Tag: McDonald’s

McDonald’s losing the fast food fight

In the fast food fight for customer spending, one restaurant giant is struggling while rivals scoop up diners’ dollars.

Last week, McDonald’s reported its global comparable sales fell again, dropping 0.7 percent in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, comps at Burger King rose 6.7 percent in constant currency while Arby’s comps rose 7.6 percent during the second quarter. Several other large restaurants are also showing positive growth.

“It seems like the only big player doing negative numbers, period. They’re in a healthy market but they’re not participating in that market,” said David Palmer, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, in a phone interview.

This comes after several blockbuster years at the chain where it delivered a string of mid-single digit comp increases in the 2000s after a successful previous turnaround plan called “Plan to Win.”

In its domestic unit, McDonald’s comps have lagged its fast-food sandwich peers (a group that includes Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, Sonic and Subway) each month since October 2013, according to data that its investor-relations team provides to analysts using data from The NPD Group.

Source: CNBC

You’ll never touch McDonald’s again

Here are some of the most disgusting additives you are eating when you “treat” yourself to a MacDonalds.

1. Ammonium Sulfate – This is used to mass-produce bread, it is also used to fertilizer soil and kill bugs and more commonly used in strong household cleaning products. Unbelievably, the FDA has deemed it safe at the low levels which are found in food products, but the issue has been raised as to effects on people who eat bread daily. Ammonium sulphate has been linked with irritation to the gastrointestinal tract causing diarrhea and nausea.

2. Silicone Oil – Chicken McNuggets are full of dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicone oil that is often used to make contact lenses and other medical items. Dimethylpolysiloxane is also an anti-foaming agent.

3. TBHQ – You can find this additive in 18 McDonald’s menu items. TBHQ, is ususally listed as an “antioxidant,” what it doesn’t state is that it is a SYNTHETIC chemical with antioxidant properties and NOT a natural antioxidant. The chemical stops oxidation of fats and oils which helps to prolong the shelf life of processed foods. It is used in processed foods of all kinds, but it is also found in varnishes, lacquers and pesticide products. It is also used in cosmetics and perfumes to reduce the evaporation rate and improve stability. It is a chemical preservative so deadly that just five grams can kill you, but don’t panic, the FDA says it’s generally regarded as safe (GRAS).

4. Cysteine-L – Fast food restaurants use Cysteine-L, it is an amino acid derived from human hair, duck feathers and hog hair and is used to flavor their meat and soften their breads and pastries. This is an amino acid which also shortens the baking time of mass produced bread. This is mostly produced in China by dissolving the hair or down in acid and sent around the world as a bread softener.

5. Prescription Drugs -Researchers from Johns Hopkins University tested feathers from farmed raised chickens and found some interesting facts. Anti-depressants as well as other prescription drugs are added to chicken feed for fast food “poultry”. Basically, the chickens are raised on a steady diet of prescription, over-the-counter and banned drugs.

6. Propylene Glycol -Propylene glycol is a chemical compound that can be found in anti-freeze, e-cigarettes and fast food.

7. Carminic Acid – derivived from Cochineal beetles, Carminic acid is used to dye foods, especially meats, red.

8. Dimethylpolysiloxane – This is found in almost all fried fast food menus and it can be also found in contact lenses, silly putty, cosmetics, shampoo and conditioners, polishes, heat resistant tiles to name a few!

9. Silicon Dioxide – This usually added to processed beef and chicken to prevent clumping and is listed ingredient for chilli from Wendy’s and Taco Bell. Experts suggest that it isn’t harmful for consumption, but it’s interesting to know that the ingredient keeping chilli meat nice and non-caking is also the primary component of diatomaceous earth, commonly used as a natural insecticide.

10. Cellulose – ~This is processed wood pulp and is found in nearly every fast food menu item. It is used in practically everything ranging from cheese to salad dressing, from muffins to strawberry syrup. Food processors use it to thicken and stabilize foods, replace fat and increase fiber content. It also lowers the cost due to minimizing on ingredients such as oil or flour. Powdered cellulose is produced by cooking virgin wood pulp in chemicals to separate the cellulose which is then purified. Modified versions require extra processing, such as exposure to acid to break down the fiber further. Here are just a few of the fast food restaurants that include cellulose in their foods: McDonald’s, Arby’s, Jack in the Box, KFC, Pizza Hut, Sonic, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.

Source: naturalcuresnotmedicine.com

McDonald’s suffers worst monthly decline in more than a decade

The American fast-food giant witnessed a sharp decline in global profits in August, hit by the closure of its restaurants across Russia and a “rotten meat” scandal in China.

McDonald’s earnings with stores open at least 13 months slid taking a worse-than-expected hit in August, falling 3.7 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based hamburger chain said in a statement on Wednesday. This is the biggest monthly drop since 2003, according to Bloomberg. Market analysts had expected a 3.1 percent drop in earnings.

Across Europe, where McDonald’s brings in a hefty 40 percent of its total earnings, proceeds were down 0.7 percent.

Much of the decline is connected to Russia, where health officials last month closed 12 stores, including the first-ever McDonald’s outlet in Russia, which opened to tremendous fanfare on January 31, 1990 in the center of Moscow, as well as two in Sochi, the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Meanwhile, Russian health inspectors are investigating hygiene conditions at 100 McDonald’s outlets nationwide over alleged issues.The closure of three of its outlets in Moscow came at the same time that Russia introduced a one-year embargo on agricultural products from the United States, the EU, Canada, Australia and Norway, in response to Western economic sanctions over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The fast-food giant said it will “do everything it can” to continue operations in Russia.

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that Russia has no plans to completely shut down the restaurant chain.

“No one is talking about it at all (a ban on McDonald’s in Russia),” he told reporters. “It has just happened that the inspections were completed at the same time (as the ban on Western goods),” Dvorkovich said.

McDonald’s has 440 outlets and over 35,000 employees in Russia, which ranks among the company’s top seven markets – outside the United States and Canada – according to its 2013 annual report.

The fast-food company sold more than $1.5 billion worth of meals to Russian customers in 2013, attracting one million people daily to its outlets in Russia, according to its website.

At the same time, domestic demand for the food franchise sank for the fourth straight month in August, falling 2.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the company’s Asian markets took a major hit after it was reported that Chinese meat supplier OSI Group LLC was investigated for changing the expiration dates on food, prompting fears among consumers. Sales in the company’s Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa division plummeted 14.5 percent last month.

The poor economic data comes at a particularly hard time for the American hamburger chain, as US fast-food workers have been staging protests demanding higher wages, and the debate over high obesity rates in the United States is causing many consumers around the world to look for healthier food choices.

Shares in McDonald’s, which serves around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across 35,000 outlets, declined 1.5 percent to $91.09 on Tuesday. The company is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings on October 21.

Source: RT

Russia to deport McDonald’s hamburger

burgercrushThe area round the first ever McDonalds in Moscow in Pushkinskaya square saw today an extraordinary promo-campaign against “all the unhealthy stuff that came from the West”, Russian media as well as restaurant search engine Tillypad XL report.

Leaders of the movement “All the truth about food” are set to improvise later the symbolic deportation of the giant hamburger, universally seen as the basic junk food token.

“We are going to put forward our own bill that would set limits to the possible number of unhealthy fast food eateries in Russia, citing a high proportion of saturated fats in their menus, which proves harmful for human health,” says Maxim Raksha, the campaign coordinator.

He admits that one of the reasons for the event is the US-imposed sanctions on Russia. ‘I’ve been following the standoff between Russia and the West, and we’ve come to believe now is the right moment to say no to everything harmful that comes from them.”

The beef is “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process the food is deemed unfit for human consumption.

According to the chef and hamburger enthusiast, Jamie Oliver, who has undertaken a war against the fast food industry, “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.”

Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver famously coined this the “the pink slime process.”

Source: Voice of Russia

McDonald’s restaurant robbed in Randburg

McDonaldsThree men robbed a McDonald’s restaurant in Randburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

A man held a teller at gunpoint at the fast food restaurant, at the Beyers Naude N1 off-ramp, on Monday evening while two accomplices guarded the door, Captain Lydia Mtila-Dikolomela said.

The three men took cash and ran away. No one was injured and no arrests had been made. – Sapa

McDonald’s won’t open in Jewish settlement

mcdkosherThe Israeli branch of McDonald’s says it won’t open a restaurant in a Jewish settlement to protest Israel settlement policy.

Irina Shalmor, spokeswoman for McDonald’s Israel, said the owners of a planned mall in the Ariel settlement asked McDonald’s to open a branch there about six months ago. The chain refused because it is the policy of McDonald’s Israel’s owner to stay out of the occupied territories.

The decision was not coordinated with McDonald’s headquarters in the U.S., she said.

Israeli lawmakers have protested the decision, reported in local media Thursday. One says she’ll boycott the chain.

Tzahi Nehimias, co-owner of the mall, says Burger King and an Israeli burger chain both offered to open branches at the mall.

McDonald’s closes down in Bolivia

With over 31,000 restaurants serving 58 million people throughout the world every day, McDonald’s pretty much wrote the book on how a corporation can conquer the world. But despite its global domination as a cheap and easy burger joint, the fast-food monolith proved no match against the people of Bolivia and its cultural standards of culinary decency. For 14 years, McDonald’s attempted to court Bolivians into making a habit out of eating their processed menu items — only to experience an overwhelming, nation-wide rejection. And as a result, for the first time ever, the cogs of McDonald’s international burger-slinging machine have ground to a halt, forcing the company to close its doors in Bolivia in 2002. Bolivians, its seems, are happy enough without the Happy Meal — but why?

As the Hispanically Speaking News reports, for well over a decade McDonald’s, with eight locations in the South American nation of 10 million people, worked to win over the Bolivian public with its Big Macs and McNuggets, but consistently found itself losing money. So, in light of the loss of revenue, McDonald’s Corporation made an unprecedented announcement: that it would close its restaurants in Bolivia — making it the only country in the Americas without a McDonald’s.

But what makes Bolivia different from nearly every other country in its apparent distaste for McDonald’s fare? A group of filmakers have attempted to answer that question in the documentary Why did McDonald’s Bolivia go Bankrupt? According to a review from Hispanically Speaking News, the McDonald’s failure in Bolivia lies in the very marketing strategy that made it so popular elsewhere: The documentary includes interviews with cooks, sociologists, nutritionists and educators who all seem to agree, Bolivians are not against hamburgers per sé, just against ‘fast food,’ a concept widely unaccepted in the Bolivian community.

Fast-food represents the complete opposite of what Bolivians consider a meal should be. To be a good meal, food has to have be prepared with love, dedication, certain hygiene standards and proper cook time.

One might be hard-pressed to find consumers even outside of Bolivia who wouldn’t agree with that definition of ‘a good meal’, yet none have expressed it so profoundly by simply choosing not to eat at McDonalds. There may be something a bit snarky about celebrating a corporate failure, even if it hardly dents the fast-food giant’s bottom line, but it’s difficult not to judge Bolivia better off for having rejected a restaurant so often associated with a menu of dubious nutritional value and less-than eco-friendly business practices.

Perhaps if we all valued our meals as much as Bolivians, McDonald’s corporate health would suffer at a rate inverse to improvements in our physical health and the health of our planet, which is already so full of people too removed from the food they put inside them. – treehugger.com