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https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html

Most of McDonald’s audience is lower to middle income families in both urban and rural areas. They are loyal customers, visiting a McDonald’s restaurant an average of 44 times a year.

McDonald’s target age group is consumers from 6 to 70 years old, both male and female.

McDonald’s demographics particularly focuses on multi-generational families, who enjoy a range of products and experiences, such as Happy Meals and playgrounds for kids, McCafe coffee and breakfast for moms, and combo meals for family outings.

The target market of McDonald’s includes employees, professionals, as well as students.

McDonalds in Times Square

McDonalds in Times Square

I wanted to see if this was also the case in Rotterdam and Uithoorn (a McDonalds nearby my hometown).

McDonalds in Rotterdam Coolsingel

McDonalds in Uithoorn

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-values.html

"Our mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone."

- They talk about feeding and fostering communities.
- Convenient locations and hours and affordable prices, working hard to offer the speed, choice and personalization their customers expect.
- They serve moments of feel-good, all with the lighthearted, unpretentious, welcoming, dependable personality their consumers know and love.

So you would say that anybody feels welcome and included right? But is that really still the case nowadays?

- The founders of McDonalds introduced their 'Speedee Service System' featuring 15 cent hamburgers in 1948.
- In 1954 Ray Kroc visited the McDonald brothers and became their franchise agent.
- In 1955 he opened the first McDonald’s east of the Mississippi river.
- His vision was that there would be 1000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States. - In 1967 McDonald’s expanded into international markets and opened in Canada and Puerto Rico.
- To this day the company has over 36.000 restaurants in over 100 nations.
- The restaurant's buildings are designed in a way that continues to evolve to meet their customer’s expectations. So the architecture of the restaurants is even designed differently per country.

https://nieuws.top010.nl/mcdonalds-coolsingel.htm
https://www.joodserfgoedrotterdam.nl/coolsingel-coolvest-de-vest/
https://mei-arch.eu/projecten/mcdonalds-coolsingel/

Timeline
Coolsingel 1800-1920 van Coolvest tot world boulevard
Coolsingel 1920-1940 nieuwbouwgolf & roaring twenties
Coolsingel 1940-1960 de second WW and the reconstruction/rebuilding + emergency store's
Coolsingel 1960-2000 gezelligheid en verdichting (1961 bouwput, metro aanleg)

De Coolsingel refers to the Cool which was owned in 1811 by Rotterdam. De Coolvest was a city moat that seperated the city and the "ambacht". In 1913 the mayor wanted to make Coolvest a world boulevard. So they build a new Stadhuis, Post office and Beursgebouw.

The former kiosk was once labelled as the ugliest building from Rotterdam. The architects from Mei Architects redesigned the building. The walls of the building are made from glass, to strengthen the feeling of connection with the city and it's residents. You can see throught the building, and see the historical post office building behind it. The furniture contains pieces that are simular to the furniture in public spaces in Rotterdam. The visuals on the aluminium are made from tiny perforated hearts, and together they form images from residents at the Coolsingel. The building had to visualize something that fits the Coolsingel and it's rich historical surroundings.

The old building (kiosk) was together with the stadhuis, post office and Atlanta hotel the only building that survived the bombing in the WW.

After the bombing they wanted to rebuild the Coolsingel as the most important street of Rotterdam.
In the 60's the Coolsingel started to become what we know it for to this day. The Metro got constructed, they placed more pavilions, "diners" (like the McDonalds) and plants. The inner city got more compact and focused on small scale. They constructed bicycle lanes, and in the middle a green strip and tram track.

From the 80's high-rise buildings were allowed again, and the inner city got even more compact.
In 1996 the two most important shopping streets got connected to the Coolsingel. This deepened shopping street Beurstraverse is now known as the 'Koopgoot'.

Teenagers protest during the opening of the renovated Mc Donald's. They want higher pay for 18 year olds and more secure jobs for teenagers working at Mc Donald's. (2015)

The Rotterdam municipality wanted to get rid of the building because it covers the historical post office, but Mc Donalds has a contract for a number of years and don't want to leave yet.

https://www.metronieuws.nl/in-het-nieuws/binnenland/2015/03/mcdonalds-heropent-en-gaat-nooit-meer-dicht/

At some point the building was chosen as the ugliest Mc Donalds, and is now known as the golden Mc Donalds, some say the fanciest Mc Donalds in the world.

ROLES & REFLECTION