Posted on 10/19/2015 7:40:55 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: In the last couple or three days I have been reading more and more stories about how much trouble McDonald's is in that they may not make it. It's gotten to the point now where McDonald's may not make it. And the last story that I have here is from Business Insider, and the headline is, "McDonald's Franchisees Say the Brand Is in a Deep Depression and Is Facing its Final Days."
And everybody is trying to figure out what happened. You know, McDonald's dates back to -- well, in its current iteration -- the mid-sixties. It wasn't Ray McDonald. Ray Kroc started it, California, maybe late fifties, early sixties, and it became what it's known to be today. But the thing about McDonald's was that a McDonald's franchise was one of the tickets to upper-middle class success. If you could get a McDonald's franchise when that was expanding and growing -- if you could get a McDonald's franchise in your little town or if you get two or three of 'em in a moderately sized American city -- you could get rich.
It was almost, not quite, was almost like getting an Anheuser-Busch distributorship. People that got an Anheuser-Busch distributorship back in the sixties and seventies were some of the richest people in town. And it was the same thing with McDonald's franchisees. And it was a distinctly American dream way for middle-class people to own something, to have equity in something and rise and rise the ladder of success in the United States. Now McDonald's is said to be in big trouble.
One of the problems this story alludes to, after quoting a bunch of franchisees, is that the corporate leadership in Oak Brook, Illinois, has no idea what it's doing. Now, by the way, I'm not joining the fray one way or the other. I hope this doesn't happen, needless to say. But I have money theory, is the point here. I have my own theory what happened here. And I know my theory is right, by the way. I know it's 100% right, and I know because of that it's gonna be pooh-poohed. It's gonna be belittled. It's gonna be mocked, laughed at, and made fun of as, "Oh, that's easy. That's exactly what Limbaugh would say."
And it's not just McDonald's that is in trouble in the fast-food business. To give you an idea of my theory, I would like to take you back to Berkeley, California, home of the University of California Berkeley and a hotbed of radical leftism. The Berkeley City Council some years ago now (might be as many as 20 years ago) demanded that Burger King, Burger Chef, what was it? Burger King was killing people with its menu. The Whopper, the Double Whopper, the Triple Whopper. Remember all the calculations of calories and fat?
They did the same thing with the Big Mac and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. But the Berkeley radicals demanded that if they were going to continue to be a viable business, if they were gonna get permission to stay in business, they had to start selling veggie burgers and salads and a bunch of other stuff that the customers of Burger King did not, do not, would not want. You do not go to Burger King for a veggie burger. You go there for a freaking juicy Double or Triple Whopper with all the stuff on it you want.
Ergo, when the left comes in under whatever guise of health or cleanliness or whatever and tries to make other people do things their way, what happens? They eventually fail. And I will contend to you, without knowing firsthand -- and I will admit that I don't -- that some of the stuff that's accumulated over the years, some of the things the franchisees are being forced to do by McDonald's corporate is the result of leftists becoming subsumed with this notion of healthy this and healthy that, and they have accepted the phony premise that their food's poison.
They've accepted the phony premise that their food is not good -- it's not healthy, it's not healthful, it's damaging to children -- and they have to do something to straighten out. Hello, Happy Meal, whatever the strategy has been. And in effect, the effort to either please the left or react to their demands because you don't feel like fighting them (which is a typical corporate reaction to any pressure) has been to basically destroy their business, if all this is right.I mean, if these franchisees say McDonald's is facing its final days, what happened?
The original menu at McDonald's was gonna stay in good grace. Now, I understand there's all kinds of pressure culturally throughout the country for healthful eating, but look at all the myths that are being exposed. The supposed dangers of fat turn out to be a bunch of lies. "You shouldn't eat butter, shouldn't eat whole milk, drink whole milk." All of this stuff is just a bunch of wives' tales bugaboo that was never true in the first place, made popular by just two skeletal people at something called center for the science and public something.
They had a logo and a fax machine, and they started faxing out whatever it was gonna kill you, and the media repeats it and becomes popularly believed, and so these restaurants have to react to it one way or the other. But I'm telling you, you don't go to the McDonald's for a salad. You don't go to McDonald's for a veggie burger, or Burger King, or anything of the sort. And there's any number of other businesses. It's not just McDonald's. The left got their hooks into ESPN, and look what's happening to them. The left got their hooks into the NFL; look what's happening there.
The left has gotten their hooks in or has had some sort of influence on the Republican Party. Look what's happening there. Women's colleges? I mean, you go throughout American life in the corporate culture, private sector, wherever you want to go and wherever the left has been allowed to come in either as a result of their demand or pressure or what have you, and all these other institutions and companies that were sailing along just fine have been demanded to make changes in how they do what they do; they're all...
Maybe not all in trouble, but they certainly are facing challenges they never used to. And it's all predicated on another "mis-premise," if I may use the term. And to illustrate this I want to go back to the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana. After that was signed into law, all it did was reinforce the already existing clause in the US Constitution. What happened? The American media, the American left immediately went out and tried to find any fast-food or any other restaurant or business that would not serve a gay couple on their wedding day.
They went shopping, they went knocking on doors, and they found this pizza joint, some small town Indiana. The young woman, a member of the family that runs the little pizza joint's on TV, "No, our religious beliefs are such that we would not serve that couple's wedding. We do not believe in homosexual marriage." Blow up! The media goes nuts. That little business is shut down. All the efforts focus on just embarrassing that little business and anybody who is just like them. What happened? The governor caves a little bit. Everybody starts backing off.
"We're sorry! We didn't mean offend anybody. No, we love everybody. Oh, my God. Oh, no." But the one thing that was included in this was the assumption that a vast majority of the American people agreed that that pizza shop was a bunch of little bigots, and all the bakery shops are a bunch of little bigots, and the photo shops, all these people that wouldn't service a gay marriage, gay wedding, or whatever. And that's always included in the story; it's never really true.
The media tries to make it look like their point of view is the popular point of view by a vast majority. And it's the same thing with all of these menus at fast food restaurants or at Walmart or what have you. The media and the left bring pressure on these companies with the implied belief that a majority of the American people and a majority of these businesses' customers also think the menu should change and think this should change, when it's never the case. We don't know that a majority of the American people believe it but we can learn probably it isn't because after making all of these changes, the businesses end up in trouble.
And if popular opinion were on the side of the changes, the businesses would be thriving, would they not? Stands to reason. I don't know. You McDonald's franchisees who are listening to this, you know whether I have a point on this or not. But as I say, it's not just McDonald's. We are still are in the middle of a recession in this country, and yet these cultural preferences and demands continue to be made on these companies, and they are not demands shared by a majority customers of these businesses.
So when the changes are made, the customers go somewhere else. How else can you conclude anything else? If the changes were rabidly accepted by customers and this is what was needed in a McDonald's, there wouldn't be a story here quoting franchisees as saying McDonald's is facing its final days. And, hell, you know, McDonald's is a great American success story, tradition, it's an opportunity for people to enjoy the American dream by becoming franchises. I hope this isn't true. But if it is, I think somewhere in the mix you're gonna find the fingerprints of a bunch of liberals.
The food isn’t that great.
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| First McDonald's |
Everything is smaller. A box of honey nut cheerio's that I used to by for $3 is now 1/3 the size. A box used to last me two weeks easy, now 4, maybe 5 days tops.
No need to apologize. I had the same experiences on those fewer and fewer visits. I got tired of being disappointed. And not just with McD’s. “Have it your way” my azz.
There’s always a long line when I drive by one at lunch time
When it stopped being about 15c burgers, real milk shakes and great fries— and became about real estate (which is ALL it is now— location valuation, customer number impact etc)— that’s what’s done it, coupled with the unceasing attacks from nit picking little californication veggie burger eaters who force their stupid views on them, driving up prices and the cost of doing business.
Meat is good. Milk is good. Cream is good, and french fries in mixed beef tallow/vegetable oil frying- and salt, are GREAT! Affordable fast food at the time, which regular people in a hurry could eat and depend on without sitting around and counting the arugula leaves on their 1/2 ounce seared ahi tuna and some kind of fruity sauce glace’ for 22.00.
I think part of it is—kids today don’t have a sentimental attachment to McDonalds the way a person who was a kid who grew up in the 70s/80s does. They have grown up with 20 such restaurants that they have memories tied to.
Agree. I stopped going there sometimes in 1990s as I recall, when they switched to the fake vegetable oil tallow for the fries (can't stand the taste of that fake tallow flavoring). They were completely ruined, at least for me. While I can make burgers at home that are way better than McD's burgers (better quality meet, flavorings), I could never make fries at home that were as good as their original ones.
Actually, less than that. Movies were about one dollar a ticket and popcorn about 50 cents. Micky Ds was a 15 cent burger, 10 cent fries, and 10 cent coke. Unless of course your date was a glutton.
I remember taking Linda Lu uh..... Elke Sommer to a dinner at Mickey Ds and then the movie. Yeah, Elke Sommer...a great looker but ate like a horse. I'm glad I ditched her for a better looking woman. Yeah...
the food taste shit now, that’s why. They changed the recipe to cater to health nuts
I’d better use the Coupons they just sent me in the Mail before they go under.
Two for One Big Macs and Egg McMuffins here I come.
I may even have Breakfast for Dinner.
Should McDonald’s go out of business, I certainly won’t miss them.
There’s a hot dog/burger chain in Houston called “James’ Coney Island”. They’ve been around and had that name since the 1920s.
Now they call themselves JCI Grill, tossing out a bit of Americana to sell it as ‘healthier’ and upscale the meals from fast food to fare maybe suited to a Chili’s.
Good way to kill a nearly 100 year old business, toss out the identity, the menu, and the old customers.
McDonald’s recently had a nationwide overhaul of the look of the restaurants (that couldn’t have been cheap for the franchises). And it downsized the size of those arches you could see down the street. Now, I could understand for new franchises maybe things would be different but they did this to the old restaurants too.
It is not about how many people you have in a restaurant, it is all about the food cost numbers. With the pressures of skyrocketing beef prices, along with everything else, $15/hr minimum wage and pressures to keep the prices about the same, is a no win situation.
McD’s strayed too far from the simple menu that was it’s strength in it’s SoCal roots...another SoCal chain took that concept over and is doing fine...In-N-Out Burger!
McDonald’s headquarters caused the most damage. I ate at McD’s mostly on road trips and was turned off when the emphasis on cleanliness went out the window.
McD’s also tried to compete with Starbucks with the Cafe thing. Huge waste of money and failure.
The quality of the food has gone downhill considerably.
If McDonald’s is really in serious trouble there is no doubt it is caused by the federal government.
Over regulation, new fees and taxes, and the crushing weight of Obamacare kill businesses every day.
It is not only the effect of government overreach on the retail business itself.
It drives up the costs every ancillary service and product and every aspect of doing business.
From producing farm tractors, fuel to run farm machinery, the seed to plant, harvesting, aninmal feed, processing, packaging and transporting products right on up to trash removal.
Anyone who wants to mail me extra Egg McMuffin coupons is free to do so!
Over the years my appreciation for McDonald’s as changed with inverse proportion to the size of their menu. I think their service varied in the same manner.
But what is really killing McDonalds is that they have been upstaged by competitors who present a more upscale experience and attract an upwardly mobile clientele. Starbucks, Chipotle, P.F. Changs, Panera Bread, to name a few.
For some reason, McDonalds appears to attract mostly people from the lower classes and many feel uncomfortable when they go in there, especially in urban areas. I remember when McDonalds was full of families with kids. Most stores had a children's playground or even "ball pits" inside the stores. Now those play areas are empty and a McDonalds is likely to be frequented by threatening local toughs with hoodie sweaters, ball caps and "I hate the world" expressions on their face.
Contrast that to the young people you see at a Chipotles or Shake Shack. They are a clearly non-threatening crowd in preppie clothing and they are likely to be glued to mobile phones and tablets as they make their way through the line to order and receive their food. And they typically have more money to spend than the McDonalds crowd.
Many young people would never consider going to a McDonalds because it is considered "downmarket."
Until McDonald's finds a way to gentrify it's image and attract more upscale clientele like Chipotle, it is doomed in the long term. Also, they need to lose that clown mascot. Creepy as heck.
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