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We’ve been turning in Russia all this time without even noticing.
The difference is commie blocks have utility.
Soviet bus shelters have more pizzaz than American McDonalds.
Just more proof of the efficiencies of Capitalism
Hey, I live near that McDonalds!
It’s right across from the Dallas Zoo, so you can imagine that there was a not insubstantial traffic of kids leaving the zoo and getting a McNasty with Cheese with their parents.
Everyone around here hated that they turned something fun and unique into another corpo hell hole of blandness, so there’s that at least.
It’s the subtler version of hostile architecture. You know how they designed benches to be impossible for homeless people to sleep on? They do not want a customer to stay at the building after they have made a purchase. It is more efficient if the children do not come inside and a new customer can take their place. The building is not made for humans, it is made for money.
The playpen was nasty af tho
I remember as a kid being in one, then a baby in there pissed like twice the amount of piss that their entire body could even displace from a tub. The parent collected the baby and left without saying anything to anyone. The thing then smelled like piss for the next two years until they renovated to the mccafe boring design and just got rid of the play area.
I remember getting to play Nintendo 64 at our McDonalds. You could play things like smash, and usually could get in a full match before it did its mandatory reboot things.
Grocery stores would often have childcare areas up until the 90s I think.
So many of those little casual extras/“customer service” has gone out the window. It’s about stripping out everything that doesn’t immediately gain you profit.
Like, back in the day - retail worker was supposed to know their shit. It was a full time job. You could go to Dillard’s and some older guy could give you advice on what to match with what. You could go to a Radio Shack and say you were having trouble with a project, and there’d be a good chance that you’d end up getting some help.
But businesses would rather pay someone $9/hour for a part time job that’ll fuck with their hours every week. Why have someone who’s paid a living wage who can help sell you a really nice coat for a few hundred bucks, when you can pay some shit for some teenager to hawk polyester shit that wouldn’t even be worth paying a commission on?
It goes into this rejection of aesthetics - that all of these retail businesses are things which exist to funnel money. Aesthetics has cost - and might not even be agreeable to everyone! Why risk it when you could have Brutalist McDonalds.
Well fuckin said and spot on!
Also thanks for reminding me how great Radio Shack used to be. It used to be a place to get actual electronics components. And the people there knew their shit. And there was enough intelligent folks around to keep a place like that in business! God I miss those days…
another for the list of things with downvotes for no apparent reason
Urgh this sucks so much how capitalism is just making everything more « efficient » aka maximizing profits.
Your Radio Shack example is legit. I had an uncle who worked at Radio Shack as some sort of, idk, tech or something? I was a kid and it was in the 80’s, all I knew was that he worked there and made good money doing it.
Then one day he gets recruited by a multinational tech corporation and moves to Berlin to work in a lab. He could’ve taken my aunt with him, but she cheated on him as soon as he left for the 2 probationary weeks he spent in Germany before the company in question committed to hiring him.
He eventually became a millionaire with dual citizenship and my aunt married some abusive dipshit who immediately went broke. Now she works in a pickle factory. Ain’t life interesting?
Just chasing pickle again and again
Hail corporate!
Ronald’s second term
Not just McDonald’s, every big chain has it’s own neutral toned square box exterior now. Nothing interesting about any of the architecture. Not that they have to be great works of art, but everything looks exactly the same.
I do think they have an obligation to be pretty. Pretty things make people happy. It’s a contribution to the social project we’re all working on.
A walkable city, not that a McDonalds drive-thru is specifically part of that, should have greenery, places to hang out, and pretty buildings to look at. People should like being wherever they happen to be.
If you compare the two buildings in the picture, the top one I’m sure you have to drive to, but it at least looks like an inviting place to hang out with your kids or something. The bottom one almost seems hostile to that idea. And the main reason it even looks like that is austerity. At least I think so. Big gray cubes are cheap to build and easily templateable.
The main reason this McDonalds looks like this is austerity. At least I think so. Big gray cubes are cheap to build and easily templateable.
Yeah, that’s the problem!
Whenever I take road trips I try to spot the old Pizza Hut buildings by the shape of the roof. It’s surprising how many there are.
Ronald McDonald is a capitalist.
Architecture in the Soviet Union
This is literally Dallas, Texas, USA.
Let’s just say, I’m glad you guys aren’t architects.
Psshht. Imagine how badass the Empire State Building would look with a permanent King Kong statue on top.
Now imagine EVERY BUILDING.
I accept your apology.
I disagree but I’m willing to accept a compromise at gargoyles.
Looks like they changed their target group.
That actually makes sense.
In both cases it’s millennials. It’s even called “millennial grey.”
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I mean I think it looks pretty dope, if you take off that mcdonalds logo it would make for a nice starter minecraft house
I think their target group is exactly the same, they just aged a bit
Yes, that’s what I actually also considered writing - you’re reading my mind :)
I’m just surprised, looking at comments here, how many people here belong to the formerly targeted group.
I’m kind of fine with not overmarketing fast food to children.
Yes, but the right trajectory wasn’t to make the building dull, it was the make better food for kids.
I don’t think McDonald’s can make food that is fine for kids to get hooked on, without completely changing their whole deal
It’s OK, we can abandon mccdonalds as a concept. No loss there.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
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Now we have shit buildings, and shit food, what part of this is good
The food at other restaurants
If the food is shit, don’t go there. Most people here are just reacting to nostalgia. McD has always been shit food. You just were imprinted from an early age to associate it with going out with friends, getting toys and playing in the play pen. But the food was always garbage.
Yes, the food was always garbage. How is that nostalgia? No-one said it used to be good, they said the building used to be cool looking.
So they make the building look worse and the food stays the same… Now it’s all shit.
So what are you adding here?
The fact that kids aren’t begging parents to go to McDonald’s any more? Did you read the same thread I did?
These lil coco melon rats won’t shut up about wanting McDonald’s nuggets
That’s a fact?
How is that relevant? Nothing here is good.
It would be so much better if they went back to aggressively marketing towards children, right?
Yes. If they had healthy food and aggressively marketed at kids that would be fantastic…
I don’t know what part of this you and the other dipshits are not following:
- Currently we have a shit building and shit food.
- We want a happy building and healthy food.
Get off your fucking high horse for a second and learn to read. No-one said we want the shit they are serving now. I’m saying that instead of changing their marketing, they should have changed the food.
Clearly reading comprehension wasn’t just an issue on Reddit.but the kids dont want to eat healthy food, and yummy healthy food is expensive.
Why should garbage unhealthy “food” be marketed to children though?
