Shady Secrets McDonald’s Doesn’t Want You To Know
Shady secrets McDonald’s doesn’t want you to know
For a company that specializes in food, folks, and fun, it’s pretty amazing how shady McDonald’s actually is. You might think it’s no big deal to walk in, order a burger, get it in two minutes, and then leave. But apparently such a thing can only be accomplished by bending (or outright breaking) every rule in the book. Some genuine sociopathy from the people in charge helps too, as you’re about to find out.
They once got (and still might get) their nuggets from lethally abused chickens
Obviously, to enjoy meat of any kind, some animal had to sacrifice its life. But it’s always refreshing to know the animal lived peacefully and died in its slumber. But, according to summer 2015 footage released by activist group Mercy For Animals, McDonald’s cares not one iota for that, working with farms that openly, brazenly, and possibly gleefully abuse their chickens before murdering them into almost-food. The farm that Mercy For Animals targeted, T&S Farm, was recorded beating chickens to death with spiked clubs, with the occasional curb-stomping for variety’s sake. The workers knew full well what they were doing, with one outright asking the cameraman, “you don’t work for PETA, do you?” like a kid caught with his hand in an extremely bloody cookie jar.
Since the video, McDonald’s has disavowed the chicken-killing farm, giving the usual PR responses to assuage as many disgusted customers as humanly possible. But not even the slickest press release can answer three burning questions: how long has this happened, why did it take this video for a major company to realize bludgeoning food to death for fun is evil, and since it’s been a year already, are they secretly working with that farm again?
They won’t pay workers overtime for working major holidays
For a long time, McDonald’s understood what Thanksgiving and Christmas meant, and so they allowed their workers to enjoy both the holiday and all the turkey they can stomach. But money cares not for our arcane traditions and emotions, and so in 2012 McDonald’s started opening on the holidays. This was always a thing company-owned stores did, but now they were “urging” (or, really, forcing) franchisees to do the same. Apparently, doing so rakes in thousands per restaurant, which is all that matters anymore. And yes, if you’ve hit McDonald’s either of these days, you’re officially part of the problem. Commence feeling bad…now.
That’s pretty sucky of them, but at least franchise owners can pay holiday overtime. Workers at the company-owned stores, unfortunately, are fresh out of luck—McD’s flat-out refuses to pay them extra for working on a day that, as far as many are concerned, should only be worked by those who deal in emergencies. (No, Big Mac withdrawal doesn’t count.) They hide under the excuse that, because workers volunteer to work those days, they’re not entitled to overtime pay. Because when you’re dirt-broke, struggling to raise a family, and living from minimum-wage paycheck to minimum-wage paycheck, you definitely have the option of not volunteering to get paid for something.
Like so many other thieving rich folk, McDonald’s has apparently devolved into filthy, leeching tax cheats. According to the wonderfully titled Golden Dodges: How McDonald’s Avoids Paying Its Fair Share of Tax, between 2009 and 2013, McDonald’s avoided paying over $1.8 billion in taxes. The company used a series of barely legal (and something not even that) loopholes and cleverly shifting profits from whatever country they earned them in, to low-tax havens in countries they didn’t. This seems to especially be true overseas, where McDonald’s is looking at charges that they stole a billion euros ($1.1 billion American) from the European Union by sending their profits through Luxembourg, a country barely big enough to physically store all that money. Australia claims McDonald’s did the same thing there, sending their profits through Singapore and magically pocketing about a half billion in would-be taxes.
Even Brazil has a McBone to pick with the company, claiming they regularly bribe tax officials for minor favors like, oh, ignoring all laws so suddenly the company pays fewer taxes with no issues. But hey, they might have to charge ten extra cents per box of nuggets if they can’t deprive the world’s schools and hospitals of much-needed funding, and we can’t have that.
For some reason, enough people hit McDonald’s with their health in mind for the company to make mad bank selling food meant to trim your waistline on the cheap. That sounds great, except that it’s wrong in every conceivable way. The chicken kale Caesar salad, for example, clocks in at a cool 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of sodium—numbers that absolutely should not be attached to a bunch of leaves. For comparison’s sake, a Double Big Mac has 680 calories and 1,340 mgs of sodium, meaning they’re touting a healthy salad that’s unhealthier than their unhealthiest hunk of cow. But don’t worry, you can skip the dressing, eat a plain dry salad, and save 200 calories, so now it’s only unhealthier than a single Big Mac. Small victories are still victories.
For the breakfast crowd, McDonald’s oatmeal has got you covered, and hornswoggled. Thanks to “fun” additives like cream, “natural flavor,” and sugar, the McOatmeal clocks in at 290 calories, with 32 sugar grams. You would literally do better with candy for breakfast—a regular-size Snickers bar, for example, only has 280 calories and 30 grams of sugar. Plus, Snickers doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. You can trust a Snickers bar, unlike anything Ronald McDonald touts as good for your abs.
They’ll sue anyone with the gall to run a business with ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ in its name
Once you get greedy enough, any threat to even a dime of your profit must be fought tooth-and-nail, even if it means losing more money to lawyers than you ever would’ve to the “competition.” It’s the principle that counts. In this case, we have McDonald’s going after literally any small business that uses “Mc” or “Mac,” because that’s their thing, and they don’t customers getting confused by seeing it anywhere else. The customer is apparently both always right, and the dumbest people on the planet.
Sometimes, they sue fast food joints, like McJoy in the Philippines or Mac Dooglas in Colombia (which was destroying McDonald’s bottom line with three whole restaurants in a tiny village no one outside the tiny village had even heard of.) But other times they just get petty, like when they sued a coffee shop called McCoffee—which had that name for 17 years—until they finally agreed to change their name and stop leeching tens of dollars from poor little McDonald’s. Though probably the stupidest case was when they went after a hot dog stand called McAllan. Like, a single hot dog stand, which is a product McDonald’s doesn’t even serve. That’s like Budweiser suing some kid’s lemonade stand. They lost that case, after the judge returned with a verdict of “really?” But usually, McDonald’s wins hands-down, valiantly beating back the evil little guy with the almighty power of Unlimited Wealth.
McDonald’s would rather use self-serve kiosks than pay employees a higher wage
Does McDonald’s food actually taste good? Who cares? It’s cheap! One of the primary ways that McDonald’s pulls that off is by paying the majority of its employees the least that it’s legally allowed to do so. In most places, that’s right at, or close to, the federal standard of just $7.25 an hour, an amount economic experts prefer to as “a complete tease.”
However, many cities and states have recently opted to raise their local minimum wages, in the hopes that workers can finally afford more than a closet inside a studio apartment. In Arizona and Colorado, it’s set to rise to $12 an hour, Washington’s will soon be $13.50 per hour, and Los Angeles workers will get a minimum of 15 bucks an hour. These states that have the audacity to pay workers a living wage could severely cut into McDonald’s bottom line, so the company has responded by threatening to replace its employees with robots: specifically, self-service kiosks. Robots work for free! At least, until the Uprising.
Here’s how it works: Customers come into a McDonald’s, enter their order on a touchscreen, the company CEO buys another 500-foot yacht and vacations in Bermuda. RoboClerk then sends the order to the kitchen, where an actual human (for now) puts the food together. Yes, they do have to pay somebody for that job (for now), but it does mean McDonald’s no longer has to staff a person at the counter—a great savings to the company, even at minimum wage.
They’ll roll these kiosks out nationally and internationally, if they prove to be efficient and cost-effective in test runs. What a golden time the future will be, when a screen instead of a human will ask “do you want fries with that?”
Their burgers don’t decompose
Burgers taste best when they’re hot and freshly prepared, but if you order those things at Mickey D’s and for some reason can’t get to them for a while, like say, a few months, don’t worry about it, they’re still “fine.” Or at least, they look fine. Eerily, McDonald’s small hamburgers don’t seem to rot at a regular pace. Or much at all, really.
In 2008, a health blogger named Karen Hanrahan posted a photo of a McDonald’s hamburger … that she’d bought in 1996 and saved, just to see what would happen. What happened is that, after twelve years, it looked the same as it looked in 1996, and it also looked the same as a brand-new McDonald’s hamburger.
Hanrahan argued that the immortality of the burger must be due to the vast array of preservatives in the burger, which rendered it “chemical food” that lacked any sort of natural nutrition. But according to food scientist J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, writing for Serious Eats, regular McDonald’s hamburgers don’t decompose normally because they don’t — and can’t — dry out. A typical McBurger is a non-perishable food on the level of dried beans, saltines, and other pantry staples. Paranoid of the apocalypse? Building a fallout shelter? Install a McDonald’s. Wasteland be damned, you’ll never starve.
How is this possible, though? Simple — there’s nothing to dry. A small McDonald’s hamburger is thin but flat, making for a high surface area-to-volume ratio. Then, it’s cooked until well-done on a hot grill, sucking out all the tasty, delicious, mortal moisture. No moisture means no bacteria—decaying agents—can propagate. Ever. And thus, the food lasts forever. Basically, you’re eating a mummy.
The company receives hundreds of millions in government cheese
The 2015 launch of all-day breakfast at McDonald’s led to two things: the meaningless of time, with regards to breakfast being a morning thing, and increased sales at McDonald’s nationwide. During the last quarter of that year, the company raked in a whopping $6.22 billion, attributable largely to the novelty of being served an English muffin with eggs on it just in time for Jeopardy!
That being said, it’s much easier for a company to rake in the profits if they’re getting free money from the government so it can play with its menu and experiment with late-evening hash browns. And they do — between 2003 and 2013, McDonald’s got subsidies from 42 state and city governments totaling nearly $4 million. McDonald’s even got a piece of the big federal “bailout” package in 2008 and 2009: a $203 million piece to be exact. McDonald’s: Too big to fail, and as long as government fatcats get literally fat off of midnight snack McGriddles, it never, ever will.
There’s a whole herd of cattle in that one burger
McDonald’s store signs claim “billions and billions served,” which means the number of burgers sold as much as it does the customers who have eaten those burgers. To serve that many burgers, McDonald’s has to slaughter and prepare an incredibly high volume of cattle in incredibly large and sophisticated meat-processing facilities. McDonald’s calls this burger creation the “blending process,” and it somehow gets more appetizing when you learn the step-by-step process.
In a nutshell, just so, so many cows are slaughtered. Their meat gets mixed together, and then formed into patties, but it’s done so haphazardly that a single beef patty may contain the meat of up to 100 different cows. A Bessie is a Bessie is a Bessie, apparently. But hey, even if you eat nothing but McDonald’s burgers, you’re still eating a wide variety of food from all over the globe.
The truth behind the “hot coffee” lawsuit
It’s the case most associated with “frivolous lawsuits” or an overly litigious society: the woman who successfully sued McDonald’s after she went and spilled a cup of their coffee on herself. The reality of the case, however, is quite complex, and, frankly, horrifying.
In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck went through a McDonald’s drive-through and pulled up on the lid to put in some cream—which, you know, cools it down—and wound up dumping it all over her sweatpants-covered lower half. But coffee, especially McDonald’s coffee, is hot: Even with clothes on, the brown stuff caused third-degree burns on over 16 percent of Liebeck’s body, including her thighs and genitals, burning the skin away completely in some places. During her eight-day hospitalization Liebeck underwent painful skin graft surgery.
Liebeck sued McDonald’s, initially wanting just $20,000 to cover medical costs and lost income during her recovery. That’s not so bad, but as we’ve made perfectly clear thus far, McDonald’s is both cheap and petty. The company offered $800 (roughly 800 cups of McDonald’s coffee), which was so insulting, Liebeck’s lawyers took them to court. Ultimately, she was awarded about $3 million by a jury who did find her partially responsible, because she pulled up on the lid too hard, but McDonald’s mostly responsible, for serving coffee way too hot for human consumption and/or handling.
Among the information that came out in the trial: McDonald’s required its restaurants to serve coffee at around 185 degrees, which is way hotter than what Mr. Coffee produces. In fact, a thermodynamics expert testified a liquid that temperature can burn through human skin in as little as two seconds. Even more shocking: In the decade before the Liebeck case, McDonald’s had received more than 700 complaints from people who had burned themselves on the coffee—and yet the company still refused to lower the temperature. They could’ve lost no money, then could’ve lost just 20 K, then lost 3 million, all because they were stubborn. Food, folks, and fantastic stupidity.
The weird history of Ronald McDonald
It is seemingly impossible to escape the lure of McDonald’s. Much like Jason Voorhees, run as hard as you want, but everywhere you turn, there it is, staring at you with its golden arches. Resistance is futile. At the center of the McDonald’s universe, holding it all together for generations, is the cherry-red smile of the infamous Ronald McDonald. While the mere mention of McDonald’s invokes images of pure Americana, Ronald’s white face-paint, carrot-top hair and peering smile masks a more oddball history. Grab your fries, kids.
Ronald was a replacement
Let the truth be told: Ronald started life as a scab.
In the Washington, D.C., area, Bozo the Clown, a children’s TV character that was franchised locally and played by different performers in different markets, was used to help promote the local McDonald’s franchise, owned by Oscar Goldstein and John Gibson. When Bozo went off the air in the D.C. marketplace, “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown” appeared faster than The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air could recast Aunt Viv. One second, Bozo was there, then Ronald burst upon the scene. Gullible children were none the wiser, and they continued to gobble burgers.
Clad in a yellow jumpsuit and striped shirt, early Ronald wore a paper cup for a nose and a tray for a hat while a complete McDonald’s meal hung from his belt buckle. Today, the Fashion Police would be blasting sirens, but the 1960s were a more colorful and accepting time. At least for clowns.
While Bozo faded into the past as a warmly-regarded nostalgia act, Ronald began to build his empire upon the foundation his predecessor had left behind. After just three local D.C. commercials, the clown was plucked from obscurity to star in national commercials. A star was born, but poor Bozo would never be publicly credited as Ronald’s forefather. Pie to the face for you, Bozo!
His creator was ignored for decades!
While credited by McDonald’s as the first performer to portray Ronald McDonald, the fast food kings have been less than forthcoming with the role famous television weatherman Willard Scott had in creating Ronald. They never told you the truth, Ronald. He is your father.
In his 1982 book Joy of Living, Scott wrote that the owners of the local Washington, D.C., McDonald’s franchise hired him to come up with the burger-boosting replacement for Bozo the Clown. A local radio personality at the time, Scott took center stage in a trio of McDonald’s commercials as the clown, including one ensuring the flower power generation was indeed aware of Stranger Danger.
Ray Kroc, responsible for the franchise’s expansion nationally and beyond, sensed potential, promoting Ronald to national mascot. Scott, however, was cast aside, and the role was recast. Much as Kroc left the McDonald brothers in the dust, Ronald abandoned Scott, who was uncredited for the role he originated, without as much as an Extra Value Meal to show for it.
Scott famously had a decades-long run as an NBC weatherman, but even he couldn’t forecast that after he went public with his claims, McDonald’s would remain silent, beyond a brief acknowledgement Scott was the first to portray Ronald. Brrrr. Talk about a cold front. Even more insulting, the official credit for Ronald’s creation went to Oscar Goldstein, one of the franchise owners that tapped Scott to create Ronald to begin with.
Scott’s role would continue to be ignored until March 2000, when NBC’s Today Show aired a tribute to Scott that featured Henry Gonzalez, at the time President of McDonald’s Northeast Division, finally thanking Scott for his role in creating Ronald. Scott would retire from television in 2015, but had he received royalties for siring Ronald, certainly he’d have been long gone, lounging on some giant tropical island and basking in all his creative glory.
His best friend was evil
Everyone loves Grimace. He’s Ronald’s best friend, that jovial blob who popularized purple decades before Prince was singing about rain. However, it’s been a deep-harbored secret that Grimace was not always as fun-loving — he used to be straight-up evil.
Evil Grimace, as he was originally coined, debuted as a four-armed thief out to steal milkshakes and sodas, only to be thwarted by Ronald, who tricked him into leaving all of the stolen goods behind by pretending to be a mailman delivering a fake invitation for a McDonald’s beauty contest. Yes, this is how they sold burgers in the ’70s. Groovy, man.
While Grimace may have been the scourge of McDonaldland when he debuted back in 1971, his reign of terror did not last long. After a few appearances, he was retconned into the dim-witted, happy right-hand man for Ronald we know today. They even cut off two of his arms.
Exactly how this happened in-universe has never been revealed. Was Evil Grimace apprehended and reprogrammed, A Clockwork Orange-style? McDonald’s isn’t talking, but it’s possible. Such treatment might kill a mere mortal, for as we know, nothing can kill the Grimace.
He lived in a psychedelic nightmare
Everyone needs a place to hang their hat, right? Spokesclowns are no different, and in trippy days of the 1970s, his home, McDonaldland, was revealed. Featuring anthropomorphic characters designed to espouse the enrichment of the world through fast food, McDonaldland was complete sensory overload to children, with bright, colorful characters that looked as if they escaped Disney purgatory. Even better, you didn’t need to go on vacation to see them — they were broadcast right to you, originally in a memorable series of commercials, before evolving into VHS adventures that McDonald’s used to enrapture guests at children’s birthday parties, along with some of the trippiest playgrounds of all time.
Presided over by Mayor McCheese, a politician who remains so beloved he was actually endorsed in the 2016 Presidential Election, McDonaldland was a fantastic fever dream, filled with apple pie trees and thick shake volcanoes — the magical place where Ronald and Grimace foiled the sinister plots of Hamburglar and others who sought to swipe McDonald’s meals for themselves. These colossal battles of good vs. evil deftly balanced delivering moral lessons to kids while also accomplishing their true task: They Live-style subliminal advertising that McDonald’s is yummy and awesome and kids should ask for it all the time. Indoctrinating the young is the key to repeat business. Ask the WWE.
Like Atlantis before it, McDonaldland was lost to time and the ever-changing whims of corporate America. Modern campaigns put the gang out to pasture. Still, future civilizations may one day come across the ruins of McDonaldland and assume we worshiped at the altar of a crazy clown in a yellow jumpsuit. Stranger things, indeed.
He was sued by H.R. Pufnstuf
When the McDonaldland ad campaign was launched, the colorful characters starring in madcap adventures certainly delighted thousands of children, but there was one family it didn’t delight — The Kroffts. Brothers Sid and Marty Krofft ruled over their own magical puppet kingdom, and were at the height of their popularity at the time. They were the kings of the psychedelic ’70s Saturday morning genre, so it was hardly a surprise when they were approached by McDonald’s ad agency Needham, Harper and Steers and asked to sprinkle some of that unbridled creativity over Ronald’s head. The two sides came to terms, but the agency soon yanked those plans.
So imagine The Kroffts’ surprise when McDonaldland debuted and Mayor McCheese bore a striking resemblance to their own top creation, H.R. Pufnstuf. To make matters worse, the Krofft brothers later learned some of their former employees had also worked on the campaign, and the Ice Capades later declined to renew the usage of Kroft characters, in favor of the McDonaldland copycats. Faster than you can say Freddy the Flute, a lawsuit was launched from the Land of the Lost, with all parties soon sitting before a magical jury that was to decree whether The Kroffts’ copyrights had been infringed.
The jury agreed with the Kroffts, but only awarded $50,000 in damages. Both sides flew like Birdie the Early Bird to an appeals court — The Kroffts, to get more of that Fry Guy cash, while McDonald’s, like Captain Crook, wanted to escape scot-free. Testimony indicated that representatives of Needham had toured Krofft HQ even after they had opted not to go with the family, leaving McDonald’s in quite the bind, legally. In the end, it was decided that The Kroffts were indeed owed some of that McDough, to the tune of $1,044,000. On top of that, McDonaldland commercials were shuttered. The Hamburglar did not escape this time, folks.
Moral of the story, kids? Who’s your friend when things get rough? Lawyers, that’s who.
McDonald’s tried to put a real-life Ronald McDonald out of business
McDonald’s is extremely protective and litigious over their brand. Just open any business that features a “Mc” and watch McLawyers descend upon you for a McBeating. So, it probably came as no surprise when McDonald’s attempted to legally smack down Fairbury, Illinois, eatery McDonald’s Family Restaurant over the use of the McDonald’s name.
What was unique was that the owner and proprietor was one Ronald McDonald. No kidding. Ronald McDonald opened his 240-seat eatery in 1956. When corporate McDonalds became aware of this establishment, it began firing off legal letters and phone calls, warning the McDonald family that they were trading on McDonald’s good name. In response, the family slightly changed the title, removing the possessive “s” from their name.
Not good enough for McDonald’s: it then descended upon Fairbury and opened its own outlet, seeking to plant a flag and become the dominant local McDonald’s. It was McDavid vs. McGoliath, for the hearts and stomachs of fair Fairbury.
The battle lasted three years, and, despite their corporate might, McDonald’s found itself unable to uproot Ronald. They finally tapped out, shutting down their location. This led Ronald to snark, “Most of our customers tried it once and never went back. They say they don’t miss it and they are glad we won out.” A McDonald’s spokesperson gave it their best spin, noting, “Closings rarely happen, because we are normally very good at site evaluation.” Hey, Mike Tyson was great at knocking people out, too, but then he met Buster Douglas.
Victorious, Ronald even kicked a little dirt on his clownish cousin post-victory, adding the possessive “s” right back to the name of his own eatery, where it has remained to this very day. Fairbury remains McNugget-free for two decades and counting.
The Hamburglar is real
Debuting in 1971, the Hamburglar joined the Ronald’s rogue’s gallery, attempting, over and over, to commit grand theft burger and hoard McDonaldland’s finest all for himself, but falling short every time. He’s received a few makeovers over the years, going from red-headed stepchild to his most recent incarnation, where he came to life and swapped his trademark bush hat for a Twitter-trending fedora, until dropping off the radar again. Or did he?
In April 2016, international headlines were made when a mysterious hat-wearing suspect broke into a Five Guys restaurant in the Washington, D.C., area and promptly cooked himself a meal. Despite calls to the public for help in identifying this hardened criminal, authorities were unable to apprehend this menace to society. Officer Big Mac, asleep on the job. Robble robble!
The McMarketing may have gotten out of hand
Ronald and McDonaldland were specifically designed to market McDonald’s to children, and in that regard, it did gangbuster business, not only in keeping registers ringing across the country, but in getting the characters out of the restaurants and into the hands of children as tangible playthings. There were action figures, plush dolls, McWrist Wallets, novelty records, McDonaldland playsets, VHS tapes, and playgrounds, some of which as dangerous as they were colorful.
In the late-’80s and early-’90s, that weirdness spread to the world of videogames. There was 1993’s McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure for the Sega Genesis, where Ronald fights off pirates en route to tracking down a treasure map so they could return home via an intergalactic rainbow. Or, 1992’s multi-platform MC Kids, where our heroes chase down Ronald’s magic bag after it was stolen by the Hamburglar. Does Felix the Cat know about this?
All of this madness pales in comparison to the insanity of 1988’s Japanese Famicom-only title Donald Land, where Ronald has to rescue all of his kidnapped friends from an evil clown named Gumon, fighting his own brainwashed friends and evil animals along the way. How did corporate approve this?
The licensing of Ronald across the board was all over the place, to be sure, but hey, it doesn’t matter what we think. He’s enshrined in the National Museum of American History — at least in doll form — forever, and we’re not. So there.
He’s a failed actor
While he’s starred in countless commercials and home videos designed to build upon McDonald’s propaganda, Ronald is also a failed film actor, with just one lone credit to his name. Box office bomb Mac & Me was released in 1988 as an attempt to cash-in on the hot alien craze that followed the release of Spielberg classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. One can almost smell Hollywood deal-making in the air as the film unspools, taking the E.T. plot point that used Reese’s Pieces to forge a bond between E.T. and Elliot, only attempting to Xerox that strategy to the umpteenth degree, throwing in any and all product placement the producers could force-feed the audience.
None of these attempts are more traumatizing than an entire sequence that takes place at a mythical McDonald’s, where local children have congregated outside to break-dance. Ronald himself is there as the master of ceremonies for a children’s birthday party that our hero, Eric, attends, secretly bringing his alien pal Mac along for the ride. With Mac safely hidden inside the skin of a teddy bear, this fever dream of a sequence leads to a huge dance number, because, well, it’s the ’80s.
Ronald was heavily involved in promoting the film, but, in the end, it’s become a forgotten relic of the era, sucking the life out of viewers and Ronald’s cinematic dreams alike. The Flashdance reboot will have to wait. Until that day, Ronald will have to settle for motivational speaking gigs.
There have been calls for his retirement
Ronald has been around for generations, a welcoming face to wave families in the door before they scarf down their McNuggets. In recent years, however, his once rock-solid show of support has slipped. As Aaron Eckhart famously said in The Dark Knight, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” To some, Ronald has become the sneaky villain, tricking generations into making terrible choices, like that last shot at closing time.
“This clown is no friend to our children or their health,” proclaimed Corporate Accountability International, who called for Ronald’s unceremonious retirement in 2010, bemoaning him as the key ingredient in the secret sauce of obesity. To some, Ronald, not irresponsible parenting, was the root cause of a fast food nation brimming with health issues.
While McDonald’s did blink, in some regard, adding healthier fare on their menu, and introducing a slightly more grown-up hipster Ronald, in the end, the Southwest Salad and dialing down the kid-friendliness did little to change a nation’s craving for a late night Big Mac. Pass the diabetes.
Creepy clowns almost did him in
Every Superman has his kryptonite. In 2016, it appears that Ronald McDonald’s was discovered: creepy clowns. For inexplicable reasons, a plethora of creepy clowns descended upon planet Earth, popping up in major metropolitan cities and quiet towns alike.
Although there was no evidence that Ronald was culpable in this rising army of sinister clowns, he still shouldered some of the blame, since, for the first time, McDonald’s decided it was going to distance itself. Admitting it was “mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities,” the company opted to downplay Ronald’s appearances in the company’s many community and charity events. Although innocent, he was a persecuted clown.
Eventually, the sightings diminished, yet Ronald remains relegated to the shadows, his commercial run apparently far behind him. Until the tides change, one envisions him quietly waiting for the day when he gets to hold court while championing Big Macs yet again. Until then, tears of a clown. An innocent clown. Or was he?
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‘Thought I made it obvious’ Lil Nas X seemingly comes out as gay on last day of Pride Month
Lil Nas X continues to break barriers. After scoring the song of the summer with his country/hip-hop crossover smash “Old Town Road” (which has been stationed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks and has made Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rhythmic Songs, and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts), and even performing the tune with Billy Ray Cyrus at both the BET Awards and Stagecoach Festival, the genre-blurring Atlanta rapper has seemingly come out as gay on the last day of Pride Month.
“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm [f*** with me] no more. But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘C7osure,’” Nas tweeted Sunday, referring to a track on his recently released debut EP, 7. He notably punctuated the tweet with a rainbow emoji.
Key “C7osure” lyrics include “I want and I need to let go/Use my time to be free” and “Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take a hold/This is what I gotta do, can’t be regretting when I’m old… Embracing this news I behold unfolding/I know, I know, I know it don’t feel like it’s time/But I look back at this moment, I’ll see that I’m fine” — words whose meaning fans are now understanding with fresh ears.
Lil NasX has a message for his fans during #Pride Month 🌈 (Swipe) pic.twitter.com/FxU2us3Oi2
— BallerAlert (@balleralert) June 30, 2019
Nas followed up with a second tweet Sunday afternoon that simply stated, “Deadass thought I made it obvious,” with a closeup shot of rainbow imagery in his EP’s cover art.
deadass thought i made it obvious pic.twitter.com/HFCbVqBkLM
— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019
Lil Nas X’s revelation is especially brave considering that the country and hip-hop fanbases have been historically conservative and sometimes downright reactionary when it comes to homosexuality, and it is very early in Nas’s career for him to take such a risk. But reaction on Twitter has been largely celebratory and encouraging.
some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure. 🌈🤩✨ pic.twitter.com/O9krBLllqQ
— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019
The only thing bigger for Lil Nas X’s career than making a collab with Billy Ray Cyrus is coming out as gay on the last day of #PrideMonth This dude is a marketing genius
— THE SCOOP (@TheScoop_US) July 1, 2019
Yes. He’s out. Congratulations and much love and happiness for the incredibly talented @LilNasX https://t.co/93u89c59BE
— Gerard Courcy (@hardcorehangout) July 1, 2019
To Lil Nas X 🏳️🌈❤️🤟 pic.twitter.com/7sG0QaW6l2
— Caleb Trent (@gayninja99) July 1, 2019
@lilnasx I am proud of YOU! No judgement, negative people will always complain. However, positivity will manifest when you live right! Be You! God loves and no one can rob you of your joy and smile if you allow it! #period
— MadStyleChica15 (@madstylechica15) July 1, 2019
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Pennsylvania nightclub shooting injures 10, police say!
Police look for evidence early Thursday, June 20, 2019, in Allentown, Pa., following a shooting outside a nightclub. The street shooting in eastern Pennsylvania that left 10 people wounded early Thursday is likely to be gang-related, authorities said. (Photo: Rich Rolen,The Morning Call, AP)
At least 10 people were wounded early Thursday in an apparent gang-related shooting as three gunmen opened fire on patrons leaving a nightclub in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to police.
Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake said all the victims were expected to survive, according to The Morning Call newspaper and WFMZ.
Authorities believe there were three shooters.
“It appears that at least one individual was a target,” Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Allentown Police Chief Tony Alsleben said in a statement. “Although not confirmed, in our opinion based upon investigative information … it is more likely than not that the outcome of the investigation will reveal a connection to gang violence.”
Tashana Santiago, a witness who lives near the Deja Vu club, told the newspaper that many in the frightened crowd ran to a nearby shopping center as shots rang out just before 2 a.m. EST. After the last few shots were fired, Santiago said, she heard a car speeding away.
“When everything went silent all you could hear is the screaming and panicking,” Santiago told the Morning Call. “All I could think was someone is dying.”
Contributing: Associated Press More to come will be updated soon….
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‘I gotta check on everybody else’: VB shooting witness recalls heroic moment of victim Ryan ‘Keith’ Cox
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Before he was known as one of the dozen victims killed in Friday’s mass shooting, Keith Cox was known as a hero.
Christi Dewar was one of the city employees at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in Building 2 that was spared from the rampage — and she says she owes it to her late friend, Cox.
It began with popping sounds. Dewar says she thought it was the sound of construction. Special Coverage: Virginia Beach Mass Shooting
But then Dewar saw people running down the halls, yelling “active shooter!” She and seven other people began to run too. That’s when they came across Cox.
“He said ‘get in Lori’s office now. Barricade the office. Get in there.’ and I said ‘come on Keith’ and he said ‘I gotta check on everybody else.’ And we closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door and it was not too long after that DeWayne tried to come in and he fired four shots. And I looked out and two of the shots had almost come through the cabinet, the back of the cabinet,” said Christi.
Virginia Beach Police identified the shooting suspect as longtime city employee DeWayne Craddock, 40, who had submitted his resignation earlier that day.
After the gunfire stopped, Dewar says police came to escort them out of the building.
“They took us down the south stairwell. There was a body there and I didn’t know who it was, couldn’t tell. There’s so much blood everywhere and I started just shaking and crying, just heaving,” said Dewar. “The officer said ‘you’re strong, you can do this. You need to step over and come with me.’ I said ‘I can’t.’ He said ‘yes you can.’ I found out later that the person I had to step over was one of my friends Missy.”
After the shooting, Dewar reached out to Cox’s parents. She wanted to let them know how brave their son was.
Dewar said, “If it wasn’t for him there would have been several more people that had perished. He was a hero. A guardian angel that walked this earth that didn’t deserve to leave us so soon.”
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“Ghost” In Student’s Closet is a Man Wearing Her Clothes
Imagine if you were living in your students-only apartment building near to campus and kept noticing that your clothes and other items had gone missing. This happened even when you made sure your door was always locked, and you didn’t see any signs that someone had broken in.
A student at the University of North Carolina had this happen to her for a few weeks. When her clothes kept going missing, and she found mysterious handprints on the bathroom walls, she and her roommate were freaked out and thought they might have a ghost in their apartment.
And One Saturday Afternoon…
One Saturday afternoon the student kept hearing a rustling from her closet that sounded like a raccoon. She was like “Who’s here?” and got a fright when someone answered her.
When she opened the closet door, she found a guy sitting inside wearing her clothes. He was wearing her socks, shoes and even had a book bag filled with her clothes.
The student said the intruder, who called himself “Drew”, tried on her hat, went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said, “you’re beautiful, can I give you a hug?” He didn’t end up touching her. It’s possible that he was ‘high’ at the time.
Who was Andrew Swofford?
The police took the guy, Andrew Swofford, to jail and discovered he had a record. His rap sheet included identity theft, breaking, larceny and failing to appear in court on other cases.
Swoffard had probably got into the apartment through an open window. After his arrest, when he went quietly without putting up a fight, the maintenance manager of the complex found a living room window unlocked and a bit open with a damaged screen.
The student and her roommate didn’t feel safe after what happened, and they asked for a different apartment. One student who has lived in the apartment building for three years said it hadn’t changed her mind about staying there and it was the first time anything like this had happened.
The property management company is doing some damage control as the incident made the national news and may cause other students to think twice before renewing their leases.
They are taking steps to ensure that other students don’t find strange men in their closets in the future. Everyone is on window inspection duty to make sure no-one gets into an apartment in this way again.
Source: http://bit.ly/2X78xDI
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50 Cent Claims Rotimi Owes Him Money: ‘I Want to Punch This N***a Nose’ (UPDATE)
UPDATED 5/29 AT 4:00 pm EST: After being ambushed by 50 Cent, actor Rotimi has taken to social media to clear the air regarding the rapper’s claims that he owes him money.
In a video uploaded to his Instagram, Rotimi insists that he doesn’t owe 50 Cent any cash.
“I feel like I need to address this. N****s calling me saying I owe 50 money, 50 saying I owe him money. I don’t owe 50 Cent any money,” Rotimi said before listing out his recent accomplishment. “Why now? Why wait until Walk With Me is no. 1 on the charts? Why would you wait until my project is no. 1 on the R&B charts to bring something up like this? I don’t owe you bread.
Yet, 50 states otherwise. Shortly after Rotimi’s post went public, 50 Cent added a video to his account where he gave more information on the alleged debt.
“You do owe me money,” 50 said in caption. “My man you owe a outstanding balance of $300,000 now WALK WITH ME to the bank. That’s right. You owe me 300,000 thousand… You no. 1. Now, you can pay me my money.”
See original story below
Since morphing into “FOFTY” 50 Cent has become worse than the IRS. The rapper has dedicated a good portion of his time to tracking down people that owe him various amounts of money and using his social media presence to bully them into paying back their debt. Now, it appears the FOFTY has found a new target as he claims Power star Rotimi has his bread. POST CONTINUES BELOW
Like his other victims, 50 took to Instagram on Wednesday where he gave the entertainer a deadline to cough up the cash.
“Man fuck all that I want my money by Monday,” 50 captioned a video of Rotimi promoting his new album. “Cash n***a where the bag at.”
Of course, this was just the beginning of 50’s tirade. In the following posts, the rapper referenced the success of Rotimi’s album as proof the singer has the bread to pay him back.
“I want to punch this n***a nose [Rotimi] got the #1 RNB album time to pay me on gang,” Fif wrote before continuing to use Rotimi’s album as fuel for his beef.
“Walk with you, yeah I’m a walk with you to the bank,” 50 captioned a picture of the album’s cover art. “I need to see that bag.”POST CONTINUES BELOW
Although 50 has yet to detail the nature of Rotimi’s debt, he did explain that the entertainer gave him “some” of the money. But, it seems like FOFTY wants all his bread back now that Rotimi’s album is a success.
Unlike 50’s previous squabbles with actors Jackie Long and Teairra Mari, Rotimi has yet to respond to Fif’s antics. Yet if history is a good indicator, Rotimi will likely explain the source of their issues and pay the rapper back before the banks close on Monday.
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7 people found killed in 2 homes in Tennessee; suspect captured!
A suspect was taken into custody after seven people were killed in two separate homes over the weekend in Tennessee, authorities said.
Officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) responded to a home Saturday night on Charles Brown Road in Sumner County, where initially four people were found dead.
A fifth victim – a woman — was found in another residence on Luvy Daniels Road, authorities said. The woman lived at the home and her car was stolen, Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley told ABC News. It is unclear whether she had a connection to the suspect.
Two more bodies were later found at the Charles Brown Road home, authorities announced Sunday afternoon. One of the victims found at that scene was 12 years old, Whitley said.
UPDATE: Our Forensic Scientists, processing the scene on Charles Brown Road, have found a sixth body in the home. This brings the total to seven deaths and one critical injury. Efforts to identify the victims remain ongoing at this time. pic.twitter.com/8LU6cV9MhF— TBI (@TBInvestigation) April 28, 2019
The victims have not been identified. Another person at the initial scene was injured and transported to the hospital.
Police identified a suspect Saturday and launched a manhunt in which as many as 150 law enforcement agents fanned out across the surrounding rural area to search for 25-year-old Michael Cummins. Authorities also warned residents that he may be armed.
PERSON OF INTEREST: We are working to locate Michael Cummins in connection to the multiple homicides we are investigating in Sumner County. He may be in the woods in the area near the scene and may be armed. If you spot him, call 911 immediately. pic.twitter.com/4MEelTIpyB— TBI (@TBInvestigation) April 28, 2019
Devine said a search plane flying over the region spotted an individual in a wooded area and sent officers to the location.
“He was found in a remote area very close to the scene where these events occurred,” Josh Devine, communications director for TBI, said Saturday night.
Cummins was hiding in a creek bed and drew his weapon as the officers approached, authorities said.
Police opened fire and struck Cummins at least once. He was later taken into custody and transported to a local hospital, police said.
He is expected to survive.
No officers were injured, authorities said.
Cummins is awaiting charges for the alleged shooting, authorities said.
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A Judge Has Blocked Mississippi’s 6-Week Abortion Ban
“Here we go again,” wrote US District Judge Carlton Reeves, who had previously ruled against Mississippi’s 15-week abortion law in November.
Reporting From
Washington, DC
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Mississippi on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new law that largely bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks.
“Here we go again,” wrote US District Judge Carlton Reeves, who previously ruled against Mississippi’s 15-week abortion law in November after concluding it was unconstitutional.
Reeves wrote that the US Supreme Court had “repeatedly held” that women have the right to choose to have an abortion before the fetus is viable. A fetus wasn’t viable at 15 weeks, he wrote, which meant it wasn’t viable at six weeks either. He granted a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the law while the case went forward.
“By banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, S.B. 2116 prevents a woman’s free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy,” Reeves wrote. “This injury outweighs any interest the State might have in banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.”
A spokesperson for the Mississippi attorney general’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mississippi is one of five states to pass a fetal heartbeat law. Judges in Iowa, Kentucky, and North Dakota previously have blocked abortion bans in those states from taking effect. A lawsuit in Ohio is pending, and reproductive rights groups have vowed to file suit over a law in Georgia. None of these laws have taken effect yet.
Anti-abortion advocates see litigation over laws such as the one passed in Mississippi as vehicles to convince the Supreme Court to reconsider the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established that women have a constitutional right to abortion. Lower courts remain bound by Roe in the meantime, however.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a law passed in Alabama that, if it takes effect in November, would be the strictest abortion law in the nation — it makes it a crime for health care providers to perform all abortions unless the life of the women is in “serious” risk.
Reeves, who was confirmed to the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in 2010, has been openly critical of the Trump administration and Senate Republicans, a rarity among federal judges. As BuzzFeed News reported in April, Reeves delivered a speech at a law school in April calling the Trump administration a “great assault on our judiciary” and comparing the president’s criticism of the judiciary to tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists.
He blasted the White House and Senate Republicans for the lack of diversity among Trump’s judicial nominees, saying they were “not stumbling unaware towards a homogeneous judiciary.”
Source: http://bit.ly/2Qp4tMI
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YouTuber Jake Paul Is Taking The Allegation Of A Woman Being Drugged At His House Party “Very Seriously,” His Lawyer Says
Los Angeles authorities are investigating a woman’s allegation that someone may have put something in her drink, causing her to “black out,” at Paul’s massive house party in Calabasas.
A woman’s allegation that she blacked out after possibly being drugged at Jake Paul’s party at his Calabasas mansion is being taken “very seriously” by the 22-year-old YouTuber, his lawyer stated on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating “a possible single occurrence of unwillful impairment” based on the woman’s complaint filed Sunday, a day after Paul threw the party for rapper Desiigner’s 22nd birthday.
The woman told police that she may have blacked out after “something was put in her drink” at the party, authorities said.
“We take this claim very seriously,” Paul’s attorney, Stanton “Larry” Stein, said. “And we are working with authorities to make absolutely sure we do our part to uncover the truth.”
A representative for Paul, who did not wish to be identified, said that Los Angeles authorities had not yet questioned Paul or even approached him for an interview as part of the investigation.
The representative said that Paul never saw anyone pass out at the party and that he “certainly wasn’t involved” or anywhere around where the woman may have lost consciousness.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department declined to provide details about the investigation on Tuesday.
Paul’s representative suggested that one could expect at least some of the guests to drink excessively and get sick at a party that was attended by hundreds of young people.
The representative said that Paul’s party planner had hired 38 security officers who checked everybody’s IDs and were stationed both inside and outside Paul’s mansion to help keep the party under control.
The planner had also arranged for an ambulance with paramedics on the driveway because the party featured motocross and boxing events.
Instagram: @undefined
Arman Izadi, a nightclub promoter and self-proclaimed “mood director,” said in an Instagram post that he was in charge of Paul’s $500,000 party.
Izadi had previously pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to attempted battery with substantial bodily harm, the Daily Beast reported last year.
Izadi was also arrested in 2013 on charges related to robbery, kidnapping, pimping, and battery after three women testified to a grand jury that Izadi had recruited them at parties and made them work as prostitutes, the Daily Beast reported. Most of the charges against him were later dropped amid allegations of misconduct by one of the Las Vegas detectives working on Izadi’s case.
Izadi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Instagram: @undefined Arman Izadi (left) with Jake Paul (center).
A singer who attended Paul’s party on Saturday said that she did not see or hear about anyone being drugged, but that she saw an “inebriated” woman being escorted out of the party by a few security officers.
Rosette Luve said on Tuesday that she saw the woman walking, adding that she looked “super intoxicated.” Luve said that she hadn’t heard about drinks being spiked with drugs and that nothing happened to her girlfriends who “drank all night.”
Another guest at the party, Tasha Mackk, stated that she didn’t see any drugs at the party.
“Just a bar and a good time,” she said.
Source:http://bit.ly/3053LZ8
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This is how NASA would respond to an asteroid impacting Earth
What would happen if an asteroid impacted Earth sorta like a comet did in 1998’s ‘Deep Impact?”
BY RAYMOND WONG 18 HOURS AGO
If an asteroid were ever to be come hurtling towards Earth, what would be the plan to stop it from impacting the planet?
That’s the question NASA and its partners, including the European Space Agency and the U.S.’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are gathering at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in early May to investigate.
During the five day conference, NASA and its partners plan to engage in a “tabletop exercise” that simulates what would happen if scientists and authorities were to learn of a near-Earth Object (NEO) impact scenario.
“A tabletop exercise of a simulated emergency commonly used in disaster management planning to help inform involved players of important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for accomplishing a successful response,” says NASA.
In the exercise (detailed by the ESA here), NASA and its partners have to respond to a “realistic — but fictional — scenario” involving a NEO named “2019 PDC,” which has a 1 in 100 chance of impacting Earth in 2027.View image on Twitter
ESA Operations
@esaoperations
Each day of the #PlanetaryDefense Conference, a press release will be put out, updating participants on the hypothetical asteroid #2019PDC – now (hypothetically) hurtling towards Earth. More on this year’s #ImpactScenario on the #rocketscience blog:http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2019/04/25/rolling-coverage-brace-for-hypothetical-asteroid-impact/ …719:57 AM – Apr 27, 201946 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy
Armed with all of the hypothetical information about “2019 PDC,” the exercise is intended to see how the various organizations and governments would handle the situation as it unfolds.
“The first step in protecting our planet is knowing what’s out there,” said Rüdiger Jehn, the ESA’s Head of Planetary Defence. “Only then, with enough warning, can we take the steps needed to prevent an asteroid strike altogether, or minimize the damage it does on the ground.”
In such a situation, the ESA says it would live tweet details “so you’ll find out the ‘news’ as the experts do.” And for the hypothetical 2019 PDC asteroid exercise at the conference, the agency will indeed live tweet the series of decided actions as if they are made.
“These exercises have really helped us in the planetary defense community to understand what our colleagues on the disaster management side need to know,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer. “This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments.”
Despite NASA having participated in six NEO impact exercises before, each scenario is different and the agency says it’s learned that the focus is not always on the asteroid details, even though that’s still crucial to creating a plan to either deflect it or reduce its impact.
“What emergency managers want to know is when, where and how an asteroid would impact, and the type and extent of damage that could occur,” said Leviticus Lewis of the Response Operations Division for FEMA.Paragraph
Well, you know what they say…it’s better to be prepared. At the very least, NASA and friends won’t be panicking as hard if an asteroid were ever to really hit Earth.
Source: http://bit.ly/2ZHiqcQ
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Toys ‘R’ Us, Back From the Dead, Will Open U.S. Stores in 2019
KINGSTON, MA – MARCH 15: The exterior of the Toys R Us store in Kingston, MA is pictured on March 15, 2018. The company is declaring bankruptcy and closing all of its stores.
Maybe American kids will only have to live through one Christmas without Toys “R” Us.
About a year after shuttering U.S. operations, the remnant of the defunct toy chain is set to return this holiday season by opening about a half dozen U.S. stores and an e-commerce site, according to people familiar with the matter.
Richard Barry, a former Toys “R” Us executive who is now CEO of new entity Tru Kids Inc., has been pitching his vision to reincarnate the chain to toymakers, including at an industry conference this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.
The stores are slated to be about 10,000-square feet, roughly a third of the size of the brand’s big-box outlets that closed last year, the people said. The locations will also have more experiences, like play areas. The startup costs could be minimized with a consignment inventory model in which toymakers ship goods but don’t get paid until consumers buy them, some of the people said.
A spokeswoman for Tru Kids said the company wasn’t ready to publicly share details on its U.S. strategy.
New Rivals
It remains to be seen how much of a boost the retailer’s comeback will provide the toy industry, including giants such as Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. The original Toys “R” Us, the only national toy chain, left a huge holewhen it went under. It had been generating about $7 billion in sales a year in the U.S. through more than 700 locations, including the Babies “R” Us brand.
Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. have swooped in to fill the void. They have all expanded toy assortments and marketing, including a printed toy catalog from Amazon. Other non-traditional chains jumped into the category, including grocery stores and Party City Holdco Inc.
There is also a question of how many toymakers will do business with the new Toys “R” Us after many lost money when the former company announced liquidation in March 2018, just months after filing for bankruptcy.
MGA on Board
MGA Entertainment Inc., one of the best-performing toymakers in the world, is already on board to sell at the re-imagined Toys “R” Us shops, said Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian, who said he has been pitched the plan. His company’s properties include Little Tikes, L.O.L. Surprise! and Bratz dolls.
“This market needs a self-standing toy store, that’s for sure,” Larian said in an interview. “We will sell them inventory.”
Related: Tears ‘R’ Us: The World’s Biggest Toy Store Didn’t Have to Die
During the chain’s bankruptcy, lenders led by Solus Alternative Asset Management and Angelo Gordon took control of the company’s assets. After results didn’t improve, they opted to shutter operations in the U.S. Units in Australia and other regions also closed, with divisions in Asia and Canada acquired by new owners.
This group tried to sell the intellectual property, but opted to keep it to garner a better return. As owners of the intellectual property, they have been collecting licensing and other fees from the units still operating and selling them private-label goods. The lenders then formed Tru Kids with the goal of reviving the brand in the U.S. and other regions it exited. It has since hired several industry veterans and signed a deal to bring Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us back to Australia through a partner.
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