Bob Myers wrote:

>
> I had the good fortune to be sitting next to a McDonald's exec
> on a trans-Pacific flight once; he was on his way to Australia
> and New Zealand to work out some deals with meat suppliers
> their for their Asian operations. Learned a lot about what
> Micky D's is all about, and you can basically sum it up in
> one word: consistency. McDonald's never is going to make the
> absolute best hamburger or whatever in the world, but
> they know that and that isn't really what they're shooting for.
> The point is to make a product that the public will buy, and
> then to make sure that that product is absolutely the same no
> matter what McDonald's you happen to walk into. And at
> least in my experience, in THAT sense they're the best in
> the world. No matter where I am - and I get around quite
> a bit on business - if I HAVE to go for "fast food," either
> due to a time crunch or just because I have no "known good"
> local options, I am likely to go to McD's. I never expect
> to have a "great" burger or whatever there, but I am always
> absolutely certain that whatever I DO get will be exactly the
> same in, say, Taipei as it is in Denver. And I can tell you from
> (bad) experience that a lot of their American-type competition
> in those same locations can't say the same thing.
>
> In that light, their demanding that their suppliers provide
> potatoes (or whatever) to some pretty tight specifications
> is very understandable.

Yes indeed. It is predictable. It is an amazing marketing concept. They
serve those thin little patties of plain meat on a wonderbread type of bun to
people who have low expectations, and the customers are happy as long as the
burger they eat is just as uninspired as the others they ate there. Lots of
people seem to like that and good for them if they can profit from the bad
taste of the public. I am just glad that there are other places who at least
aspire to something bettor.