Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 29
1 MS. STEEL: We are looking at the data for 1993 and 1994, which
2 was advanced on behalf of the Plaintiffs, so I don't think
3 they can complain that it is now being used.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Right.
6
7 MS. STEEL: The point I want to make in relation to these is
8 that these are really the minimum numbers of people who are
9 eating several times per week or more often at McDonald's,
10 because Mr. Fairgrieve described how these surveys had been
11 carried out. It was basically over the phone, discussions
12 with or questions of the head of the household unless the
13 head of the household was not available, in which case
14 somebody else would be spoken to.
15
16 And obviously there are two factors there which are going
17 to influence the results. One is that you are not going to
18 get the people who cannot afford telephones, for example,
19 or who are living in bed and breakfast and so on, who are,
20 because of their circumstances and lack of cooking
21 facilities and so on, things like that, actually quite
22 likely to be eating out on a regular basis at places such
23 as McDonald's. Obviously, that has more effect in kind of
24 inner city areas and so on, which I think is where the
25 survey from the London Food Commission is very useful in
26 showing that there are areas in the country where, for
27 significant numbers of people, McDonald's food is making up
28 a very significant part of their diet. Yes, in that survey
29 it was 31 percent of people who were questioned said they
30 ate fast food every day.
31
32 The other thing is by questioning predominantly the heads
33 of households ----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is grazing in Peckham again, is it?
36
37 MS. STEEL: The 31 percent, yes. The other thing is that by
38 questioning predominantly the heads of households and by
39 specifically, I think Mr. Fairgrieve said, excluding people
40 under 16, they are actually cutting out from the survey the
41 people who are or do make up the major proportion of their
42 customers, the younger age groups.
43
44 I mean, they specifically say age 16 to 24 make up the
45 particularly heavy users and they are the ones that are
46 going to be less likely to be heads of households and
47 answering phone surveys. And then obviously there are
48 teenagers who, I don't know, if you go to any McDonald's
49 anywhere, it is always full of teenagers and seems to be a
50 place where they go very frequently.
51
52 So I just think that those things should be taken into
53 consideration, that the figures given by Mr. Fairgrieve are
54 the minimum numbers of people who are eating there several
55 times a week or more frequently.
56
57 There are also the figures in tab 2, McDonald's
58 performance, which I seem to remember -- oh, yes, this is
59 McDonald's performance of informal eating out places. But
60 there the figures for heavy users of between 67 and 76 --
