McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

cjd
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by cjd »

pseudo3d wrote: August 2nd, 2020, 2:10 pm They're still opening sit-down cafes, there's one being built not far away from me.

Eventually, COVIDmania will go away and things will go back to normal (despite "the new normal" being hyped up, do you really expect that society will permanently keep up with handwashing?), I keep finding articles where analysts conflate government restrictions with consumer behavior, and only a fool would think "Well, the theaters are all closed, guess people don't like going to movies anymore".
To me to build new stores with no interior seating, due to a temporary pandemic is silly. Surely Starbucks expects to get a few decades out of these new locations. I guess Starbucks does tend to be on the bandwagon of whatever new thing is popular, but to think people will never, ever go out again is rather strange.

The problem is COVID is still as dangerous an issue as ever, and there is no alternative plan to get back to normal until there is a vaccine, which could take 18-24 months at best. 3-5 years at worst. That's a long time. And it leaves Starbucks and other establishments on a kind of strange predicament between choosing what's necessary and best now, but leaving room for the (quite distant) future when (hopefully) things are better and more normal with people going out more.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

It might seem shortsighted that many restaurants are closing locations that get most of their sales from dine in customers, but they did take a look at the profitability. These Walmart McDonald's do not do as much business as drive thru locations. The closures will not result in too much lost profit. These locations are making little to no profit by being take out only. If people want McDonald's they can go to a nearby drive thru location.

Statbucks realizes that sit down customers are not profitable. Many people go to Starbucks and they sit there for hours and use the free wifi. They do not buy much of anything. It is all about cutting rent costs, cutting employees needed to clean the stores, and becoming more profitable. This is as good a time as ever to use it as an excuse to close down unprofitable locations. Customers will not be as upset, because they will assume the reason is due to COVID-19.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 2nd, 2020, 8:04 pm It might seem shortsighted that many restaurants are closing locations that get most of their sales from dine in customers, but they did take a look at the profitability. These Walmart McDonald's do not do as much business as drive thru locations. The closures will not result in too much lost profit. These locations are making little to no profit by being take out only. If people want McDonald's they can go to a nearby drive thru location.

Statbucks realizes that sit down customers are not profitable. Many people go to Starbucks and they sit there for hours and use the free wifi. They do not buy much of anything. It is all about cutting rent costs, cutting employees needed to clean the stores, and becoming more profitable. This is as good a time as ever to use it as an excuse to close down unprofitable locations. Customers will not be as upset, because they will assume the reason is due to COVID-19.
Yes, me as a sit down customer at Starbucks involved buying a small iced coffee or small iced tea and using their table for 3-4 hours to study or work and get multiple refills (free with their loyalty program) of that drink. This was absolutely not a profitable scenario for them even after the drink prices crossed over $2. Now, I did drink that coffee or tea black/plain, so I did save them some money on condiments.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 2nd, 2020, 8:04 pm Statbucks realizes that sit down customers are not profitable. Many people go to Starbucks and they sit there for hours and use the free wifi. They do not buy much of anything. It is all about cutting rent costs, cutting employees needed to clean the stores, and becoming more profitable. This is as good a time as ever to use it as an excuse to close down unprofitable locations. Customers will not be as upset, because they will assume the reason is due to COVID-19.
That's how Starbucks largely built their success, to create an environment nice enough to linger and hang out in (up to and including selling the music they select and play in-house), and most importantly, return. Independent coffeeshops have also done similar things to create long-lasting businesses. Of course, some Starbucks are going to be unprofitable (even with the drive-in business, a number of stores closed around 2008) but they're not going to throw that all away in order to become a more expensive Dutch Bros. Coffee.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Noticed two closures that took place sometime since Christmas:

Sparks, NV - Wal Mart McDonalds- Pyramid Lake Highway (kind of surprised on this, this is a very very busy store)
Fallon, NV - Wal Mart McDonalds

Still two open ones as of this past week in this area:

Carson City, NV - Wal Mart McDonalds - Market Street (surprised this one keeps going)
Reno, NV - Wal Mart McDonalds- 2nd Street (very busy McDonalds, recently reimaged with order kiosks, etc.)
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