Do people on McDonald's remove their trash in other counties?

I have eaten at McDonald’s all over Europe and North America. Every one I have been to has a place for people to dump the wrappers. It is the norm to clean up your own mess. But some people are dicks and don’t.

I am one of those dicks that sometimes leaves shit lying around.

They pay their employees to keep the place tidied up. I don’t do my own dishes at Denny’s and I’m not going to habitually wipe down my table after a McFlurry. Let employee of the month Billy do it after he finishes getting high out behind the dumpster.

@Blondesjon well in these trying economic times it would be down right rude of you if you did tidy up as you’d be doing some poor sod out of a job.

No. Only in their own county.

So it’s the same all over the franchise, basically.. Just wondered if it was a cultural thing to do things yourself.. In Sweden it is.. Many people here are embarrassed to have someone else do their stuff. Servicemindness needs to be enhanced here.

I think it is just good manners to clean up after myself. The difference would be in a proper restaurant where there is wait staff. Even there though, I would not shred the paper napkin or make a deliberate mess for someone else.

I live in America and I always clean up my trash when I eat at McD’s. I have not noticed a place for recycle in any McDonald’s here, but almost everything is either food or paper products in the restaurant, very little plastic, just cup covers, and I don’t understand why someone would use a cover if they are eating in, except for young children maybe? Every so often I notice people leave their trash on a table, and I think it is awful. Not sure if maybe it happens more in certain cities around my country, I have not paid close enough attention to notice when and where it happens.

@Blondesjon Your answer surprises me. It is not their job. I think the majority of McDonald’s don’t hire assuming customers are going to leave their trash behind, since that is not the norm, unless it is possibly typical where you live? Your trash means one less table for a new patron to be able to sit at until it is cleaned up. Maybe your fast food restaurants arent very busy so it doesn’t matter. Since I grew up in NY and DC suburbs, we think about the next person, because there is a good chance they are waiting for a table.

@all Just to add as a side note, I think it is disgusting that fast food has trash cans that have swing doors. It should be a simple opening that we can just toss our trash into. The trash is changed often enough that there is no need to have those messy icky doors to touch.

@JLeslie . . . That is their job. What contract did I sign when I ordered my Big Mac that obligates me to tidy up after myself?

They have to come and wipe the table when you are done anyway. Are you saying that they are incapable of carrying a couple of trays back with them?

I’m not saying that one should drop trou and lay a steamer on the table. I’m just saying that it’s not the end of the world if an employee who takes out the trash, mops the floor, and cleans the bathrooms has to throw away some wrappers.

or are those chores yet another obligation i owe mcdonald’s corp because they were kind enough to let me eat the garbage they serve?

@Blondesjon Ok. You’re entitled. I’m not going to argue. We see it differently.

In my restaurant, we have a partial wall that consists of a counter and five holes. From left to right you throw aluminum cans, then plastic lids and straws, paper cartons, waste bin and lastly a hole for putting trays in. It is a simple procedure, and if everybody does it after a meal the next guest could have a cleared table while eating, just like @JLeslie said. Maybe it’s more common in bigger cities to think this way.. however, some people don’t think at all. Ever.

@SebastianUllmark Yeah, I had a question a long while back about how people in big cities tend to have more rules they are aware of and follow. Stay right on the escalator so people can pass on the left (unless you are in a country that is stay left obviously) feet in on the subway and bus, move to the back of the bus, don’t block the stairs or the doorway (generally look behind you enough to make sure you are not blocking others), bring all of your clothes out of the dressing room, be ready to go on green. Big city we need to think about the people around us more, because it is closer quarters. It’s kind of a golden rule thing.

I went to college years ago with a girl who had a similar attitude. She would pour ketchup into her glass of ice, dump salt on the table, put her cigarette out on her plate even though there was an ashtray there. (My first time in college was in the early 80’s, and you could still smoke in a restaurant then.) I was appalled and asked her who she thought was going to clean that mess up. She told me that the staff was, it was their job!
I’ve met people with that attitude since then and I am still amazed at the thought process here. Simple clean up, I suppose, taking up plates and forks, wiping the table, ok. But the assumed superiority of the person and the treating the other like an inferior to the point that the other person is there to clean up the most horrendous mess one can possibly make leaves me gasping.
I used to work as a cashier for a very brief time and I assure you it is not MY job to clean up after your disrespectful spills of liquid all over the place. I manage to clean up after myself when I’m out, and that includes putting things on my plate and wiping up crumbs.
Common courtesy need not be left out of the equation, and it certainly seems to be with more and more people.

@Trillian . . . true. the cheerful, clear eyed, lovin’ their job bunch at mcdonald’s deserve no less than the best that they give, day in and day out.

@Blondesjon I cannot argue that sentiment, having commented myself more times than I can count about the sub standard IQ requirements for working in the fast food industry.
I also never actually eat inside a fast food place, I take my food home.
My views are slightly different than yours, I can see that. I eat at medium priced restaurants and I pick up after myself. I also clean up my own messes elsewhere, though I must admit to never using fountain drink machines anywhere, so a mess like that from me would not happen in the first place.
I can tell you that I worked in a many clinics and there was a very stupid dependent wife in one who brought in a baby with a fever. I told her to stop feeding it formula and offered her some juice instead, or water. She refused. I explained and so did the attending nurse, that giving dairy products to a fever patient is not a good idea and causes emesis. She just looked at us like we were the idiots. When the baby threw up, I silently handed her some paper towels. I hope this meets with your approval. You don’t think cleaning up an avoidable mess after an idiot is my job, do you?

@Trillian . . . No, but jobs are hard to come by and most jobs are shitty. That is why they are jobs. It’s not like this was an hour by hour, every day occurrence for you was it? You clean some puke. You pick up some wrappers. It’s not a McPrison. You can leave if you don’t like the job.

@Blondesjon ok. Point taken. I can only say that I was raised to clean up after myself, but there are no laws stating that one must do so.
And no, I don’t clean some puke. As I said, I handed her the paper towels. I don’t want to bore you with the story about how I got an attitude about cleaning up avoidable messes, only that I resolved at that time never to be forced into cleaning up a mess made by someone else that should not have happened in the first place. And I have not.
I do not work in the service industry because of some people’s attitudes who seem to think that because I’m there to provide a specific service, I must be ok with all other kinds of services too. I’m not.
I appreciate good service when I get it and I tip well to those who provide me with said good service.
I’ve come to expect sub standard service so good service is always a pleasant surprise. I don’t have a good answer for the caliber of service in the fast food industry that would fit in this already lengthy post.
I guess we all just deal with people in our own way when all is said and done.

@Trillian . . . I promise, if I ever puke around you as a result of my own stupidity I will clean it up.

I will keep giving you dirty looks, like you should be doing it, while I’m cleaning it up though.

I appreciate that. And in the spirit of harmony, I’ll refrain from snickering and saying “I told you so!”

I always clean up my mess. It’s my mess. Sometimes when I’m waiting inside for my food that’s to-go, I’ll clean around the soda dispenser.

Fast food franchisees have absolutely no clue how to run their businesses so that the public has a clean place in which to pay them money to eat. I claim no special knowledge about it except that I know of ONE McD franchisee who does it right. This guy was the US Southeast McD Corp Operations VP out of Atlanta. When he had an opportunity to get a franchise for himself, it was in the deep South US, where employee quality is below crappy. (I know. I used to live there). This guy tore down all the McD restaurants and built new ones. (They were really outdated). Then he staffed them with much higher quality people than you normally find in fast food.

Then….his stroke of genius (for fast food)....he hired a full time clean up person in every restaurant. His comment to me was that it is impossible to run a huge number of people thru a fast food restaurant with food and expect it to be anything but filthy, unless there was a full time person cleaning all the time. Washing windows, cleaning parking lot, cleaning tables, etc etc etc.

The US public is lazy and dirty…for the most part, both employees and patrons (not all)...at least in the fast food world. Sweden is no doubt much cleaner.

Btw…this guy still has the same employees, for the most part, after 20 years. Most unusual.

I will throw all of our trash away and clean up any major mess that’s made on the table (like if my son gets ketchup on the table). I try to leave them in a way that someone else could come sit there right after we got up if needed to.

I have not found the US public to be any lazier or dirtier than any other country I have lived or visited (except Singapore, that is the cleanest because you die by firing squad if you litter – not quite, but almost!!!). Doesn’t matter where you go, there are always some people who have hoggish tendencies, no manners and no consideration for those who come behind them.

I hate to hear US being dissed constantly. It simply isn’t true.

This morning, while walking the dogs along the glass strewn footpaths in my home in Australia, my husband and I discussing what could be done to stop this glass breaking binge. In some states here there is a 10 cent deposit on plastic bottles and many senior citizens supplement their incomes by collecting the bottles along the side of the road. Kids don’t seem to want to be bothered, not enough cash involved to interest them. Anyhow we figured if they put a one dollar deposit on all glass bottles maybe that would solve the problem. Five bottles nets five bucks, even the most affluent of kids would hopefully be attracted by that return and the oldies would be thrilled. Usually when something like this is proposed the do gooders scream that it discriminates against the poor and those who can least afford the extra expense. But since just about the only liquid that comes in glass anymore is alcohol, I don’t think that comes close to being relevant in this case.

In India, you can leave it on the table and people working there will remove it. In fact, with the cost of labor so low in India, there are a lot of things they hire people to do.

I remember a ticket counter at a mall parking lot. It had two people. On person to push the button and rip off the ticket, one person to hand it to the driver.

I don’t understand why trays are used less? The table stays cleaner if people eat on trays. A lot of times they give you food in a to-go bag even if you eat in. And, kids seems to be more out of control with food, and parents less likely to clean up food everywhere. Maybe if a child is a toddler, but there is no reason a 6 year old should have food everywhere?

@rooeytoo Michigan has 10 cent deposit on drink bottles, and it works pretty well. All other states with deposit are 5 cents, and the 10 makes a difference. When I was in college a six of soda bought you another soda.

I think the US is somewhere in the middle for lazy/dirty in public areas. When I worked in Bloomigdale’s a housekeeping person cleaned the bathrooms all day. There were two bathrooms per floor, on three floors. All she did all day was go from floor to floor, and when she left the bathroom was clean. When people would complain the bathrooms were dirty, I would think to myself because customers are disgusting. Not the majority, but just one or two who don’t care and the bathroom is a mess. I have never been to Singapore, I would say Japan was clean when I was there, and Germany very clean. I feel they both really cared about the person who would be coming in after them.

@roundsquare People who come from countries that have really cheap labor have to adjust a little when they come to a country like America where we do more for ourselves. My husband’s family goes through some of that coming from Mexico.

@JLeslie – It is interesting the different experiences we have. When I was in the NT there were many foreign tourists passing through and we (the community) found the Germans, in general of course, be the dirtiest, rudest and most demanding of all. They also were most prone to meltdowns when advised that it was a dry town and no alcohol was available except in restaurants. I have never been to Germany so I can’t comment on in country behavior.

@rooeytoo Interesting. I wonder if they were Eastern Germans? Although, the people I personaly know who grew up in East Germany are very tidy as well. I was actually in Bavaria when I was there. It makes sense to me that they came across demanding. I find Germans tend to expect things to be a certain way. However, I find many Americans have little ability to accept when things are done differently also. Actually, America is just such a big country and so varied, it is difficult to generalize I find. And, more times than not, no matter who I meet from whatever country, for the most part people are curteous, and I always say there are nice people everywhere. I try to focus on the nice people, and ignore the idiots.

@JLeslie – That is a good way to be. And you are right, it is not good to generalize about any group of people because all are different.

@JLeslie Actually, it goes both ways. When I came to India from the US, I felt weird having people around to do everything for me. I’m used to doing things myself, having someone whose job it is to push the elevator button for me.

But, of course, the other transition is harder.

@roundsquare Years ago I had an Indian neighbor and when her mother-in-law would come to visit in America she would just brush all crumbs on the table onto the floor, because she was so used to having servants to clean behind her all day long. In America it was her daughter-in-law having to keep her own house clean and it drove my neighbor crazy that her MIL never adjusted her behavior when visting. It’s odd for me to be waited on hand and foot also, I know what you mean, but a little of it sounds good :). What’s hard for me is to see them paid so little or living in poverty.

@JLeslie Yeah, it can be a bit weird. I wonder what would happen if her MIL visited someone else’s house.Honestly though, its likely she was adjusting as is. Some habits are hard to break.

I hate to say it, but its plain ol’ economics. Labor supply is high so price (in this case salary) drops. I read recently that its changing in China. People are more willing to stay in rural areas so labor in urban areas is drying up (slowly). Eventually this will lead to higher wages. (Also, more affluence and urbanization might help). I suspect that as India develops, the same will happen, but I’m no economist.

@roundsquare The rich in those countries have plenty of money to pay a more decent wage.

@JLeslie Sure, but why should they? There’s people basically begging to take these jobs. When there are so many people who want a job, you can essentially “bid it away” at lower and lower prices till you have no more takers. As the ratio of poor people to rich people drops, there are fewer people bidding for that job, so the price won’t drop as low. In other words, wagers will rise with affluence. As I said, this is happening slowly in China and might well happen in India. Thats how supply and demand works. (Sorry if I’m telling you something you know, but I wasn’t sure so thought I’d give the background).

That aside, I agree that it would be nice for these people to get higher wages. But I at least take solace in the idea that the low wages are (probably) temporary. I also take solace in the fact that the people with these low wages probably don’t feel as bad as we think they do (assuming you have a lifestyle something like mine in terms of luxury). Compared to the way they are used to living, things aren’t so bad. (Note: not an argument for low pay, just an observation).

@roundsquare I understand supply and demand, but as an American what I have observed is giving everyone a decent wage (of course we don’t do it perfectly by a long stretch) means the middle class grows and I think it is better for everyone, for society in general. Spreading the money around by paying a decent wage, is much more appealing to me that through taxation, welfare, and other means. I think one of the reasons America and other western industrialized nations are so prosperous is because we do pay workers. Of course there are other reasons, but I think it contributes to our total wealth as a country.

@JLeslie Sorry, just wasn’t sure. I decided to err on the side of caution with the option to apologize if I insulted you by explaining the basics.

I agree with you. Some sort of minimum wage is very helpful in giving people a chance to succeed (or fail) on their own merits instead of based on the birth lottery. However, I’m not sure how well it would function in India. I think most people would get around it.

Some people don’t remove their trash because they think McDonald’s employees will lose their jobs.

@mattbrowne . . . i love you

@mattbrowne well these are hard ecenomic times. Big companies will do anything to save a buck and if your customers are doing the work then why do you need to pay people?

@JLeslie it is not always the store’s choice which style of trash can to get. They cater to the least common denominator, so if several locations have laws about which cans they can use most of the chain is going to get that kind of trashcan.

I think the swinging lid on the trash cans is there because some study determined it was healthier or cleaner.

@WestRiverrat I never considered there might be a law. Many places have open trash cans, but I would say it is still in the minority of choice among fast food restaurants and food courts.