What are the secrets of McDonald’s Corporation? Fast food giant McDonald’s is well known for its unhealthy food and scandal-prone company. Yet you might be surprised just how unhealthy and how scandalous it actually is. A long history of mistreatment of its managers, employees, customers, and even of the food itself characterizes the company-the largest restaurant corporation in the world. Consequently, they have piled up a lot of skeletons in their closets around the world. Despite the fact that all of these secrets are public knowledge, it’s amazing how few people are actually aware of them. Here are ten open secrets that McDonald’s would like you to forget. For the fast-food giant, secrets have little to do with ‘is the information available’ and more to do with getting people to forget about them with their new, creepy Hamburglar.
1. Not all vegetarian options are vegetarian
McDonald’s has been selling its french fries as vegetarian options for decades. Potatoes, salt, and oil are all it takes, isn’t it? Wrong. McDonald’s fries contain 19 different ingredients, including beef fat. Despite trying to cover up the beef fat by simply listing it as “natural flavoring,” the company eventually found out about it.
Naturally, the company was sued for its false claims, most famously by a variety of Jewish and Muslim groups. Since McDonald’s used beef fat, it undermined both kosher and halal principles, and by lying about it millions of people were unknowingly violating their own religious beliefs. In exchange for an undisclosed sum of money McDonald’s agreed to remove beef fat from non-U.S. beef fries.
2. The Secrets of McDonald’s Corporation’s “Super Size Me”
A documentary titled “Super Size Me” was released in 2004, in which Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s for the entire month to demonstrate its unhealthiness. Spurlock always ordered a larger meal when staff offered, fitting the movie’s title. Spurlock’s health had deteriorated into a bacillus by the month’s end. There were many viewers who thought, ‘well, duh.’ and then moved on. McDonald’s did benefit from the film.
3. The McAfrika: Secrets of McDonald’s Corporation
From the name you might assume the controversy involved racism (no, those are listed later here), but the McAfrika was simply a case of wasteful marketing and poor management. In 2002, McDonald’s released the McAfrika, a product that suffered from numerous flaws.
For one, the burger—which was just beef, cheese, and tomatoes on pita bread—was marketed as an “authentic” African recipe, which makes you question if McDonald’s knows the definition of the words “authentic,” “African,” “recipe,” and “pita.” And the sandwich was released at the height of a severe famine in South/Central Africa, so selling fattening food named after the area was a bad look. This is made worse by the fact that the burger is only available in Norway, which is one of the richest nations in the world and one of the few non-African countries. Not a lot of time passed before the burger died.
4. There are no cleaning procedures for their machines
Two secrets are wrapped up in one, which is odd. McDonald’s is constantly mocked for having ice cream machines that are out of service. Frequently when an employee says that a machine is out of service, it is due to the machine’s four-hour nightly self-cleaning process. If the machines are cleaned for four hours every day, must they be exceptionally clean?
It is possible for the machines to be dirty. In the self-cleaning process for ice cream machines, only the main internal chambers are cleaned, not the trays and nozzles outside. Ice cream machines aren’t the only problem. Almost every McDonald’s location has dirty machines at any given time. It is a fact that many of the machines at the company have a hard time keeping clean, and employees will just let them get dirty and dirty until they grow mold due to lack of incentive. This confession has appeared on sites including Reddit, Quora, and other anonymous locations.
5. Just How Often They’re Sued: Secrets of McDonald’s Corporation
The answer: constantly. The reasons are endless. Beyond the beef fat incident mentioned earlier, a lawsuit surfaced because black employees were terminated by supervisors in three locations because they complained that there were “too many black people in the store.”. In addition, 52 former owners of over 200 McDonald’s stores sued the company for forcing them into “financial suicide missions” when white owners were not.
Moreover, one franchise forced workers to work 25-hour shifts without overtime pay, which the company defended. In news outlets, you can find dozens of other notorious lawsuits, like the hot coffee incident that made them famous.
6. The Hot Coffee Incident was Their Fault
A woman who suffered third-degree burns after drinking McDonald’s hot coffee sued the company for its negligence. Media ridiculed plaintiff Stella Liebeck heavily. As a result of the case, McDonald’s lost and was forced to pay damages to Liebeck.
Despite the media’s demonization of Liebeck, it turns out she had been (mostly) right all along. There were literally hundreds of complaints to McDonald’s about its coffee’s temperature before. McDonald’s coffee was almost 40 degrees hotter than normal coffee. A hot cup of coffee tore her pelvis skin, which required skin grafts.
7. Their Health Initiative is Totally Fake: Secrets of McDonald’s Corporation
The promises McDonald’s make to make its menu healthier always come with asterisks. McDonald’s claims its burgers will no longer contain preservatives in a recent marketing campaign. Still, about a third do. Earlier, a campaign brought attention to the issue of eliminating high-fructose corn syrup. The buns are the only exception. The sauce appears on dozens of other items, including the buns themselves.
McDonald’s started offering salads around the same time that supersizing was eliminated. When the dressing and cheese are added to those salads, the calories will increase even more. A similar campaign, however, promised fewer ingredients and simplified menu items at the time. A quick glance at the ingredients list on their website illustrates how dishonest this claim was.
8. They Served Tainted Meat and Didn’t Care
Reporters secretly filmed inside the OSI Group’s food-processing plant in China in 2014, and found abhorrent conditions there. People touching, dropping, repackaging expired meat, and even handling bare hands touched food. A number of fast-food chains in China purchase meat from OSI Group. All withdrew from the company after discovering its subpar conditions. That is, all but one.
As a result of the controversy, McDonald’s blatantly lied. Asserting that none of the OSI-owned plants has ever supplied meat to them. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be untrue shortly thereafter. After that, the company decided to continue using the OSI Group as their source of chicken and beef in China, in spite of common sense and ethics. The OSI Group cut ties with by every other company as well-Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, and so on.
9. There’s a Best Time (and Way) to Eat There
Almost all restaurants are like this, too. Several corporations rely on mystery shoppers, or undercover agents, to maintain standards of service. Customers rate the cleanliness, food, and service of items they buy. People who have ever worked in a restaurant tell you this is a common practice: the shoppers usually come at certain times. This makes those times the best for eating there.
Whether directly or indirectly, mystery shoppers taught to look out for them and give them their best. The most popular times of day for mystery shoppers are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The way they order is also similar. As an example, they must always leave with a receipt after ordering a certain number of items. McDonald’s is most likely to provide you with best service if you order during busy times and request an itemized receipt.
10. The Monopoly Game Was Fake: Secrets of McDonald’s Corporation
McDonald’s customers won virtually no top prizes from 1995 to 2000. There were no public items with the winning pieces.
Jerome Jacobson’s friends and family instead received the most valuable pieces. Simon Marketing, the company that McDonald’s used to run the game, hired Jerome as its head of security. In order to keep the most valuable pieces secret, he got to the pieces before they went out. He gave the prizes to his family and friends, knowing he couldn’t cash them in himself. Prior to his arrest, his social circle racked up $24 million in prizes.
Also Read: Top 10 Fascinating Amazon Leadership Principles you should learn from Jeff Bezos
1 Comment