Whenever McDonald's Corp. is burdened by a management team that's never run restaurants said management team has to pretend to be "restauranteurs" and venture outside the hamburger business into something more modern or trendy. Rember Boston Market, Donatos, Pret a Manger?
Actually, the launch of McCafe was supposed to result in the opening of a national chain of trendy coffee shops to compete directly with Starbucks. At the time, Starbucks was the darling of Wall Street, and Howard Schultz could do no wrong. If McDonald's management wasn't thinking this way, I can assure you that McDonald's investors envisioned such a chain; instead, they got bags of coffee in grocery stores.
McDonald's investors assume that just because someone achieves the rank of McDonald's CEO, that person is a skilled and experienced restaurant operator, not just a corporate bureaucrat.
7 comments:
My prediction - this will be like opening a McDonald's in a small, isolated town. Sales will be impressive for the first few months and then fall off to disappointing. Then it will be time to aggressively market the location. But how to market the new store without cannibilizeing the sales of nearby McDonald's?
.
Corporate execs are decidedly not worried about cannibaliztion of franchisee owned stores (or even corporate owned ones for that matter).
They are complexly focused on their own personal legacy and resume padding. If they win a CLEO advertising award, the job is done and they re onto their next company, leaving wreckage behind for franchisees and even stockholders. But, hey, they's got a shiny trophy to shoe off inter new office with their new salary.
While remaining tight lipped about the concept, it was positioned as something that wouldn’t compete with McDonalds. Seeing the menu to include product traditional stores sell, I’m having a hard time believing that in addition to it already being a visit somewhere else.
Another SPOD program?
.
We live in fear that corporate might build too many new stores in the USA.
This will fail but it won't go quietly or easily.
They will throw our money at it until it's clear that it doesn't work.
Just like previously stated, think of Krispy Kreme. It blew up, grew everywhere, had lines down the street but today? Largely gone. It's mostly relegated to a box in a gas station.
Never underestimate the ability of a narcissist who lives in an alternate universe, who says one thing and does another, who manipulates everyone around him, who uses others until he's squeezed all he can out of them and discards them, who has power and who uses our money- never underestimate his ability to screw it up.
Fortunately this will be big enough that there is no soft landing.
Is the readitional store located next door a McCopco store. If it's a licensee store the owner must be thrilled to have a competitor selling the same menu items.
Post a Comment