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McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

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Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#161

Post by giarc »

pscoutou wrote: post #153
giarc wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I happened to have read the book a month or two before watching the movie. They were very different. In Ray's biography, he passes himself off as a "My word is as good as a contract" and "When I say I'll do this, I'll stick to it." The movie interpretation has him much more ruthless.

"If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water. It is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill 'em, and I'm going to kill 'em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way - of survival of the fittest." - Ray Kroc

The language is obviously graphic, but what he's describing is what every company would do. Why would they help a competitor? They have a responsibility to the shareholder to grow the business.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#162

Post by sjg007 »

FrankenPC wrote: post #107

20 years ago when I did some consulting for the Gap, I saw inside their data systems and realized they were a large real estate organization. It was the first time I witnessed the dynamic nature of corporate America.

How does the work with malls?

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#163

Post by sjg007 »

temp246810 wrote: post #96

Off topic: I've trained myself to look for a McDonald's first when in a pinch and need coffee. This vs looking for a Pete's or a Starbucks. If all you need is a basic drink, they get it more or less right for several hundreds of a percent lower.

I dunno man. Peet's has never failed me latte wise or even coffee wise. Starbucks can be a little burnt. And straight coffee at McDs is watered down for the senior citizens.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#164

Post by Retric »

mod wrote: post #135
Retric wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's well known that the current temperature changes the taste. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/temperature-can-eff... But, I think his comment was changing the temperature is easy, and having food get cold does not change the taste after reheating. However, there is a large food safety issue with how long food stays between 40f and 140f, which is probably the root cause of this policy.

I don't agree with your assessment of the comment, it seems very clear that he thinks temperature does not affect the flavor. Also, maybe I'm the only one, but I think (some) food tastes entirely different after a trip through the microwave. Off-topic: How can HuffPo not know the difference between effect and affect?

Depends on how you use the microwave and moisture content. But, 5 minutes at 20% is significantly different than 1 minute at 100%.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#165

Post by ced »

wolco wrote: post #36
ced wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other provinces, but "In Québec, the Consumer Protection Act prohibits commercial advertising directed at children under 13 years of age." https://www.opc.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/media/documents/consomm...

I wasn't aware of that. Does that include toys or child related products? One could say that movies have turned into one long series of product placements.

It seems to be pretty strict, eg.

Example of prohibited advertising: The Rappido Company is advertising a remote-controlled toy car like one seen in an animated film. The advertisement is broadcast on Saturday morning on a TV channel for children during a cartoon program. The ad is in animated film format and shows a young boy who is thrilled to be operating his high-speed car. This ad would be prohibited.

But there's no mention of product placement. I imagine that would be hard to account for.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#166

Post by tunap »

matt4077 wrote: post #127
tunap wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losses are useful, too! McD's has been renting a lot in my town(85331) for 5+ years now, and yet to break ground. ~6 months ago the local "fish wrapper" ran a story on this very topic. As an aside, back when oil was >$100/barrel Exxon/Mobile had numerous boarded up properties around Phoenix with For Sale/Lease signs that were neither for sale or lease, as the losses/write downs were valued to dilute the windfall prof…

That makes no sense. Sure, you can make a $1 loss to save 50 cents in taxes. Or 5 cents, in the US. But why would you? Also, real estate investments don't actually have a direct impact on profits when reporting on accrual basis (as all larger companies are required to). Those costs can only be deducted over time (something like 10 years for buildings).

Forgoing revenues, potential profits and taxes on selling/leasing the property(@ pre-2008 market highs); writing off loses of rental income; property depreciation; betting on rising real estate prices(all were still chanting "buy RE, it will only go up" pre-2008). Those are some some possibilities I can think of, but IANAL or CBRE agent, but when I asked one why the blighted corners owned by the biggest earners on Wall Street during the skyrocketing RE bubble were sitting vacant for years, the answer was there was no expectation to sell or lease. And it was not a tank problem, the tanks were removed as the boards went on the windows.

edit: rewording & added last point.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#167

Post by winfred »

rangibaby wrote: post #126
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with advertising to children? They don't have any money, the parents can always say no or the kids can learn quickly how to determine if they should do what ads tell them to do. They will greatly need that skill in modern America. Teach them early haha.

http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/kid-marketing/

Haha, thanks buddy, I didn't know websites could trigger nostalgia. Brings back memories from twenty years ago, amazing it's still around with the exact same layout.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#168

Post by brianwawok »

Banthum wrote: post #95
linkregister wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. 40% of food in the U.S. is discarded. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf 2. Much food is never harvested. A large portion of it is also never taken to market due to blemishes. http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/food-waste-rem... 3. Supermarkets discard about 1/3 of their food due to spoilage, blemishes, and overripeness. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/25/351495274/s…

Multiplying together, only about 30% of the food grown is actually consumed? Is that really true? Whoa if so. Oddly enough, it kind of makes me feel better about food security.

I think even bigger is the 10:1 gains or more you lose feeding crops to animals. If we all went vegan we would almost instantly double our food supply.

Spoiler: I eat meat

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#169

Post by freeflight »

csours wrote: post #62
Diamons wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoyed the read overall but one line stuck out: "- I take one bite out of my cold Big Mac and eat one cold fries and throw it all out." You have to be a special kind of asshole to throw away meat and food instead of just saying the food is cold.

Kinda OT, but that's why I never buy physically large food items at McD's: the quicker you eat it the warmer it is. Also, the quicker you eat it, the less you have to think about it; and most of McD's food items do not bear much thinking about.

Just customize your order in such a way that they have to make it fresh. I don't eat raw tomatoes, so if I tell them not to put those on my burger/wrap/whatever I end up getting freshly made food that's even hot.

Re: McDonald's Real Estate: How They Really Make Their Money (2015)

#170

Post by geophile »

The Founder is a movie that tells the story of the birth and growth of McDonald's (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_founder/), and it covers much of the ground covered in this article.

In addition to being a very well-done movie, it does a superb job of describing the relationship between the visionary founders of a startup, and the sales guys and bean counters who turn it into a successful business. It doesn't matter that the McDonald brothers were revolutionizing burgers, the telling of this part of the story captures perfectly the same sort of activity that goes on at any startup with a new idea, (emphasis on new). It also captures very well how the suits recognize a good thing when they see it, buy into the vision (but for very different reasons from the founders), and finally take over and render the founders obsolete.

Really great movie for anyone involved with startups.

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