McDonald's Japan Tries To Fight Back

[Mulboyne]

McDonald's launches the Pita Mac

BusinessWeek: Has Japan Outgrown the Big Mac?
...McDonald's Japan has outperformed a sluggish market for fast food and posted increases in same-store sales of as much as 11.6% every month since February... [CEO] Harada's efforts have been helped by new sandwiches better tailored to Japanese tastes. One hit has been the Ebi Filet-O, a shrimp-burger that generated sales of 10 million in the first three months after its launch last October...Still, rebuilding the brand will take more than just a few menu changes...It seems the Japanese love affair with McDonald's has peaked. Today young Japanese are happy to pony up for a Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks or a bowl of noodles at a local mom-and-pop eatery...Another factor has been the growth of convenience stores. Today, some 30,000 sell everything from sausages to sushi, and they account for a third of Japan's $62 billion fast-food market...And with deflation seemingly at an end and consumer confidence growing, the Japanese may be willing to pay more for food and be looking for higher-quality fare than McDonald's...Harada is keen to steer McDonald's further upmarket. "We have to graduate with our customers," he says. McDonald's now offers free wireless Internet at 2,660 restaurants, increasing traffic as salarymen surf while they sup. More radically, Harada is considering a new type of restaurant with fancier menus and interiors, though he declines to provide details...more...

[mr. sparkle]

Man, I hope they never get rid of the Big Mac in Japan. It's one of the "comfort foods" I need after eating so many wriggling things.

The Sausage Egg McMuffin with ketchup is definitely #2. Yeah baby, I'll take two of 'em.

Yoshinoya bowl and Subway Sando in a two way tie for third.

Back in the pack are, of course, Pringles.

[maninjapan]

Man, I hope they never get rid of the Big Mac in Japan. It's one of the "comfort foods" I need after eating so many wriggling things.

The Sausage Egg McMuffin with ketchup is definitely #2. Yeah baby, I'll take two of 'em.

Yoshinoya bowl and Subway Sando in a two way tie for third.

Back in the pack are, of course, Pringles.

Give me a sauasage and egg mcmuffin over anything any convini sells for brekakfast in a medium rush!

Big mac can go - when you have freshness burger you don't need McD's anymore.

[GomiGirl]

Tried the McPita thingy the other day.. disappointing..

[Charles]

Man, I hope they never get rid of the Big Mac in Japan. It's one of the "comfort foods" I need after eating so many wriggling things.

I haven't eaten at McD's in probably 20 years.. except for ONCE.. on a lark, I decided to eat at the McD's on the first floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Big mistake. I got food poisoning, I was sick as a dog for 3 days. I ate a lot of weird crap in Japan that summer, it was the year of the O-157 food poisoning panic, but I never got sick even once, except for that horrid McD's experience.

[Greji]

Big mistake.

Food poisoning can occur anywhere, but to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, that eat at McD's daily in J-land I doubt that it is much of an on-going fear.

To many of us, as it was so aptly put, who haven't got time for the wiggly things, or just don't have the time to spend, the local McD's still provides the best instant lunch, or sandwich on the run for busy people!

[Blah Pete]

When I was in China last week the guys from the Shanghai office would only eat at Mickey D's and KFC when we went out to the country. They said it is the only place you can be assured they follow any kind of health standards.

[Taro Toporific]

[Catoneinutica]

[Catoneinutica]

[quote="Catoneinutica"]Ah, but these "hourly wage" figures don't include the vast amount of unpaid overtime put in by the average Japanese wage slave. And I'd wager that a typical wa-abiding salariman in Japan has a much greater propensity to give away his labor for free than the average, say, Bulgarian.

Japan certainly belongs much lower on the list]

Yikes! The onset of internet dementia - I'm quoting my own post. But I've got a good excuse: this is a great post from William Stonehill over at the NBR Japan Forum about the ubiquity of unpaid overtime in at least some industries in Japan:

http://www.nbr.org/foraui/message.aspx?LID=5&MID=25308

Highlights:
"Let me give one typical case as an example: one of the women I interviewed
had worked as a menu and interior design for a Tokyo chain of restaurants.
In order to "gain insight" into the restaurant business, this woman was
assigned to work as a waitress for a few days. To be clear it: this woman
was hired as a full time graphic design and interior designer to design
menus, do pop illustrations, ads and also supervise such things having to
do with interior design of the restaurants as lighting , displays and
furniture selection.

After a few days she found herself being assigned regular shifts as a
waitress, in addition to her day time work as a designer. Supposedly, this
was to "gain insight into restaurant operations". The overtime work as a
waitress was on the average 50 hours a week. When she complained that she
had been hired as a designer, not a waitress, she was told that they were
short of staff and everyone had to pitch in."

"I have heard these stories so many times when interviewing job applicants,
that I am convinced that abuses of this sort are widespread throughout
many different fields of Japanese business. Doubtlessly there are some
fields where it is unknown. I also know of any number of companies that
follow Japanese labor law very carefully. But on the whole it is so common
as to bring Japanese labor law in general into disrepute."

And bring these Japanese purchasing-power statistics into disrepute as well. The longer I live here, the more I realize that Japan is just another East-Asian export-factory nation.

[Mike Oxlong]

Anyone tried a McFlurry ice-cream treat lately? At least in Naha they only fill the cup about 2/3 full of ice cream, and leave the centre hollow, making the cup barely half full. The Nestle Crunch pieces are powdered, not chunks. Damn shame...waste of 300 yen.

[Jack]

[quote="Catoneinutica"]Ah, but these "hourly wage" figures don't include the vast amount of unpaid overtime put in by the average Japanese wage slave. And I'd wager that a typical wa-abiding salariman in Japan has a much greater propensity to give away his labor for free than the average, say, Bulgarian.

Japan certainly belongs much lower on the list]

From I was told is they count every minute they spend in the office as overtime. At first I thought they are working for free but nope. They are tallying up everything and they get paid either on vacation days or the company buys their time off so they may work instead. When they stay in the office until the boss leaves, that's all counted as overtime. This is from the dozens of my girl OLs that I have naturally banged at some point.

[Ptyx]

From I was told is they count every minute they spend in the office as overtime. At first I thought they are working for free but nope. They are tallying up everything and they get paid either on vacation days or the company buys their time off so they may work instead. When they stay in the office until the boss leaves, that's all counted as overtime. This is from the dozens of my girl OLs that I have naturally banged at some point.

That depends on the company you're in, the profession you do, and how high up you're in the hierarchy.
For exemple young architects don't get squat for overtime and are paid as well as a mediocre arubaito for at least their first two years on the job. Same thing with designers in general, design studios won't pay overtime, but you'll get a bonus at the end of the month depending on how much you stayed and if you're boss is nice.
I can't remember the exact word for it but there's actually a name for the suicide waves that happen usually in May-June when ex-students realize they just stepped into hell and start falling under the wheels of the train on the chuo line.
This also explain the alarming numbers of freeters in the country.

[Greji]

.I can't remember the exact word for it but there's actually a name for the suicide waves that happen usually in May-June when ex-students realize they just stepped into hell and start falling under the wheels of the train on the chuo line.

You're looking for "Gogatsubyou", but that has been around for years, so it really doesn't explain the freeters, which are a relatively new phenonenom.

Gogatsubyou strikes first at the kids who have been juku'ed, crammed, tutored and pushed for gaining entry to the top schools since they were two years old. They pass the final test and gain enterance to the hallowed Akamon of Todai. Suddenly, there is no where else for them to go, no reason to study and there is no longer any of the old identifiable goals to shoot for. As soon as they realize this, they jump in front of a train.

The other side is the ones who don't pass the entrance exam. Life has no meaning with no goal, so they also head south on the northbound train track.

Those are the ones capable of thought. The rest go on to school join a company and show up in the corral once a month to get sheered with the rest of the sheep. I have an office full of them.

[Buraku]

Abenomics is over!

Japan’s famed 100-yen shops fall victim to cost-of-living squeeze
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ng-squeeze

Prices at discount stores double or more as cost pressures become critical issue ahead of upper house elections next month

Burger King Japan Is Selling This Unique Side Amid Potato Shortages
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/burger- ... 19593.html

Just keep your returns: Store chains in 'Murica consider paying you not to bring back unwanted items
https://abc7news.com/returns-unwanted-i ... /11997133/

Food prices rising in Japan, cooking oil up 1.5-fold on year
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20 ... bu/031000c

Japan begins 3-month energy-saving period to conserve electricity
https://abc7news.com/returns-unwanted-i ... /11997133/

[Coligny]

If you pay 1.5 times the price for cooking oil…

THAT MEANS YOUR SUPERMARKET STILL HAVE SOME COOKING OIL AVAILABLE FOR SALE !