Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
THE LOCAL INVESTIGATES

MCDONALD'S

Swedes bite into online McDonald’s bookings

Tech-savvy Swedes have rushed to book evening meal slots at McDonald's branches around the country, as the global fast food giant tests the idea for the first time.

Published: 2 October 2015 14:21 CEST
Updated: 2 October 2015 15:25 CEST
Swedes bite into online McDonald's bookings
The Maestro Classic burger. Photo: The Local
A thick black rope seals off the brand new reservations area inside the Fridhemsplan branch of McDonald's in Stockholm as a teenage girl and her family eagerly await their first taste of the international chain's gourmet burger.
 
Like thousands of others visiting more than 30 restaurants around the country, they prebooked their table online as the largest fast food company on the planet tests out a slower pace.
 
For the past two weeks, Swedish residents keen to try the firm's new gourmet beef and chicken burgers have been able to reserve evening seating for up to four people using the popular website Bookatable.se.
 
“It's a new burger and I just wanted to see how it tastes,” explains Selda Potelli, 15, who says she first heard about the trial on the company's Facebook page.
 
While she is clearly enjoying tucking into the new potato wedge-style fries that come with the dish, she doesn't appear to be overly taken with the new Maestro Classic beef burger, which includes two thin 75g sirloin patties, poppy-seed topped bread, cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, wild mustard sauce, ketchup, red onions and salad.
 
“I like it, but it's not as good as my favourite [food], Mexican…And other fancy places that sell gourmet burgers, they will beat McDonalds,” she argues.
 

Selda Potelli in the reserved seating area. Photo: The Local
 
McDonald's has not openly admitted that it is hoping for a bite of the boutique American food scene that's hot in growing numbers of European cities right now. But as Stockholm-based food and travel blogger Sandra Carpenter argues, for those who understand the restaurant sphere in the Nordic nation, Sweden is an obvious place for McDonald's to target the competition.
 
“Burger places are trendy. Here in Stockholm you've got got Lily's Burger, Prime Burger, ,Phil's Burger. The one most people mention is Flippin' Burgers although it's not my favourite. There's also Käk [in hipster neighbourhood Hornstull],” she explains.
 
“The Swedish capital has always been a big food city…when somewhere new opens up it always gets booked up for weeks. Plus this is a place where people are used to doing everything and booking everything online,” she adds.
 
However she says she isn't convinced that true foodies will be rushing to click for a table at the global burger giant.
 
“I don't know…I'm not sure who they are targeting here although I am sure it will be cheaper than what you can get at gourmet restaurants where a burger can cost up to 200 kronor ($24).”
 

The new gourmet burger is still served in typical fast food packaging. Photo: The Local
 
McDonald's gourmet burgers sell for 82 kronor ($9.78), although as part of the company's online booking marketing push, diners signing up to participate in the reserved seating trial are being given theirs for free, in a (now-not-so) surprise gesture.
 
“We see customers who are extremely appreciative for the chance to visit their favourite restaurant and get treated a little bit more special. Plus, they’re among the first in the world to try the new Maestro Classic hamburger,” says Jeff Jackett, Marketing Director with McDonald’s Sweden.

“Yes, I would say that we will repeat this. No specific time frame, but we will definitely repeat this,” he concludes.

But out in the regular section of the fast food joint, most customers seem both unaware of the current stunt and unlikely to join in if it gets extended.
 
“I don't think it will succeed with its goals,” says 18-year-old Martin Ericsson. 
 
“The thing with McDonald's is that they have gone on with the same thing for all these years and now if they want to change, people will be like shocked…people will scratch their heads and think 'what's going on with McDonald's nowadays?',” he adds.
 
“Hipsters in general, they want to be first with everything, so of course they will come here and try it but I don't think they will become regulars just because they change the way of serving people.”
 

Martin Ericsson (left) with his friend Olaf Petterson. Photo: The Local
 
IT consultant Fredrik Michael, 39, who decided to taste the Maestro Classic during a solo visit to the chain at Fridhemsplan after a busy day at work, says he won't be eating it again.
 
“I'd been told that it was some kind of luxury burger or something…it was just kind of a lot of meat. To me it was nothing special at all.”
 
But he believes the online aspect of McDonald's new campaign could be the perfect concept for his home country.
 
“I have noticed from my friends, they tend to hang around on the trends, being always [technology] pioneers…so many of them have tried the online stuff,” he said.
 
It's a theory that blogger Sandra Carpenter also agrees with.
 
“Swedes love technology and they can be quite shy…Maybe the reason that online bookings are so big here is because some of them feel uncomfortable picking up the phone. So in that sense, who knows, maybe there is a chance McDonald's idea could take off.”

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

SHOW COMMENTS