McDonald's pulls plug on Wi-Fi, starts playing classical music to soothe yobs
- Reference: 1675175169
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/31/mcdonalds_classical_music/
- Source link:
A haven for tracksuited youths by day and a gutter for drunks by night, McDonald's usually decorates the air with radio dross perfect for some of its brutish clientele – a group reportedly causing trouble for Wrexham in Wales, a city put on the map for the [1]purchase of its ailing football club by US actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The change of mood music at McD's was deemed necessary after a group of 20 to 30 youths "rampaged through the streets" near the fast food outlet and some other trouble spots last week, according to [2]Wales Online .
[3]
Inspector Luke Hughes of the Wrexham City policing team said: "I have spoken about these locations a few times and the concerns I have about youths gathering, as well as some of the behaviours we were starting to see that were causing concern and upset.
[4]
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"We had multiple reports... of one particular group of youths, that at times numbered 20-30, roaming between locations. There was more than one allegation of assault, a fire extinguisher set off, signs and coins thrown at shop staff and younger children chased by this group.
"I was absolutely appalled when I received the overnight incidents. I am determined to address this behaviour. We did apprehend a few, and took a few home, but I'm not content that this will fix the issue long term."
[6]Burger King just sent spam receipts to customers
[7]IBM adds side order of NLP to McDonald's AI drive-thru chatbots
[8]Big Blue scoffs a Happy Meal: McDonald's sells automated order-taking tech to IBM
[9]McDonald's email blunder broadcasts database creds to comedy competition winners
In response, McDonald's [10]told the BBC : "We are aware of anti-social behaviour affecting the wider area, and have introduced a number of measures in our Wrexham restaurant to support the police in tackling this issue. These include playing classical music from 17:00 GMT and turning off the Wi-Fi at certain points in the evening."
The Golden Arches previously said it had tested classical music in some of its restaurants and found that it "encourages more acceptable behaviour." Whether this is supposed to work like playing Skinny Puppy to Guantanamo Bay inmates or that the music is believed to "civilize" local louts is unclear.
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Either way, Insp Hughes welcomed the news, saying: "I also want to thank those businesses that I had written to earlier in the week. I had a great response, with some imposing entry conditions. A well-known fast food retailer will be playing classical music from 5pm in the evening, so unless we have some local and unruly Beethoven enthusiasts, it should discourage some issues."
An astute Wales Online pointed out that the leader of the ultraviolent gang in A Clockwork Orange was partial to a "bit of the old Ludwig van" so perhaps Wrexham should be careful what it wishes for.
Somehow McDonald's has become a nexus for the worst excesses of the Great British public. Last year the Welsh government said it wanted the chain to [12]print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering, but the privacy minefield "was fraught with some difficulties," Swansea Council said. ®
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Tv9tMSjdVac
[2] https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mcdonalds-wales-play-beethoven-bid-26104624#ldimggyr57wovag5tip
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y9lJM6QC0yvVZY61gjTq0AAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9lJM6QC0yvVZY61gjTq0AAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y9lJM6QC0yvVZY61gjTq0AAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/burger_king_blank_receipts/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/30/ibm/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/27/ibm_buys_mcdonalds_tech_labs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/09/mcdonalds_database_credentials_blunder/
[10] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64458332
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9lJM6QC0yvVZY61gjTq0AAAAEc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63734828
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The smell from the one near me is enough
Presumably because they're hanging around to get network access... better to keep the wifi on (so that most apps will select it over the phone data service) and just send the DNS requests to /dev/null...
Re: The smell from the one near me is enough
It won't calm them, but since many of them congregate near free Wifi hotspots so they can use anti-social media (having run out of data credit) it will move them elsewhere. McD's doesn't want them in it's stores anyways as they spend very little and discourage other customers. I worked in a few south London McD's way back when (before WiFi or even mobile phones) and the behaviour of certain groups of teen thugs was atrocious to the point where we would refuse to serve certain individuals and had a button which would summon the Police in force if a ruckus kicked off or a weapon was seen. If I had a £ for every time some yoof threatened to kill me because I had refused to serve him I'd have retired after my 18 months, rather than resigned. I feel sorry for the teens as they have nowhere to go, but they really don't help themselves with their behaviour either.
Re: The smell from the one near me is enough
> I feel sorry for the teens as they have nowhere to go
I always have been confused by this.
No where to go? More like they cant be arsed to do anything worthwhile.
There are plenty of things to do. Sit at home and read a book, learn something. Take up a hobby. Go rambling and hiking. You know, fill up your time with interesting stuff.
Instead they just seem to be brain dead and wander about. Honestly, nowhere to go? Nah, its CBA to do anything.
Insert a gif of Kevin here.
"unruly Beethoven enthusiasts"
you called? Mine's the one with the score of the 2nd symphony in the pocket.... (can't stand the later stuff, 5th is brilliant but the 1st movement has been done to death, the early piano concerts are also great - Klemperer[*] approved :) )
[*] sounds like a troublemaker, eh?
Beethoven played on 19th century instruments (as the composer intended) is best. So Gardiner's recordings, or the Hanover band. Don't bother with Herbert von Karajan's recordings .. Beethoven on modern orchestral instruments is just messed up. (The reason for this is, the modern instruments resonate more, forcing the conductor to slow down. Hear it played quick and crisp on period instruments and you'll never want to go back to a boring stodgy modern recording. Just my correct opinion :-)
No no no, Wendy Carlos...
The "unruly Beethoven enthusiasts" line immediately made me think of the Viz comic character "Raffles the Gentleman Thug".
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than British McDonald's branches
I am not so certain of that statement, have you looked at the current occupants of the House of Commons recently?
HoC vs McRat
Perhaps there is an outlet amongst the eateries of the Palace of Westminster.
I was going to say "any branch of any government" but you beat me to it.
print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering
What a great idea!!
OK, not the actual number plates but a token that is tied to that plate. And then any local council who has an account set up could go onto a portal and get the number plate. Automatic fine. Littering would be cut to almost nothing overnight. And let's be honest, it's almost always bloody McDonalds packets.
Re: print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering
Not fair, can only upvote once
Re: print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering
I have a defence:
"The wind blew it out of the bin g'vner"
Re: print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering
Yeah great idea, then some smart a*se will pull the bags out of the bin and drop them around the town for giggles.
Re: print car number plates on takeaway bags to discourage customers from littering
Whose number plate should I give?
Even them playing classical music ...
is not enough to tempt me into a McDonalds -- I only eat food.
Maybe this might get my local supermarket to play some decent music rather than the wailing that they normally pump out of their speakers.
Re: Even them playing classical music ...
Other than going in for a McShit that is, there fixed that for you...
Re: Even them playing classical music ...
Or a McShootup (of the hard drugs variety) according to a friend who worked in MuckDonalds and as the new guy had the delightful task of cleaning up the toilets...
McDonalds
My favourite thing during a lunch break, when working in a town somewhat forgotten by deity, was watching the wild life gathering around McDonalds.
There was a nice Mexican restaurant that offered first class seats to the sightings on the other side of the road.
Some of the shenanigans there even made it to the front page of one of tabloids.
Quality and violence
I think that the (lack of) quality at McD accounts for all the violence. The smell, taste and nutritional effect of what they call "food" is enough to make even the greatest pacifist violent.
Methinks...
The author was bitten by a Big Mac as a child...
Anyhoo... When I moved into Catford, I went down to McD's after unpacking. There was a big sign outside which said... "SHOOTING HERE CAN YOU HELP?" My girlfriend let out a gulp.
Anyhoo 2, if they want to stop antisocial behaviour I suggest they get rid of those ordering touch screens. I was nearly homicidal after trying to order on one the other week. The touch screen had obviously run out capacitance petrol and the little box thing on the bottom right kept flapping open and ejecting paper at me. Then there was the massive Glovo drone queue.
Stolen from Bugs Bunny
The Bugs Bunny Hurdy Gurdy scene is what I thought of first.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xit15
The smell from the one near me is enough
On a hot summer's day when the wind is in the SE our afternoon is replete with people sounding like they are murdering each other. Given the smell of their fat fryers I think I would have an episode if I eat their food.
On the vaguely tech angle to this story - how is turning the wifi off supposed to calm the seething hordes?