Hispanic and (I believe) Pueblo depictions, and I am not a member of
either of those groups. So the problem may simply be that the
French-Canadian brand of Catholicism I got in my youth was pretty
traditional. That was, kinda, the question...I know I certainly don't
feel comfortable saying that Hispanic religious art is inappropriate
across from the National Hispanic center...
Dana
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 01:30:04 -0400
Subject: RE: localization/McDonald's question
To: CF-Community <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Believe it or not, but I worked at McDonalds for many years in my youth� I
know, hard to fathom, but it's true. ;^) I actually have a good
appreciation of the company � it's enormous and has all the problems that go
with that, but honestly seems to try and better the communities it serves.
For many years McDonalds has diversified its menu to meet the needs of the
local community � the Fish Sandwich, for example, was originally introduced
by an owner in a heavily catholic neighborhood and then adopted by the
corporate office. The restaurant I was in was one of the first places to
have the "mcRib" and we were slated to be a "mcPizza" test site (I left
before that). All the restaurants have the basic menu, but many also have
local selections.
As far as I remember there's actually a corporate process for
employees/franchisees to suggest new items for the menu � if you're lucky
they'll try them out and if they're a success you got a huge bonus.
As for the buildings most are owned by franchisees (very few restaurants are
owned by the McDonald's corporation). There're corporate standards
(actually several bookshelves worth) for how the restaurants must be
maintained (cleaning mostly) and usage for the corporate logos, but the
interior design is almost always left up to the owners. If you find the
d�cor offensive you might ask to see or contact the owner of the restaurant.
But I've always been impressed with McDonald's sense of community. For
example (unless it's changed) corporate guidelines insist that somebody be
sent out regularly (several times a day) to clean the grounds � but in
addition they're supposed to clean litter in a radius around the store (we
were always told to go at least a block in every direction). Most stores
have a McDonalds cooler available and will donate orange drink syrup to
non-profits in the area (our boy scout troop always had McDonald's bug juice
for free).
Some of the restaurants don't follow these rules (we've got a few dives
around here) but they're supposed to (we were inspected regularly by
corporate inspectors). Overall I think that as much as I hated the job when
I had it it was time well spent. You definitely get a good sense of working
in a team and believe it or not there are a lot of transferable skills to be
had.
Jim Davis
From: dana tierney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 9:27 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: localization/McDonald's question
Just curious, does McDonald's sell green chile cheeseburgers outside
of New Mexico? I am suffering from a bit of dissonance over an ad they
are running here in which a guy leaps off a subway train to get one.
1) I have never seen green chile outside of New Mexico?
2) there isn't a subway in the entire state of New Mexico.
3) the subway portrayed in the ad is the DC Metro, possibly around
Farragut North or Metro Center.
While I am ranting about this stuff... the McD's across from the
National Hispanic Cultural Center is decorated with santos,
traditional images of saints. Is it just me or is this sort of
Disneyfication somewhat offensive?________________________________
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