Is the US invading Oakham?

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Rutland: England's only county without a McDonald's
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49433347
McDonald's has set its sights on the market town of Oakham and submitted a planning application for a drive-through restaurant on its outskirts.

They built a McD's near me. I went in twice. The service wasn't great. Indeed it was appalling. It's attracted wandering homeless teenagers cussing and dropping litter everywhere ... like strutting peacocks swarming as their midnight hormones overwhelm their sense of decency.

So go ahead Oakham. Defend your peace. Uphold the liberty of free sleep. Keep your streets clean. Go tell the Spartans that here you stood and here you fell. Consumed by consumerism. Conquered by the twisted materialism that will shake the very foundation of your tranquility. Cast aside to an eternal pit of enforced deprivation and rapid decay.

I am Oakham

AiY

[UncleEbenezer]

Tavistock saw off a McD.

Some years ago, one opened on the Plimuff Road - the town's busiest route and edge-of-town retail area. It closed down after about a year, unable to attract enough custom to survive. If memory serves, the site is part of that on which Lidl subsequently built a new store offering something altogether more wholesome.

[Howyoudoin]

Tavistock saw off a McD.

Some years ago, one opened on the Plimuff Road

Is that how the chavs write Plymouth? Sounds perfect for a 'Maccy Dees'.

HYD

[stewamax]

The centre of Oakham is indeed genuinely picturesque and not a pastiche.
The McD proposal is, however, to build out of town on the Oakham bypass (which was itself only built a few years ago), and this will not affect the centre. The proposed site is between a small industrial estate and a new housing complex and already has a Harvester-type pub/restaurant, an Aldi and a filling station with an M&S fooderie.
The town centre is too far to walk from the industrial estate in a short lunch break, and I imagine a McD would be quite popular with those who work there.

Usual disclaimers.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

The centre of Oakham is indeed genuinely picturesque and not a pastiche.
The McD proposal is, however, to build out of town on the Oakham bypass (which was itself only built a few years ago), and this will not affect the centre. The proposed site is between a small industrial estate and a new housing complex and already has a Harvester-type pub/restaurant, an Aldi and a filling station with an M&S fooderie.
The town centre is too far to walk from the industrial estate in a short lunch break, and I imagine a McD would be quite popular with those who work there.

Usual disclaimers.

I live about two miles from our town centre. Not as picturesque as that of Oakham but a very close second. The McD's I have referred to was built on part of Morrisons car park and I can't see or hear it, unless I am going to Morrisons. The supermarket was built about 30 years ago and has some architectural features which mimic a barracks. It was built on an old barracks site. The new McD's store - well you know what I mean. It looks like a spot on a pigs bum. And after all that lack of effort and missed opportunity to integrate some of the architecture the service and burgers taste just like that same pigs posterior - rank and cold.

A carbuncle serving carbuncles

AiY

[didds]

I live in a town with no McDs - not even on an out of town site.
Neither does it have KFC or any of the other "usual suspects".

Litter in town still contains McDs packaging (and KFC etc) , which has presumably been "imported".

So having an out of town site (or no site at all) is no guarantee that there is no social impact on a town centre. I appreciate this is not McDs "fault" per se (or KFC etc).

didds

[stewamax]

...the service and burgers taste just like that same pigs posterior - rank and cold

Something I will take for granted; I am a country bumpkin (Oakham, and Rutland as a whole, are agricultural,feudal and delightful) but I have never been sufficiently courageous to approach the rear of an untethered pig for this purpose.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

I live in a town with no McDs - not even on an out of town site.
Neither does it have KFC or any of the other "usual suspects".

Litter in town still contains McDs packaging (and KFC etc) , which has presumably been "imported".

So having an out of town site (or no site at all) is no guarantee that there is no social impact on a town centre. I appreciate this is not McDs "fault" per se (or KFC etc).

didds

This is the bit I don't get. There are two perfectly good McD's 5 minutes away on the by-pass. They are within 300m of each other. I'm a capitalist at heart but I can't see this kind of market saturation actually ending positively. My 12 year old daughter is quite happy to say not thank you to a McD's. And her friend is the same.

And please don't get me started on litter. My car is a skip. I keep all my rubbish in it and when I empty it I put it in my bin. Why on earth do people throw their shy** out of their vehicle. It's disgraceful behaviour. The average motorway verge at exits is blathered in such rubbish. There seems to be no respect for the country we live in. Rubbish stacked up everywhere which appeared there because no one and not me left it there. I find myself genuinely bereft when I see it. And it can't be a minority can it?

AIY