I'm in Germany, and I've always liked McDonalds. I enjoyed eating there maybe a handful of times a year, even when doing so was considered "uncouth" by the majority of the people I know.
No more. Why? Because they've stopped selling burgers.
They've switched almost all of their restaurants to a "made to order" model, wherein they assemble your order on demand from warming trays, instead of producing them ahead and storing them in this huge heated cabinet.
Now the result looks exactly like the product shot on the menu, but is so lukewarm that the cheese hasn't even melted. That's not a burger, that's a at best a strange sandwich.
The margins are better on "premium, made-to-order" food so they do this to justify their increased prices. Unfortunately this is working well for them, and at scale, people don't seem to care about the extra wait: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MCD/mcdonalds/gros....
Another way to look at this is that McDonald's is making customers feel like they're getting restaurant quality food for less money. Personally, like you, I miss the cheap fast food.
The patty/bacon should definitely not be cold and that's not my experience with McDonalds. However it is less warm than "scolding hot from sitting under a warmer for 45 minutes."
McDonalds was an assembly line for burgers. As far back as the 80s, and as late as last year, in Canada, during busy times, they'd definielty have burgers under the warmer. During slow times, none.
They can cook and assemble a burger in 2 minutes, along with fries... even a dozen burgers.
This was McDonald's specialty! How to keep ahead of the crowd, in sync with demand, and also, how to build a burger fast.
The fact that they don't have 50 big macs on the go, during doordash/dinner peak, is a major problem.
No, it's not difficult, not for them, they've been doing it for 70 years!
There may be some merit to some of what you say, but it just leaves one with more questions.
> Made for you MFY has been around at Macca's for a long, long time. It's not a recent change.
Don't know where you're from, but you gotta remember that Macca's is not quite the same all around the world. In Europe as an example, you can notice clear differences between the different countries Macca's. So even though MFY exists for a long time where you live, it's very well possible that the other persons local Macca's only recently-ish changed too.
I guess that change is not only noticeable between countries, I'm pretty sure you'll get a different experience if you either visit a big restaurant in a city vs. a smaller restaurant on the countryside.
Originally New Zealand (so makes sense as we're used as a test market for a lot of stuff) but UK now. I'm surprised, even with us as a test market, that it took _so_ long to propagate to other countries, though. Sure Macca's has diffs, but usually only in menu, their general restaurant practice usually seem to be pretty in-sync.
That's the thing, yeah. In Germany, this changeover started just a few years ago, and it has only been dominant for around two.
About the regional differences - I remember visiting an Amsterdam restaurant in the mid-2000s that still served the food in styrofoam trays, many years after those had been phased out in Germany. And being able to pump my own ketchup and mayo into little waffle cups in another one in Denmark. There are quite a few regional differences.
> In Germany, this changeover started just a few years ago
In Switzerland as well, yes. And I can't remember which burgers or items it were, but I remember seeing items in a german McDonalds which I've never seen in Switzerland.
In Italy you can order a couple of different beers, even from self-service terminals. In Switzerland I remember them only being available when ordering at the counter, and they only offer one kind of beer. Not that I care about beer at McD, just something I noticed.
No more. Why? Because they've stopped selling burgers.
They've switched almost all of their restaurants to a "made to order" model, wherein they assemble your order on demand from warming trays, instead of producing them ahead and storing them in this huge heated cabinet.
Now the result looks exactly like the product shot on the menu, but is so lukewarm that the cheese hasn't even melted. That's not a burger, that's a at best a strange sandwich.