No way anyone wants to hang out at McDonald's. If they're trying to make McDonald's a third space they need to do some remodeling first. Restaurants aren't warm and appealing; they're hard and easy to clean.
The one near me is always full of old people just hanging out. They use it in a similar way to many kids with starbucks, but they speak to each other instead of using laptops.
Every McDonald's in North America I have been in had homeless people sleeping in it. I also actually worked at McDonald's and we would have to call ambulance every now and then because someone got high and passed out or something in the washroom.
Then you've probably only been to/worked at McDonald's in the built-up parts of major cities.
McDonald's in the suburbs and more rural areas and smaller cities are quite pleasant. Spacious, clean, just local folks.
If your local McDonald's has a homeless person problem, then all your local fast food franchises do. It's a social services problem, not a McDonald's problem.
Exactly my experience. I've been to a lot of McDonald's everywhere from rural to old inner city, and the difference is Stark. The more rural locations tend to be clean and relatively comfortable and enjoyable to be in. The inner city locations tend to be dirty, crowded, and generally not very pleasant to be in.
And it's not just McDonald's, as you mentioned. I've observed the exact same thing with Wendy's and many other restaurants as well.
There are of course plenty of exceptions. It's perfectly possible to find a dirty uncomfortable restaurant in a rural area, and it's also not difficult to find a nice comfortable place in the inner city. But generally speaking the above is what I have observed most
Thirding this observation. Inner city fast food has been - nearly universally - a horror show since at least 25 years ago when I first experienced it. I expect it will continue to be like that forever. I also suspect with them being allowed to take EBT (since maybe 10-15 years ago?), that provides enough revenue that they won’t pull out of those places completely.
I live in the suburbs, and it's not like this. The entire place smells like feet (???), all the tables are sticky, and there's a constant stream of "beep boop beep boop... bebebebeb"
I suspect you are full of it. I've been to lots of McDonald's locations, and I've rarely seen homeless people inside. Keep in mind I've been everywhere from California to Maine, From Kentucky to Florida to Texas. Nearly every state except the PNW, and I've never seen homeless people sleeping in a McDonald's (McD's used to be my goto with the $1 value menu when traveling). Ordering food? sure. As someone who once worked in fast food, I also know for a fact that management would kick them out, and so would the few dozen police officers in a lot of areas that walk in to get breakfast/coffee.
...Unless you mean Canada of course, however, I bet a well traveled Canadian would say the same thing.
Nobody’s vilifying the homeless. Tons of homeless people are perfectly fine human beings who don’t bother anybody. Unhinged and dirty drug addicts on the other hand, are pretty categorically unpleasant. If you enjoy being around them, you can let them move in with you and then they won’t be homeless anymore.
As others have suggested, you have a narrowly scoped view of the world and the use of McDonalds in it. While my city slicking McDonalds trips are usually not great, for many it’s actually very good.
Photographer and author Chris Arnade has written fairly extensively of his travels around the “forgotten” parts of America, which frequently lands him in McDonald’s stores that do serve as a community third-space, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/08/mcdonalds-c...
I can't believe you'd bring up one article written nine years ago! "Narrowly scoped!" Give me a break, you know nothing about the scope of my travels. Please don't make assumptions and condescensions about people you don't know.
