Kuwoobie wrote:
This is not an exaggeration. McDonald's was my first job when I was 16. Of all of the loathsome things I hated about working there, the food waste was by far the worst. It also varied tremendously depending on a day to day basis-- depending on which white-shirt management type person was there at the time. It was my job to grill the meat-- which was done constantly throughout the day. When things are being done by the book, you are technically never supposed to stop grilling. The grill itself is kind of like some giant version of a George Foreman grill, where you slap the frozen hockey pucks of meat down and close the lid. After a few moments it will pop back open on its own, where we would then collect the meat and place them into enclosed bins/trays with paper liners for the sandwich makers on the other side could access.
There are actually timers on the bins that indicate how long the meat is allowed to sit inside of them for before it must be thrown away. I think it was about 4 minutes. During non-peak hours, this meant a lot of meat got thrown out every day-- about a trash-can full as you described. But then, like I said before, it varied. Some days were busy non-stop and we'd have very little waste, usually on weekends. Some days the meat would be allowed to stay in the bins for quite a lot longer than they were supposed to.
Huh. Well, I was going to concede the fact that my information was probably close to 30 years old, so it's possible they'd changed their policies with regards to pre-cooking and timed tossing of pre-cooked patties, but given your age, it looks like they're still doing this (well, everywhere but in Chicago apparently). So I formally retract the concession I almost made!
To be fair though, it was basically dependent on whether the store manager was a stickler for the rules. As you say "by the book", will result in lots of waste. It's reasonable that some managers (especially if at franchises rather than corporate owned stores) might toss that book out the window and not have so much waste. My assumption has always been that McDonalds places a higher value on being able to put that burger you ordered on a tray or in a bag in under a minute than on keeping their waste to a minimum. And I suppose one can argue that they are right given their success worldwide. Which I suppose just reflects poorly on the state of mankind. Then again, it is "fast food". They've cornered the market on "fast".
That and the toys. I'm pretty sure that much of McDonalds success hinges on getting those kids hooked at an early age so that they'll demand to go there. I distinctly recall my friends constantly going to McDonalds whenever they ate fast food. When I asked them why, the answer always was "that's the only place our daughter wants to go". They did go to other places, but every single time fast food was an option, that was where she wanted to go and it was a fight to go anywhere else. So brainwashing
free market then!
As to making breakfast all day long, it's probably actually a good idea. Doubly so since about the only thing that's palatable at McDonalds is their breakfast stuff. Still not likely to move them from the bottom of the list of fast food places I'd choose to eat at. And this is a list which includes Taco Bell and a drive through chicken place nearby that I actually got food poisoning from once. Seriously. The only time in the last 10 years I've gone to McDonalds was when my dad was in hospice care with less than 3 months to live and wanted a Shamrock shake.