Coalition of Franchisee Associations

June 11, 2018

Field First?


Here's the place for McDonald's Operators to make anonymous comments about the "Running the Play" 
memo and Tuesday's Town Hall.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "Field First" concept seems to be good. However, I don't see how it will generate the additional sales they are looking for. In marginal stores, yes it will help but in stores that are operating at a high level how much more revenue will it produce? Closing expensive regional offices for less costly field offices is a good move. Reducing high paid regional staff is also a good move. They are chipping away at the entrenched bureaucracy that has been a huge drag on profit. Our customers want high quality healthy choices served fast.

Anonymous said...

Chris K is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. He needs to cut home office staff by 40% too.

Anonymous said...

Pajama boy should not use macho football terms like "running the play".

Anonymous said...

Bureaucracy will still be there. Instead of 8 people saying no, it will just be one. #consolidatedpower

Anonymous said...

The less company people the better.

Anonymous said...

One problem is the many second and third generation bureaucrats running the zones and regions who have not been in a store for years. They truly believe they know what they are doing. They resent the operators with a passion and it shows. Many are excellent McDonald’s administrators but they are not good business people. They talk in platitudes, they have no concept of how to build a strong business organization, they are the worse I’ve ever seen in McDonald’s. It is so disappointing and it’s hard to even think about what outcomes are waiting for us.

Anonymous said...

McDonald’s franchising has gone astray. They are growing with the people who have cash, or can borrow cash, not the people who run the best restaurants.

Anonymous said...

At this point nothing coming from the regions except silence. Nothing much was learned from this mornings conference. It will be learn as we go in this new structure. I assume that when cK says he is all about growth he means top line sales for the company and increased cash flow for the operators. How does that relate to anything said today?

Anonymous said...

Different company. No more McFamily. Owner/operators are now managers.

Anonymous said...

We have been sold out by the company and our Owner Operator Leadership. Chris K's mantra is "Me First"! His silly snicker during the presentation when asked about service fees should be a warning sign to all of us of his true nature. Unless we as operators finally send a message of "NO" to Chris we won't exist in the coming years. I was amazed that OPNAD finally said no to one of their crazy ideas and vote the 2 for $5 Quarters down. Look for OPNAD to be the next group to go in Chris' new world order.

Simple - His plan is not working, why do we have to pay for his failure?????

Anonymous said...

“McDonald’s franchising has gone astray. They are growing with the people who have cash, or can borrow cash, not the people who run the best restaurants.”

100% verifiably true

Not all who are growing quickly run poor operations but 100% true- the largest consideration is how much money does he/she have, will have in the future and how closely aligned are they with the company’s objectives. If you have money or can get it and you’ll dance to the music, you get the inside track.

These people, usually young, hip and cool- spend their days on the phone with their corporate minders “aligning”, in meetings and making videos for the unwashed masses who are in their stores working- so they can understand the nuances of the dataset that the algorithm that mined our customer base’s “intent to purchase” 2 SEB for $4. HELL YEAH our customers will buy them- hell, I would too, it’s robbery- we got nearly $4 for ONE before this freaking disaster.

$2/$4 breakfast sandwiches are KILLING US in the stores and on the P&L but the skinny jeaned 2nd gen who has not visited their restaurants in two months will argue FOR it at every meeting, webcast and “on behalf of” email that is sent to everyone by the company.

Why in the world would anyone with any common sense AT ALL grow with operators who run crappy stores? Isn’t that just mass suicide long-term? Wait, I get it...corporate people don’t give a crap about 2yrs from now. They just want to give food away and raise their “Tip”, or bonus this year. And that’s mostly TC, sales and voice scores.

Let’s discuss the “green” BS while we are at it. WHO IN THE HELL thinks our customers WANT paper cups? I’ve got $100 for anyone who can show me soft drink sales growth outpacing any growth they may have over last summer. IT IS HOT. Customers DO NOT WANT our paper cups and they stopped buying them. They ARE getting their BOGO free breakfast sandwiches and heading to the gas station for their drink. IN A STYROFOAM CUP. At ANY price.

Our customers do not give a crap about what the people in the office think they do. They want in and out fast, good food and a clean restaurant. They ARE NOT CONCERNED with their environmental footprint as they go to their blue collar job. We can’t be fast anymore and our drinks taste like crap in 20 minutes after the ice melts and the cup sweats all over the place. And by the way, they hate the kiosks. Period. Our crew shouldn’t have to be salesman, brainwashing the stupid masses into what the important people think is best for them.

I was really enthusiastic about the alignment of company employee incentives to our bottom lines. If it’s real. We will see.

Anonymous said...

The franchise concept is under attack. If franchising didn't work I guarantee that MCD would not be doing it. But, they want to change it to meet their objectives of control. You don't have to have financial strength. If they want you in they will finance you internally. They are doing it to get minorities in the ones no bank will touch. Progress in diversity is get the numbers up over performance in operations. They get their fees plus interest on the loan. Operations be damned.

Anonymous said...

I am “AH not Dale “AH” Carnegie but “AH” did anyone count “AH” how many times “AH” Cris K “AH,AH” mentioned
the word “AH”. I am not even sure a”AH” is even a word


Anonymous said...

3 ministers walk into a McDonalds very close to the same time. The first minister goes to the kiosk with the GEL the 2nd and 3rd
pass the GEL and go to the counter The 1st minister order in now complete and he turns around to find out he is now 3rd in line
because he only has cash. He says “WHAT THE HECK” ( he is a minister after all) This is happening thousands of times a day
My stores are averaging 40% cash. What is the sense going to the kiosk if your total wait will be higher because you will get behind
someone that just walks in. Did these SUITS ever go into a Walmart? THEIR KIOSK TAKES CASH. now I hear they are working
on this. WTH

2nd the operator that mentioned the AH Quick comment Cris did a ROA presentation for our co op a few months ago, it was the
same thing as the web cast. The people at our table were wondering why his staff does not tell him about this

3rd there are a lot of great comments on this topic. I say keep them coming. RICHARD


This is no where close to where we want to be as operators. QUESTION how many of you have better cash flow in 2018 than
2017? I hear the average is 50K.

Richard Adams said...



Two thoughts on the kiosks:

* I, and most of the McDonald's Operators I know assume that McDonald's corp or their executives past and present get a slice of the fees you pay to process credit cards. It makes sense corporate would work to increase the percentage of sales coming in on credit cards.

* However, the kiosks don't appear to have many moving parts, and that's a good thing for reliability. A device that could make change from a $20 bill for a $9.00 McDonald's order is going to have many moving parts, will be very complicated, and unreliable. I say this having not seen the kiosk at Walmart.

This issue is a good reason to promote Arch Cards. In many McDonald's stores there is no promotion or display of the Arch Cards like they don't exist.

The kiosks would be a good place to promote Arch Cards.
.

Anonymous said...

DA-
The problem with Arch Cards is this. When a consumer has a small remaining value on a affinity (Arch) card, figures show that 80-85% of consumers simply abandon them, leaving pennies to a few dollars unredeemed. This is called slippage. And guess who keeps the slippage-MCDonalds!
The funds should be credited back to the opnad fund budget, but they arent.

Richard Adams said...

Well, that's not right! When we had paper gift certificates the slippage went back to OPNAD. I remember the line item on the OPNAD statements.

Anonymous said...

I am working on my 5 year plan to retirement. The McDonald’s that I have Loved for 45 years no longer exists.

We used to be Good Food, Fast in a Clean Environment. Our Kitchens are Slow now, not because it takes a lot longer to cook any 1 item, it is because the interruption of any flow. We have items on the Menu that an average volume restaurant sells only a few a day but are now Core menu items. Chef Crafted is an example of a flow interruption. Our Kitchens have always worked best with a consistent flow of products going down the table, like with the Round Table of the 50’s & 60’s, The A Frame of the 70’s or the Current configurations of today. Until we, the Operators push back on the folks (Chicago & NLC), making these stupid decisions, we are left with a very Slow Moving sinking ship.

I wrote the below comment almost a year ago and Richard has seen fit to use it a number of times. For me it becomes more true each and every day.

They have carved the Heart & Soul out of this business and ATE it.

They want more kid business, then Fire Ronald McDonald.
They want more family business, then remove playlands
They want faster D/Ts, then add to the McCafe menu and Add fresh beef.
They want higher Cash Flow, then add Labor to the Dining room to teach people how to use a Kiosk, and do table service.
They want better Operations, then let Operators grow to 20, 30, 40 & 50 Stores.
They want us to give Gold Standard everything, Yet their Communication & Technology is No Standard (total failure)
They want us to give Table Service, yet I would be happy to have people just to give Service.
They want Better Advertising, but Create an Ad Agency from 2 Old Dried Up ones.

Finally, I would say to my fellow Operators, They want to help me improve my Cash Flow but I have probably forgotten more about Cash Flow than a FSM or Field Consultant will ever know. I am not bitter, just frustrated with Obvious.

Anonymous said...

I can pretty much assure you your FSM / BC does not know how to read a balance sheet, has no idea on capital expenses or how they affect your tax situation, they think you only take draws for pocket money and have no clue how a business owner pays taxes. Whenever your restaurants will be behind the norm on any P&L line item they will be all over you. It's amazing when I look at the 80's McD's was less involved in my operations and I made more money per restaurant; seems the more they get involved in my operations the less money I make and less TC's I serve unless I am giving away food. Let me be a business owner what I signed up for and not a McOpCo Director of Operations, please someone help me!

Anonymous said...

Both my FSM and my FC have had business failures and bankruptcies in their past. WHY should I take ANY advice from THEM??

Richard Adams said...

From 'Running the Play' ... Franchise Business Partner... "to help build business plans, navigate challenges and secure the tools and resources to solve the problems that come up"

I'm betting the answer to every plan, every challenge, every problem will be whatever program Chicago is selling at that time. With so little operations knowledge left in the system (on the corporate side), there will be no real help available from the "Business Partner".
Just order forms for new equipment.
.