[Hugin]

People just aren't lovin' it.

[wjcsux]

They became PC and are paying the price.

[Cronos]

The only way for McD's to compete, in my opinion, is to simplify the menu to 20 or 30 items and bring wait times back to a few minutes. They can also automate more -- if you have on your menu just: hamburger, cheeseburger, fries (one size), big Mac, quarter pounder, McChicken, filet-o-fish, apple slices, salad-vegetarian, salad-nonvegetarian, chicken nuggets, bottled water, orange juice (one size), coke (1 size refil), sprite (1 size refill), coffee, tea, iced coffee, smoothies (2 varieties, standard size), vnilla cone, hut fudge sundae, strawberry sundae, flurry; apple pie, egg mcmuffin, sausage-egg mcmuffin, big breakfast, hot cakes,

Instead you have this monstrous menu

they could also automate the order menu -- put touch screens at different places so people could order on their own and pay by card or cash. They could also automate more of the "cooking".

[Cronos]

They can't compete for taste with the newer brands that cost more. They can't compete for health. They can't compete for customisation with Subway, Chiquita etc. But what they can compete on is location, standard quality (which they had), and quick and fast and cheap yet value-for-money

By reducing the menu, automating more, they can achieve this. If they had automated menu takers and automated much of the burger making process, they would need a much lesser staff (mostly washroom cleaners) and they would get more people in and out.

[Arthur McGowan]

Now that the government has told us “never mind” about all their anti-cholesterol propaganda (which they are still running on radio stations everywhere), McDonald’s should bring back the fries cooked in beef tallow, and real beef in the burgers, etc.

[dalereed]

they were overpriced crap at 13 cents or $1/dozen 70 years ago and they are still overpriced crap.

[Up Yours Marxists]

If they want customers to return, roll back the menu, ingredients, and cooking technique to 1961.

Problem solved.

[gnarledmaw]

Maybe people are just starting to figure out what a rip off fast food really is. When I used to stop at fast food places I would regularly spend $12 or $13 and still feel hungry afterwards.

I found a local restaurant near where I work. I usually get bread, butter, crackers, chicken dumpling soup, a salad, 2 giant walleye fillets (real walleye not Pollock), carrots and broccoli with snow peas, my choice of "potatoe" (in this case spaghetti with meat sauce is my preferred choice), and a desert (usually I choose strawberry shortcake or warm rice pudding with cream), and I get all of that for $10.50.

It takes less time than at a fast food place, no time to wait if I call ahead to take it to go.

The employees at my local aren't jerks.

So at my local restaurant I get 5 times the quality of food and far more of it for much less cost in less time from people who don't aggravate me.

There is just no reason to buy fast food.

[Biggirl]

Wendy’s is always the best for burgers.

[muir_redwoods]

Their “food” is actually awful and it is not at all cheap.