McDonald's Is Closing All Its Restaurants in the UK (bbc.com) 128
An anonymous reader quotes the BBC:
McDonald's will close all 1,270 of its restaurants in the UK by the end of Monday, as fears over the spread of coronavirus escalate.
Previously, the fast food giant had closed its seating areas but had continued to offer takeaway and drive-through services. McDonald's said it wanted to protect the wellbeing of staff and customers. On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said restaurants and cafes must close, but exempted take-away food places.
McDonald's employs around 135,000 people in the UK, the majority of which are on zero-hours contracts. The chain said staff employed directly by the company would receive full pay for their scheduled hours until 5 April. By that time it expects the government's financial aid package, announced on Friday, to have kicked in, with staff paid 80% of their wages.
McDonald's UK boss, Paul Pomroy, told the BBC they made the decision because "it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult."
Previously, the fast food giant had closed its seating areas but had continued to offer takeaway and drive-through services. McDonald's said it wanted to protect the wellbeing of staff and customers. On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said restaurants and cafes must close, but exempted take-away food places.
McDonald's employs around 135,000 people in the UK, the majority of which are on zero-hours contracts. The chain said staff employed directly by the company would receive full pay for their scheduled hours until 5 April. By that time it expects the government's financial aid package, announced on Friday, to have kicked in, with staff paid 80% of their wages.
McDonald's UK boss, Paul Pomroy, told the BBC they made the decision because "it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult."
New Kind of Testing (Score:5, Insightful)
What they really need is a test for who has already had it and not carrying and can be quarantine free. I'll bet there are tens of millions in this category and the system would run a whole lot smoother if they could get out and about again. Now that would actually be a useful test, rather than a window dressing test.
Re:New Kind of Testing (Score:4, Interesting)
What they really need is a test for who has already had it and not carrying and can be quarantine free.
Even if somebody got immunity, can't they still transmit the virus, maybe on their hands, if they touched an infected surface or shook hands with a carrier?
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Yes, but that isn't how it normally spreads. It spreads via droplets in the air. Touching surfaces is already a secondary concern.
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That would need a nation level of test production.
A few smart nations with such design and production skills are working on that.. the mass production of their very own fast new tests for many citizens who have to work.
Such advanced nations need a smart medial system ready to work out a new test and a medical production line that can scale to nation levels.
Wait and see who starts a new kind of testing.
Like I keep saying (Score:5, Insightful)
What will actually happen is once people who've recovered and tested clean will resume their normal lives, a bunch of people who haven't had it and haven't tested, will simply take advantage of the crowds to blend in and resume their lives. Some of them will catch it, and will spread it, and prolong this pandemic.
The only sure-fire way to clamp down on this is to quarantine everyone in an affected area. Nobody goes out - tested, untested, recovered - until we know sufficient time has passed for anyone infected to have developed symptoms and either died or have fought off the bug. Only a total quarantine makes it obvious if someone who isn't supposed to be breaking quarantine, is breaking quarantine.
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That assumes people will be honest, and only go out and about if they've actually had it, and testing has confirmed they're no longer carrying it.
Well; don't assume they will be honest then, issue a credential or some kind of mark like a digital tag or coded RFID implant which can only be obtained after testing clean of the disease AND a test result has shown they have antibodies in blood indicating that person had the virus in the past.
Then put scanners everywhere like.... At the cashier, y
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It could take care of two problems at once, what's not to like?
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There's an example of sarcasm from David's wife, Michal [slashdot.org].
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Even if people were willing to accept such draconian measures it wouldn't work. People would just share/borrow tags. The local supermarket had a limit of 2 packs of toilet paper per person so the family in front of us had the dad buy two, mum buy two, daughter buy two, other daughter buy two, and then loop back round to a different checkout so they can each buy another two.
Unless it's a barcode tattooed on your forehead there will be widespread fraud.
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People would just share/borrow tags.
Its more than a bit difficult to "borrow" a subdermal implant.
They could also put some biometric information on the tag such as photo, fingerprint, name, etc, and require store cashiers scan a matching fingerprint or verify a Photo ID from each customer and confirm the Photo ID matches the Tag that was scanned.
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Right, so deploy biometric scanners everywhere and what are you going to do about the limits of those things? People with dark skin just can't eat now?
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Its more than a bit difficult to "borrow" a subdermal implant.
Just tattoo everyone with a serial number, that's what you want so might as well make it clear.
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Totally worthless once the virus mutates. Which they do, constantly.
That's not true. Mutations are not a problem except much less often when the result is essentially a new virus that presents differently, which could likely mean the current tests would no longer work and other traits of the virus would differ, And if measures being taken slow down the transmission, then that happens even more rarely.
It seems unlikely the novel coronavirus would be any different.
Your assertion is really unpersuas
Re:Like I keep saying (Score:4, Interesting)
There is a lot of talk about "blitz spirit" and everyone pulling together, as there always is in Britain.
But the reality is that during the actual blitz people were busy looting houses, organized crime considered it a golden age and we had to have ration books because people couldn't be trusted to buy responsibly and only take what they needed.
So yes, we need some harsh measures because enough people won't do the right thing by themselves. Problem is with an authoritarian government with a big majority that wants to pass emergency powers for 2 years. Amendments to limit it to 6 months will be rejected.
Restaurants ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Mc Donalds had restaurants ? Really ? No way !
I had no idea this was the case, I thought they have only fast/junk food outlets.
Re:Restaurants ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm betting they only closed because they noticed sales had dropped so much due to pesky coronavirus that it was costing them money to stay open.
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Enough people are ignoring advice to stay home to keep venues that are still open busy. The issue is probably liability for the staff. If they force them to come to work and they get sick it could be very expensive for McDonalds.
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Which does not mean I don't like a hamburger or taco
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According to PHE (Public Health England) they are close to rolling out an antibody test which will do exactly that. Just not quite there yet.
Anyway, the collective health of the Nation should improve now McDs is no longer serving!
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"According to PHE (Public Health England) they are close to rolling out an antibody test which will do exactly that. Just not quite there yet."
We can't even get enough tests to check who is maybe going to die next week, yes, let's spend a few billions to check who might be able to dance on the streets flouting their maybe immunity in the other's faces.
Perhaps give them a yellow cotton corona-virus to affix on their clothes and let them buy only in immune stores.
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The reason we need a test to see if you have *had* it rather than *got* it, is so those with immunity can go back to work in critical positions (healthcare, etc.) without fear of spreading the virus or contracting it themselves.
It will also tell us what proportion of the population has had it, which will help enormously with future planning, as it is the one thing nobody really knows at the moment.
TL;DR It is probably right up there in terms of importance to get this test running as soon as possible in bulk
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"What they really need is a test for who has already had it and not carrying and can be quarantine free. "
There are already the S and the L strain and more will follow. Immunity ain't going to happen.
Criminal failure of moderation (Score:2)
How the hell was that moderated as "Insightful"? There are not yet millions of recovered Covid-19 patients (though we'll get there soon enough), and even if there were, they could still transmit coronavirus from infected people to vulnerable people. Simple as getting coughed at and then touching the wrapper of a hamburger.
In certain cases, medical professionals who have recovered from Covid-19 could be especially helpful, but even there it would be necessary to be extremely cautious. Plus we're not yet sure
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Might be due to the emergence of multiple strains.
Robotize the service industry (Score:2)
This is why the service industry should be automated and remote-operated. Even decontamination/washdown can be remote controlled.
Customers could drive up at say one car length between cars (enforced by barriers) to enforce separation distance.
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That only would be to keep operators apart so they're decisively out of exhaled aerosol range during pandemic, which I should have noted.
With the right tweaks humanity could gradually increase distancing until it's accepted as normal when necessary and can be implemented seamlessly at extremely short notice, like a military force going on alert status.
We need a society DESIGNED to function under highly disruptive conditions! The ability to go on an instant emergency footing need not be confined to first res
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Never mind the distance between cars, I want to know how far will the staff be from my burger and fries.
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There won't be any staff. And since Mickey Deez Nuts has their own trucks they don't even need a human to unload them, if they design that out. Design the truck to be backed up to an automated unloading bay that loads cartridges of "ingredients" into the building like it was an inkjet printer. The wage slaves at McD's are already shit at assembling sandwiches so the bar is very low.
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Mr Drinkypoo - Given that my days are numbered, I just want to say I love this image you paint, and that I never would have read Snow Crash (and subsequenty, everything else by Stephenson) if it weren't for your sig line... Cheers - Jon
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All our days are numbered. I hope your number is higher than you think. Thanks for your appreciation!
Re:traffic staff (Score:2)
There should be no traffic staff. Humans are biohazards while automated delivery systems can be cleaned, even with live steam on appropriate components, between customers. Robots could pass food to customers and return through a passage outfitted similar to a car wash. Restaurant equipment requires periodic cleaning anyway and that system could either clean the robot at required intervals or clean it between every customer. It would store the robot if not in use so there would be no increased system footpr
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We need a society DESIGNED to function under highly disruptive conditions! The ability to go on an instant emergency footing need not be confined to first responders and mostly requires education and training..
Good idea. For starters, lets begin with decentralizing aggressively.
Zume tried this with pizza (Score:3)
All they ended up was burning through billions of venture capital and ending up with just a box.
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I wonder if San Francisco is regretting their rejection of food delivery robots [theguardian.com] now, just a few scant months after the fact?
George Wooding, a local activist who uses a wheelchair, added: “You do not need a robot to deliver a ham sandwich. If you want one that badly, just go down and get it yourself.”
Oops.
“Are robots necessary?” asked San Francisco resident Lori Liederman. “Maybe it isn’t just our safety that’s in jeopardy. Maybe it’s our humanity as well.”
Oh dear.
We should have voluntary infection (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Agree to self quarantine for a month
2) Sign a disclaimer that they understand the risks and are accepting the liability
3) Agree when they are recovered, they will work in a capacity that supports the more at-risk locked down population.
They could receive an official "immunity" certification from the government, and in addition the
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Re:We should have voluntary infection (Score:4, Insightful)
Basically, anyone that's young and healthy who feels like they are not in any danger
NO; that would be a horrible idea! In case you weren't aware getting this disease is a potentially horrible experience even for those with more "mild" symptoms; furthermore, there is a high rate: possibly as high as 20% across all age groups over age 18 of even previously healthy individuals requiring hospitalization and ICU to recover from this, and even if they are young and healthy;
about 2% likely die, assuming they get proper care, even people that don't die and maybe get through without hospitalization some will still suffer a highly torturous affair and possible long-term permanent damage to heart, lungs, and/or other organs.
Basic ethics would forbid this. Intentional infection with a novel pathogen is very dangerous.
Re:We should have voluntary infection (Score:4, Insightful)
mysidia already gave a good answer to this from this from one side. There's another more important reason this is a bad idea. The virus is clearly able to mutate reasonably quickly. The number of chances the virus gets to form new and effective mutations which allow it to evade the immune system is dependent on the number of hosts it infects. Giving the virus to everybody young will give it plenty of opportunities to mutate and possibly become worse. Worse, there won't be selective pressure on the virus to become less malign.
This is the reason that Trump's ideas of isolating the USA, trying to control the vaccine and only giving it to people in his own country are not just sick but actually dangerous and ignorant. The same goes for the continued sanctions on Iran whilst they have their outbreak. It's not just savage, it's stupid. You have to cure covid-19 everywhere to be sure of getting rid of it.
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You do realize that the death rate even for young, otherwise healthy people with this virus is 0.5%?
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So ... take a month of unpaid vacation while infected with a life-threatening virus that makes your life VERY upleasant for the time being even on less severe development, signing away any and all rights to any claims for lasting effects to become the lackay of some cranky 70 year old wheezer and serving him McD crap?
Yeah... don't get me wrong, but even temp agencies make better offers.
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At present the only thing we can do to keep healthcare operational is to slow down the number of infections.
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They could receive an official "immunity" certification from the government
Something which doesn't at all prevent them from spreading a virus.
McDonald's might be going... (Score:2)
But Virtual Taco Bell is forever. You only need to read their sauce packets to see what kind of heavy backing they have.
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Plus you can use the green sauce as hand sanitizer. It'll take the brass coating off a door knob... According to a friend of mine who worked at a taco Bell long ago
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Not to mention, Fire sauce goes well with all kinds of eating.
Or should I say "types"...
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I say I don't like it, but you know I'm a liar [youtube.com]
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Anything salty that you leave on the surface will destroy it, that's why brass-plated fittings are cheap; everything destroys them. They will not last. If you don't want surface peeling and pitting, buy solid fittings. Avoiding tomatillo sauce isn't enough.
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"Help. I can't tell where I am. It's dark and I can hear laughing."
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But since you asked, if the Taco Bell packet doesn't help, this will probably clear up a few points. [youtube.com]
If you're paying attention.
Just use a pole (Score:3)
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Just look at those customers! I wouldn't touch that even with a 10 foot pole!
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Sure you can! Simply use disposable poles!
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A new industry.
One time food delivery stick ready for the most heavy of bags and the stick recovery robot.
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If it's pointy at their end, I might consider using it.
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What about the workers being infected? Most of them are young and may be asymptomatic. They don't want headlines about McDonalds being the source of an outbreak.
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Headline: "Our food wasn't effective enough, we had to step up the game!"
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You don't need to many workers either since traffic's fallen a lot and those that do come in wear masks and gloves.
Wrong!
Went up to our local retail park on Saturday to collect my meds and the queue of cars for McD drive-thru was around 50 cars, which is about four times the usual number.
I'm guessing that people were going there because the other fast food chains/restaurants were already closed.
Oh, and guess what? I have seen exactly one person in our town wearing a mask, and another wearing gloves.
Are they also closing down in the US? (Score:2)
The US, which have more known cases per capita than the UK, wouldn't it be even more difficult to maintaining safe social distancing there?
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Normally I would jump at an opportunity to ridicule the US, but not in this case. After all the UK is the country where the people call the police when the KFC is closed.
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Normally I would jump at an opportunity to ridicule the US, but not in this case. After all the UK is the country where the people call the police when the KFC is closed.
Or if their kebab is cold.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-... [bbc.co.uk]
zero hours times minimum wage... (Score:2)
We've changed the schedule. On the revised schedule, you now have zero hours...
Even if the above doesn't happen: McDonald's is a predominately franchise-based corporation. Within the UK, there are approximately 1300 restaurants, of which around 1100 are franchised. People employed by a
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puts even more strain on grocery stores (Score:2)
Re:puts even more strain on grocery stores (Score:5, Interesting)
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I mostly eat fresh fruit and vegetables and meat/fish. That stuff doesn't last a month. I have a bunch of rice, jam, spices, etc. that's non-perishable under normal circumstances, but a lot of my normal diet is stuff that doesn't keep. Even fresh bread from the local bakery is stale in a couple of days (not preservative-laden supermarket bread).
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That sort of problem is why humans invented food preservation. Luxury disturbance is to be expected during pandemic. Consider how you might mitigate the problem creatively, perhaps by home canning. If you can the fruit and the vegetables you have total process control and can healthily stock your home pantry. The current coerced isolation may be a perfect time to learn that new skill and canning supplies are plentiful online. You'll get more out of your grocery runs because you can buy larger much larger l
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I used to can fruit when I lived in an area with a lot of orchards and I could get it cheap and fresh. Getting more out of grocery runs isn't really much of an incentive - I live within walking distance of all the places I need to shop, so regular small shopping runs are more attractive.
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Because dying of starvation is the alternative?
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I mostly eat fresh fruit and vegetables and meat/fish. That stuff doesn't last a month. I have a bunch of rice, jam, spices, etc. that's non-perishable under normal circumstances, but a lot of my normal diet is stuff that doesn't keep.
Do you not have things like dried pulses, rice, couscous, that sort of thing? Genuinely curious. Also, I stocked up on fresh veg in case I'm quarantined. Most of the stock up was root veg though (spuds, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets), because that stuff wil
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Yeah, I have rice, lentils, dry rice noodles, some canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, various other stuff, but besides rice that stuff normally isn't a big part of my diet. I've stocked up a bit more in case things get really bad in the next few weeks.
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Most of the things you mentioned are what my food eats.
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It surprises you that people prefer fresh food?
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Anyone that has a family without food reserves, why?
Re: puts even more strain on grocery stores (Score:3)
I too loved to have a fridge and pantry that was almost empty. I'd buy whatever was good and cheap at the market. It's a similar minimalism attitude as why I'm not a hoarder, and don't have any clutter in my house. It feels liberating.
Basically, if the fishmonger has a good deal or something special then you plan your meal on the spot around that. If artichokes have just come in then you plan around that. You just improvise based on the ingredients around you.
I did that when I lived in the UK and Italy. Hav
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Now you are just being ridiculous.
If you are fine living on dried food and processed crap doesn't mean other people have a problem to buy groceries every other day or even every day.
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Because most people living now have never experienced this kind of shortage at the supermarkets. And there wouldn't be a shortage if idiots were not panic buying.
It's getting back to normal again after just a week anyway. The big supermarkets where idiots go are still bad but the smaller places are fine. Local Chinese supermarket is well stocked too. We could survive without fresh stuff but there is no need to.
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It amazes me how many people don't stock enough food at home to last even a week.
I take it you live in the USA? In Europe a lot of the food isn't loaded up with preservatives. Expats who visit here are often first and foremost surprised by how quickly things go off. The other thing is even now, in the middle of the crisis, with every idiot running on the shops to horde food I still walk to the supermarket every day to get supplies for dinner. My major crisis, maybe I have to use jasmine rice instead of basmati, or maybe the specific cut of meat isn't available. Idiots stocked up here an
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Sounds like you spend an inordinate amount of time at the supermarket.
Probably less than 5-10 minutes at any given day. I walk in with a small bag, grab my the things I need (usually about 4-5 items) and scan them as I go, dock the scanner on the way out, swipe my card and I'm out. No lines, no fuss.
Now do I spend a lot of time going to and from the supermarket? Absolutely. I do that on purpose. I could drive past the supermarket on the way home but I greatly prefer to drive home and then either jog, or cycle to the supermarket. The entire routine is a positive contribution t
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Well keep in mind, too, that a lot of people are now being required to work from home when they weren't previously. Them and their kids.
So in my case I normally ate breakfast and lunch at work. It was free, so why not? And plus, my kids were supposed to be getting breakfast and lunch from their school and now they're not as well. So what previously could have been enough food to last me for a maybe a month now, all of a sudden, isn't.
With grocery stores now frequently having empty shelves and long lines and
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Also, this has been going on some two weeks, now, and some people may want to stock up before they're completely empty.
For example, I usually fill up my gas tank when I'm on half a tank. If I don't fill up my tank, then, it's not a big deal - I still have half a tank left, but I do start getting a little anxious. Even if this thing had been going on for a week then people who, like me, get anxious when they're starting to get to
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I've been able to largely avoid going to grocery stores because of take-out restaurants. How many more people will this force to go to already over congested grocery stores?
You're more likely to get it from takeout than from the grocery store. After all, all the ingredients in your takeout came from the grocery store, and then had a bunch of minimum wage workers make it, pack it, move it around.
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"After all, all the ingredients in your takeout came from the grocery store,"
Maybe. Sometimes that's true, but usually not. Restaurants usually get their ingredients delivered by restaurant supply businesses. And when they don't they usually use special grocery stores which sell in larger packages than even warehouse stores typically stock. Here in the states we have cash & carry, for example. These stores are usually open to the public, but still patronized primarily by restaurant buyers.
However, all m
restaurants (Score:1)
Might as well close grocery stores too (Score:2)
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Unless the restaurant fills the restaurant space with food and refrigerators.
Keep the payment systems.
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Gotta protect grocery store workers and customers too.
I would say they should limit capacity to eliminate crowds... Only 20 or 30 people allowed to be be shopping at the same time within an average-sized store, and limit of 16 items that can be purchased per trip; possibly start requiring that people who want to visit the grocery Call in ahead of time or Login through an app or website in advance of their planned visit To reserve a 20-minute time slot to shop.
Or... there are other schemes that coul
Cynical: Obvious. (Score:2)
Bad food closes (Score:2)
What Restaurants? (Score:2)
Do you mean those horrible plastic cafes they run?
Think of the lives saved! (Score:2)
Well, that's good for the UK's public health (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll probably help with the coronavirus, too.
cash (Score:2)