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?
