Coalition of Franchisee Associations

July 31, 2020

Competitive Update - There Will Be Less Of It

Technomic projects that about 11,000 units of the Top 500 chains will go dark. 

Thousands of units are being closed sooner than they might have been without the pandemic - Restaurant Business
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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today, I witnessed a message from the Long Beach Field Office where apparently some organization had placed tracking devices on corporate cars – as a manner to gain an edge in ROIP inspections.

Allow me to begin with expressing my support about McDonald’s “right” to inspect – to protect the brand. However, I question any system where the participants of the system feel compelled to CHEAT to participate. Where has the spirit of COOPERATION, COLLABERATION and COMMUNICATION gone – when members of the McFamily must resort to such drastic measures?

Now operators who communicate by text about inspections and visits are being threatened with adverse actions. Can you imagine, we now live in a world where texting, posting on social media or other forum about an inspection; its results or other celebratory data – may now result in a franchise losing its license?

What a failure of leadership in the Long Beach Field Office to systematically accuse the entire franchise operator field – and not the specific unit responsible for the adverse action. Perhaps its that exact FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP – that lost spirit of COOPERATION – that made an organizations people feel they needed that added edge to survive.

Was that the intention of ROIP – was it designed to be a HAMMER – or was it designed to be a wrench to help fix operations. And what is the rebuttal to this action by the Franchise Leadership? When it allows the blanket accusation to every franchise owner – and not the singling out of the organization responsible.

Not to address the underlining systemic abuse by Corporate field officers using ROIP as a hammer. Collecting SERVICE FEES not to help improve operations, but to HAMMER operators with their own funds. Sickening was the act of placing trackers on Corporate cars – as sickening was the callous and childish response from the Long Beach Field Office. The brand deserves better… on both sides of that issue.

Anonymous said...

The ONLY hope owners have in restoring our culture, our collaboration, and our trust with MCD is to join and support the NOA


80%+ of owners agree

Anonymous said...

Read that message, understood two of the morons who would of sent it... not sure why the RM signed off on it. That was a real disappointment for me.

Very poor leadership.

Dont understand how MCD Legal would of approved the obvious 1st amendment violations in telling people they cant text, using their private services, items impacting their daily life. So have to chalk this up to simple intimidation tactics.

It definately needs to be made available to the entire system for review, so operators may fully appreciate the matter.

Im also concerned that a system has been developed to intimidate Franchise employees to the point they would use such tactics to stay employed. No wonder Restaurant management TURNOVER has soared to outrageous numbers. With all the studies everyone floats, Id like to see the correlations of ROIP with Management turnover... mystery shops, cevs, BSVs, food safety inspections, 800# comments, VOICE.. how many hammers designed to whack our management employees.

Its obvious from that letter, there is no real concern for improving the system. Not once, did tExecutive Management ask why someone would resort to such efforts. Operators as a whole need to be concerned when any employee would feel intimidated / threatened to a point where they would have to resort to such efforts. I imagine most operators at some time or another joked about doing a similar thing.

Overall better Executive leadership would of taken a more holistic, and less Himmler approach, to the matter.

Very, very, very poorly executed.

Leaders like that ... the system neither deserves... nor needs. It should be reviewed and responsed to by the operator leadership. If not, time for new leaders there too.

Anonymous said...

The Long Beach "violations" (by MCD) need to be reported to the NOA and NFLA IMMEDIATELY !

Anonymous said...

Hang in there folks. If Biden wins in November and enacts his far left agenda, expect taxes to skyrocket , and equity to plummet. Expect a ton of stores to be available Q4 if this occurs.

Anonymous said...

Nope, the rules being implemented for COVID impacting operations and sales, and a Biden President, is the groundwork for a corporate takeover of restaurants.

Facilitated by a lackluster operator leadership team... and crickets from the NOA.

How much out of tilt can the system get without any push back from these critcal organizations?

Richard Adams said...

"corporate takeover of restaurants" - That's not going happen in the literal sense. Wall Street loves Refranchiseing. Publically held restaurant chains are no longer interested in being in the restaurant business. It's much easier to just sit back and collect rents and royalties. Investors would be unhappy to see the number of McOpCos on the increase.

However, McDonald's Corp. will facilitate the disposition of franchisees under stress. They will decide who buys what stores and whether the franchisee stays or goes. Most will go. This is a great opportunity to further reduce the number of McDonald's Owner/Operators in the USA.
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Anonymous said...

McOpCo managers are what most 2nd Gen and newer franchisees are, no ability to stand on their own 2 feet.

Wall Street understands the difference, even if there is a underlined franchise agreement. The reason MCD lost control of its stores was its poor operations. They just found a different way to run financilly unsound restaurants.

Therefore, turnover of Franchisees wont make up for the sales losses... or save those reaponsible for it.

Anonymous said...

We should be stealing shamelessly from these guys;


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cg28X9BO4Q&feature=share


It not rocket science! (except in the minds of pea-brains in Chicago)

Anonymous said...

I'm planning to quit. I can't stand this

Richard Adams said...

It interesting that the uprising of the NOA caused a substantial shakeup of the NLC/NFLA but OPNADD went largely unchanged (correct me if I'm wrong).

So the CEO can conduct conference calls with analysts and talk about the advertising budget as if a) he controls it personally, b) franchisees are contractually obligated to contribute as if OPNAD was in the franchise agreement. Actually, the investors don't know anything about OPNAD, they just assume McDonald's management calls all the shots.
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Anonymous said...

The analysts are correct.

Anonymous said...

After 22 years as an Operator and a Total of 45 years in this Great Brand I am calling quits. Common since by Leadership is not common anymore.

Richard Adams said...

I'm sure the system will be weaker for your loss. That's one of the reasons for the reduction in the # of Owner/Operators - people with your experience are a threat to this management team.
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Anonymous said...

How many operators feel "good" to be an owner/operator? I'm a 2nd gen operator and it felt great to work hard and earn an "approval" from Corp. However, outside of that, I really don't want to tell people what I do for a living. They either think I'm a capitalistic bastard benefiting from min wage labor. Or I'm the reason why society is obese.

Either way, it doesn't feel great. on top of that, I look around my coop and see people who are absolutely nothing like me. I guess I'm the odd man out.... or simply the only one who realizes we are useful idiots. ie "my top line sales are XX, and I have this amount of debt" as if it's a merit badge of honor.

I will be selling soon. I hope MCD has brighter days. And frankly, if the NFLA or NOA leadership were MCD Executives, we would all be better served. No offense to Joe E. Although, I can telegraph his presentations to us. "we need to lead, here's my 3 things that will get it done. 1) blah blah blah, 2) blah blah blah, 3) you get the point.

also worth noting on my swan song, Chris K. Wow, you're a beneficiary of Easterbrook getting caught with his pants down.... The promotion of a lifetime. And now YOU are the one helping lead/allow a lawsuit against him. Holy shit, you should be the one sleeping with him. Come on, his departure was your success.... try not to find a way to mess it up.(your transparency with tabloid news should get you some street cred...)

Lastly, if it seems like this is a rant for some disgruntled operator, it's not. I'm leaving on great terms, all time high cashflow, beating the region (field office) and FBP on any metric you care to evaluate. I guess the mantra of "if you don't like it, go ahead and sell" applies to me. There's life outside of McDonald's. Good Luck.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous seller, best of luck. I think that you are getting out while the getting is good. If the Dems win the Senate, franchise owners with franchisors run by management like the one at MCD are doomed.

Most people who employ others will b in for a very rough ride and regulations and mandates unhinged from reality proliferate.

You are making a sane choice.