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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)

#61

Post by hectorr »

stcredzero wrote: post #53

If you're ever at a meetup, and the presenter dances around the question: "How does your company make money?" then ask yourself, is it possible that this company is in marketing/advertising? More generally, ask yourself: Does this company's operations give it high quality information about a particular market? The takeaway: Don't dismiss a useful service that you can't directly monetize. It's possible that you can ga…

While this is true, it is extremely hard to do in practice. You have to get good information, make sure it is good information, convince a market that it is good information, and then prevent your competitors and your clients from simply replicating your process.

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

#62

Post by csours »

Diamons wrote: post #49
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)

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.

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

#63

Post by [deleted] »

lukateake wrote: post #48
vuln wrote: post #42

Kind of OT but the company I work for has more locations than McDonalds, and Walmart. Not combined but separate. Which baffles me. When I first started here I never knew what went into a retail store, from architecture, construction, store layout, buying, merchandising, it's insane... We call our headquarters the 'Store Support Center' because our mission is to support all 16,000 if our stores nationwide and a few in…

Starbucks?

[deleted]

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

#64

Post by seansoutpost »

msie wrote: post #60
gjm11 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asshole ? Why? What harm or pain did Ed cause to anyone by throwing the food away?

Seems disrespectful to poor, starving people.

This country (USA) throws away $537 Billion retail in food annually. I don't think it's just this guy.

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

#65

Post by linkregister »

Diamons wrote: post #49
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)

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.

You might not want to visit a farm, processing plant, warehouse, grocery store, or restaurant. They all throw away enormous amounts of food. Throwing away a Big Mac because it got too cold is a rounding error in perspective.

That said, we produce more food than we ever have. Is there a difference to starving people whether a grain of wheat went ungrown or was wasted?

What was the author meant to do, walk the hamburger and fries (with bites missing) to his closest homeless shelter?

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

#67

Post by douche »

Diamons wrote: post #49
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)

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.

Reminds me of the scene from the Into the Wild movie - McCandless is working in a McDonalds-alike fast food joint, and the camera lingers on a signs that says "It's O.K. to waste fries"

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

#68

Post by ebbv »

Diamons wrote: post #49
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)

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.

What do you think they're going to do at a McDonald's if you say that? They're going to throw it away and make you a new one.

The reality is most of the food McDonald's serves nowadays is served cold. It's an unfortunate side effect of moving away from actually grilling meat to just warming it in trays.

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

#69

Post by huac »

cat199 wrote: post #57
ghaff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at movie theaters. They make all their money to a first approximation from popcorn and soda. The movie is just the loss leader that gets people in the door. It's also where the now much-mocked "super sizing" comes from. They can up the revenue per meal while upping the cost by almost nothing.

I'd agree if you are talking about the 'movie industry' - While yes, what you describe is true - part of this has to do with the film rights pricing which is mandated by the studios/distributors, so even if a theater wanted to structure things differently, they could not.. Of course many of the major theatre chains are also related to the studios, so it gets a bit hard to see which end is up.. but I digress

The studios have an incentive to not overcharge as well - if the theaters go bankrupt then distribution just got a whole lot harder.

But yes, the accounting in the entire movie industry needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, and perhaps some mind-altering chemicals.

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

#70

Post by douche »

elevensies wrote: post #4

What impresses me most about McDonald's is the highly effective and efficient incentive structure. You have the franchise owner who is very committed financially and can make a high income, plus lots of low cost labor following a very precise process. And they seem to be able to replicate it at almost any scale. What impresses me least about McDonald's is their ruthless child-targeted advertising. EDIT: in sort of a…

> What impresses me least about McDonald's is their ruthless child-targeted advertising.

I don't have any of the kid-centric television channels, so from the radio and television spots that I've experienced, I would have to say that McDonald's advertising appears to be heavily marketed towards the black community.

For instance, this one has been on heavy rotation in the past few months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASqC809WaHs

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