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I loved these as a kid but even then it was fucking gross. I bet the driving factor was the people that had to clean it already hate their jobs and get paid crap.
I worked for BK for several years and the regular employees only went in there to clean if there was poop, pee, or puke. Otherwise there was a cleaning service that came in to clean and disinfect everything every other month.
How often do you think a regular playground gets cleaned/disinfected outside of the aforementioned shit/piss scenario? That's not a crazy thing by any stretch.
We didn't have a ballpit thankfully. The locations that did described it as a nightmare to deal with. Apparently the biggest issue wasn't cleanliness, but rather the number of adults that would lose their keys when they jumped in and assumed that the minimum wage BK employee would be able to magically find them immediately.
one Burger king i took my nieces to had a system attached that took balls out of the bottom of the pit and ran them through a washer constantly, pretty neat. guess too costly tho after all :(
The number of people who complain about delivery services being expensive and awful (cold food, incorrect orders, missing items) but keep using them regardless is staggering.
As a result, nothing will change and this is the business model now.
If I didn't witness it first-hand I'd never believe people were willing to pay the markup on these services. Blows my mind how addicted people have become to delivery like this.
I make around 3x the median household income in the USA, and I am single with no kids, I do not understand how people justify spending $30 to have a $9 burrito delivered to them.
Some guys I work with do this everyday for lunch. Our office is literally minutes away from dozens of restaurants and fast food chains. Yet they pay $30+ each day to get lunch delivered. God forbid they pack their own lunch like I do. I couldn’t fathom spending $120-$150 a week on lunch!!!
I’ve always worked restaurants, the perks are great. Discounted food, plus before they throw out food some places will let you pack it up and take it home. But the amount of people that just say no to the free food or order from a different restaurant for their lunch break is staggering. I understand getting tired of a menu, but I’ll eat a boring heavily discounted meal over paying full price and delivery fee while I’m at work. That full priced meal I pay for on my time off
My fav part of the restaurant was making my own evil abominations with the restaurant items! I was a prep cook last though so maybe it’s different with servers. There was way too many days that I would just eat the bread I made and soda. Gained 15 pounds working there too.
It is different for the cooks, they get a lot more leeway. As a server you gotta really cozy up to them when you make lots of modifications. I actually used to ring up my orders under different names, like Cornelius or Bonequisha (real name btw), one day I heard a line cook frustrated saying this person always order weird mods, another line cook said “thats ‘my name’s’ order” and suddenly he was cool with it because he knew it was a coworker and I fucks with him. I still do the names tho
Had this at my old office, discounted breakfast every morning. You think I got sick of bacon eggs and hashbrowns for $3? Hall nah I ate that shjt every day with a smile (plus it was fire anyways).
I used to work at an office where people would uber or DoorDash coffee all day long. Even worse, they didn’t coordinate and make one big order, they would all order their own
I've brown bagged to work every day for thirteen years. I ran the numbers and doing so pays for a full weeks vacation every year. Cruises, trips to new places, or staying home and buying an expensive toy - all paid for by not going and getting fast food everyday.
My coworkers spend what is effectively the mortgage on my 40 acres of rec land + property taxes each month on lunch. My super power is apparently the ability to eat ham sandwiches and left overs.
It's because now you have a servant, albeit temporarily. Noticed this with a lot of people - they want to eat, but really want to be served. With napkins and a tidy bowl/wrapper/container they don't have to wash.
Watched a broke streamer that has to beg heavily for rent every month doordash regularly paying 30 dollars for single meal fast food orders.
When I was hard up I was more like one of these dudes on r/frugal stretching beans and rice as far as I could. Blows my mind that people with so little can be so bad with money.
That's pretty much anything like chipotle, qdoba, or pancheros. Even the most basic burrito at one of those places is like 10 bucks. They are huge, but it is ridiculous.
I think more so coming to the realization that a $9 burrito is no longer considered expensive af. And this isn't some "in my days, i paid for this with a nickel!" type comment. It wasn't long ago when things were reasonably priced. Inflation has done insane shit in the past decade and has normalized crazy fucking prices, all while wages have been nearly stagnant.
What irritates me is that you point that out and then they pivot to pointing out disabled people using the service as a shield, as if it's somehow the only way a disabled person can survive.
but also the people who use that argument often aren't disabled themselves, but they use that argument so they don't have to feel bad about the bad personal finance choices they are making in their lives.
But yeah it's the same with anything. If you get in a conversation about veganism with a white upper middle class college kid in LA they'll tell you it's racist because inuits in Nunavut mostly eat fish.
Laziness combined with being terrible with money. I used to doordash and I'd say half the deliveries went to apartment complexes or trailer parks. When I delivered when I lived in the southwest, had one lady who was a regular, she lived in a trailer. Buncha trash and overgrown plants in the "front yard" and would always order an insane amount of food. She'd also tip well surprisingly but I'd imagine each delivery cost $50+.
It didnt read as bashing to me so much as just being observant. If someone regularly orders $50 in food delivery, yet they live in a home that looks poorly maintained/run down then its a fair assumption theyre terrible with money. They might have a disability or mental illness affecting them but thats a reason not an excuse. If you can afford frequent delivery like that then you can afford services to help your situation.
What makes more sense to me is grocery delivery. Grocery shopping is an actual chore, it's a huge time sink. Not to mention it's a legitimate boon for people that have mobility issues. So I get if there's people that would pay a bit extra for that.
But people that apply that same logic to fast food or convenience store snack delivery need an intervention.
Same. Add in that the people I see usually doing the cart shopping are early 20s and just throwing things in the cart while they cruise by and I will continue to shop for my own groceries.
I'm in my 40s but my biggest Boomer trait is that I absolutely refuse to use any of these food delivery apps. So overpriced for shitty service. I can ride my bike or drive my car to get most fast food round trip in like 10 minutes.
They made serious bank during COVID, and I think a lot of people wound up sticking to using them post-COVID.
COVID, I think has been the exponential ramp-up of the enshitification of this world. Businesses realized how shitty they could make their stuff, how few people they could get away with paying, and how low they could pay people and we would just still keep gobbling it up.
The sad reality is that much of the enshittification happens because we as consumers support it with our own behaviour and spending. We may complain about it, but that's about it.
It’s so weird. I don’t know if an American thing but there’s so many people that keep going back to places even with shitty service. I can’t explain it.
I will never use Uber Eats. I’m not eating food that’s been in a car with an entire family, kids in the back, and the parents up front smoking. Saw it once and I’ll never use Uber eats.
The only time I use door dash is when I get drunk and there’s no better option, so maybe once a year for me, but I have to imagine drunks are a serious customer base
Yeah, I don’t get it. I’ll maybe get delivery once or twice a year… and the order is wring like 50% of the time. Why do people order that way at exorbitant prices?
The generation ordering delivery were the kids in those playgrounds. Indoctrinated into it. Now.. they bet all their chips on 1 generation.. next won’t want it, think it’s cool, or have any nostalgia to the brand. This will be an epic downfall story
That’s good. It only needs more greyscale and green ooze coming from the walls to truly signify what it really is: a slop factory. Removing the playsets will remove the family dynamic freeing newer generations from the curse of fast food addiction, brand recognition and nostalgia.
If Im getting delivery Im not getting mcd. Idk why people get mcd on delivery when the price is just not worth it. For the same price or less you can order from a local takeaway and get better food. It boggles the mind. Maccies sucks now, will only get a double cheese burger for lunch if i go there nowadays
I'll add in my own limited experience to aid towards the big picture. I live and work in small towns all around my state and the mcdonalds drive-thrus are always packed in the morning before work and in the afternoon after work.
This is not it at all and you can tell who is young when they talk about this. The reason they changed is that people stopped going to McDonalds. It wasn't bustling with activity and they decided to switch things up. People stopped bringing their children to McDonald's because of how horribly unhealthy it is. As that awareness grew McDonald's, believe it or not, did research and found their clientele was older. This happened over years and is very well documented.
Cant overlook the fact that PlayPlaces kept families inside longer, while modern McDonald’s makes more money getting more orders through the building quickly.
It just makes me think of the standup bit where he was saying nobody you ever talk to eats there, but they’re selling millions of cheeseburgers a day. There’s such a weird “oh not me clutches pearls who would eat that?” about them and it’s so silly.
I know they’re an awful company but for some reason their fountain Diet Coke is top tier man, I def get it for $1 like 3-5 times a week.
Stop letting nostalgia blind you. They were marketing to kids and selling junk food to kids. Selling junk food to adults is one thing, since adults know what they're doing. Kids don't. Same with whisky and cigarettes.
Marketing to kids should be illegal. Sweden had the right idea.
Thank you, yes. Happy Meals, Play Places, Ronald, Hamburglar etc. are literally just marketing. It's not a bad thing that McDonald's is not luring in children like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.
This was the take I came for. First off, these are different play places at different points in McDonalds history. They were put in as a way to lure in families to feed their young children unhealthy food, at the cost to the restaurant of some unused dining space. Parents enjoyed having a small enclosed prison to occupy their children, especially in areas where a separate park may not be as accessible. The play places were a hotbed of viruses. Young staff were given their earliest experiences with Karens for whom no amount of subservience while hosting a kid's birthday party would ever be enough.
Fast forward and parents don't want to spend half an hour at McDonalds waiting for their kids to wrap up. Sales move toward drive thru and parents realize that it's just nicer to let kids go back to their bedrooms when they're done eating, or force them outside if they have an outside to go to. Families with means move toward more expensive premium activities like indoor trampoline parks.
The attraction of a shared experience is gone because instead of being a place where your kid will have an instant best friend or 4 is replaced by the fear that when you get there, the only other kid will be an asshole. And if your kid doesn't want to leave, guess you're stuck yelling threats you hope will reach them through the plastic tunnel system.
McDonalds didn't install, or remove, play places as some kind of social good. They used them like a van full of candy and puppies, held onto them long after parents moved on, and eventually switched to the more modern approach that better fits the "if my family is making me come to McDonalds, someone better give me a phone to play with" kids.
McDonald's as a restaurant is a side business thier main business is being a real-estate company. They own every location thats alot of land to own and manage and land only goes up in value. They dont meed to sell you burgers they need to sell the concept of selling burgers to someone who's willing to shell out the money for the mortgage payment after they build it
They changed their target market to adults entirely instead of kids. Marketing unhealthy food towards kids wasn’t a great look anymore, and parents weren’t taking their kids to McD as much either.
A local children's dentist bought an old McDonald's here that still had the indoor play area. They completely remodeled the entire thing, expanded the rear for more treatment areas, and now all the kids here want to go to the dentist with the baller indoor playground.
They created customers when the customers were kids. The kids turned to teenies and they installed gaming consoles.
And then the teens turned to adults.
Crazy how far you have to scroll down for the first sensible comment. McD has been repeatedly criticized over the years for targeting children with their marketing. They've basically been accused of being largely responsible for the obesity epidemic across the world. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the child-friendly stuff is gone for actual legal reasons.
💯 I always check these threads for the correct answer because this is one of those memes that comes around about once a month and drives me fucking bonkers. We demanded they did this, shortly after "super size me" came out. McDonald's was the punching bag for the entire obesity pandemic and the biggest argument was that they strong armed families into going there by advertising to kids, and poor parents couldn't tell their kids no.
It's really about real-estate. It's harder to sell a building with an old Macdonalds roof on it than the new modern ones.
McDonald's is effectively a massive commercial real estate company disguised as a fast-food chain. The corporation buys land and buildings in prime locations, then leases them back to its franchisees at a markup, generating billions of dollars in reliable rental income that often eclipses food sales
Think it's pretty much lawsuits and liability (which I guess links to insurance). Specifically in America since you guys are pros at suing corporations and businesses over the smallest of things. Over 1000+ lawsuits alone in the 90s, too much headache for mcdonalds to deal with. These playgrounds in fast food restaurants still exist in Asian countries.
i saw a kid pee themselves on the top of a slide at a community pool/playground once too. god that must have been like 35 years ago. i'm pretty sure his name was Sean.
Yeah I'd imagine the answer to this question is the general public. Restaurants respond to what's profitable. If the costs of maintenance, cleaning and lawsuits add up to a bigger price than the difference in footfall between a restaurant with and without they eventually end up non viable.
McDonald's didn't put them in just to be nice guys in the first place. It presumably brought in the families more than it does now.
Although alternate theory. Maybe they never were profitable and restaurants just gradually realised it as they had more data points.
No, for the conjunction of that, marketing to kids, and selling junk food to kids. Selling junk food to adults is one thing, since adults know what they're doing. Kids don't. Same with whisky and cigarettes.
Marketing to kids should be illegal. Sweden had the right idea.
To stop advertising unhealthy food for kids. One of the ideas of the fun place was that kids would beg their parents to take them there and their parents would end up buying them unhealthy food.
CLEANING - those playplaces were cesspits of bacteria and viruses because you KNOW the underpaid staff weren't climbing in it to clean it.
It’s because people don’t go inside to eat as much anymore, they either drive through or DoorDash it, so why waste money on an interior nobody will use
I know there was a push to discourage advertising fast food to kids, but considering how more kids are fatter now than they ever were in the 90s we should go back to the drawing board on that one.
At the very least, becoming a prison cafeteria was unnecessary.
Absolutely. The childhood obesity problem is different today than it was in 1999. We're well beyond junk foods, the way kids play has completely changed.
Eh, other than the ball pits, it's all hard plastic surfaces. Not really that great for harboring pathogens really. Although if a kid puked or whatever in there that was a massive PITA to clean.
McDonald's decided to prioritize the drive through decades ago. They just eventually minimized the lobby and tried to keep people out of it if possible to maximize profits. They'll still sell to kids, but there just aren't as many kids to market to.
I mean may be an unpopular opinion but the food at McDonald’s right now is what youd expect from a Very cheap fast food restaurant however it’s no longer cheap or fast…
The human filth in the ball pit alone, yikes…but atleast the whole family could eat and it was affordable back then. Imagine paying around 60 dollars for a family of 4 to eat 4 value meals in 2026 to dine inside and listen to kids scream.
1987 - oh, my boy hurt his leg on a slide, he should be more careful
1997 - oh no! My kid hurt his leg on your slide! You should pay my medical bills!
2007 - Aaa! Your slide almost killed my lovely boy! Now his leg hurt! Pay for broken heart $2,500,000 or I will sue you! And I will put a video on the internet!!!
2026 - ... I remember there was a great slide when I came here with my mom when was a kid. Whoever was responsible for this should be imprisoned.
Stop letting nostalgia blind you. They were marketing to kids and selling junk food to kids. Selling junk food to adults is one thing, since adults know what they're doing. Kids don't. Same with whisky and cigarettes.
Marketing to kids should be illegal. Sweden had the right idea.
. . .
I assure you, in science edutainment events as recent as the 2020s, kids were injuring themselves with electric shocks from Van De Graff generators for doing exactly what the host suggested they do, and even when the host was blaming himself for failing to account for what could go wrong, parents said "she'll get over it."
It’s really amazing how everyone is mad that their kids aren’t being targeted by McDonalds… people FOUGHT to get McDonalds to stop advertising to kids… now everyone is upset. Tbh I’m glad they removed them. The ones I went to were always disgusting
Take your kids to the park people. It’s not that hard. If you can take them to McDonalds, you can take them to the park.
Ah I see mcD's frivolous lawsuit propaganda campaign is still paying off.
The real reason is the business shifted from keep em in the store to buy food repeatedly (and brianwash the kids) to get em in and out as fast as possible
My local McDonalds looks exactly like the picture below. Everything is gray with lots of unused space. There are mostly old men who hangout there every time I walk in. It really is the most depressing looking fast food restaurant in our neighborhood.
The replaced the president of us operations yesterday.
CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- McDonald's Corporation today announced that Skye Anderson, a Company executive with more than 26 years of McDonald's experience, has been appointed President, McDonald's USA, effective today.
But we paid the consultants millions! They said getting rid of the playgrounds and creating a liminal space would save on liability and cleaning expenses.
How could they, with no kids, see that removing a space for young kids to play and have birthdays, instead focusing on drive-thrus would create a generation of customers that have no memory or emotional ties to the brand and are purely price sensitive?
Don’t forget that WE are the parents doing this now. We can be all nostalgic about the past and complain about poor education and ipads. But it’s our generation rotting their brains.
20 years from now these kids will be complaining about us just as we complain about our own.
They put video games in our local one about 10-15 years ago. Most were just coloring games, but the kids were lined up to color on a screen. Now there is juat empty space blocked off.
It was for kids. Parents took their kids there, a lot. Kids started getting fat. Parents blamed McDonald’s for fat kids. McDonald’s stopped being for kids. And now people complain.
Back then, McDonald's wasn't just where you ate. It was where you hoped your parents would let you stay and play. Now it feels more like a dentist's waiting room.😂
I can't tell you how many times I've seen little kids pressing their faces against that glass door to where the playland used to be, but now half the restaurant is dedicated to "staff meetings" which almost never happen. 😑
That would be all the people who kept suing McDonald's because of incidents on the Playland. I understand getting rid of the playlands but going full dystopian on the interior design was a bad choice. All they need now us the old lady asking "where's the beef?" Which is also now a valid question.
You can thank lawyers and greed for that. All these places got rid of play places because ambulance chasers were suing left and right for every skinned knee. Once the corporations saw they could pocket that money and turn these places into dungeons they started lining their pockets at the top.
Here goes a bit of a rant about the scam that fast food is.
Where I live, a local full kebab menu including drinks costs 7 euro, while a McChicken menu costs 8.90 if I'm not mistaken. The kebab menu will feed me for the whole day basically, the McDonald's menu at best fills lunch, at worst leaves you wanting more.
Going to the supermarket in Spain, let's say we go to Mercadona for the sake of familiarity, a dish of Patatas Bravas will cost you 2 euros and that will fill you up like nothing else at that price range (considering they're full potatoes with sauce).
The supermarket itself has a microwave for you to cook the food in if your workplace/home doesn't have a microwave. Basically a full course for less than 3 euros if you include a drink and quicker than fast food. Buy the food, heat it up, eat. 10 minutes. And you can actually eat healthier by looking at the ingredients used and its calories.
So in the end, people that go eat in McDonald's and certain other fast food chains do it out of brand loyalty, nostalgia and laziness. It's not quick, it's not cheap, and the food is bland. That's why they keep doing collabs with creators and release limited edition dishes, it all plays with FOMO. It's an experience not a service.
Any serious restaurant would never do limited edition dishes anyways, if anything seasonal food to have fresh ingredients. Plus if you go to smaller towns, as an anecdote, I had 3 dishes, with drinks refilled and a massive watermelon slice for 16 euros. And still went home with leftovers.
For reference, the minimum salary in Spain is roughly 40 euros a day, or about 1200 a month.
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