He didnât say he wasnât listening to consumers. What he is saying is, he isnât listening to people who wouldnât be caught dead in a McDonalds, as in listening to his customers, not the press or the government.
âMcDonaldâs CEO Chris Kempczinski admits the chain isnât in the business of making healthy food, despite pressure from consumers.â
It was a paraphrase-Iâm sorry I canât put my fingers up like quotations marks and wink while typing on a forum. We can avoid arguing unnecessary nonsense because I am not claiming it was a quote.
Read the first two paragraphs of the article:
**But even with the increased pressure from consumers on food companies to create their products in a more healthful, transparent way, McDonaldâs CEO Chris Kempczinski admits the chain isnât in the business of making healthy food**.
"Itâs not up to me to make those choices," he said in a recent interview when asked about McDonaldâs unhealthy reputation, explaining the chain simply strives to provide people with the options they want, as opposed to the ones they (nutritionally) need.
Iâm arguing that this article is written poorly, because the CEO of a company ultimately does make the choices, but based on consumer demand, and that he WILL make the choice if demands goes high enough.
But can we agree not to argue the semantics of this here? It will be a needless rabbit hole.
The stance that the article actually DOES makeâŚthat âa business runs like a businessâ isâŚnot a very major revelation.
And while I am debunking common myths, no cattle donât use way more water. The majority of them are watered with rain or ground water, which they ahem, return to the land fairly quickly. The cattle industry uses less than 1% in total ground water withdrawals. And that isnât even factoring in that they return almost all of it back to the aquifer they borrowed it from.
There is a difference between generic consumer and actual customer. Doesnât make sense to cave to a bunch of vegetarians and vegans if they would never go to McDonalds anyway.
Neither the NYT article from which the article is derived. Thereâs nothing about government or the press or any of that business.
Hereâs the exact question he was asked:
When a lot of people think about McDonaldâs, the image is unhealthy fast food. To put it plainly, why doesnât McDonaldâs serve more healthy food?
He replies by saying âfriendsâ of his will say he can just make the menu healthier tomorrow, but that people will just go other places.
Hereâs the final paragraph on the topic from the NYT article (you have to login to read, I just created a burner account to sign up):
I have many friends who will say, âWell, youâre just not moving fast enough. Just change out the menu tomorrow and leave people with these choices. Thatâs how youâre going to get there.â Well, the reality is thatâs not going to force people to make the right choices. Thatâs just going to drive them to go in a different direction. Theyâre just not going to come to your restaurant. Theyâre going to go somewhere else. These things have to be done also at the pace that a customer is willing to be nudged. Just radically making these decisions and saying, *âWell, now these are your options. Take it or leave it,â is not how we as consumers are conditioned. We live now in a world of infinite choices.
If he thinks plant-based food will make him more money long-term, heâll try to push consumers into it eventually, but recognizes that it canât be done quickly. That seems to be the point here, not a bunch of stuff about journalists or vegans or the government.
A while back my refrigerator crapped out, and while waiting for another one I went to their website to maybe see if their salad with chicken looked edible. Haha, they quietly discontinued their salads without telling anybody.