|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
garykasparov
Joined: 27 May 2007
|
 Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject: The Korea Herald: McDonald's to start home-delivery service |
 |
|
McDonald's to start home-delivery service
McDonalds renowned golden arches are about to get even more famous. To expand its reach and improve accessibility, the worlds largest hamburger restaurant chain will this year introduce delivery services in Korea, one of the few countries to offer such an advantage.
The decision is part of a strategy to be more convenient to consumers, said Ray Frawley, chief executive of McDonalds Korea.
Convenience is the key word to strengthen our growth momentum in 2008 and beyond, he said at a news conference held this week to mark the chains 20th anniversary in Korea on March 29.
The icon of globalization and American culture has managed to achieve steady growth in Korea, a market that has been touting low-fat Asian meals and more healthy choices amid the so-called well-being trend.
McDonalds Korea announced 16 percent growth in 2007, following 10 percent growth the previous year. The double-digit figures follow an expansion of 7 percent in 2005. The company declined to disclose exact figures, citing corporate policy.
According to Frawley, McDonalds Corporation, seeing growth potential in Korea, invested over 160 billion won ($160 million) in 2006, underscoring that the company has had and will continue to play a leading role in the local restaurant industry.
McDonalds Korea said it ranked No. 1 in growth in terms of customer numbers and operating income among the companys 37 markets in Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. It ranked No. 3 in comparable sales among the corporations 199 markets globally, the company said.
Stressing that many more consumers in Korea will be able to enjoy McDonalds, Frawley said: Our delivery service to begin in 2008 is in line with our focus on convenience; we will capitalize on the needs of consumers.
Home-delivery services are currently available in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, including Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey. Delivery services are introduced based on the needs of each individual markets, Frawley said.
We look at each market in isolation, he told The Korea Herald, in response to why the service is not available in the United States. The U.S. market has a huge number of drive-thrus, which provide a level of convenience, he stressed, noting that each market has different growth drivers.
The delivery service in Korea is ingrained in the culture, he added.
Since last October, the company has been conducting pilot tests for its delivery service at branches in southern Seoul and Suwon.
Based on positive feedback and business performance, McDonalds Korea is confident that McDonalds delivery service serves a growing customer need, Frawley said.
The company will steadily expand the service, which will be available around the clock, this year.
Previous convenience-centered strategies introduced by the local unit are 24-hour operations and steady introduction of drive-thru stores, or the McDrive. To cater to a society growing more open to a Western lifestyle, McDonalds in 2006 introduced its McMorning menu, featuring original hotcakes, egg McMuffins and hash browns.
Our McDrive and 24-hour services have been introduced to meet the busy lifestyles of todays working professionals, said Chun Jin-wook, development director of McDonalds Korea. A lot of working people set out early in the morning, and some work into the night.
Taking on board the ongoing well-being trend, McDonalds introduced healthy choices like salads and the Okok shake, a Korean-style milkshake made of grains. It also offers a healthy kids menu.
As perhaps the best-known restaurant chain in the world, the American cultural icon is often scrutinized for the quality of its food preparations, ingredients and business practices.
The U.S. food giant has therefore been sensitive to criticism and quick to respond to consumer needs worldwide.
We are not a fast-food restaurant but a quick-service restaurant, Frawley emphasized. He noted that McDonalds around the world practices the highest food-safety procedures and offers the highest quality.
Our food safety starts at the farm, he said. Were confident about our food safety, which exceeds the standards of the Korea Food and Drug Administration, and most countries laws and regulations, he added.
Amid all the global controversy over trans-fatty acids, which are said to raise cholesterol levels, and fast-food companies using cooking oil containing animal fat, McDonalds Korea said it has replaced its cooking oil with pure vegetable oil and uses only pure beef.
In August 2007, it introduced French fries with zero percent trans-fatty acids. TFAs are commonly associated with vegetable shortening, margarine, and snack foods like crackers and cakes, as well as fried foods.
While it caters to children with the orange-haired clown Ronald McDonald, the company has also tapped mature consumers with healthy food options and its Lavazza coffee line.
McDonalds has caught on to the global trend for high-quality coffee and coffee joints. The Korean market is also enjoying a boom.
The introduction of the McCafe, a cafe-style accompaniment to the restaurants, in December 2005 here has been warmly received.
The popularity of take-out gourmet coffee, triggered by Starbucks with its entry in 1997, has spawned a large population of coffee aficionados.
Frawley said McDonalds has been recording double-digit growth in this sector as well.
Unique to the Korean market, and underscoring the popular demand, are the McCafe walk-up kiosks. The walk-up window here is the first in the world; this is another important milestone for McDonalds Korea, Frawley said.
Our customers have responded very positively to our efforts since 2005. Our future in Korea is very strong, and the plans we have in place will continue to drive our business.
The local unit plans to add 10 new stores this year, taking its total number of restaurants to 240. As part of its efforts to contribute to Korean society, the company has been supporting childrens welfare and health needs since its entry in 1988.
Some of its activities and programs include raising funds to support childrens charities, and operating Ronald McDonald Soccer Clubs for local school students to promote a balance and active lifestyle. Last year, the Ronald McDonald House Charities, a nonprofit organization, was established in Korea, making it the 51st country to host a local chapter.
As part of the food giants commitment to children, McDonalds Korea recently agreed to partner with the Korea Olympic Committee for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The McDonalds Champion Kids program will allow up to 20 Korean kids to take a four-day trip to the Beijing Olympics from Aug. 16 to 19.
We will support future Olympic hopefuls by sending 20 kids to experience the 2008 Olympic Games, Frawley said.
By Yoo Soh-jung
([email protected])
2008.04.11 |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Scotticus
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| How is this news? Hasn't McD's been delivering in Korea for awhile now? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Not all of them deliver, but I know what the world needs now is more horrible, horrible food that comes right to your door. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Hey, I saw this already! I think it was near Nowon. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
air76
Joined: 13 Nov 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
How is ordering McDonald's all that much different than ordering Fried Chicken or Pizza?
Personally I get tired of people (not here, just everywhere) complaining about McDonald's, Coke, Tobacco Companies, Candy Companies, etc. etc. ruining our diet and making us fat. In this day and age everyone knows that vegetables are good for you and garbage is not, it is still up to us to choose what we do and don't put into our bodies. 95% of the blame for bad dietary habits rests on lazy parents and lazy people. (and I am not exempt from this group, I love eating garbage, but I know that it's my choice to do so and not the result of having been brainwashed by Mickey D's) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
bears repeating:
| Quote: |
Published on Sunday, June 2, 2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle
On Corporate Responsibility: A Ronald McDonald Fantasy
by Paul Hawken
McDonald's April 14 "Report on Corporate Social Responsibility" is a low- water mark for the concept of sustainability and the promise of corporate social responsibility. It is a melange of generalities and soft assurances that do not provide hard metrics of the company, its activities or its impacts on society and the environment.
While movements toward corporate transparency and disclosure are to be applauded, there is little of either in the report.
This is not a report about stakeholder rights, as McDonald's would have one believe. It is a report about how a corporation that's been severely stung by bad publicity, poor service and declining earnings now wants to plead its case to its critics. It states that critics don't want to make things better, but it ignores what their critics care about.
The McDonald's Social Responsibility Report presupposes that we can continue to have a global chain of restaurants that serves fried, sugary junk food produced by an agricultural system of monocultures, monopolies, standardization and destruction, and at the same time find a path to sustainability. Having worked in the field of sustainability and business for three decades, I can reasonably say that nothing could be further from the idea of sustainability than the McDonald's Corp.
The report states, "being a socially responsible leader begins a process that involves more awareness on the issues that will make a difference." Yet the company has known for decades that the food it serves harms people, promotes obesity, heart disease and has detrimental effects on land and water. On May 1, the Centers for Disease Control issued a report stating that childhood obesity and related diseases had doubled in the past 10 years, specifically citing high-fat fast-food as a cause. Addressing that one issue would make a difference.
McDonald's has known about the harmful effects of its food just as the tobacco companies understood the impact of their products. Yet McDonald's has done little to modify its menu.
It is good to see ideas about materials and reduced waste being promoted by major corporations. But it is equally important to distinguish among corporations that offer progressive rhetoric but don't change their internal practices or impact on society and the environment and those that actually do. If corporations can make more money by using less stuff, less waste, less pollution, so much the better. To be sure, McDonald's has made progress on recycling, but the underlying nature of its corporate activity has not changed and the larger impact of these underlying activities is dramatic and troubling.
For McDonald's to announce that it now wants to have antibiotic free chickens is a slap in the face to the thousands of small poultry farmers who could not compete and were forced out of business by the agricorporations that introduced the very industrial chicken-raising practices that required antibiotics to avoid massive die-off of their flocks. Simply stated, standardized food destroys agricultural and biological diversity. Nothing could be more antithetical to the recovery of over-stressed farmlands than fast-food.
It is important that good housekeeping practices such as recycled hamburger shells not be confused with creating a just and sustainable world. McDonald's publicly embraces "sustainability" as long as it can make money and it doesn't change its purpose, which is to grow faster than the overall world economy and population, and to increase their share of the world's economic output to the benefit of a small number of shareholders.
The question we have to ask is: "What is enough for McDonald's? Is it enough that 1 in 5 meals in the United States is a fast-food meal? Does McDonald's want to see the rest of the world drink the equivalent of 597 cans of soda pop a year, as do Americans? Do they think every third global meal should be comprised of greasy meat, fries, and caramelized sugar? They won't answer those questions because that is exactly their corporate mission.
A valid report on sustainability and social responsibility must ask the question: What if everybody did it? What would be the ecological footprint -- the impact on the natural world -- of such a company? What is McDonald's footprint now?
The report carefully avoids the corporation's real environmental impacts. It talked about water use at the outlets, but failed to note that every quarter-pounder requires 600 gallons of water. It talked about recycled paper, but not the pfisteria-infected waters caused by large-scale pork producers in the Southeast United States. It talked about energy use in the restaurants, but not in the unsustainable food system McDonald's relies on that uses 10 calories of energy for every calorie of food produced.
An honest report would tell stakeholders how much it truly costs society to support a corporation like McDonald's. It would detail the externalities -- the societal and environmental costs not counted in corporate annual reports and accounting documents -- borne by other people, places and generations.
Unless the core values of the company are to nourish and protect children, you cannot make the supply chain sustainable because the final outcome is destructive to life. McDonald's corporate initiative is best described by the poet Henry Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end."
McDonald's view McDonald's Corp. was invited to comment on its report but declined the offer. To read the report yourself, click on http://www.mcdonalds.com/corporate/social/report/index.html
McDonald's factoids
1. McDonald's spends more on advertising than any other brand in the world.
2. It runs more playgrounds than any other private entity in the world.
3. It gives away more toys than any other private entity in the world.
4. The Golden Arches are more widely known in the world today than the Christian cross.
5. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's said this: "We have found that we cannot trust some people who are nonconformists. We will make conformists out of them in a hurry. The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization."
6. The vast majority of workers at McDonald's lack full-time employment, do not have any benefits, have no or little control over their workplace, and quit after a few months.
7. The average American now consumes three hamburgers and four orders of french fries per week.
8. Due in part to the industrialization of agriculture driven by the fast- food industry, the United States is losing farmers so fast that it now has more prisoners than farmers.
9. Every month, 90 percent of the children between 3 and 9 in America visit a McDonald's.
10. In a survey of 9 and 10-year-olds, half of them said they thought that Ronald McDonald knew best what kids should eat. In China, kids said that Ronald McDonald was kind, funny, gentle and understood children's hearts.
11. McDonald's uses a computer program called Quintillion that uses satellite imagery, GPS maps and demographic tables to automatically site new restaurants. As one observer noted, McDonald's uses the same equipment developed during the Cold War to spy on their customers.
12. McDonald's jobs have been purposely de-skilled so as to be able to hire minimum-wage workers on an interchangeable basis. One-third of fast-food workers speak no English.
13. McDonald's and other chains are aiming for automated equipment that will require zero training and are nearly there. Nevertheless, they fight hard to retain hundreds of millions of dollars of government subsidies for "training" their workers. A worker has only to work for 400 hours for the chain to receive its $2,400 subsidy. In essence, the American taxpayer subsidizes low wages, automation and turnover at fast-food chains.
14. Fast-food pays a higher proportion of minimum wage to its workers than any other industry in America.
15. McDonald's is the largest purchaser of beef in the world.
16. McDonald's buys from five large meatpackers. These companies have gained a stranglehold over the industry (just as in potatoes) that has driven down prices. Over the past 20 years, 500,000 cattle ranchers have gone out of business. Over that time, the rancher's share of every beef dollar has fallen from 63 cents to 46 cents.
17. To satisfy and take advantage of the worldwide growth of fast-food, the large chicken and beef packers in the United States are buying out local companies all around the world. Cargill, IBP and Tyson's control the world meat industry because of fast-food chains.
18. Chicken McNuggets were also cooked in beef tallow until public outrage caused McDonald's to stop. Even in vegetable oil, Chicken McNuggets contain twice the fat per ounce as a hamburger.
19. Every time you eat a hamburger, you are eating anabolic steroids, antibiotics and fecal matter. You can read it again. And it will still be true.
20. Feedlot cattle are also given shredded packaging, cardboard boxes, cement and sawdust to put on weight.
21. In 1991, only four states had obesity rates of 15 percent or higher. Today, 37 states do. Fifty million Americans are obese or super obese. Obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of mortality in America today.
22. The annual health costs to America stemming from obesity are $240 billion. The costs are exactly double fast-food chain revenues.
23. Between 1984 and 1993, the number of fast-food restaurants doubled in Great Britain. Obesity doubled there over the same period.
24. The EU found that 95 percent of the ads there encouraged kids to eat foods high in sugar, salt and fat. The company running the most ads aimed at children was McDonald's.
Source: Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation," (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). The book is extensively footnoted with citations for the above.
Paul Hawken is the author of "The Ecology of Commerce and Natural Capitalism." He is the founder of the Sausalito-based Natural Capital Institute and is on the advisory board of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy in Oakland. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
air76
Joined: 13 Nov 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I agree that the executives at McDonald's probably aren't the most honest or upstanding people, but what corporate executives don't fit that bill?
I also agree that while giant corporations who have the ability to influence the diet of our societies that it would be better if they used that power for positive means.
But at the end of the day I just find that more and more people are always looking to point the finger and blame someone else, when today we have more freedom over how we live our lives than ever, and we most certainly have greater choice in terms of what we have to eat. There is also far more information out today as to what foods are healthy and far more selection in terms of what healthy foods are available. I personally think that 90% of weight problems aren't caused by diet at all but by a lack of exercise. If you exercise 3 hours a day you can eat whatever you want. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Dome Vans
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Bibbitybop wrote: |
| Not all of them deliver, but I know what the world needs now is more horrible, horrible food that comes right to your door. |
The next step is to actually grow legs on the burger so it can deliver itself. Give it five years, Ronald will find a way..... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| air76 wrote: |
| How is ordering McDonald's all that much different than ordering Fried Chicken or Pizza? |
Because there hasn't been a movie made or a book written about eating fried chicken or pizza.
| air76 wrote: |
| Personally I get tired of people (not here, just everywhere) complaining about McDonald's, Coke, Tobacco Companies, Candy Companies, etc. etc. ruining our diet and making us fat. In this day and age everyone knows that vegetables are good for you and garbage is not, it is still up to us to choose what we do and don't put into our bodies. 95% of the blame for bad dietary habits rests on lazy parents and lazy people. (and I am not exempt from this group, I love eating garbage, but I know that it's my choice to do so and not the result of having been brainwashed by Mickey D's) |
Indeed.
| air76 wrote: |
I agree that the executives at McDonald's probably aren't the most honest or upstanding people, but what corporate executives don't fit that bill?
I also agree that while giant corporations who have the ability to influence the diet of our societies that it would be better if they used that power for positive means.
But at the end of the day I just find that more and more people are always looking to point the finger and blame someone else, when today we have more freedom over how we live our lives than ever, and we most certainly have greater choice in terms of what we have to eat. There is also far more information out today as to what foods are healthy and far more selection in terms of what healthy foods are available. I personally think that 90% of weight problems aren't caused by diet at all but by a lack of exercise. If you exercise 3 hours a day you can eat whatever you want. |
Well, considering that the first thing they teach you in business school is that the purpose of a company is to increase shareholder wealth, how can you blame a company for doing that very thing?
To me, the people that like to blame McDonald's, or any company for that matter, for the problems of others are ridiculous. These are the same types of people that would blame Blizzard for making World of Warcraft and causing video game addiction. They blame tobacco companies for people smoking.
Personal responsibility? What's that? You mean a person is at fault for their own actions?!?! I think not!
| Bibbitybop wrote: |
| bears repeating: |
Not really, considering it's posted on every single thread having to do with McDonald's on every board on the internet.
Last edited by Pligganease on Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| It's just a public service announcement. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: soul of Asia
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Oh boy!!! I so want one of those nasty burgers that last 4 years...hanging inside me causing damage somewhere. That lady on yahoo talking about how a McD's burger and fries lasted four years was scary! I bareley touched that stuff anyways. Now, I sure won't. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Suwoner10
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Tastiness even more convenient! I just might learn Korean just so I can order Take-Out. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Zutronius
Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Location: Suncheon
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I guess it saves you from having to burn any calories you would have by walking to the store.... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
billybrobby
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
The more I read that factoid list, the more it annoys me.
Here's a factoid of my own:
1. McDonald's doesn't force anybody to eat anything.
This pretty much negates 75% of the items on the list. Even in the case of advertising to children, where's the parental responsibility?
Many of the other factoids employ insultingly shady logic. Such as:
| Quote: |
| 23. Between 1984 and 1993, the number of fast-food restaurants doubled in Great Britain. Obesity doubled there over the same period. |
Right. Correlation equals causation. I buy it.
| Quote: |
| 22. The annual health costs to America stemming from obesity are $240 billion. The costs are exactly double fast-food chain revenues. |
Why do they mention that its exactly double? Seems like a sneaky technique to make the connection seem stronger.
| Quote: |
| McDonald's uses a computer program called Quintillion that uses satellite imagery, GPS maps and demographic tables to automatically site new restaurants. As one observer noted, McDonald's uses the same equipment developed during the Cold War to spy on their customers. |
Why shouldn't they site the stores as intelligently as possible? Is this really 'spying'? And why mention the Cold War other than to make it sound spooky? Ooooh, demographic tables! Shame on them!
The only thing that really concerns me is McDonald's effect on agribusiness and the food standards. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mnhnhyouh
Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Location: The Middle Kingdom
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
I have my first Big Mac in a few years for lunch today.
I was as horrible as I remember the last one being, and that was eaten in a different continent.
h |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
