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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)

#231

Post by [deleted] »

giarc wrote: post #161
pscoutou wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

[deleted]

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

#232

Post by afashglaksnhb »

sjg007 wrote: post #162
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?

At a guess the company owns a long lease on the space in the mall and sub-lets it to the franchisee.

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

#233

Post by greedo »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #218
greedo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to be 10 minutes. Not sure now. Fried foods like McNuggets, McChicken and Filet O Fish were kept in a cabinet, then assembled into sandwiches. They were kept for roughly 30 min? The reason for the 10 minute rule was a quality issue; after that amount of time, cheese was gross, and the various condiments were trashed.

How tightly do they manage their production rate, presumably they're more careful than just "keep 6 on the warmer" and more like "the usual rate at this time is 70 per hour, we only lose 15% of those sales by asking the customer to wait, 5% of those losses go for other products, so we'll make at a rate of 1 every X minutes unless we have more than Y on hand"? (numbers completely off the top of my head)

I worked back before they had installed microwave ovens, so the person in charge of coordinating the production rate had to be a good judge of the sales rate, the abilities of the grill team etc. We usually tried to time things so that we had the most food ready for lunch rush, and then let it tail off so that we didn't waste a huge amount. McDonalds had all sorts of little charts that averaged sales rates per hour, item rates within that hour etc, but a good employee running the "bin" was far better than someone who just used the charts.

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

#234

Post by greedo »

baby wrote: post #224
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How tightly do they manage their production rate, presumably they're more careful than just "keep 6 on the warmer" and more like "the usual rate at this time is 70 per hour, we only lose 15% of those sales by asking the customer to wait, 5% of those losses go for other products, so we'll make at a rate of 1 every X minutes unless we have more than Y on hand"? (numbers completely off the top of my head)

I was in a pretty busy McDonalds so we were usually asked to do one more of X when doing X, or two more of Y, or 5 more of Z, ... depending on the rush. That's how we ended up trashing some. That's because, when doing a big mac for example, it's almost as easy to make one or five on a tray. So better make 5 if you're in a rush, they will likely be fulfilled. In cool periods we would only produce on command. So no was…

In my experience, franchise stores were generally better run than McOpCo stores. Many of the McOpCo stores were stepping stones for their mgmt staff so they didn't care about profits as much. They ran their stores by the book, but that didn't always correlate with a well run store. I used to be able to spot a McOpCo store within a few minutes of walking in.

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

#235

Post by greedo »

olibhel wrote: post #205
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?

It's a Yogi Berra-ism.

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

#236

Post by sqeaky »

emodendroket wrote: post #222
MarkSweep wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both make a list of the naughty and nice boys and girls. One substitutes brimstone for coal, nebulous "eternal happiness" for toys, but they seem pretty similar to me.

I think that's excessively reductive and there are other differences, like incontrovertible proof there is no Santa (as opposed to merely a lack of evidence), the fact that Santa often has the exact same handwriting as Mom and Dad, the fact that no supernatural powers are attributed to him and yet he would need them to do what he supposedly does, etc. Besides that a debate about Christian apologetics kind of takes us…

Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas, in order to become a Saint you have to performed miracles in the eyes of the Catholic church. He certainly does have super power, at least the ability to resurrect childre, if he is real.

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

#237

Post by logfromblammo »

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?

Correct. Flavor is an important component of taste and the eating experience. Temperature is a separate component. They are weakly linked, but with the temperature I envision for fresh McDonald's fries left on a tray for 15 minutes before serving the customer, there is no meaningful difference to me in flavor. The change in temperature is obvious, but as I don't value it much in my own eating experience, I have difficulty imagining its importance for others.

In my mouth, flavor is the dominant component. Temperature only matters if the food has fats or volatiles with a phase transition temperature between 25 and 40 degC. If food is too hot, I taste burning heat instead of flavor, and when it's too cold, the ice crystals numb my taste buds. But in between, my perception of the flavor is more affected by chemical composition than temperature. Room-temperature french fries are fine. You can chew them up without burning your mouth. Refrigerated fries aren't quite as good, because the fats solidify and the flavoring volatiles don't vaporize as readily. So pop them in the microwave, and they're good again.

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

#238

Post by upvotinglurker »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #218
greedo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to be 10 minutes. Not sure now. Fried foods like McNuggets, McChicken and Filet O Fish were kept in a cabinet, then assembled into sandwiches. They were kept for roughly 30 min? The reason for the 10 minute rule was a quality issue; after that amount of time, cheese was gross, and the various condiments were trashed.

How tightly do they manage their production rate, presumably they're more careful than just "keep 6 on the warmer" and more like "the usual rate at this time is 70 per hour, we only lose 15% of those sales by asking the customer to wait, 5% of those losses go for other products, so we'll make at a rate of 1 every X minutes unless we have more than Y on hand"? (numbers completely off the top of my head)

I worked at a franchised US Burger King in the late '90s. The shift manager would tell us how many fully assembled copies of each popular sandwich type to keep on hand. I never saw any charts or evidence of number crunching, but the numbers did vary based on expected traffic for the day of week and time of day, and the popularity of the specific item.

The sandwich wrappers had the numbers 1 to 12 printed on them, and you were supposed to mark the pre-made sandwiches to show when to throw them away. For example, if you assembled the sandwich at 12:15, mark the 5 to show that it should be thrown away when the clock's big hand is on the 5. Literacy not really required.

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

#239

Post by tripplethrendo »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #192
geophile wrote: post #170

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…

I watched that the other day. Kroc was just as visionary, if also greedy and manipulative and ready to succeed at all costs. He's clearly not afraid to steal a business or wife. He's also somehow easy to relate to (thanks Keaton). You can see him lying to himself and justifying his actions. Got the feeling that Kroc wasn't all that different from many SV founders. You don't go to SV to make a burger stand, you go the…

Can you recommend any reading on the founding of Twitter?

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

#240

Post by upvotinglurker »

logfromblammo wrote: post #237
mod wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Correct. Flavor is an important component of taste and the eating experience. Temperature is a separate component. They are weakly linked, but with the temperature I envision for fresh McDonald's fries left on a tray for 15 minutes before serving the customer, there is no meaningful difference to me in flavor . The change in temperature is obvious, but as I don't value it much in my own eating experience, I have diff…

For many people, texture is a major component of the enjoyment of fries. Room-temperature fries are limp and rubbery, and microwaving them does not restore their original crisp texture. (Though heating them in a toaster over does, and fairly quickly.)
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