McDonald's Crew Feedback: BE NICE

In a comment to a previous McChronicles posting, a McDonald's crew member shared some thoughts and suggestions.Interestingly," Tiz" has little to remark about regarding management or the company. What seems to weigh on the mind of this crew member is the way (s)he is treated by us - the customer.Tiz said, "For the most part, if I could only get one and one thing ONLY across to customers..it would have to be that being nice gets you a long way as...

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Feedback On Drive-Thru Disaster

So, after the experience with the previous post we revisited an old subject, McDonald's online feedback form.In the past, this form didn't work for us. Using our old link from the previous post, it still didn't work. We think that the link is to an old page. So, we searched for McDonald's current form and easily found it. We proceded, hoping for an improved experience.First we completed their form: Then we submitted it, and it seemed to work perfectly....

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Drive-Thru Disaster

The McChronicles road team had a busy afternoon schedule today, so we headed to the South Utica, NY (Genesee St., store #18030) for a quick, late lunch.It was after 2PM when we pulled in and the drive-thru line was empty. By the time we set up our camera, several cars had queued up in front of us. That's how fast it can happen. We got on line and, well, let the video do the talking.Two things need to be said here:1) This was a random occurrence. We had no plan to be at this location at this time. Nor did we plan to video this. It all just fell...

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Interactive Virtual 360-Degree Tour of New McDonald's in Amsterdam

In a previous McChronicles post we shared images (like the one at the right) of a hot new McDonald's in Amsterdam, Netherlands. First, we'd like to say that Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth - one of our favorites. Please pay it a visit if you get the chance.Secondly, we'd like to say WOW! We're excited because one of our loyal fans just turned us on to a virtual, interactive 360-degree tour of the very same awesome new McDonald's...

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Bag A McMeal

A very simple and valuable diet tool is available on the McDonald's website. The Bag A McMeal tool provides a very easy way to determine the nutritional characteristics of various McDonald's meals that you can assemble online.To take advantage of this awesome resource, a user simply operates an easy-to-use pulldown menu to select a menu category (eg. sandwiches), chooses a specific menu item from the category, adds the specific menu item(s) to the...

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Shining The Light On Quality: New Ads

One of the main features of eating at McDonald's is that consumers receive consistent service, consistent menu offerings, and consistent good quality. Now McDonald's is reportedly planning on promoting their good quality in a series of new ads.According to a Reuters story titled, "McDonald's looks to sell quality" the company plans "a two-day media event to tout the quality of its food and combat critics who say its burgers and fries are unhealthy....

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McChronicles Celebrates 10,000

The McChronicles just celebrated its 10,000th visitor. Yay!The visitor, from the Milpitas, California area landed on our site at 9:31PM their time, via a Yahoo search for "ronald mcdonald halloween costumes". This McChronicles posting was found on page 1.Image: 2 Rosas...

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McChronicles As A McDonald's Consumer Evangelist

The McChronicles has been described as a "consumer evangelist" before. Today we awake to hear a similar description from the people at Church of the Customer Blog.On behalf of all the loyal customers out here looking to match the expectations with the experience, we thank Ben McConnell for the attention and the mention. We appreciate that he captured our passion FOR McDonald's and didn't distort things into a negative place. Very good work. We have heard Ben speak before. It is no surprise that he is this profession...

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A Day In The Life Of A McDonald's Manager

While reviewing all things McDonald's on the web we came across Steve Crescenzo's Corporate Hallucinations.In this blog is a review of a conference regarding an internal McDonald's blog project. Several McDonald's executives were in attendance. In the "Lovin' It" post, Lisa Grover, a seminar attendee, comments and suggests, "What are the outside impressions of the company?" as a possible category for McDonald's to consider. The McChronicles is proud...

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McDonald's Inner Child Gets It

We agree, McDonald's "Inner Child" ad series really gets it. But, just as we wonder about the adults in the commercial, we wonder if McDonald's gets it.Australian Blogger Duncan McLeod does a great job reviewing the McDonald's Australia advertisements, so we'll leave the details in his capable hands. Our point is this, The McChronicles exists due to our having bought the McDonald's message as kids. We guess that you did, too. So, here we go, walking...

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New Hartford McDonald's Video Tour

Store #825 is on Route 5 (Seneca Turnpike) in New Hartford. Here is a brief McChronicles vlog (video blog) glimpse of the dining area.This store has a lot going for it, especially some pretty dialed-in crew members. It seems to suffer with dining area cleanliness. If they'd only send someone out to clean up and wipe down the tables, seats, and floors more frequently The McChronicles would really love this place.Anyway, this is a really good McDonald's, offering fast food and lots of smil...

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McPlane!

Just when we thought we'd seen everything McDonald's - we see The McPlane.According to the MediaMerger website, "McPlane(tm) is the latest and hottest civilian airplane to be spotted in the Swiss and European skies. It is a joint venture of Crossair, Hotelplan (a major Swiss travel agency) and McDonald's". The site goes on to explain, "McPlane is not a business, but rather a family plane and it mainly serves holiday destinations in Europe and Near...

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The McChronicles Appeals To Worldwide McDonald's Fans

Based on this graph (copied directly from our website analysis program this morning) The McChronicles continues to be of interest to readers from around the world.The accompanying map indicates where the most recent 100 readers actually logged in from (the red dot represents the last person to log on - in this case a reader from St. Louis, Missouri, USA). Remember, these are just snapshots of a moment in time.Obviously McDonald's has made an impression...

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Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Has No McDonald's!

We were stunned!A McChronicles team recently passed through Atlanta, Georgia's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. We enjoyed our leisurely walk down the terminal. When it came time for a bite to eat we thought, "McDonald's" (of course). Well, NO McDonald's!!!So, we grabbed one of their feedback forms and filled it in.Please pardon our indignation, but we really had our sites set on a warm, juicy Big Mac. Maybe next time!Image: McChronic...

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McCafe Arrives in The USA

The United States of America, birthplace of McDonald's, will finally get a McCafe.From Drinks Business Review, "According to the Financial Times, the fast food giant's McCafe concept has already seen robust growth across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe, and is now being trialed its home market of North America. "The McChronicles visited several McCafes in China recently and enjoyed them. Can't wait to see them in the USA!Image: Shanghai...

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Utica New York's Coolest McDonald's

Utica, New York's Mohawk Street McDonald's (store # 5340) has a lot going for it. Located in the ethnic East Utica part of town, this restaurant offers a peppy and spirited crew.It also serves a very diverse demographic, so the patrons are always interesting. Case in point, during this visit a young Venezuelan retail entrepreneur introduced herself to our focus group and asked to look over our Monopoly pieces (she is hoping to win the Viper). This led to that and we quickly learned all about her jewelry store in a nearby shopping mall. AWESOME!The...

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The Thrill Is Gone

The South Utica (NY) McDonald's (store #: 18030) was the scene of a very special McChronicles moment several years ago. We co-celebrated a friend's birthday AND the grand opening of the (then) world's newest McDonald's.Fast forward to today.Though the site makes the very best of a potentially-tough location (in fact the setting is now quite beautiful - kudos the McDonald's site team for that), the interior has degraded to the point where it really...

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McDonald's Blog: Live From McDonald's

"I attracted some attention from customers as I was moving around trying to find a better signal. Four young, professional looking guys asked if I was a student at the nearby DeVry location (I'm not). They were pretty wowed by the keyboard and wireless and the whole nine yeards. Then some high-school kids wondered if it was a real computer and if I worked for McDonalds to get the Wi-Fi access (I don't)."A live blog posted from a McDonald's - using...

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Fry Envy: Penang Style

Throughout the world McDonald's has become much more than a place to grab a quick bite to eat. For many it has become THE place to meet, interact, and spend some time out of the house. Today's McChronicles field report certainly contains it's share of human interest - to a point.The location - Penang, Malaysia. The moment - several colleagues enjoying each other's company over a banquet of McDonald's food. A couple of men, several women - the stage...

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What Makes A "USA Top 100 McDonald's"?

The McChronicles recently posted about an experience with the Sarasota, FL "Top 100" McDonald's. The entire experience was very good, but it didn't feel special or anything.We think this designation MUST be pretty special - but wonder how a restaurant earns such distinction.Can someone from McDonald's please comment and share the criteria?Image: McChronic...

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Miss McDonald Returns to the McChronicles

We admit it, The McChronicles pays the occasional visit to the Miss McDonald website. We also admit that her activity seems just plain strange. But who are we to judge?Is she taking her love for Ronald McDonald too far? Has McDonald's tried to stop her activities? Did her dentist give her a clean bill of health? We want to know!One thing we do know, she gets a ton of comments from some pretty loyal followers. For example, socratic_irony writes, "you,...

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Fast Food Halloween

In a slight turn of The Monster Mash, or of today's American Express "rogue's gallery of commercial mascots" we now have iconic fast food icons serving as Halloween characters.The ubiquity of the fast food lifestyle, pervasive throughout nearly everyone's life, makes these spokespeople characters excellent personnae for Halloween parties.Of course, the characters are so well known that they can only be pulled off using the most professional costumes....

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Hamburger Magic

He's no Hamburgular, but he's pretty cool. This guy is awesome at making hamburgers appear and disappear.More cool stuff appears on The Alf Report.It's not McDonald's, but The McChronicles really digs this.Image: Nucifora....

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Should McDonald's "Reebok" BK?

The McChronicles invited in some "adult supervision" after we spouted off about how McDonald's should counter the amusing Burger King commercial. Of course, we turned to one of the world's leading pundits on multiple communications platforms (word of mouth, blogging, podcasting, et al), Matt Galloway, of The Basement. Matt's response was, as expected, spot-on. A big "NO".In retrospect, we have to agree. While the ad is a hit - ranking #1 in Technorati...

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Singapore Searches for Ronald McDonald

A team of highly-sophisticated sleuths have dedicated themselves to tracking down Ronald McDonald, wherever he may be (as long as he is in a Singapore McDonald's restaurant).MiChi Tubbit Mijikoi Xomaeira, the proprietors (self-described "Ronald McDonald groupies") of "Ronald McDonalds In Singapore", a photo blog based on Fotopages, declares their mission as, "Tracking down Ronald at various McDonald's outlets in Singapore." Note: they throw in a...

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New Hartford, NY McDonald's Amazes The McChronicles

A focus group of four adult males visited the New Hartford, NY McDonald's recently - the service was simply awesome.The small line moved fast - we were waited on before we were even ready. The focus order was a Big Mac value meal with no cheese. It was ready before we had even put the change in our pocket!Line Wait: 45 secondsOrder Wait: (Big Mac Value Meal - no cheese): 30 secondsQuality: Very GoodService: Good, Warm, PleasantCleanliness: GoodTime:...

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Burger King Visits The McChronicles

The McChronicles hosts some interesting visitors. We'd like to thank the good people at Burger King headquarters for dropping in today for over 23 minutes. Welcome guys!PS: Don't be too concerned about the post below (Reebok). Though it would be very cool, it is highly unlikely.PPS: The guys from McDonald's HQ drop in from time to time, too. THANKS for stopping ...

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Let's Reebok BK!

Who in America can forget that riveting and scandalous TV commercial that depicted (and we quote from an archived USA Today article), "a pale British streaker, clad only in a pair of Nike Shox NZ shoes and a scarf, races across the field and through the stands during a London soccer game. His Shox keep him a step ahead of British bobbies and guards." It was powerful - and it established the new order in the sneaker world. View the Nike streaker ad.But...

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Sarasota, Florida: A USA Top 100 McDonald's

A McChronicles team had the recent pleasure of visiting one of America's Top 100 McDonald's. This gem is in Sarasota, Florida at 6347 S. Tamiami Trail (not to be confused with other McDonald's in the area).Line Wait: 0 secondsOrder Wait: (Big Mac Value Meal): 60 secondsQuality: Very GoodService: Good, WarmCleanliness: GoodTime: 2PMStore: 1413Our original plan was to sample the Drive Thru, but the exterior looked so plain that we simply HAD to explore...

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Chinese Kids Love McDonald's

The Chinese news source, Eastday, reports that a recent study indicates that 43.6 percent of Beijing, China middle and primary school students go to McDonald's or other fast food restaurants on a monthly basis. They go on to say that, "6.1 percent go every week or every day." Image: A Shanghai McDonald's, The McChronic...

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