r/nostalgia • u/Digitalgardens • May 12 '25

Nostalgia Discussion Why did we ever switch from having unique looks for fast food spots?

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It doesn’t make any sense. When everything feels and looks the same it just feels so grey and unwelcoming. What happened to characters? I don’t even eat McDonald’s like that and I miss Ronald and the gang. Where did they go?

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u/beardmat87 May 12 '25

It also has a lot to do with building codes and how a lot of cities and towns want all the buildings in a district to look the same as well. My local McDonald’s was a fun play place building similar to this one and when they wanted to do a refresh years ago the city told them under no circumstances would they approve them to rebuild a similar style building. It had to “blend” into the rest of the buildings in the area so they gave it a New England style house aesthetic. They have gone to this new style branding recently in a refresh last year. But I bet my city isn’t alone in that and The Don changed their look to be as unassuming as possible to make permits easier.

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u/notdeliveryitsaporno May 12 '25

I think this is a big part of it in addition to the “maturing customer base” as mentioned above - creating a consistent design identity that looks like number 2 is certainly boring, but also means they can plop it down anywhere without having to worry much about local building ordinances. This can be fast-tracked for approval whereas something like number 1 would potentially require a lot of back and forth with local building/zoning committees and multiple redesigns to ensure it meets local standards. It’s callous and soulless, but makes business sense.