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So, as a followup to my story on unsnobbycoffee.com, the new campaign by McDonald's, I hit a McDonald's on New York's Upper West Side to try out some unsnobby coffee. I intended to write this there, but unfortunately, the free McWifi was a McMyth.If you've never been to a NYC McDonald's, well, it's an experience. The low prices really throw off the normal-person-to-crazy-person ratio. There was one man in a security guard uniform (not a McDonald's employee) camped out by the soda machine, drinking various sodas one inch at a time, and then refilling. Well, that's one way to kill your lunch break.
I asked the cashier for an americano, and she looked at me like I was from the moon.
Me: You don't have americano?
Cashier: No...
Me: Oh. Are you going to be getting coffee drinks soon? There's something on your website.
The cashier looked terrified and responded with "I don't know" in a way that could have been followed with "I don't really even work here." I'd have asked the manager, but the cashier was so sweet, and I was afraid that if they did have americanos, she might get fired.
So, I sat down in the back near a berserk talking trash compactor that kept thanking me, and messed around on my computer trying to locate the McWifi. McLies! McLies!
I ate my off-center sandwich and went home. McFail. I'm so not going back (...till McMonopoly. God, I'm a sucker for the McMonopoly. What? I don't make fun of your hobbies).
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10-08-2008 @2:46PM M said... Alright Slash... I usually love your articles and usually read the website atleast once daily. This article however... SUB PAR. First of all, the thing with the McDonald worker. Typically the workers there are some breed of high school student, that works there just to get some freebies. Secondly... The trash compacter, awesome idea. Waste after all is haste. Thirdly, I must give cudos to McDonalds. I will likely get lynched for saying this but, I'm a coffee snob. I love my Starbucks, but McDonalds is second best, this is even over that of the great white north's Tim Horton's which is colored hot water. McCafe has huge momentum and will be the next big thing. I agree that the retain McDonalds has some work to do, but McCafe is the key.
-M.
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10-08-2008 @9:23PM lauren said... fascinating.
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10-09-2008 @2:50AM Lynn said... You might want to check the "locatins" button on unsnobbycoffee- it seems to be a promotion in WA only. Probably why you had no luck in the upper west side. As a NYC waitress it drives me CRAZY when people assume different branches are all the same... a woman tonight asked me if we could make her a mac and cheese because they got it in California. O_O. I wanted to S'MAC her.
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10-09-2008 @2:41PM Barry said... You actually thought McDonald's had an espresso machine? Seriously? I mean, it seems rather obvious that they would apply the same mass manufacturing process to coffee as they do to "hamburgers", etc.
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10-12-2008 @8:39PM Greg Sherwin said... "Elitist" has been long bad-mouthed in political campaigns. But finally, people are waking up to the fact that maybe you can hang out with Bubba at the local bar over beer nuts, but that doesn't necessarily qualify him as a good president. Like our Olympic athletes, CEOs, etc., we like elitists. Who wants to replace Tiger Woods with Danny Denison (ranked #996th on the PGA tour) ... or Warren Buffett with Citigroup CEO, Vikram S. Pandit.
Similarly, McDonald's is now giving snobbery a good name. If the masters of mechanically separated and processed chicken bits soaked in high-fructose corn syrup are going to start vilifying potential competitors as "too snobby", I take that as nothing short of an endorsement.
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