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McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

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Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#41

Post by ferdterguson »

wmeredith wrote: post #18
chiph wrote: post #16

The all-day breakfast brought them more of my business. I really like the Egg McMuffin. But, the burgers are nothing to write home about - they're thin and not that juicy, and seem to be mostly bun. Their competition (Wendy's, Burger King) aren't really making good burgers either. I'm lucky that Austin has a wide choice in burgers from various independent restaurateurs.

Hardee's/Carl's Junior has ridiculously good burgers for a fast food joint. I gotta say though, since we got a Five Guys I don't even bother with them anymore if I want a quick burger.

To me the Hardee's burgers are just like Burger King.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#42

Post by ams6110 »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #24
johansch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered what kind of reasoning was behind that 10 am cutoff-point. Who the heck wants to eat a burger before, say, 11 am?

I told an acquaintance who worked McDonald's in their teens about the transition to all-day breakfast, and was informed that I must be mistaken, the logistics were completely impossible.

The logistics were impossible without a kitchen remodel, because they cooked the eggs and the burgers on the same grills, but at different temperatures. The remodels included new equipment and a completely new kitchen workflow.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#43

Post by ams6110 »

jumpkickhit wrote: post #33

Mcdonalds could really benefit from having robot delivery drivers. If I could order a burger combo and have it dropped off at work or home, and be cheaper than an entire pizza plus tip, i'd order from it way more often than I should.

I've seen a couple business attempts at McDonald's delivery. They never lasted very long.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#44

Post by dageshi »

Clubber wrote: post #2

From what I understand, when McDonalds was cratering around when this article was written, they came up with all day breakfast. I've read several writings from franchisees complaining about the complexities of that and how it would cost them in kitchen renovations. Apparently the all day breakfast revitalized sales and McDonalds is on track for a rebound.

They'd been serving breakfast items all day in other countries for decades. Hong Kong springs to mind as a place you could definitely buy an Egg Mc Muffin anytime of day.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#45

Post by Eyght »

lr4444lr wrote: post #35
noonespecial wrote: post #28

And it’s not like people are tired of burgers. Smashburger, In-N-Out Burger, BurgerFi, and Five Guys Burgers & Fries are all expanding. So is Shake Shack... McDonalds problem is the same problem they've always had. The food just isn't very good. It never was. No amount of spiffing up the storefront or juggling menu items can help them when competition the likes of the above moves in. All they're doing is driving thei…

You're being charitable. It's downright bad, even compared with various other franchises on an item by item basis. The last time I ate in one back in 2008 because nothing else was open that early, I had a breakfast that consisted of scrambled eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and sausage. Everything tasted almost identical - an oily salty mound - with only different chew textures. (Okay, maybe the sausage had a little ext…

It's the old one-size-fits-all-(but-badly) problem. If you want to maximize your target customer base, the taste of the food becomes very bland. So they try to compensate by adding more items to the menu - and subsequently run into the problems described in the article.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#46

Post by mixmastamyk »

ams6110 wrote: post #42
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I told an acquaintance who worked McDonald's in their teens about the transition to all-day breakfast, and was informed that I must be mistaken, the logistics were completely impossible.

The logistics were impossible without a kitchen remodel, because they cooked the eggs and the burgers on the same grills, but at different temperatures. The remodels included new equipment and a completely new kitchen workflow.

Large grills usually have two sides with two temperature controls.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#47

Post by abemishler »

johansch wrote: post #5
kbenson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the number of times in my life I've pulled up to a McDonalds drive through looking for breakfast only to find I misjudged the time slightly (and left, because I'm not in the mood for a burger at 10 AM), or the times I looked and found I couldn't because it was already a bit too late, I can totally believe this. Jack in the Box became a go-to for me in college for exactly this reason. Morning classes let out, it'…

I always wondered what kind of reasoning was behind that 10 am cutoff-point. Who the heck wants to eat a burger before, say, 11 am?

I for one would. They are leaving money on the table by not serving burgers anytime anybody wants a burger.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#48

Post by oddlyaromatic »

icebraining wrote: post #27
oddlyaromatic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's no different than saying that Lamy make the book American Gods possible I have to say I think this is a pretty big leap. True, you can't do a controlled experiment with no McDonald's in the market to see what would have happened. But that doesn't mean you immediately throw up your hands and say "no useful or meaningful knowledge to be gained here because we can't do an impossible study." You might not get to 10…

You're agreeing with me :) that's the "without that analysis" part of my post. I just don't see it in that article.

I'm not sure. The statement, without analysis, still makes a kind of independently true point (more millionaires made) and would lend itself to reasoning through. The statement you compare it with is obviously false and no amount of analysis could change that. I dunno. Not a huge deal in any case :)

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#49

Post by jdboyd »

chiph wrote: post #16

The all-day breakfast brought them more of my business. I really like the Egg McMuffin. But, the burgers are nothing to write home about - they're thin and not that juicy, and seem to be mostly bun. Their competition (Wendy's, Burger King) aren't really making good burgers either. I'm lucky that Austin has a wide choice in burgers from various independent restaurateurs.

My kids love McDs, but I would almost never go there for them until all day breakfast started. In my case, the presence of all day breakfast doesn't just increase my breakfast buying from then, it also increases the amount of burgers, fries, and McNuggets that I buy. If my local franchise gets rid of all day breakfast, they will lose virtually all of my business.

Re: McRevolt: The Frustrating Life of the McDonald's Franchisee (2015)

#50

Post by pgrote »

tylercubell wrote: post #25

I worked in a franchisee-owned McDonalds circa 2011 and I agree with the sentiment of this article. At the time they were trying to be all things to all people. Instead of focusing on their core strength: burgers and fries, they expanded an already crowded menu by introducing items like the McWrap and Fish McBites that nobody really wanted. Since then I think they've been trying to turn things around by trimming the…

It ensures the proper amount of salt in the proper pattern is dispensed. Are there generic ones available?

The idea behind tools like this is uniform product preparation. Fries in one McDonalds are almost identical to fries in another.

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