Veggie McDonald's

The McChronicles knows that McDonald's knows way more than we do about satisfying their vegetarian constituency. After all, McDonald's does quite well in places like India and Malaysia that have large vegetarian populations.

The McChronicles is ignorant when it comes to the needs of vegetarians, and we don't know much about McDonald's global vegetarian position, so we were interested when a veggie friend (lives on the west coast of the USA) wrote us recently and said:

"... but I still won't go until they have a veggie burger or really decent salad option. Or take the beef fat out of their fries. They could be really stupendous if they came up with some healthy options that were still tasty (i.e. not sliced apples in a cup). I've always said someone will make a lot of money if they come up with a whole, organic, healthy fast food option. How come no one listens?"

We wonder:

• What, from a vegetarian's perspective, is not to like about the existing McDonald's salads?
• Wasn't the beef fat removed already? Or is the issue here the fact that people are not SURE the beef is removed?
• Aren't apples "tasty"? What else could be offered that would be "tasty"?
• Doesn't McDonald's actively promote their vegetarian option to vegetarians?
• What is McDonald's position on offering vegetarian options?

Here we have someone saying that McDonald's could "be really stupendous" to a certain demographic by making a few changes. We guess these changes are a lot harder than they look, and we are sure that McDonald's has been down this road a million miles. So, what's up with this?

• from a customer perspective?
• from the corporate McDonald's perspective?

The McChronicles: a blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.

Image: The McChronicles