As noted in an earlier post, my girlfriend and I were up in Montreal a few weeks ago, visiting friends, seeing the sites, and generally having an all round good time. Since Montreal is only a few hundred kilometers from where I live in Ontario, and the weather was great, we decided to drive. Anyhow, on the return journey, I was stricken by hunger and forced to pull into one of those service / restaurant  centers that dots the highway every 100 kms or so.

And it just so happened this one featured a McDonald’s.

Hmm… time for a little experiment.

As you know, the fast food restaurants have been under fire for several years now; the growing obesity crisis, spiralling health care costs and the ready availability of low-cost, HIGH calorie meals has meant that most restaurant chains have made at least a token effort at proving healthier menu choices to the public.

McDonalds, not surprisingly therefore, decided to roll out some healthier meal choices a few years back. Salads, of course, were a no-brainer addition to the menu, and apparently contributed significantly to an increased bottom line for Micky-dees. Standing there in the line up, basking in the aroma of Big Macs and Quarter-pounders, I searched the menu for the salads (I had to look because these items definitely don’t receive the exposure of the usual fare, or the more recently launched Angus burger or Southwest grilled chicken sandwich).   

Anyhow, I picked out a chicken salad – with the grilled, not breaded chicken – and sat back to receive my order. A previous commuting route had me regularly passing a Wendy’s, and I’d eaten their chicken salad in the past. Although it has been a few years since I’ve had one, I remember them being pretty decent (with the exception of the supplied dressing, which contained more calories than the salad itself). So I was curious about making a comparison.

In a few short minutes we received our order, and headed off to an empty table to eat.

I should have ordered the Angus burger.

Seriously.

My salad was pathetic. The worst chicken  salad I’ve EVER encountered.  When I pulled the lid off, I was greated by 4 anemic slices of luke warm chicken, two rings of red onion, one slice of barely ripened tomato, and a cup and a half of wilted lettuce. McDonald’s online nutritional calculator claims the salad contains 33 grams of protein. I can guarantee you my salad contained nowhere near that amount… even if you were generous enough to include the nutritional content of the serving containers and the napkins it came with.

Even my long suffering girlfriend Marilyn took a look and said…

“Oh oh. That’s going throw you off for the whole day. Should I go order you something else?” ;-)

Now I realize that quality may vary from outlet to outlet (although McDonald’s prides itself on a consistent experience at any one of its franchises – a Big Mac in California should taste the same as the one in Geneva, etc), but to me, this experience demonstrated how serious McDonald’s commitment to healthy meals really is. This was not, in my opinion, a credible attempt at creating a viable alternative to high calorie burgers. No red-blooded, burger eating guy from your average TV commercial is ever going to order this; and if he does, he will NEVER order it again. I certainly won’t.  

First, it delivered very little “bang for the buck” – I definitely did not feel that I got my money’s worth. Not even remotely. I suspect many customers may be turned off for that reason alone. Secondly, there’s almost nothing here. If you’re hungry, this ain’t gonna do it.  Sure, I’m a 240 pound guy, but even my 120 lbs girlfriend would not have been sustained by that salad.

McDonald’s, you can do better. Here’s what I suggest…

First, if cost is the barrier to delivering a great product, boost the price up a bit. Say $9.99. No one minds paying a little more for something worthwhile. And besides, a burger, large fries and a drink costs pretty close to this. Make your salads into a REAL alternative to this combo. There’s lot of cheap stuff you can throw into them that will cost you next to nothing, but will fill up your customers, increase perceived value and boost nutritional value. Heck, if your salads looked even remotely like they do on your nutritional calculator, you’d be doing OK. In short, make a real commitment to serving healthy alternatives. I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t it.     

Oh and by the way, McDonald’s…

Wendy’s salads kick your butt.