McDonald's Outsmarts San Francisco Politicians
SF Weekly -- "Local McDonald's employees tell SF Weekly the company has devised a solution that appears to comply with San Francisco's "Healthy Meal Incentive Ordinance" that could actually make the company more money -- and necessitate toy-happy youngsters to buy more Happy Meals.
It turns out San Francisco has not entirely vanquished the Happy Meal as we know it. Come Dec. 1, you can still buy the Happy Meal. But it doesn't come with a toy. For that, you'll have to pay an extra 10 cents.
Huh. That hardly seems to have solved the problem. But it actually gets worse from here. Thanks to Supervisor Eric Mar's much ballyhooed new law, parents browbeaten into supplementing their preteens' Happy Meal toy collections are now mandated to buy the Happy Meals.
Today and tomorrow mark the last days that put-upon parents can satiate their youngsters by simply throwing down $2.18 for a Happy Meal toy. But, thanks to the new law taking effect on Dec. 1, this is no longer permitted. Now, in order to have the privilege of making a 10-cent charitable donation in exchange for the toy, you must buy the Happy Meal.
It turns out San Francisco has not entirely vanquished the Happy Meal as we know it. Come Dec. 1, you can still buy the Happy Meal. But it doesn't come with a toy. For that, you'll have to pay an extra 10 cents.
Huh. That hardly seems to have solved the problem. But it actually gets worse from here. Thanks to Supervisor Eric Mar's much ballyhooed new law, parents browbeaten into supplementing their preteens' Happy Meal toy collections are now mandated to buy the Happy Meals.
Today and tomorrow mark the last days that put-upon parents can satiate their youngsters by simply throwing down $2.18 for a Happy Meal toy. But, thanks to the new law taking effect on Dec. 1, this is no longer permitted. Now, in order to have the privilege of making a 10-cent charitable donation in exchange for the toy, you must buy the Happy Meal.
Hilariously, it appears Mar et al., in their desire to keep McDonald's from selling grease and fat to kids with the lure of a toy have now actually incentivized the purchase of that grease and fat -- when, beforehand, a put-upon parent could get out cheaper and healthier with just the damn toy."
HT: Stuart Anderson
5 Comments:
Yes, and Wall Street outsmarts people like Barney Frank all the time, and yet they keep trying.
It reminds me of the Looney Tunes Roadrunner-Coyote cartoons.
Another example of the law of unintended consequences.
Nanny fail.
Does anybody really believe the totalitarians obsessed with controlling your life who passed this law will raise the white flag and surrender? No chance. They're Democrats.
It's fortunate that even kids are smarter that SF Cnty. supervisors. When I explained this story to my 10 year old grandson, his response to the idea of a Healthy Meal Incentives Ordinance was "That's just stupid!"
Although not above begging for a meal that comes with a toy, he understand that the responsibility for what kids eat belongs to their parents, not the county supervisors.
The future seems brighter since then.
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