Ricardoss

[Selene Mariposa @Selene_Mariposa]

McDonald's is spending 8.5 billion dollars to find out why families stopped coming.

I can save them the 8.5 billion.

They took out the playground.

The plan, announced Wednesday at investor day. Better food, faster service, new equipment, AI tools, hospitality training, and a bigger push into chicken and beverages. They call it Next. The goal, they say, is making customers feel more comfortable.

Wall Street loved it so much the stock fell 5 percent to its lowest since 2022.

Over five years McDonald's shares are down 3 percent. Burger King's parent is up 14. The owner of Taco Bell and KFC is up 13.

This is not a hamburger problem. This is a McDonald's problem.

So let us talk about who used to eat there.

Parents. That was the whole business. Parents at 5:40 on a Tuesday with three kids in the back and nothing thawed at home.

You did not go for the burger. You went because your kids could run screaming through a plastic tube for 40 minutes while you sat with a coffee and experienced silence.

That was the product. The food was the cover charge.

The first PlayPlace opened in 1971 in Birmingham, Alabama, and for fifty years it did one job. It made small children demand to go to McDonald's.

Then 2020 arrived, every play area in the country closed, and a great many never came back. The equipment came out during a remodeling program named Experience of the Future.

The Experience of the Future turned out to be a touchscreen.

Their own chief executive said he did not know if ball pits were in their future.

Sir, you were not selling ball pits. You were selling forty minutes.

So now there is no counter, no playground, and no reason for a seven year old to want to go. A screen, a window, and a bag.

And for that we pay prices that require a moment of reflection in the parking lot.

For thin, overcooked, oddly uniform pucks that taste like a memory of beef.

I did not love them because they were good. I loved them because I was eight and there was a slide.

And have you seen the new buildings.

The old ones were unmistakable. Red roof, yellow arches, legible from a highway at 70 to a child who could not yet read.

The new ones are a flat gray box with a small logo and a drive through wrapped around it. A regional claims office with a fryer.

They removed the color, the characters, the counter, and the playground, and then hired consultants to find out why it no longer feels like anywhere.

Which is why, when I have to eat fast food, I go to Chick-fil-A.

Not for the politics. For the competence.

They have led the customer satisfaction index for fast food eleven years running, and average 8.5 million dollars per location against McDonald's 4 million.

More than double, while closed on Sundays. Fifty two days a year with the lights off, and still double.

A seventeen year old hands you a bag and says my pleasure and means it about 70 percent, which is 70 percent more than a touchscreen has managed.

McDonald's is spending 8.5 billion on hospitality training.

Chick-fil-A earns 8.5 million per restaurant by just having some.

So here is my consulting proposal, free of charge, on behalf of mothers everywhere.

Put the playgrounds back.

Not a nostalgia campaign. Not a retro cup. The structure. Tubes, slides, a door the kids cannot open from the inside, and a bench where a tired woman can sit.

And understand what you are buying, because it is not lunch.

A six year old does not know your food is bad. He has no basis for comparison and no functioning palate. He thinks the burger is incredible because he is standing in a castle made of tubes.

That is the window. That is the only window you get.

You catch them before the taste buds arrive, and thirty years later they drive past your sign, feel something they cannot explain, and pull in anyway.

That is not a menu strategy. That is imprinting, and you shut it down in 2020 to save on cleaning.

Eight and a half billion dollars for AI tools and hospitality training.

Or a slide.

🦋

[Mariana Braun @marianabraun]

Caminando por el Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México descubrí “Botanero del Bosque”, un lugar que mezcla tradición, sabor y ese ambiente tan característico de las cantinas mexicanas.

Desde que entras, el lugar te atrapa con sus grandes barras y decoración de una cantina clásica. Acompañado de buena música y si algo define la experiencia aquí, son sus botanas: generosas, bien servidas y con ese sazón casero que se agradece en cada bocado.

Este lugar se vuelve el pretexto perfecto para reunirte con amigos, tomarte una cerveza bien frías y dejarte consentir con cada platillo que llega sin pedirlo.

Las clásicas Quesadillas de papa con queso, las Tostadas de punta de rib eye , camarones a la diabla, un caldo tlalpeño y lo que me fascinó, la milanesa manchega.

El Botanero del Bosque no es solo una cantina, es una experiencia muy chilanga: auténtica, sin pretensiones y llena de sabor.

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

A rant: Tipping culture is out of control. I'm a generous tipper. But 20% for someone to make eye contact & hand me a muffin is crazy. Restaurants widely suggesting people tip 30% now is kookoo bananas. At this rate we'll soon be tipping the price of the meal. Make it stop.

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@kurtsaltrichter @t1alpha How can you tell which side of the trade is the MM’s?

[Thomas Kole (see 🦋 and 🐘) @ThomasKoleTA]

a Portrait of Tenochtitlan, my 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec Empire is released!

I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and I am really curious what all of you think.

Take a look:
https://t.co/31FSp9NBIm

#tenochtitlan

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@Mr_Derivatives You should plot this vs SPX

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

Wait until you see how well NYSE President @ThomasFarley timed this with the Opening Bell

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@algarabia Tiliches

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@BrixRox Animo! Que todo salga bien!

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@ProChapultepec ¿Por que se abandonó? Creo que cabría en el proyecto de renovación del bosque. ¿Hay algún plan al respecto?

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Found a glorious collection of maps from Reddit. Some could def change how you look at the world.

Here are 12 of them 🧵

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The most powerful paradoxes of life:

[Arqueología de Cajón @Abel_MenaHis]

Guía básica para enloquecer a los hispanistas con fuentes:
Comencemos aclarando que la escritura ya existía en Mesoamérica, no fue nada traído de Europa; Para saber más:
https://t.co/1Ucv816z19
https://t.co/OyZXMHygpk
https://t.co/DoLleqZcry

[Stephen Diehl @smdiehl]

Lets finally talk about how NFTs are a giant scam. (1/) 🧵

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@SATMX Pues muy bueno el portal pero sigue sin mostrar ni una cita disponible en ninguna de las 6 oficinas de CDMX.

[Walter Buchanan¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @WalterBuchananC]

-Soy accionista en $BABA Alibaba
-mmm en realidad no
-¿kaaa? pero si compré acciónes...
-mm na aa, lo que compraste es un VIE

breve 🧵sobre cómo funcionan las "acciones chinas"

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@YasnayaEG Hola! Me interesa,tienes más información?

[Irving Gatell @IrvingGatell]

1. Me llama la atención la queja contra Bezzos, por gastarse el dinero en su viaje espacial, y no repartirlo entre niños pobres o gente con hambre.
Esa mentalidad de dispensario es profundamente medieval y eurocentrista.
Deja te explico.

[Ricardoss @ricardossx]

@HertzMx Pésimo servicio, prepagas una reserva, no tienen el auto, intentas reembolsar y nunca te contestan. 👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽 no me extraña que se estén yendo a la quiebra. Cuando se van a hacer responsables?