That Scottish Place...

I was not at all surprised to see this on Yahoo Finance the other day

McDonalds profit falls

I have frequented McDonalds all my life. I remember going to my allergist in Lexington as a young boy. On the way out of town, we stopped at this restaurant they didn’t have in Paducah. It was a McDonalds. When I was at PCC, we ate multiple times a week at the McDonalds on Jackson Street. We even had one of our friend’s girlfriend bring us food to our Physics Lab. Our professor protested, so we started bringing him a Big Mac and he was OK with it then. I went on my first date with a beautiful brunette with brown eyes and she wanted to go to McDonalds. She got a Quarter Pounder with cheese and I got a Big Mac. I married that girl. The boys and I went all the time when they were growing up. I love when they have the "Rolo McFlurry".

If I couldn’t figure out where to eat when I traveled, I knew I could stop at a McDonalds and get a decent meal for a good price. Well Ladies and Gentlemen; this is no longer the case. The last several times I went to the McDonalds on Jackson Street, it took me over 15 minutes to get our food. The last time we went, I ordered a Big Mac Meal and Donna got the 2 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches for 4.00. It took 20 minutes to get our food. The man next to me grumbled “I don’t why I come back here, it always takes forever”. I certainly could empathize. I actually complained on their web site. I got a call from the local regional manager. The first thing she did was say “Well, if you have a complicated order it can take a while”. I told her what we ordered and told her that obviously wasn’t a complicated order. She finally admitted that no order should take 20 minutes. She said “we’ll certainly review our processes there”.

So, on the way to see Josh in Wisconsin, we stopped at a McDonalds at Mendota Illinois. It took over 15 minutes for us to get our food again. And, it wasn’t even that good. So, I’ve made a very tough decision. I’ve decided that we won’t be going to a McDonalds for a while. If I am going to have to wait 15 minutes or more, I may as well go to another restaurant – even a sit down restaurant. We did figure out on our way back home that this does limit where you can stop and eat. McDonalds is by far the most common restaurant you’ll see on Interstate exits.

Oh and about that reference to “that Scottish place”. It’s from the movie “Time after Time”. Malcolm McDowell plays HG Wells and has travelled to the future. He eats with Mary Steenburgen and says “Much superior to that Scottish place where I breakfasted.”. As she looks at him with confusion, she finally figures out he ate at “McDonalds”. I think I’ll try some other places to eat as well.