McDonald’s, the world’s largest entertainment chain, has announced a $6 billion plan to overhaul most of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. However, only about 20 of the chain’s 14,300 domestic locations have been remodeled since late 2015. McDonald’s executives defended the ambitious and costly remodel program, arguing that the unique qualities of McDonald’s older restaurant designs, like the presence of the Hamburglar and Ronald himself, have been erased and replaced with “muted”. The company has completed roughly 1,000 projects in the past third quarter alone, and in 2023, McDonald’s invested UAH 1 billion in opening new and renovating old restaurants.
The renovations will include new decor and digital kiosks, with the wall hiding the kitchen so customers can’t see back-of-house operations. The aim is to attract customers away from slightly pricier casual chains, such as Panera Bread and Chipotle. The revamp includes digital self-order kiosks, remodeled counters for new table service, bright and easy-to-read digital menu boards, designated areas for delivery and self-service, and more stability in the restaurants.
McDonald’s aggressive plan to redesign and update stores to meet the growing consumer appetite for delivery and self-service has collided with some major investments, such as McDonald’s UK and I, which will invest over £250m over the next four years to redesign parts of its restaurant estate to suit the rise of omnichannel ordering.
📹 How Much Mcdonald’s Franchise Owners Really Make Per Year
Anyone who has worked at McDonald’s knows it’s a pretty thankless job, but what about the franchise owners? If you’ve ever …
Why did McDonald’s get rid of Ronald McDonald?
Critics have long criticized McDonald’s for using a clown mascot to target children for fast food, with a group of 550 physicians and health professionals taking out newspaper ads in 2011 stating that Ronald McDonald should be retired. Since 2016, Ronald McDonald has made fewer appearances due to the 2016 clown sightings, but as of 2017, he was still appearing at live events and on social media.
The history of McDonaldland and its various controversies can be traced back to the early 2000s when McDonald’s sent in the clown, again. The company put Ronald back to work in 2011, but McDonald’s has said no way Ronald will retire. In 2014, Ronald McDonald lost his jumpsuit and joined Twitter, and Twitter called him “NotLovinIt”. In 2003, McDonald’s plans a Ronald revival, and in 2002, the company announced that it would launch a “wai” to hit the States.
Ronald and Donald McDonald maintain their cultural identities, with John Ash and John Hex keeping their cultural identities. The 1991 Discover Rain Forest book, Discover The Rain Forest, is a popular book about Ronald McDonald’s wonders in the wild activity book. In 2010, McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure was released, and in 2009, Ronald McDonald appeared in a magical world. In 2010, Leonard Maltin’s movie and video guide was published, and in 2011, it was reported that it was time for McDonald’s to retire Ronald.
In the past, McDonald’s has faced criticism for its use of a clown mascot, which has been criticized for targeting children for fast food. A group of 550 physicians and other health professionals took out newspaper ads in 2011, urging that Ronald McDonald should be retired. However, as of 2017, Ronald McDonald was still appearing at live events and on social media.
In conclusion, McDonald’s has faced criticism for its use of a clown mascot, but it has continued to make appearances at live events and on social media. The company has also faced criticism for its use of a clown mascot, but it remains a symbol of the company’s commitment to maintaining its cultural identity.
Why is fast food becoming increasingly popular?
Fast food is a popular choice due to its affordability, convenience, and taste. According to Colby College, it can be cheaper than preparing your own food or going out to nicer restaurants, making it a more affordable option for people who want a good meal without spending a lot of money. Fast food restaurants are also located everywhere, making it easy to find one without having to drive far.
Convenience is another reason why people choose fast food. They don’t have to spend time in the kitchen, grocery store, or a nice restaurant, and can have a full meal within ten minutes. Many big families visit these restaurants on busy days when there’s not enough time for a big meal.
The taste of fast food is another key factor in its popularity. The greasy burgers, crispy fries, and cheesy pizza with layers of pepperoni are appealing to many people, making it a comfort food. Restaurants must have good-tasting food to attract customers, and a convenient, affordable, fast meal is just what people want.
Why is McDonald’s losing popularity?
McDonald’s reported its first global sales drop in over three years, with sales falling 1% in the April-June period. This is the first drop since the last quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions closed businesses and kept millions at home. International developmental licensed markets, operated by licensees, saw a steeper decline, with sales falling 1. 3% due to weak consumer sentiment in China and boycotts in the Middle East over the fast-food chain’s perceived support for Israel.
Why is the McDonald’s logo upside down in 2024?
The campaign pays homage to the long-standing tradition of featuring a restaurant called “Wendy’s” in manga and anime.
Why is McDonald’s doing so well?
McDonald’s is dedicated to providing its clientele with palatable and gratifying experiences through the implementation of a comprehensive operational framework. The company’s emphasis on robust execution and a long-term growth strategy is evident in its Q1 2024 results, which illustrate the resilience of its entire system.
Did McDonald’s improve their food?
McDonald’s has made significant improvements to its burgers, including a new process for hotter, meltier cheese and better grill settings. The changes, which apply to the Big Mac, McDouble burger, classic cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, and hamburger, were first made in international markets and have already arrived in some US cities. The changes will be available nationally by early next year, following other improvements to key menu items.
Why did McDonalds rebrand?
McDonald’s faced a staid public image due to its outdated color scheme. To address this, the restaurant rebranded its packaging by expanding its color scheme. This change was crucial as color plays a significant role in marketing, as seen in Whole Foods’ earthy colors. McDonald’s needed to add vibrant colors to their palette, reducing the presence of red and yellow, to create a new visual identity. This approach not only helped to improve the restaurant’s image but also helped to address the perception of the restaurant as unhealthy.
Why is McDonalds changing to WcDonald’s?
Since the 1980s, McDonald’s has been featured in Japanese cartoons and comics, including the Golden Arches. To avoid legal issues, studios and artists have turned the iconic McDonald’s logo upside down, creating the WcDonald’s restaurant. This new approach to marketing is paying off, as McDonald’s understands its culture and fans, and its iconic stature. For brands with less status or budgets, the key takeaway is to put their audience and passions at the heart of their marketing strategy.
McDonald’s lost market share in 2018 due to stale advertising, which required a fresh approach. Jennifer Healan, VP of marketing, brand content and engagement for McDonald’s US, explains that McDonald’s now talks fan to fan, allowing the brand to continuously find opportunities to create campaigns rooted in people and their passions. Aligning with anime is essential for McDonald’s to connect with its passionate young audience, as it means showing them that the brand understands their needs and passions.
Why are fast food restaurants modernizing?
Fast-food restaurants are reimagining their stores with the objective of catering to the millennial audience’s desire for a pleasant, well-designed environment. This is in accordance with the findings of an Adweek article, which indicates that reliable food and quick service are no longer sufficient to attract and retain customers.
Why is fast food trendy?
The popularity of fast food can be attributed to its convenience, as it eliminates the need for cooking or cleaning, thereby saving time. The popularity of franchises or chains can be attributed to the consistency of standards they offer, which ensures a uniform quality across different countries. This quality is a significant factor in the appeal of these establishments for many individuals.
📹 Why All Fast Food Chains Look The Same Today – Cheddar Explains
Have you ever wondered why new McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger Kings and more are starting to look the same?
Huh. I am actually kinda surprised this is actually helping them. In my region, when a fast food place remodels like this, I start forgetting they are there. They look really generic, they don’t really pop out and remind you of their existence… very easy to miss when driving along. This gets even worse when I am in an area that I am not familiar with, they just blend in.
Let’s get one thing straight: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and others like them still serve fast food. All they did was change the look of their buildings and the interior. If I go into a McDonald’s and order a quarter-pounder with cheese, the staff will serve the burger in about a minute. It will be lukewarm with unmelted cheese and fall apart when I take a bite because it looks like it was assembled by a 7-year old. I would NEVER go to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King for “fast-casual.” I go to them because I know they have fast food. That’s what they serve. Also, nobody goes to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King for “new and fresh.” They go there for fast food. So sick of these companies trying to rebrand themselves when they still serve the same low-quality food. It’s like a music band rebranding their image, but their music still sucks! In contrast, let’s look at In-N-Out Burger. The company purposely designs its restaurants to look like the 1950s (in other words, they don’t want modern). All their burgers are still under $4 (that’s early 2000 prices)! Their menu hasn’t changed in 73 years! Yet, when I go to an In-N-Out, their drive-thru line takes up the entire lane extends out to the parking lot and specific times to the street. The In-N-Out by my house has the line forming at the left turn lane from the road! In-N-Out Burger is considered fast food, but unlike today’s fast food, they cook their burgers over an open grill like 1950s fast-food restaurants, so you’re not going to get it in 2 minutes.
I actually miss how each fast food chain had their own distinct and kitschy gimmick, it clicks in a unique way especially when you’re a kid begging your folks to treat you to a happy meal. It’s odd that they pay so much attention to how the sign and building looks rather than the service (which has gone down) and prices (which have gone up) I’ve never once walked into a recently remodeled Burger King thinking it’s hip and posh or a place I’d like to linger for long, fast food is the “Super 8” of dining and always has been. If they really had any foresight they’d pay less attention the latest design fads and whether or not the sign is in Helvetica fonts and more attention to the service and actual cleanliness, and maybe bring back the popular specials and combos that knock off a good bit of the ever rising regular prices. McDonald’s doesn’t need to be anything different, its role is clearly defined and well actualized as is.
Although the emergence of fast casual is definitely a huge factor in this new look, one of the reasons McDonald’s specifically started the rollout of a new restaurant design was the emerging success of Starbucks. McDonald’s aimed to compete and started McCafe and with it, brought a redesign to many stores. You can see the similarities between the darker tones and wood usage of Starbucks.
Does anybody remember when Wendy’s used to have tables that looked like they were covered in old newspapers from the 1910s? They also had Tiffany-style lamps. I miss those designs. Millenials, the generation with kids, are nostalgic. I wish one of these chains would revive their old decor from the 1980s and 1990s and compliment it with modern touches. Just a free idea, Corporate America. (Also pay your workers better)
My favorite is the McDonald’s with the trapezoid roof. Tile floors and fiberglass booths. Fast casual isn’t higher quality there isn’t any difference between McDonald’s of old and the fast casual one today. They’re still staffed by teenagers and students and food come from the food service truck. Marketing is the major change
Driving with my mother, my son and nephew went to a MCDONALD’S in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (they are doing the same type of buildings). As we got back home, the first thing she said as soon as the kids hop off the car was: “MCDONALD’S went from a happy child look to a depressed millennial adult in a fitted suit”.
It is helpful that the design of the buildings are becoming basically the same across all fast food restaurants. When a McDonald’s with the old design moved or went out of business, the building still looked distinctly like a McDonald’s. It was harder for a different restaurant to take over that same building without doing major renovations, so they would sit empty.
I remember when I was a little kid the McDonald’s close to my house had like a play area, & so did the Burger King that was a couple blocks away, so much change in my lifetime & I’m not even that old I was born in 2001 💀 back then it use to make me wanna go in & eat in the restaurant cause I could play & eat, now I just go thur the drive Thur 😏💀
I know that when I’m p00ping fire for hours after eating Taco Bell, I close my eyes and think of the hip architecture trends that drew me into that fast casual dining utopia. It’s the soothing memories of that beautiful structure that carries me through the hours of colon cleansing torture. I know that as the last of the equine based meat finishes ravaging my entrails, I will always have the brightly lit boxy built architecture to soothe my cramping intestines.
“There is no real thought about this, you could change the wendys sign and put a mcdonalds sign on it” Okay so you missed a huge point here. The Real estate value of the buildings itself. When a mcdonalds would close, mcdonalds would have to bulldoze the building because any place that went in there would LOOK LIKE a mcdonalds. The old design reduces the real estate resale value to Zero! You can still see businesses in old Pizza Huts and when you drive by you go “that used to be a pizza hut.” This is NOT a desirable trait for a piece of real estate.
It’s funny – as a kid, Wendy’s felt more like the “fast casual”, better choice, back in the day when they had the tables printed with old newspaper ads and had an atrium seating area. Fast food/ casual fast/ whatever, I like an interesting environment to eat in. A local Long John Silvers has beachy murals on the wall that look like 50’s ads for family vacations and I love it. I hate eating areas that just look like an extension of the fast food assembly machine, I want to see personality.
I think you missed the influence of mandated designs. Cities and communities, ie San Diego’s mission designs, are issuing design esthetic standards you have to follow to build there. Those cities all read the same play book, so designs evolve to meet the standards looking similar. In the end, it’s cheaper to recreate designs for highly regulated municipalities everywhere rather than keep multiple designs. So don’t forget to give some credit to governments telling people what their city should look like.
I like that they have kiosks now because customers can casually browse from their menu and decide what they want to eat without any pressure at all. I definitely don’t like the pressure to decide when I look at their menu when I come into a fast food place that I always feel like I’m holding up their cashier. It’s just like browsing on Amazon or ebay.
Actually McDonald’s certainly in Europe has totally redesigned their look, they got rid of the red and yellow, for light greens and pale blues, and replacing fried etc for low fat, grilled healthier….. with different interiors, that feel fresh….. and went to grate expense to banish the smell of oil or fat
I live in Texas, and I remember that they had a McDonald’s that was literally shaped like a happy meal box. It was sort of like a travel stop- meant for people to take pictures and buy merchandise. I even remember that they used to have shortbread cookies in the happy meals, similar to animal crackers. Now both of them are gone because McDonald’s wants to be healthy as well as the next thing to Starbucks. Disgusting. I miss the old charm. Plus I can’t eat a quarter pounder from them anymore without feeling like I’m gonna loose a toe.
We’re just going to have this same exact conversation about these buildings in a few years. Anyone who uses those terms like “oh that’s so dated looking”, “let’s update that to something new” is just exercising job security because they’re gonna have to come back and change things up again in a few years when we all get sick of the homogenized, bland, generic box store design again. How about we just let the stores find their brand style and stick with it.
So basically all these restaurants turned themselves into identical boxes because a bunch of middle management marketing people had to justify the existence of their jobs so they spent a bunch of time pitching presentations about ‘progress’ but were too scared and unoriginal to take any risks or make any interesting developments whatsoever.
McDonalds in Europe were the first american fast food brand that started to go green, 10 years ago or so. They changed all the branding from bright red to dark green. Introduced fresh apple slices as an alternative to fries, changed the furniture to be wooden and comfy etc. Burger king followed soon after with a similar plan. KFC has not embraced this look and frankly, their restaurants look awful, old, dirty and it’s the least attractive fast food. Edit. If you ever come to Barcelona and need to go to a fast-food chain, I would recommend Viena. It´s a catalan fast food chain, but with much better quality than McDo and BK.
Yet all of the fast food buildings around me still looks like how they looked since the late 90s. I doubt any of them will remodel any time soon since I live in a small town in Louisiana. We recently got a touch screen kiosk at my local McDonalds even though the store hasn’t been remodeled since the early 2000s. It’s mostly white or have plastic everywhere. Then I drive down to New Orleans and their McDonalds have wood panels, darker color schemes, and a body design. I don’t think my Wendy’s has been remodeled since it was built in the 80s either while Wendy’s from other areas have a TV/lounge area with WiFi.
So in my city there was the McDonald’s a Hardee’sa taco Bell and I think a Burger King all on the same four corners of an intersection. The first no… wait actually the Hardee’s hadn’t been built yet., Nor the McDonald’s But I digress, first was the KFC, with a classic 90s look red and white stripes and the full buffet counter. The food was amazing. A modern gray rectangular McDonald’s was built in its place. Then the taco Bell across from it had to remodel, to keep up with the trend of minimalist gray and black efficiency, non-offensive decor and conformity to perceived market success. Then a Hardee’s was built across the in the same style. It got to the point that there what’s a restaurant on each corner, and they were all nearly identical, so in a few years there will be one chain that has to remodel in order to stand out and the rest will copy it and the cycle will continue.
I don’t percieve the new fast food as fresher or healthier at all. In fact, since all of the restaurants look exactly the same, and all boxy, it makes it seem a lot more cold, corporate, and overall worse. It feels like all of these places are running on machines and have factory assembled food (which is not 100% wrong btw). When everything had a different design, or at least when they looked like a more traditional diner, it did feel like each piece of food was more individualized. It felt made-to-order. It felt like there was really someone cooking my food on a grill and in a fryer, as opposed to just sticking it in a microwave.
My local McDonald’s recently remodeled with an Urban Decay theme. No joke. Acid yellow and black walls. Murals of electrical boxes, pipes and trash. Stencils of flat, lifeless birds, also in black. I totally understand McDonald’s thinking. They saw urban decay in the surrounding neighborhood, and thought, “Hey, let’s do an Urban Decay theme!” The re-design is such an insult to my neighborhood. We need help with beautification. We don’t need McD’s adding to the urban decay.
This reminds me of how minivans evolved from 1984 to around 2000. They all started out different looking. By the year 2000, you had to have intimate knowledge of minivans to tell them apart or had to look for the brand label on them. Of course now, everyone hates minivans because they work and are practical. We must have wasteful vehicles to display our status.
I would think it also makes construction and maintenance more efficient. If anything is broken, damaged, or some such, if most of the buildings have similar simpler components it’s easier to order replacement parts. Thus a particular restaurant won’t look like it’s fading or some such. And simpler exteriors would probably be easier to clean or repaint as needed, don’t any of those overhanging bucket cranes for oddly sloped roofs and such. A simple up and down scissor lift will do, if not just a ladder for small fixups.
The first time I saw a modern gray Mcdonalds was after a local one was temporarily shut down due to having snails in the deep fryer I thought it was a PR move to disassociate that Mcdonalds from the incident, since it was pretty much unrecognizable, bar the golden arches and then about two years later and now I cant find any fast food restaurant that doesn’t look gray and blocky
It’s called mimetism. Some animals tries to change their apperance to looks like another animal so they could benefits from the looks without having the same characteristics. Like some insects try to look like leafs, or wood, some flies try to look like spiders and some chain restaurants tries to look like another to allure distracted prey.
They’re even doing this to Miami subs and adding nightclub lighting 😂 and the inside looks a lot cuter. some of these McDonald’s look like little prisons. It’d be nice if they’d actually work on the quality of the food instead of just the exterior of the building. Does anyone notice that the quality of shake Shack and 5 guys has gone down to total shit?? It’s like they’ve changed the ingredients and prep and just rely on their established reputation
our dairy queen started out as a walkup in the 60s. it was an old house that was moved from down the block of a side street to the main drag. i can’t remember ever going to the walk-up and not having to wait in line. in the 80s it was remodeled to a dine-in and was usually packed until sometime in the 90s when the quality changed. people came out of habit. abt 10 yrs ago corporate noticed the location was not as profitable as it once was and demanded the local franchise erect a new building so it would look like all the others. local franchise told corporate the problem wasn’t the building but the lower quality of the food supplied by corporate. corporate insisted that the location would either be rebuilt or corporate would revoke franchise licensing. franchise handed the paperwork over to corporate and told them to shove it some place. it became a pizza place for a short time, gross pizza if that’s what it really was, they went under. then a mexican restaurant went in. after nearly a decade in business they still don’t have enough parking spaces and there’s STILL a line out the door on friday nights.
“Welcome to Wendy’s! May I take your order?” “Yes, I’d like a Whopper.” “Sorry, sir. This isn’t Burger King.” “Well, how about a Taco Supreme.” “We’re not Taco Bell, either.” “Well, where the hell am I?” “This is a Wendy’s sir.” “Oh. Okay. Then I’d like a 3-piece original recipe meal.” “Sir, please. This isn’t funny.” “I’m not joking. I have no idea what restaurant I’m in.” “I just told you. This is Wendy’s. Do we look like Burger King, Taco Bell, or KFC?” “Yes! That’s the problem! I never know what restaurant I’m at. I’m just going to go home and cook something.”
How in the world didn’t this article mention JBX Grill? Anyone remember that? Jack in the Box was the first that I recall out of the major fast food chains to try and go “fast casual” with their JBX rebranding. They redesigned a bunch of their restaurants in 2004, inside and out, and had a more boxy (fitting!), industrial/pop-artsy contemporary look as well as introducing more healthy menu options, alongside the usual offerings of course. (There would be riots if they dropped their Oreo shakes!!) But it was a bit ahead of its time, because within a couple of years, they dropped the JBX branding and went back to being Jack in the Box. Only 5-10 years later did the other major chains start doing the same thing, but without name changes like “JBX”. EDIT: As it turns out… JBX Grill wasn’t nationwide, but only tested out in the Boise, Idaho area (where I grew up), and small parts of California. I had no idea!
It also has to do with zoning. It is easier to sell wanting to put in a fast food restaurant or to have it continue to operate if it had muted tones, contemporary look, less seating means less parking and can add a second drive thru lane for traffic control. You know who doesn’t have a problem? In n Out. Same kitschy 50’s decor, same food. Seven days a week, people dining inside and drive thru wrapped around the building until 1am.
2020s: I miss during the 80s when each fast food architecture is unique and you can easily identify which one is which by just looking at their building design! 2030s: I miss the past times as a kid when we were able to dine & hangout inside the fast food restaurant with my family and enjoy the cozy environment there! Nowadays most restaurants only allow pickup & drive-thru.. 2040s: I miss the days when each restaurant is identifiable easily by just looking at their color schemes.. now it’s just dark, grey and some warm colors.. 2050s: I miss the days when fast food packaging had great designs & colors.. now it’s just plain white bags everywhere since restaurants wants to save money.. ugh. 2060s: ？？？ 2160s: Ｎｏ ｆａｓｔ ｆｏｏｄ ｒｅｓｔａｕｒａｎｔ ｆｏｕｎｄ
The real reason they make the new buildings look so much alike is so the buildings are easier to sell to the next franchise when a new one fails. If you have a building as iconic as the old Hardee’s pagoda or the McDonald’s golden arches, if it fails, no matter what moves in next, you know what was once there. Now, you can’t tell what the building sells without looking for the tiny signage. It’s not trying to copy success, it’s trying to hide failure. How many of you guys know of that one building that’s been every fast food restaurant you can think of in the last decade, but nothing stays open a year? That’s what the boxes “fix”. There’s no having to remodel or rebuild, just rebrand and put on a new coat of paint at most.
This is a huge load of crap. Nobody started going to the fast casual places because of how they looked. And nobody stopped going to Mcdonalds because of how it looked. It was the food and the customer service. McDonalds customer service is and always has been terrible for as long as I can remember. You actually get the correct order maybe 50% of the time.
This article is horrible. The reason Fast Food chains have adopted the boxy plain look is because its easy to repurpose it and sell it to another business. McDonalds can now sell the building to Taco Bell. Taco Bel can take the building and repurpose it for themselves. In the end, Fast Food is not in the business of food. They are in the business of real estate.
I am sure you can follow the standard of that model but still change it up in a way that will make it unique and standout amongst the rest. That to me sounds better than making everything look the same. I heard that the reason for the McDonald’s yellow arches is BECAUSE IT STANDS OUT and catches your attention. Why not do that with the buildings like they used to? Make the windows large, follow the new template in some form.
Now they need to train franchise owners to deliver freshness, quality, and efficiency promised! Eliminate problems like Windows driven self serve soft drink dispensers malfunctioning and running out of half the product. Train their employees to remember simple things like greeting the customer instead of just staring at him or her. And deliver fresh and edible product! McDonald’s jacked prices way up on regular items but the quality often isn’t there. Also, some of the managers have been known to be hostile and extremely rude to customers.
What makes me sad is that this way the whole “American aesthetic” has been lost! It now all looks the same, anywhere in the world you go! I want to live in the US ever since i was 10 yrs old, i have struggled and have been fighting to get a visa for already 9 years! (I am 26 now) My whole life all. I wanted was to have an American family, living in an iconic “sitcom looking” American house, and having the American life from the movies! But now all my lifelong dreams have been crushed and I don’t even see the point of fighting to live in the Us! Basically everything i ever loved about the US (architecture, friendly neighbours, classic American fashion etc) it’s all going away…and is going fast! Right now the only difference between living in the USA and Europe is that in the USA there’s more ghettos, homeless people, crime, pollution, corrupt police, expensive healthcare and dangerous schools! So basically only minuses! Everything looks pretty much the same, people dress the same, buildings (modern ones) look the same, cars are all the same… so what exactly should motivate me at this point to fight for the right to live in America?!?! What make America different these days? Before America used to have a unique charm to it, this specific American style of everything from vehicles to buildings to pop culture and music! If i had the change to dump everything own today and go back to the 80s America.. i’d do it in a heartbeat!
The king of fast food, fast-casual, and any other speed food continues to be McDonald’s, they are the most profitable restaurant chain there is. It’s not because of the builsings, the prices, the service, or the food — it’s because of the advertising. Everything counts a little bit but advertising counts the most if you can afford it. When McDonald’s change the exterior or interior of the building it puts pressure on their competition and causes them to spend money that they didn’t plan to spend in that direction and siphons cash away from advertising. In my opinion Chick-fil-A is the modern day business model to emulate I noticed they were not mentioned for this article but KFC was.
It’s really sad to see all of the unique restaurant brand character disappearing…I remember the Taco Bell’s made out of slump block with arched windows and real vigas, the KFC’s with the steeply pointed roofs capped with a weathervane, the Long John Silver’s with the dark wood nautical interiors…these looks really should come back. “Minimalism” and the idea of “sleek” and “less is more” has been taken way too far…these bland boxes in different shades of brown are going to get really old really fast.
To me, I thought McDonald’s was the most “offensive” in design when it came to their image change. They kept the bright red and yellow signage and logo, but made the buildings and interiors very neutral and modern….they just don’t go well together. Wendy’s and Burger King did a better job by still incorporating their colors into their new aesthetic.
“wanted to see if they could steal from the Five Guys of the world and from the Shake Shacks of the world, pull those customers into their restaurant.” Why? Everyone knows McDonald’s is there. Everyone knows Wendy’s is there. No one is not eating at them because of the building design, I promise. People usually don’t have ONE place they go to eat. One day I might go to Five Guys, the next I might go to McDonalds, a week later I might be in the mood for Wendy’s. You don’t need to steal customers. They’ll come to you when they feel like it and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. I do NOT care how flashy (or bland as the case may be) your building is. People buy food out of trucks on the side of the road. You really think people are going to avoid a nice greasy burger because the building is still living in the 80’s? Get real.
A lot of glass/big windows These restaurants had this for years. Big signs These restaurants had this for years also. Bright colors? Well duh, they always had bright colors. The one thing this article doesn’t really answer is what’s the reason for the boxy design. How does a boxy design show safety, cleanliness, value etc.? It doesn’t. the architect Glen Coben towards the end said it best. It’s lack of creativity. They fill their board with yes men and women who only speak corporate speak, and have no idea what people want. I am more willing to go to a restaurant that looks more homey than a giant series of sterile looking dark boxes.
I have and its BORING. Older buildings are different and artistic. New stuff is bland and same same. Its liek out town court house. It was a beautiful old design from the 1800s but was considered too small. So what did they do in the 70s? Tore it down and rebuilt a new one as a big grey concrete block taking up the same exact space as the old one. its horrible. My town are morons when it comes to history. They close old unique buildings then have no idea what to do with them so they tear them down and make ka parking lot of sell to lawyers to take over or worse give it to the local asshole college that tear them down and make their gaudy UGLY buildings in their place. Hate my town.
I dont like this times designs. Give me old style and incorporate historic designs into it or give me futuristic. Not now time. Now time is bland and square and blocky and grey. Brutalistic. No thanks. Strangely I do like the new Wendys. The big red flat wall stands out. The red is nice. I like kred. I dont like browns and yellows so I dont like Burger King or Taco Bell. BK should put green forward and TB Im not sure what they can do. The earthy colors dont do it for me. Its drab.
I actually miss the old McDonalds look, why would they ditch such an iconic look of the red roof with the yellow lights and arches, and i miss the old look of Wendy’s with the slanted panels on the side with the thick text and the old wendy. But what i miss most is the 50’s and 60’s style of McDonalds with the neon.
I don’t know what consumers actually like this, but I will not be paying sky high prices for JUNK fast food that is terribly unhealthy for you, at a building that looks like a DMV or County Jail, with zero human interaction, and interior decorations straight out of 1984. The designers that were interviewed here use big words to simply say that they stole the design from their competition and made sure not to offend anybody.
I pick fast food based on the quality I’m getting from the place I’m going. Lots of times it depends who’s at the helm whether or not you’re going to get a good qualify fast food meal or not. This is very subjective obviously because the (insert fast food biz name here) isn’t the same in ever neighborhood or town for that matter. We have 1 Wendy’s in my town. When the General Manager is there everything is fresh and properly seasoned. If you go when she isn’t it is very hit or miss. We have 3 Whataburgers in town. Only one of those is always consistently good. The others you take a chance. Also 3 McDonald’s and 2 Burger Kings and 2 Dairy Queens. I’ve never once chosen to eat there because of the building style. It has always been because I want the particular food they are serving there at the time. The burger joints are almost always hit or miss. We also have 4 Chick Fil-A restaurants here and their food is always the same. Consistently good, hot, delivered with a smile and if there is ever an issue (which is rare) it is fixed immediately and you’re given a bonus like a cookie. The cool thing is that I’ve eaten their food in different cities and towns and it has been pretty much the same everywhere. The burger joints could take a tip or 2 from them.
I used to call this the “Ohiofication* of America,” where everything looked like everything else, and every stretch of highway commercial venues looked like every other stretch of highway commercial venues, to the point where if you suddenly woke up in a commercial district, you’d have no way of knowing what city it was or in what state, because they all look alike. And that’s now extended to the building motifs. (* – When I was a kid this was in the form of “Everywhere we go, kinda looks like Ohio.”)
You used to be able to identify them from miles away based on their buildings. Now, every single place looks the same. If I was in the mood for a Big Mac it might be more difficult to find a McDonalds because it looks like every other place. I think the designs are stupid and a waste of money. If they really want to attract customers and build their brand they should have invested in better food and not putting “lipstick on the pig”.
What a depressing final thought. It reminds me of political parties, chasing the same voters as their opponents. Instead of putting forth a bold new policy platform to excite the voters, they usually nowadays just offer a tinkered-with version of their opponents’ policy platform. In the case of politics, I’d always assumed this is because it benefits incumbent political parties to turn voters off from the political process, but that really doesn’t hold true in the world of cutthroat cut-price chain restaurant wars.
Used to wanna be an architect. To me these designs are basic but clever because apparently people look at a design and it can change their perception. However I’m not going to TB or BK for health. Anyone who does is fooling themselves. In Michigan we have a mixture. I have seen some modern ones, but we also have a lot of the classic ones too.
That style they are incorporating makes people feel like they are eating straight from a slaughterhouse. By gone the days of happy, joyful enigma they present and now it is a soulless machine that’s only wants your money for cheap food. Keep going in this direction and people will stop going to fast food restaurants in the future. The foods even taste bland and disgusting now. Small business restaurants are attracting customers for their good food and welcoming feeling. These big names are literally asking us to eat shit and continue to keep eating them because they have a well-known brand.
I think Glen Coben, Architect at 7:21 has things quite arse-about. It is not a “complete lack of creativity” and, no, it is not true that “there is no real thought about this”. If a host of competitors all arrive at a similar look, it means they ARE thinking about it, and have all reached the same conclusion. I would reckon that the people who work out the design of everything from architecture to branding, interior etc, have a very clear idea of how they are trying to appeal to their customers. Consumer tastes change – not necessarily for any cogent reason – but they change, and sellers need to change with that.
Let’s talk about the 500lb gorilla in the room. I’m Gen X, the tail end. McDonald’s/BK/Wendy’s/Pizza Hut were packed in the 80s/90s/00s. Not one person I knew said “this place looks dated!” Fast Food restaurants freaked out when fast casual restaurants made them look “unhealthy” so they rebranded. Also when they raised the wages, & the prices, they wanted it to mimic the fast casual places to make it seem like the higher prices are justified by ambiance. Give me a 1990s Taco Bell, a 1984 McDonald’s, 1995 BK, & 1987 Pizza Hut. Funny thing, all the kids see the vintage articles of how these places used to look, they say “wow, wish I could have seen it like that!” Wish they could have……
I miss the McDonald’s of my childhood with the crazy rooflines and the colorful Ronald McDonald and his friends characters everywhere. McDonald’s was COOL when I was a kid, with fun commercials on TV, and many of their restaurants often had interior theming that reflected something about the local surroundings. Now McDonald’s has gotten boring, even depressing, decorated with dull colors that very clearly cater to adults. Many McDonald’s don’t even have playgrounds anymore, which is sad during a time when childhood obesity is still a major concern, and it also means that many parents of young children don’t have a place for their kids to blow off some excess energy during long road trips. Also, many perfectly good McDonald’s buildings got destroyed and replaced with these ugly ones in the name of progress. I find it all pretty sad, and many of today’s kids are not going to grow up with the nostalgic feeling about McDonald’s that many people of my generation (I’m a Gen-Xer) have!
Idiotic. The all have sold out to the health crazed. I don’t want to see upscale design or healthy food at a fast food restaurant. Healthy for drinks? Fine – water. Food – apple pie, ha, ha. Apples! Lighting? Big windows? Just easier for the snipers. I never thought thought the tackiness of a McDonald’s of 40 years ago would be missed. But now, with also the kidnapping/banishment of Ronald McDonald, I do. And that goes for all other fast-food places. Keeping them cleaner over the years, that’s good. But losing its reputation for the quick unhealthy good food? We need that. That’s what made it taste good. The remakes drove me away. And will keep me away. And I’m a healthy 50 year old. It’s not what you eat, but HOW much you eat. Otherwise you look like Homer Simpson.
They had to transform, because their concept was outdated. I remember for example awful coffee from the McDonald’s from 90s and early 2000s. The McCafé is not perfect but much better…. And It’s good to say, fast food in the US were/are often really crap. It’s really different in Europe, respectively in the EU.
“They wanted to see if they could pull from the 5 Guys and the Shake Shacks of the world.” That sums up the exact problem right there. McDonald’s and Wendy’s etc. have a brand. A very well known, very well established brand at that. They need to double down on what got them to the dance, instead of trying to copy someone less established, and less successful, but temporarily trendy. Nobody goes to fast food places for buzzwords like freshness, or artisanal, or premium. They go for words like fun, comfort, and familiarity. THAT is their brand, and chasing other types of restaurants, while sterilizing the physical aspects of their buildings has completely removed that branding. You know, the branding that got them “billions and billions served”. People can no longer get that comforting, and fun experience, so they WILL go elsewhere for it. So instead of luring customers from competitors, they’ve alienated their own customers and driven them to those competitors ensuring that “Fast Casual” will become “Fast Casualty”.
Forget the bling thing. Just present a clean restaurant with the same quality that was served 20 years ago, and a striped down menu… PERIOD ! The Whopper & The Whaler, now known as the BK big fish (what a joke) USED to be the best of the best, and are now among the worst. Same applies to anything McDonald’s tries to pass of as “food.” I haven’t eaten at Wendy’s for at least 20 years, but something tells me that their quality took a dive along with the others.
It’s short sighted and stupid of these brands to do this. Stick to what you know best AND WHAT SELLS. Yes people are going to go to Panera sometimes but I’ve never seen a McDonald’s go out of business in my life. People know the food is bad for you but they still like it and eat it. A big draw was the family friendly atmosphere. When I grew up, I had more than one birthday party at a McDonald’s because of the fun play places. Those don’t exist anymore except for older locations. They are trying to lure in health conscious people NOT with healthy food but with a new veneer over the same old McDonald’s quality/products/service. That’s not only dumb–it’s an insane waste of money. Right by my house they tore down an older McDonald’s building, razed it to the ground, then built a completely new building right on the same location. The old building was constantly busy, so is the new one. So you just wasted millions of dollars on demolition and construction, plus the loss of profit for the year it took to do this, just to get the same amount of customers. Just another example of corporate America stupidity.
but how about actually improving the food.. say : 1 instead of make it large at the end of your order.. you can say “make it organic” at the beginning of your order. *and while that does add an aditional charge if your order at least for a certain amount.. this upgrade is free. (add some marketing how a part of your menu is always organic by default like your salads, for we as much about your health as you do) 2 reinvent the burger : -you have no burgers on you menu any longer, you have options, that you mix and match, in clear steps each step giving 5 options. so you would order a 1-3-4-2 and the cashier still knows what you mean.., make sure the 5th option always rotates.. so the 4×5 of each month is the months special.. pick 1 pick your bun *for your first pick gone is the fluffy tasteless bun, in are better buns.. Options like ciabatta, whole wheat, spelt, sourdough, pistolet, lunchbol.. (yes you make a point about how they are baked each day fresh.. since you are legally still allowed to claim that even if they are pre-baked factory buns, send to you deep frozen, can still be ok in quality) pick 2 pick your meat *next you ditch the meat patty, in fact ground meat must be ditched.. instead you have a thin slice of steak, tenderloin preferably. Options like beef, pork, sheep and tuna seem the obvious default options with exotics like ostrich, kangaroo etc.. -no no vegan options… we love annimals.. and we love to eat them.. so we emphasis the organic option but just not cater to vegans.
The title is all wrong, it should read “Why does all of today’s fast food structures look like a 1990’s Arby’s?! Wendy’s is taken too much credit in this movement! Shit Wendy’s hasn’t put out a decent meal since Dave’s passing and those bullies finally getting their way and purchasing the Wendy’s franchise and fucking the food all to hell! I believe that that Wendy’s and Arby’s are owned by the same assholes now. Why are these corporates willing to give Wendy’s all of the credit when it was already pioneered by the original meat coma kings El’ Arby’s??!! You guys quit picking on Arby’s and let them have front stage for once!! You want to bring Wendy’s back?! Fool back their menu when their beef tasted awesome and they used to have fresh salad bars, and you could even bring back the “hey where’s the beef!!” Lady. Wendy’s burgers are now so very greasy and not in a good greasy like In n Out. It’s more like just nasty lard soaked everywhere in the wrappings and those sea salt fries 🍟 were also a loser. Wendy’s fries with a frosty to dip them in in was epic and now it’s just tragic. Sadly they change these menus not giving two fucks what anyone thinks because they usually have the backing to wait the public out and wait for people just to accept what’s offered and put them back in the rotation so they can continue to get paid. McDonald’s did this countless times and this last stint dug deep in their wallets and that’s where big corporate steps back in and shuffles the deck again, change some things, and record new hypnotizing radio and TV commercials to start sucking everyone back in so their stock picks back and their backers are pleased once again.
I don’t really care that much about how it looks. I know what I’m buying when I decide to go there. Just get me my food as quick as possible after I pay. That USED to be McDonald’s gimmick. Now it takes so long to get it, the drive through has 4 spaces to wait. Also, sorry, The ice cream machine is broken
If you eat fast food then you need help. Go to a mom and pop restaurant that has been in your town for years instead of these HORRIBLE establishments. We’ve almost lost them all to this horrible excuses of capitalism, design, and ultimately FOOD. Wait, these places serve food? Thought it was mostly warmed up plastic…