Iceland says goodbye to the Big Mac

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Proof there's a silver lining in every cloud.

McDonalds' breakfast is not bad. Their cinnamelts are tasty. Shame that their economy is in such shambles that they cannot support a popular fast food chain

 

[dawp]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Its not like Iceland did something rational and banned McDonalds as prevayors of poisonous food, it was a matter that McDonalds made stupid merchandising agreements with third parties and as a result priced themselves out of the Iceland market. Not exactly smart on McDonalds part. Fair weather friends are no friends at all.

There are a sum total of 3 McDonalds in Iceland.

How is McDonalds supposed to operate under these conditions?

No matter what center the food and supplies come from, this problem wil remain because of Iceland's currency. I cannot see how 3 restaurants can justify a HQ fod processing center.

I doubt McDonalds is the only business having problems in Iceland. I bet any business selling goods from other countries is facing the same problem. Unless you can import from a country with an even greater currency crises you've got exchange rate problems.

Fern

one reason was that they couldn't source anything locally, it all had to be imported from the Germany and since the collapse, the cost was just too high.

Lyst was bound by McDonald's requirement that it import all the goods required for its restaurants -- from packaging to meat and cheeses -- from Germany.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200

Originally posted by: JS80
Protectionists falsely believe that cutting off global/immigrant job equals increase in local job. It's not zero sum.

For your example of cutting off H-1B, it does not mean the H-1B worker is taking a US citizen job, we have that program because of the shortage of US talent.

lol, do you know how many engineers can't find a job out of college? You mean a shortage of talent willing to work for low wages, and able to easily be discharged as soon as they are not needed anymore?

If you considering 50K right out of school low wages sure. Engineers are in ridiculous demand in this country and command a nice wage. I have several engineering friends and they all basically get to write their own contracts.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Skoorb
The hate. McDonalds is a damned delight and that is a fact. Their fries are majestic (yes) and the bigmacs like a slice of heaven, more like a fat mouth ful of heaven, actually. I heart mcdonalds.

damn i thought i was the only one

You guys are the reason McDonalds targets kids so much. Help them develop a taste for shit food early on, and they'll be hooked for life.

Luckily, I grew up eating real food, so I don't have the problem you guys do.

 

[ericlp]

now if only they would pull out of the USA. I fucking hate mcdonalds they are the worst fast food restaurant on the planet ... Yes, even worse the BK and taco hell. The quality of food at mcd's is disgusting. But I did like the fries ... Tho, I haven't eaten their in like 3 or 4 years and that was because it was the ONLY thing open on a 3AM road trip.

Iceland won't be missing much. I'm sure BK is there and is happy with the news.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: JS80Protectionists falsely believe that cutting off global/immigrant job equals increase in local job. It's not zero sum.

For your example of cutting off H-1B, it does not mean the H-1B worker is taking a US citizen job, we have that program because of the shortage of US talent.

Thing is, we don't have a shortage and if we do, then we have a huge number of other people who would happily return to the universities to retrain for the fields that have shortages. Let the American free market work--let the profit motive solve any alleged shortages through retraining for those fields. In fact, retraining and reeducating is all the rage right now. Let's make sure that there are jobs for people to retrain for.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: JS80You obviously have never hired anyone. We interview everyone, including H-1B candidates. If we happen to hire an H-1B it means because they were more talented than the non H-1B. And it costs us ~$5k in legal fees to hire them. But we pay them market price (i.e. same as everyone) because we don't want them working for Microsoft.

Who gives a shit how many unemployed engineers there are. I said talent. Not some dumb kid with a 2.0 GPA.

If you need the top talent, then you should be willing to pay American free market prices for it. Give the undergrad with the good work ethic and a 140 IQ a reason to train for your field and not head Med.

The issue is, is it better for Americans to not hire the top 1% of the people in the world and have to make due with some inferior American talent while having less unemployment and under-employment and less wasted education or is it better to displace Americans from those jobs and have more unemployment, underemployment, and wasted education?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: FernI don't see any reasonable option for McDonalds or the franchisee other than closing that location.

I think I read in the article that the franchisee isn't going to close, but that he'll just reopen under a new name and source his products locally.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: Genx87If you considering 50K right out of school low wages sure. Engineers are in ridiculous demand in this country and command a nice wage. I have several engineering friends and they all basically get to write their own contracts.

If there is such a shortage, then would it be possible to find a company willing to enter into a contract to pay someone's tuition and minimal living expenses to train to become an engineer in exchange for a certain number of years of working at the company? If there were a real shortage it seems like they would do that sort of thing.

 

[bfdd]

Originally posted by: Lemon law

Originally posted by: bfdd
Sucks for them, McDonalds is fantastic when drunk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bfdd must be so drunk as to confuse McDonalds for White Castles, the grease starved drunks #1 choice.

I'm from California we don't have White Castle. Also, White Castle is terrible I had it when I was visiting some friends out on the east coast. Gross, doesn't come close to any of the chains we have here in southern California.

I also stand by my original statement. McDonalds is fantastic when drunk.

 

[bfdd]

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Skoorb
The hate. McDonalds is a damned delight and that is a fact. Their fries are majestic (yes) and the bigmacs like a slice of heaven, more like a fat mouth ful of heaven, actually. I heart mcdonalds.

damn i thought i was the only one

You guys are the reason McDonalds targets kids so much. Help them develop a taste for shit food early on, and they'll be hooked for life.

Luckily, I grew up eating real food, so I don't have the problem you guys do.

wtf does that even mean. "real food" wtf? i cook at home most the time, but there is nothing wrong with mcdonalds as long as you're not eating a double 1/4er 5 or 6 times a day. hitting it up every now and then is pretty nice.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

Originally posted by: FernI don't see any reasonable option for McDonalds or the franchisee other than closing that location.

I think I read in the article that the franchisee isn't going to close, but that he'll just reopen under a new name and source his products locally.

I didn't mean to imply that the franchissee couldn't reopen under a different name (but see below), rather the "McDonalds" must close.

AS to whether (s)he can use that location(s) for a different restaurant, it's hard to say. Under many franchise agreements, the lease is under the HQ business name, not the individual franchisee. They do this specificaly so the franchisee can't dump the franchise and start their own restaurant under a different name in that location. In extreme cases, the franchise HQ will force out the existing franchisee and resell the location to another party. Franchises (McDonalds etc) are generally very picky about their locations and any location suggested by a franchisee must be approved by HQ. If that's the case (lease in HQ's name) they'd permission to lease and open a new restaurant.

I've also seen situations where the building was owned. When the franchise was closed and the building put up for a sale a specific deed limitation was that no other fast-food restaurant could buy it (or really any subsequent buyer agreed not to use it for a fast-food restaurant location). Again, if that's the case they may not be able to open a different restaurant.

If I were in McDonald's management at HQ and given this situation I'd be inclined to get creative with the rules (unfortunately not something they seem prone to do - they're so cookie-cutter like). I'd have them strip down all the McDonald signes etc and put in storage and have them agree to reopen franchise when x-rate problems subside. Meanwhile let them operate under a differently named restaurant until the situation is resolved. There's an advantage to having people remain accustomed to returning to that location for food. I.e., just let that location go into a holding pattern for a while; it keeps the location available for the McD location in the future and avoids the substantial hassle and expense of starting from the ground up in re-establishing the franchise(s) later.

Fern

 

[gingermeggs]

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Skoorb
The hate. McDonalds is a damned delight and that is a fact. Their fries are majestic (yes) and the bigmacs like a slice of heaven, more like a fat mouth ful of heaven, actually. I heart mcdonalds.

damn i thought i was the only one

You guys are the reason McDonalds targets kids so much. Help them develop a taste for shit food early on, and they'll be hooked for life.

Luckily, I grew up eating real food, so I don't have the problem you guys do.

Big mac or a piece of fried cod fillet with new potato wedges, asparagus and herbed hollandaise sauce- its a no-brainer isn't it!

 

[HannibalX]

I doubt the Big Mac can compete with a blubber sandwich.

 

[JKing106]

The hate. McDonalds is a damned delight and that is a fact. Their fries are majestic (yes) and the bigmacs like a slice of heaven, more like a fat mouth ful of heaven, actually. I heart mcdonalds.

I remember in the mid 90's when the bastards axed the ultimate burger: The Arch Deluxe. I think I cried.

 

[runestone]

Hákarl burgers anyone?

 

[StageLeft]

You guys are the reason McDonalds targets kids so much. Help them develop a taste for shit food early on, and they'll be hooked for life.

Luckily, I grew up eating real food, so I don't have the problem you guys do.

Can I sign up for your news letter? I didn't eat much mcdonalds as a kid. My dad thought it was "crap". My taste buds know what they like and they like bigmacs.

Try again.