The Golden Arches of McDonalds
Rt.1, Saugus, Massachusetts USA
Photo taken on November 4, 2012
A reader at Laura Wood's site, under her posting Ugly Toronto where she quotes from my post "Stay Classy, Toronto" has this to say about McDonalds:
Jay from Goshen writes:There was a time in recent years when McDonalds was really an awful place, dirty and with dubious characters taking up the seats. Now they are gone, having been chased out, and the clientel is clean and proper. There is also a new and ambitious addition to the original McDonalds: the McCafé, which features good, strong coffee which is on a par with Starbucks. The
If a municipality wants to take the trouble, it can pass ordinances that even McDonald’s has to follow. That is why in some locales, McDonald’s restaurants look not only inconspicuous, but attractive. My family and I drove a long distance once in a very isolated part of the southwest. We finally found a McDonald’s. Normally I hate the place, but in that instance, it was comforting and reassuring. It was constructed of local materials and that normally garish golden arch was small, and attractive, under the circumstances.
"é" at the end of cafe is not snobishness. It fits with McDonalds' new image of being cultured, and gets away from its grimy past.
McDonalds goes back to the America of the 1950s, with the hamburger joints, the car culture of teenagers, juke boxes, and waitresses on roller blades. There was an American architecture of burger buildings (there no longer is), and McDonalds was part of that. The burger, and the culture around it, is an American tradition.
A 1950s McDonalds
Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise...on April 15, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois. Though it was the ninth McDonald's restaurant overall, it was Kroc's first franchise...The first day's sales were $366.12.
Just four years later, McDonald's notched its 100th restaurant with the opening of an outpost in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin [More inforamtion here].
A hamburger for 15c, made from "Government inspected meat"
[Larger menu version here]
A contemporary McCafé
Peppermint Mocha for $2.39, in Toronto
Apple Slices. They may not be fresh, but they follow
McDonads' new philosophy of eating healthy without sacrificing taste.
There would really not be a McDonalds without kids. What better way for a kid to have a snack than with sliced apples? It's not much, but this is the enlightened direction that successful institutions take.
Even McDonalds follows the concerns of its customers. But more than mere reaction to customers, the contemporary McDonalds is trying to make eating an aesthetic, pleasant, healthy and fulfilling experience.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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