So What's the buzz about McDonald's?

Have you seen the new Red Box? A wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald's Corporation, Redbox is a leading renter of DVDs through automated kiosks. Redbox continues to revolutionize the DVD rental industry as it expands its footprint inside grocery stores, McDonald's restaurants, and other locations.

According to the website, Minneapolis has the second largest number of Red Box locations in the country, second only to Houston, TX. Rent a DVD for $1 and return the DVD to any redbox anywhere. You swipe your credit card, and it charges you $1 per day for rental up to a specific amount of days (I think it's 25) and then if you don't return it, they charge your credit card $25, it's yours...you've purchased it. They also take your email address to send reciept of rental and return. Amazing, how each RedBox is connected to another, and can identify you by your email and credit card number. You can return the DVD to any other Redbox location. According to my friend Cathy, who is so excited about each of her family's past 6 purchases made at RedBox, she stared at the machine in amazement for at least 15 minutes before renting her first DVD from it. She said they look like first run family type films that come to Redbox before they even hit Blockbuster. How do they do that?

At lunch the other day, Jan mentioned that McD's is experimenting with the drive-thru ordering being centralized, or even taken at an off-site location across the globe (like India) so the person that you order from is not necessarily at the location you order at. It's all automated. Cathy mentioned that she heard they're trying this in California, and that's how they're able to stay open 24 hours, because they only have to staff a cashier and a cook, not a cashier a cook and an order person. I mean, really. As long as I don't have to get my fries from a vending machine, I suppose it's okay.

Then...on our way home from the lake last Saturday, we stopped in Monticello, MN to fill up with gas, and there's a McDonald's right on I-94 next to a gas station. So...as I fed our infant son, my husband and daughter stopped into McD's for some much needed soft serve. As my hubby came over with his shake, I thought he ordered strawberry, which is very much like him. I'm more the chocolate kind...but I digress. He asked if I wanted to try some...which when I sipped on the yummy and unfamiliar concoction, he said "It's mango raspberry." I gave him a quizzical look and sipped again. "What? Mango Raspberry? In rural Minnesota? At McDonald's? How cool is that?" I almost confiscated the whole thing right then. It's probably a trial kind of thing, but I definitely will check out our local McD's to see if they also carry it. Very yummy.

I suppose McD's will be coming out with other new snack-type food to take home with your DVD's. I wonder if they'll carry popcorn and Jr. Mints or just the Fruit and Walnut salad (which is really not a salad...but more like a snack.)Kudos to McD's for getting our kiddies interested in the playland, and getting us interested in coming back day after day to rent and return movies, as well as getting us to think that we're snacking somewhat healthy (not).

What else will they think of? Car wash drive thru..."Wash, wax, and hold the pickle."