Hubby, Little One, and I went to visit "Gwanma" in the "hopital". The hospital she was in is located over two hours from the Island. On our way there, we stopped off at the McDonald's in Espanola, Ontario for breakfast. We live on an island with no big franchises. This means, I do 99% of the cooking and we don't often get to eat out. It's a rare treat to have a meal not cooked by me, let alone a meal at McDonald's because we have to go off-island. We enjoy their breakfasts and hubby said that he wanted to try their coffee because one of his friends told him their coffee was pretty good. He wanted to check it out for himself.
We ordered the sausage and egg McGriddles, hashbrowns, an apple juice for me, coffee for Hubby, and milk for Little One.  I was actually craving a McGriddle because of the hint of maple syrup sweetness. Our toddler likes the cheese, sausage and egg, but not the bread part. She's not much of a carbs kind of gal, which is funny for a toddler. The kid loves sushi, seaweed, okra, chickpeas, spinach...but not bread or fries. She ate everything but the bread part. The kid loves meat! Definitely takes after her Dad! She loves veggies too, so I guess she's definitely my kid too.
While I was ordering, I inquired as to what kinds of sweeteners McDonald's had available for customers' coffee. Not everyone takes sugar in their coffee, so I wondered what other options they had. I was curious. Did they have raw cane sugar? Honey? Equal?

The person who served me was so friendly and took time to answer my questions even though there were a few customers behind me. When I asked what sweeteners they had, she said only sugar and one sugar substitute.

At home, we use local honey in our coffee. On our breakfast excursion, Hubby used the sweetener that was available. Equal wasn't available. I asked if they would consider making Equal available. I think it's a good idea to have a variety of options for those who don't use sugar (be it because they follow a no sugar diet or are diabetic, etc).

When I asked if they would consider having Equal as an option, the manager came over to answer my questions. I was impressed with how friendly and professional the manager was and with her taking the time to answer and explain why they offer the sweeteners they offer. She told me that all decisions come from head office and that they deal with a supplier who uses that particular product. She just orders from what the supplier has. She said that unfortunately, Equal was not one of the sweeteners the supplier offers.

Fair enough. It was a more detailed answer than I expected. I'm just impressed that she didn't brush me off for asking so many questions.

I also asked if I could fill out a comment card. The manager said they didn't have any at the moment, but showed me the web address on the back of my receipt where I could fill out a customer survey online.
Screen shot of online customer survey I filled out when I got home. Yes, I'm the kind of person who actually comments and gives feedback to companies, businesses, restaurants, and shops that I visit and buy from.
Even though it was still breakfast time, they gave Little One a box to play with. Amazing what simple things can make a toddler happy. Overall, this experience at this particular McDonald's location was a positive one.

For more information, please visit the Equal website, @EqualCanada twitter page, the @McD_Canada twitter page and Equal Canada on Facebook. #EqualCanada and #CBias


Disclosure - This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. I am being compensated for this #CBias shoppertunity and for writing this post. All the opinions on this blog are honest and my own.