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Comment by wodenokoto | Hacker News Reader

> Truckers refused to deliver food and beer to McDonalds.

I like how the author snuck in the fact that McDonald's used to sell beer. I believe they still do in Germany - at least it used to be a fact that would regularly find its way onto reddits frontpage.

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They do in Spain too. You can even buy gluten free beer in McDonald's in some parts of Spain.

Here in Scotland the soft drink Irn Bru is served, as this is more popular than Coca Cola.

McDs in Spain also offers mustard as a dip. It's disappointing that the UK ones don't.

Chicken nuggets, mustard dip, and a large Estrella. Good times.

Spain is so good at gluten free beer, I wonder why

France too. It's a shame to eat McDonald's in a country with so much great food, of course, but getting a burger covered in blue cheese served with a beer is a bit better than the standard experience.

No shame in it. If you like their burgers eat them.

I'm up for shame as a societal mechanism to limit McDonalds and similar junk food consumption.

What other people choose to eat is really none of your business.

Well, it depends if I (or the society) have to suffer from the externalities of what they eat. But that's another topic.

Are marginal externalities from eating at MacDonalds higher than from a random other burger place?

I don’t know

Similar story of the development there too: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mcdonalds-conquered-fran...

When I was in Paris, I ate at McDonalds once for two reasons:

* Pulp Fiction (Royale with cheese! Had to do it)

* I was kind of exhausted from trying to find something substantial to eat (lots of lightweight fare, not great for big ol Americans like myself) and the language hurdles involved in doing so. I mean, most people speak English to some degree but it's not the smoothest process

There are better fast-food options too, IMO. Whenever I'm in France or Belgium and I have a sore need for a fast-food burger, I hit up Quick Burger. I wish we had them in the States.

You can still find a few Quick Burger but they're going away.

They got bought by Burger King and all Quick restaurant are slowing changing into Burger King.

Aw. I am bummed to hear that. Best fast-food chain I've ever seen.

The real shame is you can't eat a meal anywhere anymorefor 5€ except at McDonalds.

Not sure where you are talking about, but I guess US?

In the UK there are plenty of places where you can get food which is much more "real" but not necessarily healthy. There are lots of independent takeaways and cafes selling fish and chips or cooked breakfast around that price. There are plenty of places around markets where you can buy fresh food for that price, which is actually healthy. If you have access to a kitchen you can buy stuff and cook 2 meals for half that price.

Plenty of Indian and Chinese/Asian neighborhoods offer meals at incredible value too.

The only time I would consider something like McDonald's is in the motorway services where almost everything is run by big chains, the other time I go is because the kids get excited about the new happy meal toy.

Why would they talk about the US when they cite Euros as the currency?

Sorry, I must have missed that. Generally in Western Europe cheap food is easily available even if it's a cafe set menu, baguette or slice of pizza. In Eastern Europe you'd get a proper meal for that much.

For 5€? I would disagree. I live in Frankfurt, Germany and I don't get a lot for this price and I can't live off Döner Kebap or stuff like that. Healthy options are around 10€ or roughly $12.

Come on, you can get a decent falafel wrap or crepe near any McDonalds in the city. Or *shivers* French Tacos.

I went to a McDonalds a few years ago, and was shocked over how expensive they became. This was in the USA.

In and Out burgers is reasonably priced, but not MD.

Agree. Its a cool trick to create value conscious brand so more customers come in and end up paying more once they are already in.

Dollar Tree/Family Dollar exact plan

Some still do (it's up to the franchisee iirc) but it's not easy to enjoy a beer from one of those McDonald's paper cups.

Thankfully they use plastic cups for beer in some regions.

Plastic isn’t much better. Something about glass just makes it so much nicer to drink beer out of. Not to mention, glasses can be re-used!

But producing waste is part of the full McDonald's experience.

Do you know what they call a quarter pounder in Europe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_Pounder

> In several countries that do not customarily use United States customary units as a unit of weight, the Quarter Pounder is sold under different names. In France, Belgium and Cyprus it is called the Royal Cheese and includes cheese. In German-speaking Europe it is known as a Hamburger Royal; in Germany it includes lettuce and tomato and is branded Hamburger Royal TS (TS standing for „Tomate und Salat“, tomato and lettuce). In Russia and Ukraine, it was known as Royal Cheeseburger, and since 2016 in Russia it is called Grand Cheeseburger.

Some more random trivia: In Brazil it is known as "Quarteirão" which I find an ingenious translation. The word actually means "city block", but it is quite close to the original name, and being an augmentative ("-ão" suffix means big/large) it passes the intended message of a big burger.

Extra random trivia: in the south of Brazil, burgers are traditionally very large, so McDonald's Quarteirão (Quarter Pounder) is actually considered a small burger.

Check out the big brain on Brad over here!

Not everyone is following the Pulp Fiction joke.

It’s called quarter pounder:

https://www.mcdonalds.com/dk/da-dk/product/quarter-pounder.h...

They use the metric system, so they wouldn't know what a quarter pounder is.

They call it "Royal with cheese".

;)

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