Dan
Thompson is on his way out the door as CEO of fast food giant
McDonald’s. This is not terribly surprising, since the Golden Arches
have turned in some poor numbers compared to their competitors for a
while now. There are a few reasons for this, some of which came as a
surprise to me, as outlined by my friend Stephen Green (a.k.a.
Vodkapundit). One big factor which doesn’t seem to make a lot of news
is that the primary component of burgers is beef, and the cost has been
on the rise.
The biggest example on that front is when they abandoned beef tallow in
the fries to satisfy the demands of the vegans. Those fries used to be
addictive! It was the highlight of a visit to their establishment.
After the change they were just not the same.
..... But that particular surrender was only one element of a larger
war that McDonald’s was losing, as Stephen explains.
The
Left has been waging a cultural war against McDonald’s for decades now,
and the results are telling. It won its fight against the chain in the
early 1990, forcing McD to remove the beef tallow from the french
fries, in order to avoid offending the tender sensibilities of
vegetarians. The company’s troubles began in earnest with the
emasculation of its world-class fries, but the trend has accelerated
with the ascension of Michelle Obama to First Lady. She rails
tirelessly against affordable and wholesome-but-bland food which
parents can actually get their kids to eat, because buttinskies can’t
be happy without buttinsking. McDonald’s has tried to comply by
offering healthy apple wedges in place of french fries in children’
Happy Meals, but it’s obvious that the Left won’t be happy with
anything short of the chain converting to McTofu & Gruel.
McDonald’s
is feeling the squeeze on its core customers: undiscriminating children
and hurried adults on a budget. Most everyone else abandoned McD for
the likes of Five Guys or Panera, and the chain has so far shown no
talent for winning them back.
It’s
going to take much more than just a new CEO if McDonald’s is going to
have a chance of victory on any of these three fronts — it’s going to
take a reimagining of the company — or a return to serving its core
customers, and serving up a super-size middle finger to the Left.
[Is
the Left slowly killing off McDonald’s?]