QotD: Gentrifying McDonalds

I have a feeling that the senior brass at McDonald's Canada have forgotten who their primary demographic is. So here's a brief reminder:

     1. Kids
     2. Kids with ketchup in their hair
     3. Rambunctious kids with ketchup in their hair and bladder control problems
     4. Parents of 1), 2) and 3).

The reason that the Starbucks approach works so well for them is because their demographic target is a little different. If you walk into a Starbucks you can be reasonably sure that you will be shamefully overcharged for coffee and subjected to the staff's horrible musical taste, but you'll have the opportunity to take up their comfortable seating for an hour and surf the web on your laptop, without any interference from the McDonald's demographic.

I'm trying to imagine sitting in a leather club chair at Mickey D's, watching ESPN on the plasma and surfing the wi-fi web. While in the background, the deep fryer beeps away madly and inattentive parents are more focused on chatting with each other than on surpervising their offspring. Kids are playing tag throughout the restaurant, running and laughing as they bump into and hide behind other patrons. Yep, that sounds like a winning formula to me.

Chris Taylor, "Not Lovin' It", Taylor and Company, 2007-09-13