StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Never been to Japan.I keep hearing justification for this like "the cost of labor is going up" or "the cost of ingredients are going up", but this doesn't make sense to me.
I went to Japan for a while a few months ago, and went to the McDonalds there several times and was blown away. The store was incredibly clean, there were 12-14 staff members working at any given time, they had kiosks, but nobody used them because there were 2–3 lines open at the counter. Food was brought to your table, and I don't recall waiting more than five minutes any time. Once I got take out there, and it was all meticulously packaged - the drinks were placed into the foam things they usually use for the drive-in, and placed in a bag separate from the food - which was then placed next to the bag of food, and all of THAT was placed in a larger plastic carrying bag. Everyone working there seemed to enjoy working there and were always helpful and courteous.
The kicker for all this was that the food was incredibly cheap. The Big Mac meal with fries and a drink was ¥750, approximately $5 USD. Granted, their "large" is about the size of a US small or medium, but the burger was the same size. The beef patties were not paper thin. The ingredients were all mostly sourced domestically in Japan. Most of the chemicals used in the food in the US are banned there. After 5PM they start their menu where you can get "double meat" on any sandwich for only a little extra. The 倍ビッグマック セット (double big mac meal) was ¥950, or about $6.50 USD and looks like this
That's the stock photo. Here's a photo I took of this beast:
It wasn't the best burger I had in Japan, but it was definitely the best McDonalds experience I've had in years and years, maybe since the 90s. The place was always doing a steady business and I doubt they're in jeopardy of going under any time soon because they aren't charging enough. If McDonalds Japan can make that a reality using better ingredients for lower prices, why not here in the States?
This thing was amazing and also cheap:
But comparing to Japanese culture and companies is kind of unfair since the norm is super nice and clean people and businesses. Compare that to the typical dumpy McDs or Walmart in US or Canada with lazy drop outs and slobs who are both worker and customer.
I remember reading the Japanese bullet trains or subways are super fast, efficient and rarely late. That's their norm. Compare that to a North American train system where each line every day is probably late at some point during the day. And half the stations are dirty. That's their norm.
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