Coalition of Franchisee Associations

April 28, 2014

Chicago Co-Op Picks Canadian Agency






Local McDonald's owners pick new ad agency - chicagotribune.com

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Support Your Local Operations Guy

While Crain's is certainly jumping the gun here it is interesting that for the first
time in decades there is no clear line of succession at McDonald's.

But, since they started the discussion - among these four the Franchise Equity Group 
vote goes to Dave Hoffmann since he's the only one who (according to his bio) has 
any real restaurant experience.

McDonald's CEO Thompson has no heir apparent - Crain's Chicago Business
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April 26, 2014

Cashing In - Part Deux

On April 23rd McDonald's CEO Don Thompson exercised his option on 30,000
McDonald’s shares at a price of $25.31 per share. He sold all 30,000 shares on
the same day at $99.24 per share for a net of $2,217,900.

Added to shares sold in January his running net/net for the year is $4,271,100.

Also, last week, five other McDonald’s officers and directors exercised options
and sold shares for a net profit of $2,990,438.


McDonald's insider trading history is HERE

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April 24, 2014

Forbes on Minimum Wage

"The reality is this campaign for higher wages is simply a push to redistribute income
from business owners to workers and a ploy to convince workers to unionize"
 
Living Wage Advocates Need To Understand Most McDonald's Are Small Businesses
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April 23, 2014

Comedians on Fox News Stand Up for Happy Meals

If you haven't seen Red Eye on Fox News you're not using your TiVo correctly.

McDonald's takes gender labels out of Happy Meals | Fox News Video

‘Selfies… Here I Come!’ Ronald McDonald



Ronald McDonald Gets Cargo Pants, Twitter - WSJ
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But Talks Sense About Breakfast All Day

McDonald's CEO Loves Breakfast. But Not All Day - Businessweek
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CEO's Comment on McDonald's High-Density Menu

From the transcript:
"When you have a number of builds in the restaurant, basically what you are doing is 
you are leveraging the various condiments and products in the restaurant to build those sandwiches. If you can go to a more streamlined menu board approach and then still
have those comments or condiments, so the customers can customize a bit, it will help
in terms of reducing if you will, complexity."

This makes no sense - Customization will create more complexity and will only create
more problems. 
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McDonald's Reports Earnings

This week McDonald's Corporation released their results for 1st Quarter 2014.

Management conducted the usual conference call with investors and analysts. As
usual the Q&A with analysts is the most interesting part of the webcast.

One can listen to the 60 minute webcast HERE

Or read a transcript of the webcast HERE
(E-mail registration required)
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April 19, 2014

Why Subway Doesn't Serve a $14 Reuben Sandwich

"If McDonald's could raise burger prices by 40% without losing customers, 
it would have done so already without input from Messrs. Obama and Perez. 
But customers are price sensitive."
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Opinion from the WSJ
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April 18, 2014

Restaurants Focus on Throughput as a Growth Strategy

Restaurants focus on throughput as a growth strategy - NRN

This article quotes from one of our Operator surveys:

 “The problem is not how to best ‘work around’ menu complexity, but how to eliminate it,”
said one unnamed franchisee in Kalinowski’s report. “Our business is far too difficult to 
manage, especially for folks who are new to the system. … This has significantly affected 
service times, employee morale and retention. Guys at the top need to figure this out, and fast.”
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April 10, 2014

McDonald's Operators Fund Spike in MCD Share Price

"Analysts noted this (free coffee) deflected attention away from Taco Bell's nationwide 
breakfast debut."

Why McDonald's (MCD) Stock Hit Highest Point Since July - TheStreet
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April 8, 2014

April 7, 2014

Pizza Promises


Due to a family vote we’ve switch from Papa Johns to Pizza Hut. So far this year we’ve 
ordered four times on the Pizza Hut web site. Every time we receive an E-mail 
confirmation with an big, bold headline promising that our order will arrive at a very
specific time - always 30 minutes from the time the E-mail is sent.


All four orders have have arrived late, 30 to 45 minutes after the time promised. But 
that’s OK, we didn’t need it any sooner and it’s always been hot and fresh.


What I find interesting is that we are actually ordering from the national Pizza Hut 
website and our order is then transmitted to the local Pizza Hut location. During that
process Pizza Hut is promising us something that the local franchise can’t accomplish.


Isn’t that the same as a hamburger chain junking up and complicating the restaurant's 
menu and then not be able to figure out why the system can’t meet service and other standards?


Or maybe the people running Pizza Hut have never run real restaurants and don’t know
how much it turns customers off when they over-promise an under-deliver (pun intended).
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Chick-fil-A Wings in New Direction

Chick-fil-A is about to screw up their operation with "Innovation"

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April 2, 2014

McDonald's Store Growth

For McDonald's Operators looking for our previous post on store growth in the USA,

the post is HERE
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