Coalition of Franchisee Associations

December 19, 2021

McDonald's Invented Diversity

My McDonald's history is divided into two parts, the part I remember intimately and the part I've observed from 30,000 feet.

The first part is the hard work McDonald's Corporation expended to diversify the franchisee base dating back into the 1960s. My involvement in these efforts began in the 1970s as a shave-tail McOpCo guy learning to understand a diverse workforce in Southern California. Then, as a field service guy opening new stores in dusty southwestern towns with a diverse group of franchisees.  That was followed by years in the franchising department, most of which were spent recruiting and processing franchise applicants with a focus on diversity.

But I was just a foot soldier in the effort to make McDonald's a diverse franchise system. My work was duplicated thousands of times across the country. Was this an altruistic effort on the corporation's part? Maybe to some degree but it was generally thought that it was just darned good business. Was it all done with perfection? Afraid not, we only had human beings to work with.

And in my post-McDonald's career, I can only look at things from 30,000 feet. I have no direct knowledge about what happens at the corporate level or at the McDonald's home office. But, it does appear that around five or six years ago "diversity" fell off the corporate radar.

After all, how could a new CEO parachute in from Europe and immediately understand the history of USA race relations and the history of diversity at McDonald's? That CEO was soon sent packing. How could the next CEO, possessing minimal McDonald's experience, have any interest in diversity in the McDonald's system? Especially given the fact that his first years at McDonald's were spent downsizing the franchisee community. This downsizing was done with a spreadsheet and a machete, no humanity was involved. Certain franchisees were a liability to corporate cash flow and had to go, ignoring the corporate culture of inclusiveness.

Then the new CEO proceeded to blunder into politics, making mistake after mistake and embarrassing the McDonald's brand.

The greatest danger is that the still "new" CEO might claim he inherited a McDonald's system that was racially insensitive and he would be the hero that would fix the corporate culture. His recent letter says some good things about the system's history but leaves many opportunities for future falsities.

Spending the next year acting holier-than-thou and claiming he's fixing a broken system might be the only way he can save his job - or his entire career.

What's your version of McDonald's history?

December 14, 2021

December 10, 2021

Beyond Meat Hires Tyson / McDonald's Guys

So who thinks that Beyond stole these Tyson guys without direction from McDonald's Corporate? Pretty soon we won't be able to tell where McDonald's ends and Beyond starts - kind of like Coke.

Marketwatch reports on fake meat company exec hires

December 9, 2021

Fake Meat Humor

"High Horse Inc. is proud to move the world to a new place beyond animal cruelty and into a more natural, organic future, where meat is processed from strange chemicals and protein globs in test tubes and beakers, bubbling and slimy in science labs, forming into coagulated steaming piles of brown mush that drip strange pink fluid and smell like wet cardboard — just as mother nature intended."

 Plant-Based Meat Tastes Like Meat To People Who Have Never Eaten Meat

Starbucks Union Vote Goes Wrong Way

 A first for coffee chain

December 3, 2021

Anonymous Felt This Should be a Thread


Random stuff on the internet should be ignored but this was sent in by anonymous and it alines with anecdotes from McDonald's Owners and with my own personal experience.  DoorDash seems to have very low hiring standards as compared to Uber.  While we are trying to cut down on the number of times we order food delivered, Uber is our only choice due to problems with DoorDash.

"Your order just sits there" DoorDasher claims