McDonalds ("Will you be loving it"?)

“McDonalds”, love them, hate them or simply accept them they are due to open their latest restaurant here in Ruffec at the end of October. The construction appears to be that of a standard McDonalds’ restaurant down to the child’s play area and seated garden area.

There will be a ‘McDrive’ (if your legs will not make the 20m walk from the car park) and apparently the option of pre-ordering online and picking up.  

There seems to be two main trains of thought. The first being “Fast food leads to obesity, will put other local restaurants’ livelihood in jeopardy and it will be the death of French cuisine”.  The other camp believing that “Competition is good for business, offers an extra choice (including time of day) and that you can choose not to eat there”.

We all know about Jamie Oliver’s thoughts on the fast-food chain and the real concerns of obesity through habit of poor diet, but what will the long term benefits be for Ruffec? Is France losing its identity by accepting fast-food outlets? We understand that 30 jobs will be created (presumably mostly part-time) which has to be a huge positive as long as other catering jobs are not lost due to decrease in business elsewhere. Additionally a Ruffec garden centre has been commissioned to landscape and plant up the outside space. One would imagine that signage from the N10 will encourage travellers to leave the dual-carriageway to ‘feast’ at McDonalds. Will these travellers (who would have otherwise bypassed Ruffec) then pop to one of the supermarkets, buy their evening baguette or fill up with fuel whilst in Ruffec etc?

Time will be the judge of McDonalds’ effect on Ruffec………….