The Consumer Attitudes Towards McDonald's - Research Paper Example

Majority of the respondents purport that they continually patronize McDonald’s because of the convenience it accords them. Inherently, convenience involves the component of quick service. However, Stone (1993) has noted that there has somewhat been a slowdown in the pacing of operations contrary to this notion of quick service. For example, in the UK, KFC has tried to address its sales decline by veering away from takeaway units to full-service restaurants. Moreover, in the fish and chip sector which has reduced in both market share and value, a contemporary success story has been the expansion of Harry Ramsden fish restaurants, providing the conventional, high-quality product with full table service.

Another noteworthy example is the pizza/pasta sectors, which accounts for the quickest growth rate in the UK (Gordon, 1991). While it still has maintained its speedy takeaway and home delivery services, it also has much of its business undertaken in seated facilities. The atmospheres in these restaurants increasingly represent the middle market segment which it targets for share. A significant investment has been allotted to polished wood and soft furnishings way back in 1988 when Pizza Hut has intended to enhance its image of quality (Hills, 1992).

These examples spurn us to the next question: should McDonald’s consider adopting a similar strategy? These changes suggest that the earlier forms of fast food seating which were advertently crafted to promote fast turnover.These contemporary shifts represent changing perspectives. The definition of fast food has been tantamount to the concept of “grazing”; thus, rather than gathering for the usual family meal, individuals have now chosen to continuously feed, often on their own, and have adopted quick-paced lives (Botsford, 1992; Green, 1991).

  While the Henly Forecasting Centre has projected that such a pace will gradually slow down in the 1990s, this trend has yet to be reversed (Pettipher, 1990).