McOpCo Closed for Sanitation Issues

If this happened to any Owner/Operator they'd be
Unexpandable and Non-Rewritable no matter where
their stores were located - for years.

Is McOpCo now Non-Rewritable?

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Sit-Down Discounting

This New York Times article details the stress
being put on "fast casual" chains.

A TGIF franchisee says, “My ultimate goal as
an operator is I need to drive traffic, and if
that traffic is going to Applebee’s or going to
Chili’s, I need to take that traffic away,”

That sounds like a typical corporate goal but
the job of the restaurant operator is to make
a profit on every transaction and to stay in
business. You can't do that on customer counts
alone.

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Fed Revs Up Franchise Terminations

As a franchisee does it make you nervous that
the federal government can move in and force,
if not encourage, auto manufacturers to terminate
dealer franchise agreements?

This article compares car dealers to McDonald's
and Wendy's

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Fenton's Golf Folly

Here's the latest on the whistleblower lawsuit over Oak
Brook's alleged development of a complex scheme to hide VP
Tim Fenton's country club memberships.

This all involves $2,940 in a year when Fenton made more
than $3.5 million in total compensation!

This has to appear absurd to McDonald's Owner/Operators
who have watched while McDonald's Corporation and it's
executives (past and present) have their sticky fingers
in most of the suppliers and privately held entities set
up by McDonald's as "approved vendors" selling goods
and services back into the system.

Just the tip of the iceberg. The real nondisclosure is
in the billions.

CNN Money article is HERE
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Wage Hike to Squeeze QSRs

Every time the minimum wage goes up the discussion centers around cost cutting at the restaurant level. Since most of the impacted stores are franchised - where is the discussion about the franchisor backing off on some fees and royalties?

As in This Dow Jones ARTICLE investors comfort themselves in the fact that the corporate entity is "Insulated" by being heavily franchised.

It sure was a good time to sell off all those McOpCos!

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McDonald's Ad Power is "Carpet Bombing"

Here's an excellent article about and McDonald's vs. Burger
King advertising. Since it's written for an audience in the ad
business the premise is: advertising can solve all problems
(such as causing QSR customers to become attracted to
specialty coffee drinks),.

For years I've been telling the investment community that
Burger King is not a real threat to McDonald's because
McDonald's franchisees have far less stores on average
than Burger King franchisees. The BK structure just can't
compete with the "hands -on", localized operations of
McDonald's USA.

Advertising Age article is HERE

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Free Breakfast to Spike McCafe Sales

In Baltimore

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BK O/Os Still Fighting Unprofitable Hours

Represented by Robert Zarco BK franchisees are still disputing extended
late-night and early-morning operating hours.

Miami Herald is HERE

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One Way to Force Owner/Operators to Give Away Food

McOpCos - mixed in among dominant Operator
owned stores - offering free sandwiches
with any purchase.


What's new in Kalamazoo

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McDonald's May SSS Rise 5.1% - USA Lags

USA only up 2.8% - looks like maybe you CAN spend too
much on advertising?


AP Reports


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MCD Operator Ad $$$ Helping Starbucks

Barron's on Starbucks

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Update on Card Check

Both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were co-sponors of prior versions of the legislation when they served as senators

QSR Magazine Reports

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