McDonald’s bizarre new plan to stop drunken fights in restaurants
By day, McDonald’s is just like any other fast-food restaurant chain – kids playing, travellers refuelling and workers having lunch. By night, however, it becomes something else entirely.
A popular stop-off for people on their way home after a big night out, McDonald’s after dark can be a pretty crazy place. Sure, there’s the odd night-shift worker getting their dinner at the only place still open, but the main customer base after midnight is drunken teens (and adults who should know better).
Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the chain has seen its fair share of fights between drunken diners. So, to curb this growing problem, McDonald’s restaurants in the UK have enlisted an unlikely helper – classical music.
Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were first trialled in Glasgow, Scotland, as a way to calm diners at its most violent restaurants. It then spread to England, down to Gloucester and Liverpool. And guess what? It worked.
“We have tested the effects of classical music in the past and played it in some of our restaurants as it encourages more acceptable behaviour,” a McDonald’s UK spokesman told The Mirror. “Typically classical music is played from early evening onwards, and in some cases, on certain nights in a small number of restaurants.”
While Maccas restaurants in Australia aren’t required to play classical music by policy, several branches have tried it out. Do you think the strategy should be rolled out to all its 24-hour restaurants? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.