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McDonald's Struggling
I probably know McDonald's as well as anyone. I grew up with McDonald's. My first visit to a McDonald's was in Rapid City when I was about eight years old, I suppose. Dad took mom and five kids to the Black Hills for our annual summer vacation. We were thrilled to stop at McDonald's. I think hamburgers were 25 cents; French fries maybe a nickel, but more likely 25 cents, also. I can't rember. All I know is dad had a very limited budget but he told us we could have as many hamburgers an d as many sides of fries as we wanted. We ate outside the car; maybe a station wagon with the tail gate down. I can't remember, but I know we did not eat inside. We ran back and forth and bought hamburgers and french fries and ran back to the car.
The WSJ has an article today -- that McDonald's is struggling.
I think we all have our opinions on why McDonald's is struggling, if indeed they are struggling. I assume they are. There's a lot of competition out there.
It appears to me that folks no longer go to McDonald's to enjoy the social aspect of dining. For adults, going to McDonald's, it is entirely utilitarian -- to re-fuel with the least expensive "grade of fuel" available.
There are exceptions: in fly-over country, in the very, very small towns in Nebraska and Kansas, the geriatric crowd meet at McDonald's for lunch and to socialize.
But in cities of 30,000 or more where there are many options, McDonald's seems to be for blue collar workers simply to re-fuel. Families, college students, the demographics McDonald's is competing for, go elsewhere.
I think much of this has to do with the ambience/atmosphere/dining experience, and I don't know how McDonald's can change that or change the impression. There was an article yesterday that suggested Chick-fil-A was thriving because its staff has been taught three words. I didn't read the article, but I can guess what the three words were.
CNBC had a story on Chick-fil-A along these same lines. The NY Post had a similar story: words that are banned by his employees and the following admonition:
“You will speak properly when you walk through these doors,” he wrote. “You are a professional so speak professionally.”I have run into some very, very nice people working at McDonald's. But generally speaking, it seems McDonald's is the farm team for the US restaurant sector. McDonald's is where the herd is culled. The employees that rise to the top go elsewhere. It seems McDonald's is very, very generous in hiring practices, but the training is lacking, or the standards are not maintained for some reason.
In variably, when I walk into a McDonald's that is quiet, the manager or assistant manager says "welcome to McDonald's." But then when I step up to the counter, it's not unusual to be greeted by a teenager that speaks a slightly different language than I do and seems more interested in getting back to his or her socializing with another worker before I came and interrupted things.
For whatever reason McDonald's also seems to attract the folks families generally don't want to hang out with -- again, the geriatric crowd without a home who come to the restaurant to sober up or sleep. I think that's wonderful that McDonald's is so gracious (for lack of a better word) but the practice drives families from returning. I had such an encounter decades ago at a McDonald's in St Louis when I was with our two daughters, both under the age of eight, waiting to catch a flight back to Germany where I was stationed. It was late, and a "down-and-out" was fast asleep at a table in the corner. with a half-cup of coffee in front of him. Our daughters asked me why he was sleeping in the restaurant. I don't know if McDonald's has changed their attitudes about such behavior -- I have not been in an urban city McDonald's in ages.
But that's lingering perception. And now I go to McDonald's when I'm a) traveling alone; b) need wi-fi; c) need an inexpensive meal to re-fuel; and, d) get in and get out as quickly as possible.
As I write this and review it, I feel I might be too harsh on McDonald's. But no matter how I sugar-coat it, McDonald's is just not the place I would take Sophia, our two-year-old granddaughter or her older sisters. That is so different than when I was growing up when going to McDonald's was a huge, huge treat.
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