The Year of McDonald’s: Everybody Goes to Mick’s
17th December 2024
I’m writing this from the McDonald’s in my town in upstate New York, where I do most of my writing when at home, and I “know” almost all the two dozen or so oddballs who come in, like me, sit in a corner, and either stare at the wall, rant into a cup, or work on their beat-up laptop. I know the morning regulars—the evolving group of five or so guys who are at the door when it opens at 5:30 a.m.—as well as the afternoon regulars. All the employees also “know” these oddballs, and should a new one come in, sit in a corner, and start acting a bit off, they’ll notice. That almost always leads them to offering help, or in this rare case of Luigi Mangione, calling the police.
The larger question here is, how is it that McDonald’s, a business founded and designed to make eating as quick and transactional as possible, has become America’s default community center?
The answer: It’s happened because people are fundamentally wired to make meaning, and because having a community you feel you belong to is foundational to who we are. If you provide people with a landscape of banal franchises, they will form communities and make meaning in a banal franchise.
December 18th, 2024 at 06:31
The coffee has also much improved since about six or seven years ago. That helps.