Toasted Rice Burgers

According to a recent report in the Taipei Times, "McDonald's Restaurants (Taiwan) Co yesterday celebrated sales of its home-grown rice burgers, which topped 5 million units six months after hitting the market, saying the local taste may be available in McDonald's worldwide soon."The article goes on to quote Shalom Chen (陳家祥), Senior Manager at the Communications Division of McDonald's Taiwan as saying "The fast-food chain started offering two types...

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McDonald's Wiki

Wikipedia.org really did it this time. This wiki offers up more information on McDonald's than you may need. While negative entries get more than their fair share of space, the site offers up a huge amount of interesting and useful information. This site is highly recommended if you have a little time to kill, or if you are wondering what is unique at the McDonald's in Sweden, Portugal, Taiwan, Fiji, etc. Maharaja Mac anyone?Image: Wikipedia....

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Open Doors

The McChronicles recently posted about a behind-the-counter tour that was going on in Shanghai McDonald's while we were reporting from China. A new MSN news report reveals that this program is now spreading across the globe.According to the report, "While McDonald's has allowed customers into its kitchens in some European and South American countries before, the so-called "Open Doors" campaign is being rolled out across 30 European countries simultaneously for the first time."According to Peter Beresford, Europe northern division president at McDonald's,...

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Hurricane Relief Continues

In a recent news story, it is reported that McDonald's is spending millions of dollars to locate and assist displaced employees affected by Hurricane Katrina. According to the report in BillingsGazette.com, "With more than 4,000 employees from franchise- and company-owned restaurants still missing, more than half of its 8,000 workers there, it's a full-time effort with no end in sight".The report quotes Janice Fields, president of McDonald's Central...

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Whoa! (Part II)

In a previous post, we mused about the source of this (and others) image.Well, a loyal fan of The McChronicles has let us know that this is a screen grab from a Japanese McDonald's TV commercial. Thanks!Case solv...

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Ronald McDonald vs. The Burger King

The McChronicles cracks up every time we view the newNFL football Burger King commercials. (view burger king football commercial 1, view burger king football commercial 2)We were tipped off to these online video clips by our great friends at Fastfoodweblog.nl. The guys at that fast food site are always on top of awesome new events.Anyway, the Burger King has been appearing in commercials lately. Frankly, The McChronicles felt he had been looking...

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McChronicles Around The World

This is a site activity map for the McChronicles. Each dot represents the location of each of our last 100 visitors.Our records indicate that visitors come to The McChronicles from virtually every country on Earth.We've hosted visitors from Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, China, South Africa, Lithuania, Tasmania, Mongolia, Chile, The United States, Netherlands, Ukraine, Canada, Qatar, Venezuela, Indonesia, Morocco ... on and on it goes. We thank you all...

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Whoa!

What's this? Apparently someone is seriously attempting to combine fashion with the world's most famous fast-food clown.Several related images appear on andzol's photos on Flick'r. Is this really from a McDonald's campaign in Japan, or from somewhere else? Regardless of the source - it's kind of interesting.Comments? Image: andzol, Flic...

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Hit The Spot

The McChronicles was passing through Newark (EWR) airport with a few minutes to spare. As usual, this was also accompanied by a hankerin' for a bite to eat. Positioned exactly where it was needed was a really nice food court, featuring - you guessed it - a McDonald's restaurant.This restaurant sits nicely in the middle of a spacious, clean open area between terminal wings - and right in a very nice food court. The golden arches and a large "Ronald"...

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"My First" Ad Campaign

McDonald's has just announced a new ad campaign, named "My First". In a press release dated today, the campaign is touted as featuring people whose first jobs were at McDonald's.The "stars" of the ads are international over-achievers, such as Carl Lewis, Macy Gray, and Ivan Renema. They're not all famous, but they are all excellent at what they do.According to Larry Light, McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief marketing officer, “McDonald’s...

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The McPamper

OK, so it is great to LOOK at a fresh, new Big Mac (previous post). But EATING a Big Mac is a different story.This unwieldy sandwich is prone to spill-out and ooze-out its ingredients during an eating session. The packaging, which , we suspect, is the main reason the sandwich looks so good so often, is simply unable to help hold the sandwich together during eating.A team of McChronicles researchers offers this time-proven technique to tame this beast...

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Big Macs Look Great

Loyal readers will note a few previous posts that include references to the neat, trim, and tidy appearance of Big Macs. This has become a consistent theme during the McChronicles visits.We hypothesize (never having worked in a McDonald's) that this may be due to the package that the sandwich is built in. We guess that it makes it easier to contain the relatively complex set of ingredients.The bottom line is that we consistently receive Big Macs...

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I Beg To Differ

Very soon after The McChronicles raved about the new, earlier lunch time at one particular store (previous posting) we received two comments stating that late breakfast people appreciate the delayed start of lunch. Now there's a study in perspective. And, by the way, THANKS for the comments - we love hearing from you all.This is a good reminder that there are as many subtle differences as there are people. These late breakfast fans deserve to eat what they want when they want, just like the early lunchers. Imagine the position McDonald's is in...

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Early Lunch

How many times has a person gone into a McDonald's, hoping for an early lunch, only to find that lunch won't be served for another 15 minutes? If this sounds familiar rest assured, The McChronicles feels your pain.So you can imagine how pleased we were when it was reported that the New Hartford, NY store is now serving lunch starting at 10:30AM instead of 11:00AM. That's right, a simple, home computer-generated sign addressed "to all our loyal customers" made the announcement this week.We know that it is important not to mix breakfast cooking with...

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Forever Young

McDonald's reimaging campaign, an attempt to keep their stores fresh and relevant, seems to be in high gear. The McChronicles have noted numerous campaigns to remodel and to rebuild "tired" stores.According to a report on mlive.com, "Most of them (new stores) are smaller and offer a host of unexpected amenities like wireless Internet access, flat screen televisions and meeting rooms. They tend to feature a more modern atmosphere with upholstered...

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McDonald's Of The World

A new blog exists to collect and display images of McDonald's from around the globe. Pay a visit to McDonald's Of The World - and be sure to send in your favorite ima...

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Happy Anniversary

Our good friends at the Fastfoodweblog.nl just celebrated their second anniversary. Congratulations!Aficionados of fast food will appreciate the site's fun and professional take on the industry. You will need a working knowledge of the dutch language to get the most out of the site.Click on over to fastfoodweblog and join the McChronicles in wishing them a happy birthd...

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Delivery

In a previous posting the McChronicles noted a McDonald's bicycle in China. We assumed it was for deliveries but have never been able to confirm this. We were unable to locate the bike during a recent trip to China. Here is a previously-posted image of the bike. The McChronicles just paid a visit to Singapore to investigate the latest McDonald's activities on that beautiful island state. We were long-aware that McDonald's deliveries are a standard...

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Open House

The McChronicles notes a very unusual event going on this weekend in Shanghai, China. Several McDonald's are staging an "open house" and taking customers behind the scenes - behind the counter, and into the kitchen. Applications appear at restaurants. They must be completed and approved prior to the big day. An applicant for the event must declare several things, including one's good health.We also noted very slick TV commercials promoting the event....

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McCafé

As in other countries, China enjoys a few McCafés.This one, in the trendy Xin Tian Di area of Shanghai, offers a simple menu of teas, hot chocolate, coffee, cappucchino, latte, espresso, smoothie, and juice. Not seen on the menu are the few simple snacks that are offered in the case off to the side.The McChronicles observed a few McCafés and found them all to be neat, clean, and fast.According to bizjournals, in a 2001 release "McCafe was first introduced...

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"Mind-Bendingly Curious"?

According to The Basement, "Sometimes a blog comes along that is so mind-bendingly curious, that you just have to mention it. Today, that blog is McChronicles - Chronicling the McDonald's Brand Experience. This is a very interesting – and seemingly independent – look at the McDonalds brand. If you have customers like this guy – you should listen." Yes, we ARE independent. And we appreciate the kind words.BuzzMachine has posted this comment from a reader, "The most interesting “corporate sheppard” blog I’ve seen lately was for McDonalds called The...

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McChronicles Shirt

Jan-Willem is looking GREAT as he sports his McChronicles golf shirt in the Netherlands. Look below for a previous post to see how you can get your own McChronicles shi...

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More, More, More

Chinese McDonald's enjoy a large customer base. With expensive land prices, they struggle to accommodate as many customers as possible. Many sites put customers out on the sidewalk, or in 2nd-floor seating areas (in addition to ground-floor seating). In this case, the seating is for a trendy McCafé. More on those later.Image: McChronic...

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Hurricane Disaster Relief

McDonald's Corporation has created a $2 million matching fund to match donations given at stores.McDonald's is also working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross to determine the most immediate and impactful ways to deploy McDonald's resources and distribution systems to help bring food, water and other supplies where it is needed most.Many local McDonald's owner/operators are already helping to feed relief workers, and victims of the natural disaster.Learn mo...

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