This happened to me, not a mc donald, just a local food chain.
The one ~30m from my house for the same price has less meat and pickles in the banh mi, while the store about half a km away give noticably more. That's my go-to one going back from campus to home
We have a new (temp thankfully) manager that is obsessed with food costs. Pizzas on his shifts are noticeably "thin" on toppings. Add understaffing to save on labor, and now he's freaking out because customer satisfaction is plummeting. š
The one thing people like that donāt understand is itās significantly more difficult to regain customers than to get your original customers. So then they go into a cycle of increasing quality again, only to be forced to cut it again because customers didnāt return.
Capitalism believers really don't seem to understand how ephemeral trust is once they get exposed to ludicrous levels of money. It takes a strong-willed and dedicated business leader (and board, for public companies) to resist shareholder howling.
Dominoes did this really well like ~20ish years ago when they rebranded from the cardboard + plastic-cheese pizza they were known for to closer to what we have today. Then they went and jacked up their prices (seemingly moreso than elsewhere), making it only financially worth it even with the redesign if everything is affected by a particularly strong discount/deal/coupon. Their base prices are now like the same as if you went to a local artisinal pizzeria with quality ingredients, so there is really no reason to choose the bulk, mass-distributed, frozen/canned variation they offer even if it is decent when all put together.
At the time of the original redesign though, they were losing customers left and right and it had become a meme how bad the quality was, their one thing they had going for them was that it was cheapish and available for delivery (pre-doordash type models this was very uncommon), as well as open late. But despite those more unique aspects I'm pretty sure they were failing. Then they did a full overhaul of everything from aesthetic, to ingredient sourcing, to the pizzas themselves, paying particular attention to their "cardboard crust". They made a big marketing campaign basically apologizing for the previous quality while advertising the changes, and it actually worked quite well (at least until their more modern problems). One of the best examples of this phenomenon I can think of.
And yet I still hear people talk about how bad dominoes is, and then I ask them when the last time they had any they say like twenty years ago. Trust is hard to earn back indeed. They're decent in a pinch, but the prices are absurd when we have local stores that can deliver consistent top quality pizza for way less.
But the real tragedy for me is pizza hut. I grew up with them being pretty great for a big chain, but ever since they rebranded as wingstreet they've gotten worse and worse. Nowadays I'd rather go to little Caesars or heat up a red baron.
Man, me too. Book-it was one of the best promotions anyone has ever come up with. I read so many books that I wouldn't have otherwise in elementary just for the free personal pan pizzas. Before wingstreet our local pizza hut used to do a pizza buffet thing during lunch hours too that was great.
All that good will sacrificed on the altar of mediocre buffalo wings.
Iām pretty sure theyāre using the model of ābase price is outrageously expensive but thereās always some kind of massive saleā so you constantly think āoh man thereās a huge sale I should get it, think of all the savings.ā I donāt think Iāve ever ordered dominos and not gotten like 35-50% off the total
I had a manager at the pub I worked at, who was mainly in charge of large bookings/events. One day she came downstairs from her office at the end of the lunch rush and complained that the bar was overflowing with dirty glasses. We had 2-3 people working bar that day for ~250 guests. There was no way they could have served customers and cleaned glasses simultaneously. The venue manager always understaffed us and people were stressed. A temp venue manager came in and actually rostered enough people, the work got done, people were more relaxed working was actually enjoyable. That lasted for a few weeks when he got told by head office to reduce staff cost.
The parent company also made half a billion in profits and then cut staff discounts in half to be more sustainable. I stopped charging for drinks at that point. Bunch of cunts.
The local bagel shops by me compete over what a "baker's dozen" entails. The current winner stands at 16. They're already noted for having the best bagels in the county, no small feat for this area. The bonus bagels just add to the glory.
I ordered from a local place on a food delivery app (not plugging the app, they're irrelevant here). At about the time my driver was supposed to pick up my order, it was cancelled out of the blue.
In the middle of lunch rush, the place I ordered food called me and apologized, said the driver cancelled my order and told me to put another order through. He was going to cancel my order so I wasn't charged and then he was going to give me the food for both orders.
So I got an entire extra meal for free because the guy took time out of his day to make sure I got my food and a little extra for my trouble. I get food from there all the time now.
Incorrect. I work at a Subway, and we've called people who have ordered delivery, which we fulfill through a delivery service, when they don't get a driver.
It may work like that with whatever app you drove for, but that's certainly not the norm. UE and DD, I think, give you the driver a custom temp phone number that will connect the driver to the customer, but the store would get the customers actual info. And that's more to curb any potential harassment between the driver and customer.
I was a bartender for about a decade and two places I've worked had a running comp tab, every manager/bartender was given a certain amount each shift to "spend" on customers and establish/secure new and existing regular customers (as long as the items were accounted for). Oh, it's your first time here? Let me buy your first drink! Happy birthday, here's a free shot! It was so nice to finally meet your family, the appetizer is on me, I hope you guys enjoyed your dinner!
I also worked at a tourist trap where they weighed the liquor bottles and compared the missing units to the sold units in the computer system so they could narrow down who was overpouring and fire them. Six bartenders started the season and I was one of two to make it to the end. They would make us do blind pour tests every shift to see if we could pour an ounce and a quarter (don't even get me started on the argument I had with management about shot size) without measuring, because it looked bad to the customers when we had to quantify in front of them how much we were ripping them off by using a jigger. Which was a little confusing considering their policy when management pissed off a customer was to say, "We don't have regulars in the tourist industry, it doesn't matter if they come back. We got their dollar today and we'll get somebody else's dollar tomorrow."
All the places I worked are still around, but I can tell you which one SHOULDN'T be.
Happened to me a Boston Market. Our store was the highest money made in the whole large area and people from the company would come by to see what we were doing right. Me and the others would actually fill those plates partitions up to the top like they were designed but was always getting shit from the boss to "only give ONE scoop of sides. Not one and a half. Not two"
Customers got pissed if boss was around and I wasn't filling them as high. I hate saving a penny now to screw us over later.
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u/Klusterphuck67 1d ago
This happened to me, not a mc donald, just a local food chain.
The one ~30m from my house for the same price has less meat and pickles in the banh mi, while the store about half a km away give noticably more. That's my go-to one going back from campus to home