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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)

#201

Post by wapz »

afterburner wrote: post #156
pitt1980 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you might enjoy: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2484147-lessons-... from Ed Weissman (who's #6 in overall karma on HN)

Not sure I like his "back in the day" reality distortion: "It was nothing like today: high volume, fast paced, brutal hard work, low pay, and 10 other kids ready to take your job if you didn't like it." Right, because it's nothing like that now.

I totally read that in the opposite way at first. I thought he was saying "today is high volume, fast paced..." then I read the rest of the article and was a little confused.

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

#202

Post by averagewall »

msie wrote: post #183
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.

Wow, look at all the responses and downvotes. More privileged assholes with money to burn feel it's fine to spend $10 on a meal and just throw it away. Just because there is so must waste doesn't mean that you have to behave like you don't know the value of money.

What things do you feel it's acceptable to throw away without being a privileged asshole? Is there a way you made this decision that can be generalized beyond Big Macs?

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

#203

Post by ruleabidinguser »

emodendroket wrote: post #152
ruleabidinguser wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like nonsense.

You will not find a single person in America who believes advertisements are a good neutral source of information, yet they still run them. They run them ever for products everyone has heard of and probably tried at some point. Why do you suppose that might be?

I'm not saying ads are worthless, I'm saying they don't have control over you.

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

#204

Post by rangibaby »

winfred wrote: post #167
rangibaby wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

IKR? The Rotten Library is a great time capsule of the early 00s. Atlas Obscura has a similar style of writing but is a little but too "normal" for my taste :-)

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

#205

Post by olibhel »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #193

"They used to hold the promise of good fast-food but now the food is neither fast, nor good. In fact, in 2014, the average drive-thru wait time was over three minutes (the longest it has ever been in about 15 years)." Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. I know it's a serious worry, but seems like one of those good problems to have.

> Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

Then why is it crowded?

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

#206

Post by apatters »

msie wrote: post #190
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…

I'm puzzled by your response. You list some stats about waste and that justifies what the guy is doing? Of course it's probably hyperbole but people are working hard to defend this guy's statement.

It seems like a growing number of comments on Hacker News are of this virtue signalling, amplify the problem but offer no solutions variety. This is not the hacker ethos.

The hacker looks at your parent and says woah -- grocers throw away 30% of food? There's a startup opportunity. And when they succeed they accomplish more than all the hand wringing in the world about someone else not doing their part.

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

#207

Post by jon-wood »

omegaham wrote: post #195
freeflight wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can specifically ask for them to make it fresh; you just have to be willing to wait around for them to make it. On a similar note, I hate the "exploit" of "Ask for fries with no salt to get them to make you a fresh batch of fries" when you can just ask them to make you a fresh batch of fries. Potatoes are about $6 per hundred pounds; they could not care less about making you a fresh batch if it means chucking the…

The other thing to hate about asking for fries with no salt is that making them has a fairly high chance of flinging hot oil on yourself. Usually the addition of salt causes the oil to soak in a bit, without the salt it doesn't soak in and gets thrown around the place.

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

#208

Post by jon-wood »

seanalltogether wrote: post #113
WalterBright wrote: post #15

It was an eye-opener for me when I was a teen and bought a gallon of soft drink syrup from a McDonald's for use at a party. It worked out to about 5 cents a cup for the drink in a soft drink, which sold for 75 cents (if I remember correctly). McDonald's doesn't make money selling burgers, they make money selling the soft drinks and the fries. The same goes for any restaurant, it's why they ply you for drinks.

I've always assumed the costs surrounding a cup of soda (machine, CO2, ice, cups, lids, straws) are actually much higher then the cost of the syrup itself.

I've heard stories of fast food places which say you can drink as much from the soda machines as you like, just don't put it in a cardboard cup.

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

#209

Post by jon-wood »

giarc wrote: post #47
HenryBemis wrote: post #2

I remember watching a documentary a few years back where Ronald was talking to some uni grads telling them that in reality he's one of the largest real estate owners globally since the trend is to OWN the space they occupy and not just rent. Well, if one thinks of how many of these burger joints.. And yes the burgers also make some good money ;)

I assume you mean Ray.

I prefer the image of Ronald McDonald turning up in full clown gear to give a hard nosed business lecture.

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

#210

Post by anothercomment »

I thought about this recently when a new cafe opened up in a prime location (replacing another cafe). The rent must be enormous, and it occurred to me that no matter how good or efficient the cafe operates, the rent will probably simply rise until the cafe is merely earning at average market rates.

I found that rather depressing. All those people struggling to improve their business are merely struggling to increase the income of the property owner. (I guess if I had the money and inspiration to become a property owner it would be less depressing).

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