Tuesday, November 28, 2006

GPS Disappointment

The McChronicles was perusing some GPS units recently. We are now able to purchase a device that contains preprogrammed POIs (points of interest) such as gas stations, restaurants, etc.

Our goal is, from wherever we are, to be able to find all the McDonald's in the area.

Imagine our surprise when we viewed a unit that boasts over 6 million POIs and did NOT include a single restaurant when we asked for McDonald's.

Interestingly, they did deliver the address, and a map to, the owner of several local McDonald's.

What a disappointing turn of events.

The McChronicles: A blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.
Image: The McChronicles (modified to obscure the address)

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Monday, November 13, 2006

World Children's Day: Ronald McDonald House Charities

Helping children in need is, indeed, a noble cause. The Ronald McDonald House Charities is well-known, worldwide, for providing a unique and meaningful brand of help.

Quoting from the RMHC website, "In honor of World Children's Day and in support of children around the world, McDonald's will raise funds to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities and other children's charities around the world. "

This event will be held in 100 countries throughout November. Monday, 20 November is the grand finale date. More info can be found on the McDonald's blog. If it makes sense to you, and if you have a little something to offer, keep an eye out in your community and see if you can be a part of this excellent event.

And if you need some help - isn't it nice to know that others are offering their hand?



The McChronicles: a blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.
Images: screen grabs from McDonald's website.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Big Mac Value Meal: Blended

The McChronicles LOVES A Hamburger Today. This is a burger blog with a passion!

So, it is no surprise that we drop by for a visit frequently. Today they led us to something that, in a word, is COOL! A Hamburger Today led us to www.willitblend.com. WillItBlend is an ingenious online tool depicting the capabilities of Blendtec's line of extreme blenders.

OK - so the point? You guessed it. Blendtec's Tom Dickson's uncle Floyd is Jonesing for a McDonald's fix, but he doesn't have any teeth. No problem. Blendtec proves that, yes, it blends, by dropping a Big Mac value meal into their super duper blender.

Check out the Big Mac Blender video.

Thanks to A Hamburger Today (again).


The McChronicles: a blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.
Images:
WillItBlend website grabs.

Pop-Up McDonald's

The McChronicles was tooling around Shenzhen, China and dropped into a trade exhibition at the city's beautiful exhibition center. Imagine our gleeful delight at:

a) encountering a McDonald's within the exhibition center (exhibition vendors typically offer generic and horrid food)

b) encountering our first-ever "pop-up" McDonald's!
That's right fans, McDonald's dragged in a counter, fryers, cash registers, storage racks, and a freezer, threw a tent up around it all, and started doing business.

This was obviously an event that was very well planned for. The tent was awesome, perfectly-sized, sporting a bank of built-in exhaust fans, displaying a carefully selected and prominently displayed menu, and the outside walls were perfectly decorated.

The menu was limited (one egg/breakfast sandwich, Big Mac, and 3 chicken sandwiches, fries, taro pie, and canned soda), but adequate - and superior to the usual trade show fare.


The results? A resounding success. There were actually 3 "pop-up" fast food vendors on hand: McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and a local Chinese food chain. At one point in the lunch hour, with hundreds of conventioneers queued up for food, the Chinese food choice had almost no one on line, the Pizza Hut had a small crowd, and the McDonald's option was mobbed. So mobbed, in fact, that they ran out of Big Macs. We captured this image of the manager calling in reinforcements since the freezer was empty.

This was a great experience - we had never heard of a "pop-up" McDonald's before . Let us know if you have ever encountered one.




The McChronicles:
a blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.

Images:
The McChronicles.