Coalition of Franchisee Associations

October 29, 2020

Red Chains, Blue Chains

"Only five of the 10 CEOs on Eater’s list openly donated to political causes — mostly via 
their company PACs. Just one CEO, Chris Kempczinski of McDonald’s, donated exclusively
to Democrats, giving $2,500 to Joe Kennedy’s Massachusetts campaign for U.S. Senate. 

Most of the other donations went to Republican candidates and PACs."

Which Politicians Are America’s Largest Fast-Food Chains Donating To?
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October 25, 2020

Felony Dumb

In 2014 Bloomberg published an article titled "Burger King is Run by Children" because 
BK CEO Daniel Schwartz was only 36 years old and most of his management team was
even younger. It appears that in the six years since nobody at Burger King has grown up.

Who could think that QSR customers are interested in hassling with paying a deposit on 
cups and packaging and then bringing it back to recover their deposit. 

In addition, the world's population will emerge from the pandemic as more "germaphobic". 
Products and processes we found acceptable in 2019 will be unacceptable in 2021. That 
includes cups and packaging that were supposedly sanitized enough for repeated reuse.

Can Burger King's reusable packaging change fast food forever? - MarketWatch

And yet McDonald's Corp. is monkeying around in the same arena.

October 16, 2020

Our Flux Capacitor Takes Us to the Future

At the end of this article the National Restaurant Association lists a few of the impacts 
ithe election follows the polls as they stand today.

If the election goes wrong, at the end of 2021, the United States will look more and more like California. By 2024 the United States could look more and more like Venezuela.

Restaurants, Down $200 Billion Already, Prepare for Election Fallout - QSR magazine

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There's One For You, Nineteen For Me

"IRS issued a ruling that business expenses paid with forgiven PPP funds could not be written off as normal tax deductions."

Restaurants with forgiven PPP loans could face a tax wallop
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October 14, 2020

October 9, 2020

Joe Erlinger Buys Chicago Lakeshore Mansion

McDonald's exec Joe Erlinger buys $2.42 million mansion - ChiTrib
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Prepare For the Return of ADB

On November 9th McDonald's will Corp. will host an expanded, virtual investor 
update with analysts. Unless thoroughly covered in the formal presentation the 
analysts will be asking two basic questions.

* When will all the dining rooms be open? * When will you bring back All Day Breakfast?

ADB was so over-hyped that every profile on Steve Easterbrook mentions that he 
was the guy who brought ADB to McDonald's USA. This puts management in a 
tough spot. They can't downplay the "success" of ADB and admit to the hype in 
previous years. And they can't tell analysts, "The franchisees won't let us".

McDonald's weighs the return of all-day breakfast - The Gazette
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October 7, 2020

Teens Prefer Chick-fil-A

Even though Piper Sandler interviewed 9,800 teens in 48 states the results in this survey 
cannot be correct.

Chick-fi-A is not modern and progressive. They don't have promotional partners in an entertainment genre that markets obscenities to children. They are making the mistake
of protecting their culture and their family values.

Unless they become hip and "with it" Chick-fil-A is destined to fade into obscurity.

Teens prefer Chick-fil-A by a wide margin
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October 4, 2020

 


Another LTO Cut Short

Given the shelf life of unfrozen beef it's easy to excuse running out of quarter meat 
but nuggets  are a different story. Prematurely running out of product is not a sign of 
a good promotion. It's a management problem.

McDonald's is running out of its Spicy Chicken McNuggets | Restaurant Dive
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October 1, 2020

The 2020 QSR® Drive-Thru Study

While the internals of this study are interesting the rankings are questionable.

Chick-fil-A deserves the top spot but McDonald's does not deserve such a low ranking. 
Panera is better than McDonald's? I enjoy Panera's tuna salad sandwich but you 
need a calendar to time their drive-thru service.

Dairy Queen has a better drive-thru than McDonald's? Give me a break.

The 2020 QSR® Drive-Thru Study - QSR mag
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