McDonald's employee tears up new US offer: 'Beg you, don't order it'
Created: 10/15/2022 3:02 p.m
By: Steffen Maas
McDonald's is currently offering a Happy Meal for adults.
That triggers a gigantic rush - but employees beg: "Don't order it."
Chicago, Illinois, United States – Once again, the American fast-food giant McDonald's has managed to bring people bags of joy with a promotional campaign.
In America, the golden M has recently been selling so-called “artist boxes”.
They are not only packed with customers' food requests, but also with trendy collector's figures - and are intended to make "the Happy Meal experience" tangible for adults.
It works great, the rush is huge, everyone is happy.
Well, not quite.
The new adult Happy Meal does not sow joy among the employees, but sheer despair.
Surname: | MC Donalds |
|---|---|
Type: | fast food corporation |
Sales volume: | $23.223 billion (2021) |
Number of employees worldwide: | 205,000 |
Happy Meal for Adults at McDonald's - Employees on the Limit: "It's Killing Me"
"The new adult Happy Meals are killing me," complains a McDonald's employee on Reddit, where over 20,000 employees regularly discuss working conditions in a sub-forum.
The problem with the current promotion: Each individual box not only consists of the coveted collectible figure, but also of a drink, a medium-sized fries and either a Big Mac or a pack of ten chicken nuggets.
They all take significantly longer to prepare than the components of a regular Happy Meal.
"We're always waiting for the nuggets.
And even longer on the fries for the box,” the user digitally sighs, devastated:
I hate it.
McDonald's employee and user "Arklados" on Reddit
"Yup, absolute chaos," confirms another Reddit user and describes how he has been bullied several times by "grown-up, grown-up people" because of a happy meal and the long waiting times.
"It was hell to see 100 nuggets on the order screen." The fact that emotions in connection with the fast-food restaurant tend to run higher was also experienced in Great Britain, where the innocent decision to serve the Big Mac with chicken to make, McDonald's brought a shitstorm: customers felt pure "hate" and freaked out completely.
Happy Meal for adults: "Cactus Plant Flea Market" contributes the collectible figures
After reaching for the toilet with rainbow-colored fries, it seems as if McDonald's has once again struck a chord with the customers - at the expense of the nerves of the employees.
The Artist Box is a collaboration with ultra-popular streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market (CPFM).
The fashion company contributes one of a total of four collector's figures to every adult Happy Meal, which represent well-known McDonald's figures such as the "Hamburglar" in a wacky CPFM look.
However, McDonald's not only benefits from the popularity of the cactus plant flea market, but also from an immense hype about collectibles, which has made retro toys in particular incredibly valuable for about two years.
In between, for example, tens of thousands of euros were flipped onto the table for original Pokémon cards or video games in their original packaging.
Quite a few will hope for a similar increase in value from the limited collectible figures from the Happy Meal in 30 years.
"Please stop ordering adult Happy Meals": Employees beg on Reddit to stop buying
Whether that really happens is questionable.
What is certain, however, is that the restaurant employees are suffering from the onslaught in the here and now.
On the popular social media platform TikTok, too, the often young workers desperately turn to customers: “Bro, please don’t order adult Happy Meals.
I'm begging you," writes one user, according to the online magazine Kotaku, in the face of the seemingly endless Big Mac and Nugget orders flooding the kitchen.
To make matters worse, in America probably all branches have a two-lane drive-in — while this city bans a McDonald's drive-in — because local residents might get overweight.
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The Happy Meal for adults is not very adult: “There is no beer or anything like that”
But among the masses of highly emotional adults, McDonald's employees on Reddit also care about those still trying to find their place in the world.
"Can a teenager order the adult Happy Meal too?" asks an innocent user on Reddit.
"It's literally just a Big Mac meal in a special box with a toy," another user brushes away the magic of the grown-up Happy Meal, "anyone can order it.
It's not like there's going to be a beer as a drink on top.”