Woman Burned by McDonald's Hot Coffee, Then the News Media

[zipplewrath]

24. Easy to say in hindsight

The problem is, sitting there in the lawyers chair several years prior, making significant changes in response to a few severe cases (it was way less than 6 sigma I suspect) opens you up to effectively admitting that there was/is a problem. So they have to then make a few decisions. One of them is if they are going to be proactive in advance, and take the risk that this will be perceived as some sort of admission of "guilt" or culpability. And you'd better pick a temperature that will satisfy a future jury. Because if you don't you'll both open up yourself to liability, AND you won't make the problem go away.

Furthermore, if they actually believe that their sales volume was connected to the temperature (i.e. a significant portion of their customers actually preferred it enough to make it a differentiator from their competitors) they'll also take a sales hit on top of any future claims (which at the time was probably seen as a much bigger fiscal risk to them. Dunno if anyone was thinking they could lose a case quite this big).

But this is sorta what I mean by "letting the lawyers run things". Quite honestly, the folks running the company have to send the lawyers "out of the room" at some point and start asking themselves if maybe something should change, regardless of the risk. Really, in hindsight, and to some extent based upon the practices of other folks, serving coffee that hot through a drive through, or even "over the counter" may not have been a brillant choice. It's one thing when hostesses are pouring into cups on counters, but a bit like airlines, when it's getting passed around to be held in hands/laps/cup holders, it may not be the smartest thing. At the very least they could have provided some sort of option. A few ounces of water shot in at the time of the pour could have lowered the temperature significantly. Heck, it could be an option. They could avertise "some like it hot!".

But I'm still surprised that with all the restaurant regulation we had at the time (everything from hair nets to how wet rags must be stored) that no government agency, or restaurant association had lain out some of these problems and their proper procedures.