meat made to order. Not That famous luke warm patty from McDonalds.


6 posted on 08/09/2022 11:22:47 PM PDT by roving (Blue Lives Matter More Than Children. Pronouns- libs/suk)
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To: nickcarraway

McDonald’s is stupid for trying this fake meat gambit. They’re a mediocre fast-food joint that generally only has convenience and price going for it. With that said, when I’m traveling outside the United States, my opinion on McDonald’s shifts substantially. Schizophrenic, I know, but there are few more welcome sights when you’re abroad than a McDonald’s. Seriously, a McD’s meal is a wonderful respite from the overpriced, tasteless crap you find throughout much of the world.


7 posted on 08/09/2022 11:25:15 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: nickcarraway

I McWish for 2 things:
Low carb buns
Bring back the salads or some healthy low carb alternative to Fries


8 posted on 08/09/2022 11:26:38 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: nickcarraway

I dont understand why the burger chains thought it was a good idea. Most veggies and vegans dont go to those places to begin with. So cost was higher with no increase/decrease of customers. I know what I would do if I were them, but I dont like giving out free advice worth billions over time.


9 posted on 08/09/2022 11:27:02 PM PDT by GunHoardingCapitalist (The cake is a lie!)
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To: nickcarraway

The article is party right: McDonalds and the others did not understand either their potential vegetarian customers or their meat eaters. Why would a carnivore bother with a plant-based burger in the first place, much less one that didn’t taste exactly like meat anyway. OTOH, why would a vegetarian want anything that tasted like meat? So who was going to order an impossible burger? That’s why hardly anyone did. Ironically, Burger King used to offer a mushroom and grain based vegieburger which was quite tasty, but could never be mistaken for meat. It was doing fairly well until they discontinued it to make room for the impossible burger, which they are finding is impossible to sell.


10 posted on 08/09/2022 11:30:39 PM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: nickcarraway

The author says the grift comes from the fact that veggie burgers aren’t actually green. But that’s not why people aren’t ordering it.

The big problem with veggie burgers is that they’re more expensive than regular meat burgers. If you want masses of people to try what’s considered an inferior substitute, you want the price to not merely match, but be lower than what it’s trying to replace.

If veggie burgers were half the price of meat burgers, I’d expect a good chunk of the meat burger customer base to migrate in that direction. But when it’s more expensive, that’s not an easy sell. The bottom line is that until fake meat is cheaper than real meat, fake meat is not gonna gain mass market acceptance. It’s like pricing processed cheese food higher than real cheese.

For right now, that issue is dependent on scientific advances. The problem for fake meat producers is that thousands of years of animal husbandry has turned select domesticated animals into very efficient converters of plant material into real meat. Fake meat producers wish they could achieve even a fraction of that efficiency.


https://www.businessinsider.com/review-i-tried-mcdonalds-new-mcplant-veggie-burger-2022-4#thats-pricier-than-the-big-mac-sandwich-which-costs-469-and-789-for-the-meal-the-quarter-pounder-sandwich-which-costs-489-and-779-for-the-meal-and-the-crispy-chicken-sandwich-which-costs-399-and-738-for-the-meal-13
[In my area of Dallas, the sandwich costs $5.49 on its own, and it’s $8.49 when you add medium fries and a drink.

That’s pricier than: the Big Mac sandwich, which costs $4.69 (and $7.89 for the meal); the Quarter Pounder sandwich, which costs $4.89 (and $7.79 for the meal); and the Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which costs $3.99 (and $7.38 for the meal).]


11 posted on 08/09/2022 11:35:54 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: MDLION
I think it was 3 years ago and BK brought out their "Impossible Burger(plant based)".

Well dumb me fell for the marketing trick, and the cheese was 50 cents extra.

Got the burger and it looked normal, sat down and took the first bite, it seemed normal in texture, with the veggies(lettuce, pickle, tomato, and onions), and I order my burgers, dry(no ketchup. mustard, mayo, etc).

That after taste from the plant burger was worse than a diet coke.

Ate the veggies ,and scraped off the cheese, and ate the fries.

12 posted on 08/09/2022 11:44:42 PM PDT by DallasBiff (Kamala is not the sharpest knife in the drawer)
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To: nickcarraway

Because it’s a hamburger joint, not a salad bar...


13 posted on 08/09/2022 11:45:42 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: DallasBiff

I tried a McDonald’s bean burger at Trafalgar Square 25 years ago.

Disgusting...

Had to two eat two hamburgers to get the taste out and even then had to go to a pub down a Guinness with Fish and Chips...


14 posted on 08/09/2022 11:47:39 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: GunHoardingCapitalist

It is a clear case of listening to focus groups instead of your target audience. Same thing happened with the Arch Delux, the focus groups loved it, but at the time the consumer base of McDonalds just wanted cheap, decent tasting burgers, not some artisan sandwich. It is like when vegetarians threaten to boycott KFC unless they change the way they cage their chickens. KFC is smart not to listen because vegetarians don’t eat fried chicken so their opinion doesn’t matter.


15 posted on 08/09/2022 11:48:47 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: LukeL

Love seeing this major FAIL!


16 posted on 08/09/2022 11:54:54 PM PDT by antceecee
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To: LukeL
It is a clear case of listening to focus groups instead of your target audience

Their focus groups are in liberal urban areas, they never would think of focus grouping, where their bread is buttered, Podunk America.

17 posted on 08/10/2022 12:00:39 AM PDT by DallasBiff (Kamala is not the sharpest knife in the drawer)
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To: nickcarraway
There's a lot of really good vegan food out there. Stuff that would even sell at fast food joints in middle America if it had a shot. But they didn't go for the good stuff, they tried to sell burgers that weren't burgers. Basically Christian rock on a regular rock station. They were not making vegan food better, they were making burgers worse.

It all falls apart when the entire marketing plan is to say, "hey, this thing that you're familiar with, well here's something that isn't as good but we worked real hard to make it look like that first thing. We're still selling the first thing, and the other thing isn't any cheaper or particularly healthier, but maybe you'll just eat it because you might, for some reason, feel bad about eating the first thing."

With as much data and planning that goes into McDonald's marketing, I'd bet they knew exactly what was going to happen before it started, but felt obligated to run it through anyway just to get it off their schedule.

18 posted on 08/10/2022 12:03:09 AM PDT by jz638
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To: nickcarraway

They really called it McPlant?

And this article, it was woke. Meat industry bad etc...


19 posted on 08/10/2022 12:31:50 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: DannyTN

Here in Australia I think they still offer a salad as a alternative to fries.


20 posted on 08/10/2022 1:13:54 AM PDT by Dundee (They gave up all their tomorrows for our today's.)
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