Unionization of restaurant employees

ClownLoach
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: May 6th, 2022, 10:06 am
ClownLoach wrote: May 6th, 2022, 9:15 am

If the experience is robotic and the product quality is no better than anywhere else then there is no reason to drive past a Dunkin or any other coffee place to visit a Starbucks. They don't have the best product. They don't have the best service. They don't have the best price. They don't have the nicest, cleanest restaurant. Kevin Johnson and team worked faster than the previous team that Schultz had to come back and replace to destroy the company. I think they just sat in the office and kept listening to the same Wall Street "experts" who are destroying everything else and drank their Kool-aid about drastically improving profits over all else and customers won't notice... They're noticing now when they are bombarded with news stories about unionizing restaurants and organizers who are happily pointing out all these same flaws about declining service, cleanliness, safety etc.
McDonalds- last couple times I've gotten very bitter drinks from them. At least the McCafe machines actually work, unlike their ice cream machine which is often broken (especially the day of the week that the free McFlurry with any purchase offer pops up on the app, odd coincidence). McDonalds has some pretty serious problems in Reno/Sparks (go read Google and Yelp for some fun, especially Reno), this is long term, and the corporation does not seem to crack down on franchisees that are doing a terrible job in this region for some reason.

Dunkin has a good product when you go on the coffee or espresso based drinks. Anything else from donuts to "fruit" based drinks- horrible.
I think McDonald's is going to suffer from the same problem as all other coffee places that use automatic machines - if they are not properly maintained the coffee will taste disgusting. Those automatic machines require regular work that is labor intensive for the store plus outside technicians to recalibrate and overhaul replaceable parts on a regular basis. I suspect that the same McDonald's that are otherwise poorly operated would have terrible espresso based drinks for this reason; the espresso machines are the most complicated device in the restaurant.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 6th, 2022, 2:35 pm

I think McDonald's is going to suffer from the same problem as all other coffee places that use automatic machines - if they are not properly maintained the coffee will taste disgusting. Those automatic machines require regular work that is labor intensive for the store plus outside technicians to recalibrate and overhaul replaceable parts on a regular basis. I suspect that the same McDonald's that are otherwise poorly operated would have terrible espresso based drinks for this reason; the espresso machines are the most complicated device in the restaurant.
I don't think McDonalds has done nearly as well on espresso-based drinks as they had hoped to do. They did stop discounting them during COVID (ended the $2 Small McCafe, stopped constantly having free McCafe Drinks with any purchase in app offers). They also made the milkshakes into a McCafe beverage which struck me as a move to fluff up sales. I do see them selling pretty high volumes of drip coffee though, all day.

I have encountered the smoothie portion of the McCafe machines broken a couple of times, but that must be separate from the Espresso portion.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: May 6th, 2022, 8:49 pm
ClownLoach wrote: May 6th, 2022, 2:35 pm

I think McDonald's is going to suffer from the same problem as all other coffee places that use automatic machines - if they are not properly maintained the coffee will taste disgusting. Those automatic machines require regular work that is labor intensive for the store plus outside technicians to recalibrate and overhaul replaceable parts on a regular basis. I suspect that the same McDonald's that are otherwise poorly operated would have terrible espresso based drinks for this reason; the espresso machines are the most complicated device in the restaurant.
I don't think McDonalds has done nearly as well on espresso-based drinks as they had hoped to do. They did stop discounting them during COVID (ended the $2 Small McCafe, stopped constantly having free McCafe Drinks with any purchase in app offers). They also made the milkshakes into a McCafe beverage which struck me as a move to fluff up sales. I do see them selling pretty high volumes of drip coffee though, all day.

I have encountered the smoothie portion of the McCafe machines broken a couple of times, but that must be separate from the Espresso portion.
McDonald's isn't a serious player in the espresso business. Half the time I go to McDonald's, their espresso machine Is down. And most locations now only offer whole milk. I used to go there a lot for espresso drinks but now they act like they don't want my business.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: May 6th, 2022, 11:49 pm

McDonald's isn't a serious player in the espresso business. Half the time I go to McDonald's, their espresso machine Is down. And most locations now only offer whole milk. I used to go there a lot for espresso drinks but now they act like they don't want my business.
I think they'd like to be a serious player but execution problems and strange policies hold them back. I never understood why they discontinued non-fat. Also if you order black coffee from them and ask for milk in it, they tell you that you have to buy a milk (plastic carton- which is a 1 percent milk), yet they will let you have cream with the coffee no problem. Assuming the cream is actual half and half and not a filler added non dairy creamer, it would be cheaper for them to give milk. But whatever. The Cumberland Farms coffee dispensing station has milk or half and half available.

Dunkin is also only Whole Milk unfortunately (aside from Almond, Coconut, etc.).

I remember when Starbucks switched to 2% milk by default. But they keep all options available. That was quite a cost saving move to do that.
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Re: Unionization of restaurant employees

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: May 7th, 2022, 12:42 am
babs wrote: May 6th, 2022, 11:49 pm

McDonald's isn't a serious player in the espresso business. Half the time I go to McDonald's, their espresso machine Is down. And most locations now only offer whole milk. I used to go there a lot for espresso drinks but now they act like they don't want my business.
I think they'd like to be a serious player but execution problems and strange policies hold them back. I never understood why they discontinued non-fat. Also if you order black coffee from them and ask for milk in it, they tell you that you have to buy a milk (plastic carton- which is a 1 percent milk), yet they will let you have cream with the coffee no problem. Assuming the cream is actual half and half and not a filler added non dairy creamer, it would be cheaper for them to give milk. But whatever. The Cumberland Farms coffee dispensing station has milk or half and half available.

Dunkin is also only Whole Milk unfortunately (aside from Almond, Coconut, etc.).

I remember when Starbucks switched to 2% milk by default. But they keep all options available. That was quite a cost saving move to do that.
I always ordered coffee with milk and they just use one of the plastic jugs and put it in the cup with the coffee - no extra charges (not even when the coffee was any size for $1 for quite some time).
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