Day 059 - 01 Dec 94 - Page 27


     
     1        not a large market.
     2
     3        Anything we have tested prior to now has not sold more than
     4        around three per cent of sales which is disappointing.
     5        Salads have not sold more than one per cent of sales which
     6        is disappointing, and this is a commercial business and we
     7        are in business to sell products, not just to put items on
     8        the menu that might placate other people.
     9
    10   Q.   I do not think there is any dispute about either of these
    11        propositions; people come to McDonald's in groups together,
    12        friends?
    13        A.  Yes, quite often.
    14
    15   Q.   And also, of course, as families?
    16        A.  Yes.
    17
    18   Q.   Presently speaking, if a member of that group or that
    19        family is a vegetarian in the sense they will not eat meat,
    20        chicken fish or eggs, what can McDonald's provide for them
    21        apart from salad in some places?
    22        A.  Salad in some places, as you said, and cheese and
    23        tomato pizza in some places also; french fries, of course.
    24
    25   Q.   Now I want to turn, if I may away, from food to packaging.
    26        Do McDonald's have a consciousness of the environmental
    27        considerations to which their use of packaging may be
    28        thought to give rise?
    29        A.  Yes, we do.
    30
    31   Q.   As between those considerations and the considerations of
    32        economics and commercial considerations, is there a balance
    33        to be struck?
    34        A.  I think the balance to be struck is in the area of
    35        serving our food in the most presentable way that we would
    36        like it to be served.  It is not necessarily a question of
    37        economics or environmental issues.
    38
    39   Q.   Can I ask you as, perhaps, an illustration of what you have
    40        just said about the choice for wrapping up the sandwiches,
    41        that is to say, the hamburgers, to deal just with the
    42        hamburgers for the moment, the choice between polystyrene
    43        foam and paper?
    44        A.  Yes.
    45
    46   Q.   Can I preface that by reminding ourselves that in this
    47        country you use polystyrene foam for, at any rate, the
    48        Big Macs, do you not?
    49        A.  In all the large sandwiches.
    50 
    51   Q.   In all the large sandwich; whereas in the United States, 
    52        for example, and other parts of the world which we will 
    53        look at in a moment, they use paper.
    54        A.  Yes, they do, they use a wrap.
    55
    56   Q.   Take those two different kinds of packaging separately (and
    57        include in your consideration questions of cost and
    58        commercial effectiveness and customer appeal and all those
    59        things), what are the arguments in favour of paper and
    60        environmental questions as well, of course?

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