Coalition of Franchisee Associations

April 8, 2009

Suggesting a Lower Average Check

It's happened to me enough I'm convinced it's a universal
problem at McDonald's. A few days ago I walked into a
McDonald's store and ordered a medium ice tea.
The menu board price was $1.59.

The assistant manager said, "Would you like an extra large
for $1.00?" I answered in the affirmative and walked to the
beverage area with a 32 ounce styrofoam cup and got a huge
drink for 2/3 the price I was willing to spend.

What kind of business strategy is this? I can understand
the part time crew person being eager to give the customer
free food - but a member of management? Someday this
young man will be managing a McDonald's store and the
franchise owner will wonder why the store doesn't make
a decent profit.

And I could understand it if this had been a McOpCo since
Oak Brook looks on the McDonald's system as the food bank
to the world.

But this was in a well run Midwestern store owned by an
experienced Operator.

I guess the theme of the Plan to Win is:

"We lose money on every meal but make it up on
the customer counts"


.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

we do so much discounting it's hard to teach profitability.

Anonymous said...

I thought this years focus was the "trade up"......

Anonymous said...

And now 9000 stores are doing ANY SIZE drink for $1 !!!!

Anonymous said...

Is the whole world in McDonaldland insane??? Have we lost our minds ourselves??? Why would we vote as a co-op to sell any drink for a dollar??? Can 9000 stores really be selling their drinks for a dollar??
We are truly "bowing" to the King if we do this! When will the co-ops truly stand up and say "no more".

Anonymous said...

the co-ops will say no when they have secret voting.

Anonymous said...

We are all COWARDS. We are all sheep being lead to slaughter, and we follow...follow... without question...

Richard Adams said...

The road to recovery begins with recognizing you have a problem.

Anonymous said...

We have a secret ballot and it was still voted in by a significant margin. It was the same way last year. This year the promotion is from March 16 to Sept 7. Stay tuned it probably will be in the 2010 Plan to Win for all 12 months. Guess what now some BK's are going to all soft drinks for $1. What a surprise!