"It's completely up to you"

[AiA in Atlanta]

"It's completely up to you"

... and that's the problem.

I was picking out the mat for a framed photo and there were a thousand colors to choose from. The framer uttered the scary invocation, putting the choice back to me.

So many things are now completely up to us, more than ever before. Where and how and when we work and invest and interact and instruct and learn...

If you think you have no choice but to do what you do now, you've already made a serious error.

It seems to me that passing the buck on this merely because it's easier than choosing is precisely the wrong strategy. It enables an abdication of power that will be very hard to reverse. It's up to you, and that's part of the power that you've got.

Back to the framer: I picked, because that's my job.

Was forced to go to a Subway sandwich shop while on a business trip last week (I never eat fast food willingly) and was standing there like an idiot frozen by all the choices offered to me by a barking Hispanic food-service worker. Aside from my embarrassment around my lack of knowledge of American fast food culture (everyone else acted as if they ate there every day - and by the looks of them they probably did) I froze with the choices offered me: yeah, I'll take Honey Wheat bread (wasn't that the first one you offered out of half a dozen?) and the Provolone cheese (why did I say that? I don't know what Provolone is). Vegetables? A dozen or more of those to choose from. Endless sauces.

I read once that 7 is the maximum number of choices a consumer can comfortably handle. I chose what went on my sandwich because that is my job as a consumer. But how about giving me a less confusing menu of choices and a server who doesn't speak a 1000 words a minute in an accent that is hard to understand?

[mantra]

Subway is daunting. I've been there twice and been disappointed both times by the tasteless slop they sell. I can't see the value in fast food. Today there was an article about McDonalds having record sales in the US followed by the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East and Africa.

Australia is the only nation where sales have fallen behind everyone else and that's great news. Even better we have sold them some of our food creations.

McDonald's rang up record sales of $US27 billion ($25.6 billion) in 33,510 restaurants worldwide last year, an increase of 12 per cent, turning a profit of $US5.5 billion from the 68 million customers it serves each day.

Although there is no country breakdown, it seems Australia was a weak contributor, with our stronger dollar biting into earnings and its chief executive, Jim Skinner, noting ''lagging consumer confidence as a result of the economic slowdown''.

ust 34 new stores opened in Australia last year, McDonald's US filings reveal, lifting this country's total to 865. That compared with 177 new stores opened in China.

But Australia again lived up to its track record as a hotbed of new ideas for the fast food giant. Chicken McBites have just been launched in the US after being invented here and launched in 2010. The recent launch here of smoothies and frappes have resulted in good sales volumes.

''That's something we're really proud of,'' said a spokeswoman. ''Lots of innovation in McDonald's starts in Australia, like McCafes.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mcflurry ... z1kVN4lTcI

[AiA in Atlanta]

The best Indian food I have ever had was in Japan. The worst? America. Why is that? Indians did all the cooking in both countries. This could be the answer:

Greetings from McDonald's, or "MacDo," as they call it here in Paris, where I am comfortably ensconced in a McCafé enjoying a croissant and a grand crème coffee. I'm surrounded by people of all ages who are talking with friends, reading, or typing away on their laptops like me.

The beauty of McDonald's in France is that it doesn't feel like a fast food joint, where hordes of people shuffle in and out and tables turn at a fast clip.

McDonalds is the world's largest food chain. It operates in 123 countries around the world, and just this week the company said it plans to open another 1,300 restaurants in 2012.

Naturally, the U.S. is its no. 1 market, but guess who is no. 2? You got it: France. A paper out this month by three graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business says McDonald's is such a success in the land of Michelin three-star restaurants because it has adapted to French eating habits and tastes. There are now 1,200 franchises in France; the company opened 30 restaurants per year in the past five years alone.

Even in these harried times, the French spend more than two hours a day at the table. Sitting down to a meal is a cornerstone of French culture, and McDonald's seems to get that. French McDonald's are spacious, tastefully decorated restaurants that encourage people to take their time while eating. And the cozy McCafe's with their plush chairs and sofas have become an extension to many restaurants.


I remember there used to be a few Burger Kings in Paris, but McDonald's closest competitor went belly up years ago. The Wharton study says it's because they tried to transplant the total American dining experience to France, without taking into consideration French preferences.

McDonald's, meanwhile, offers all kinds of Frenchified dishes, from the Alpine burger with three different kinds of cheese to tasty little gallette des rois, or King's Cakes, popular after Christmas and sold by all the bakeries. Last year, it introduced the McBaguette.

Another reason McDonald's works so well here is that the food is locally sourced and very high quality. As we all know, France is the land of haute cuisine. But it's also the land of good cuisine. The French appreciate quality in any category, even fast food. Restaurateurs in France know they'll go bust if they offer substandard products. I've had friends from India tell me that the Indian restaurants in Paris are among the world's best.

And if you like good meat (who doesn't?!), then McDonald's France is clearly superior. In the U.S., McDonald's says its cattle are mostly corn-fed. While the company doesn't address on its site whether growth hormones and growth-promoting antibiotics are added to the animal feed consumed by the animals it buys, it's a reasonable assumption that they are.

French cattle are all grass fed, which many argue makes them tastier. Growth hormones are illegal here and each animal has a passport showing where it was born, raised, and slaughtered, according to McDonald's France. That's called traceability, and we don't yet have such a national system in place.

As for chicken nugget lovers, French chickens, unlike some of their American counterparts, are not rinsed in chlorine to disinfect them. The regular use of chlorine in the U.S. chicken industry is why poulet americain has long been interdit in the European Union.

Of course you can still find French people who dislike McDonald's because it represents American hegemony in a globalized world and the homogenization of food and culture. French anti-globalization activist Jose Bove actually served prison time a couple years back for sacking a McDonald's restaurant in southern France. For a friend of mine who lives in Burgundy — pretty much the French heartland — MacDo is the symbol of malbouffe, or bad food and bad eating — a major slur here. He says he'd never take his two young sons to eat chez Ronald.

But this McDonald's in Paris' 15th arrondissement is brimming with parents who've brought their kids in for lunch. There's a good dose of teenagers too. Like teenyboppers back home, French adolescents, or ados, love to hang out at MacDo — they just gather in the café instead of the parking lot.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Both Japan and France have strong, traditional food cultures. Most anything cooked there will be tasty. People know food.

[freediver]

I like the menu system at Subway. Unfortunately the food gives me the shits. For salad, just say everything. Ask them what sauce they recommend.

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

I tend to avoid the junk food outlets also... but if I'm early in to work, i will stop by and get a egg and bacon mcmuffin, hash brown and coffee for breakfast.

Oh... I did get a mcfish meal in India a couple of times.... I was sick of indian food. When I was there... I just stepped back from the queue to read the boards before ordering.... less pressure to respond immediately upon being asked.

[Outlaw Yogi]

I prefer the old style fish 'n chip shop run by a little chinese couple (in Bundy), they have battered chips and it's cheap. Where else in OZ would you get a piece of crumbed fish for $2?.
They don't sell smokes or lollies or anything except fish 'n chips ect.

The only place I reckon would compare, was the bakery at Hurstville station, they sold meat pies for $1, so I used to buy 10 at a time and reheat most later.

[Neferti]

[Black Orchid]

Subway is just a sandwich shop. Why is considered a fast food outlet?

[AiA in Atlanta]

Subway is just a sandwich shop. Why is considered a fast food outlet?

Cause you can be in and out in a few minutes.