It’s now been over 20 years since I’ve eaten at McDonald’s, and greasy fast food in general. This also means that it’s been 20 years since I’ve paid to sit on uncomfortable plastic furniture. Did you know that McDonald’s designs their seating to be uncomfortable so that you leave as soon as possible?: “Give us your money, get out and please come back again.”
20 Years without McDonald's
Published
That’s a pretty old article. This one is newer, and mentions the “linger zones,” which reflects a change in McD’s old philosophy. I guess they realized that if people stay longer, they tend to buy more.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_20/b3984065.htm
But the point is that people pay money to a company who explicitly designs their product (the restaurant is as much their product as their cholesterol delivery mechanism) to be disliked. I know of no other company that has ever done such a thing. It may be great for business or a brilliant exploitation of psychology, but it’s still an idea only an asshole would have and an idea only an asshole corporation would implement. Corporations are supposed to make products that people like… if they can get people to spend more money by making a product people like more, more power to them. But if they make more money making a product people dislike, they’re anti-capitalism and downright jerks. Of course, the people who pay money to such a corporation are even more to blame for this.