McDonald’s, the fast-food chain, will temporarily close its US offices this week to inform its corporate employees about layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring.
Last week, the company sent an internal email to its US employees and some international staff requesting that they work from home on Monday through Wednesday to communicate staffing decisions virtually. It is currently unknown how many employees will be affected by the layoffs.
The Chicago-based company stated in the message that it would communicate “key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization” during the week of April 3. The report also indicated that McDonald’s asked its employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other outside parties at its headquarters.
In January, McDonald’s had previously announced that it would review corporate staffing levels as part of an updated business strategy that could result in layoffs in some areas and expansion in others.
McDonald’s is expected to start announcing key decisions this week.
The renowned fast food chain McDonald’s has opened an automated outlet in Texas, which is a first of its kind. The restaurant allows customers to order food without requiring a kiosk or a smartphone app.
Without any human interaction, customers will get their orders on the conveyor belt. The restaurant lacks any seating or set-ups for eating inside since it is meant to be a “grab and go” outlet.
This unique McDonald’s is smaller than other McDonald’s, and the restaurant’s primary objectives are to improve accuracy and order speed. Instead of waiting and ordering at the restaurant, guests can place their orders before they arrive.
The business claimed to be creating fresh approaches to provide clients with faster, more effective service.
Although there are still people working in the restaurant to prepare the food, the new approach only eliminates client interaction. According to the restaurant’s franchisor, Keith Vanecek, the new strategy enables the restaurant team to focus more on order speed, enhancing the effectiveness and enjoyment of both the customer and employee experiences.
The food chain has, however, come under heavy fire for automating the process since it would harm people’s jobs. At $7.25 per hour, Texas’ minimum wage is one of the lowest in the country. Additionally, reducing employment in such a situation scares those who are already wary of automation and robots taking jobs away from people.
Many individuals opposed the plan and posted their opinions and personal experiences on social media.
This McDonalds is “fully automated” in the same way an automat or dumb waiter is fully automated: they’re designed to hide the (poorly paid) human labor and make it look like your food appears out of nowhere. https://t.co/C82KkkMTVV
Please, unless people boycott this, expect your livelihoods to be made redundant in the future. Supporting this is supporting the future demise of JOBS FOR HUMANS.
A Twitter user said that it would result in the elimination of jobs for restaurant employees. Another user said that after speaking with Google and Siri, he now needs to communicate with yet another robot.
While McDonald’s believes that the strategy will improve the consumer experience.
Major meat exporter Al-Shaheer Corporation Limited (ASC) revealed on Tuesday that it had signed a business connection deal with McDonald’s Pakistan for the supply of beef products, making it the first-ever Pakistani company to do so.
According to Brecorder, the company said that the beef products would be delivered through its Lahore-based plant for frozen foods in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
“It is our great pleasure to announce that ASC is the first-ever Pakistani company to enter into a business relationship agreement with McDonald’s Pakistan for the supply of beef products,” it said in the PSX notice.
McDonald’s Pakistan’s interest in the business, according to ASC, “is a testament to its commitment to upholding international standards and producing top-of-the-line products.”
According to the material on ASC’s LinkedIn page, the business was founded as a partnership in 2008 with the establishment of an abattoir in Gadap Town, Karachi. The company initially solely shipped red meat to Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
The first red meat brand in Pakistan, Meat One, was founded in 2010 when Al-Shaheer Foods entered the domestic fresh meat market. In 2014, the economy brand Khaas was introduced, aiming its marketing at local butcher shops.
Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are a few major export markets. Locally, Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad are where it is most prevalent.
ASC announced the start of its frozen food facility’s commercial operations last year.
Potatoes used by McDonald’s are among the fresh produce grown across farmland owned by Bill Gates.
As per reports, the potatoes for McDonald’s fries are grown in fields in Washington state. The fields that grow potatoes and a few other vegetables are so massive that they are visible from space.
The 100 Circles Farm is in Washington state
Gates and his wife among America’s biggest owners of private farmland own 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states.
A robber broke into a McDonalds branch in England and demanded chicken nuggets at gunpoint using a fake gun.
CCTV cameras caught the entire incident and the video shows22-year-old Rudi Batten entering the food outlet with a fake gun. The incident took place in Gloucestershire county of England.
According to reports, Batten claimed to have a gun and forced a manager to give him access to the store’s safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvKaMx2y6U&t=69s
On his way out, Batten demanded staff present to give him some of the fast-food franchise’s famous chicken nuggets but the restaurant was only serving items from its breakfast menu as it was too early in the morning.
Since he could not wait for the nuggets to be cooked, Batten took a double sausage McMuffin instead.
Batten stole more than $600 from the restaurant. He was identified by CCTV cameras and he later turned himself in to authorities. It was discovered that instead of an actual gun, Batten had been threatening his victims with an unloaded .177air pistol.
While a judge recently sentenced him to six years in prison, Batten said that he had committed the robbery to pay back a debt. His lawyer said that he was ashamed and embarrassed by his actions.
A six-year-old girl choked on pieces of a face mask found inside McDonald’s chicken nuggets, her mother claims.
Laura Arber said she discovered this in at least two of the 20 nuggets she had bought for her children from the fast food branch in Aldershot, Hampshire, yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zOpS7CXHFw
According to details, the 32-year-old had taken three of her four children to the restaurant to pick up the order. Laura says she saw her daughter having difficulty eating before claiming to find parts of a blue disposal face mask.
She said: “My little daughter just started choking and I put my fingers down her throat to loop it out there was just blue with the sick. I thought what on earth is this? I didn’t even think it could be the chicken nugget but looked over at the box and all you could see was this blue coming out of another chicken nugget in the box of 20.”
“And the mask is cooked into it, like a part of the mixture and it’s clearly a mask. You can see the seam and how solid it is in there.”
She spoke to the manager and claims she was told that the nuggets were not cooked on site.
Laura claimed she did not receive an apology and was shocked that the restaurant did not stop serving nuggets.
The mother added: “And the worst thing was that they carried on serving them. Before I left I said: ‘Are you going to keep serving them?’”
“And they were carrying on serving them and that was the big thing for me. I just couldn’t believe the way the management were handling it.”
“What if I had walked out of the room and my daughter had choked?,” asked the mother. “She could have died. It’s a split second thing. And I am just thinking, we have just come out of a pandemic and there is a face mask in my child’s chicken nugget.”
Laura’s son was born in intensive care and she stayed in accommodation provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities UK for families whose children are very ill in hospital.
She said she had always held the company in high esteem because of the way they helped her but said her experience yesterday left her feeling a disappointed.
A McDonald’s spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear about this customer’s experience. Food safety is of the utmost importance to us and we place great emphasis on quality control, following rigorous standards to avoid any imperfections.”
“When the matter was brought to the attention of our staff, we apologised, offered a full refund and asked the customer to return the item so we could further investigate the matter and isolate the affected product.”
The All Pakistan Restaurant Association organized the first ever APRA Awards, which were based on customer choices and were created to celebrate Karachi’s innovative food scene.
But after the awards were announced this week, Karachi’s foodie groups are criticizing the award list, questioning the authenticity of the awards, especially the fact that the best restaurant of the year was awarded to McDonalds.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1A29iGhmJZ/
The restaurant of the year award nominees included the uber popular SteakbyCFU, Karachi’s favourite Kebabjees and the once great Koel. Not only did McDonalds not fit in the list as it was the only fast food joint, but as the winner, it raised many eyebrows.
Ginsoy won the food legend award which also caused much grief since Waheed, Karachi Broast and Hanifia were also on the list
Many people called the list a joke, others questioned why Karachi’s legendary restaurants weren’t on the list and other came up with award lists of their own.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5pqWbkBjrO/
Critics of the awards questioned how restaurants who were nominated for awards and won them could be gold partners for the event
Ali Safina hosted the award event and the jury consisted of Chef Saadat, Dr. Sadia Safdar, Chef Abdul Hadi and Sumera Hussain.
After food delivery platform Zomato, McDonald’s India is now facing a major backlash over serving Halal meat to its customers.
A Twitter user asked McDonald’s India whether their restaurants are Halal certified, the company said it does serve Halal meat to its customers.
Thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald’s India. We truly appreciate this opportunity to respond to your comments. The meat that we use, across our restaurants, is of the highest quality and is sourced from government-approved suppliers who are HACCP certified. (1/2)
Soon after this, the hashtag #BoycottMcdonalds began to trend on Twitter.
In #Halal the slaughter of animal is done in #Islamic ritual by reciting tasmiya or shahada in the name of #Allah. Also the animal suffer excruciating pain in the process.
Meat is meat….an animal is sacrificed to satisfy uo appetite whether it’s halal or non halal..even if it is not halal ,that poor creature still suffers n bears d pain of being killed so u should stop uoself calling hindu n overreacting on such petty issues #boycottmcdonalds
In a similar incident, Zomato faced flak after it said that food doesn’t have any religion while responding to a customer who refused to accept an order delivered by a Muslim delivery guy.
