Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

storewanderer
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by storewanderer »

Went into a corporate McDonalds. Not exactly sure where. Somewhere in a south Los Angeles county area. Place still had signs up all over saying masks required for all customers due to "new enhanced guidance." Those signs must be months old, cannot believe they didn't take them down.

Went into what was obviously a franchise McDonalds in Los Alamitos. This location has been remodeled or rebuilt recently and does not have self serve drinks anymore. The order registers are up front and there is a big wall right behind them and then a small space for employees to come out and give orders at the pick up counter. The entire prep area is basically walled off. There is no staff at the counter and there is a doorbell attached to the counter in front of the register saying to press button for assistance. There are 4 order kiosks. They don't seem to want to take orders at the counter. I ordered a drink through the kiosk. After I screwed around with the kiosk for over a minute to order one drink, I stood there waiting 4 minutes for them to give me my drink. No straw was offered before they disappeared back into the back so I had to get their attention to give me a straw. Under the old set up I would have had the cup immediately, filled it myself, and been out of there in about 2 minutes. Another customer walked up to the counter and stood there a couple minutes and was ignored the whole time even as a couple other people were given orders and at least 4 employees saw him. Not sure what happened to him as I was one of the people who received the order as he was standing there being ignored.

I was quite surprised how much lower the menu pricing at these SoCal McDonalds is than it is at the Reno/NorCal McDonalds. One location I went into wasn't much over $4 for Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, etc. These are more along the lines of how McDonalds food should be priced. I wasn't interested in anything but $1 drinks but at least the prices are more along the line of reasonable in the SoCal market.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by Alpha8472 »

Southern California is almost like a different state compared to Northern California. There is an entirely different culture and attitude towards pricing. Northern California seems to be high priced, and the people tolerate the high prices. Southern California seems more price competitive. Practically everyone in Southern California has a car and can shop around and choose the lowest priced business to shop at.

Businesses in Southern California are able to offer somewhat more competitive prices. Northern California businesses do not even bother trying.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 21st, 2022, 10:28 pm Southern California is almost like a different state compared to Northern California. There is an entirely different culture and attitude towards pricing. Northern California seems to be high priced, and the people tolerate the high prices. Southern California seems more price competitive. Practically everyone in Southern California has a car and can shop around and choose the lowest priced business to shop at.

Businesses in Southern California are able to offer somewhat more competitive prices. Northern California businesses do not even bother trying.
The attitude and atmosphere in Northern California, specifically the bay area, has deteriorated significantly over the past decade. This is the attitude of the service provided combined by the attitude of the business in terms of how it prices and how it treats employees and customers. I used to think the Northern California market just acted rather proud of itself due to the tech situation and it was justified due to the extreme wealth in the area, but there seem to be serious problems with what has happened in Northern California coming to surface now that are having a serious impact on the retailers with regards to theft, vandalism, and various other issues that aren't obvious to the consumer.

The attitude is much different in Southern California. I know there are parts where things are really rough but once you get outside those areas and go around areas in southwest Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego things are great. Lots of choices for the consumer, well run businesses, many independent businesses, an efficient service culture, and above average execution.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: May 21st, 2022, 11:01 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: May 21st, 2022, 10:28 pm Southern California is almost like a different state compared to Northern California. There is an entirely different culture and attitude towards pricing. Northern California seems to be high priced, and the people tolerate the high prices. Southern California seems more price competitive. Practically everyone in Southern California has a car and can shop around and choose the lowest priced business to shop at.

Businesses in Southern California are able to offer somewhat more competitive prices. Northern California businesses do not even bother trying.
The attitude and atmosphere in Northern California, specifically the bay area, has deteriorated significantly over the past decade. This is the attitude of the service provided combined by the attitude of the business in terms of how it prices and how it treats employees and customers. I used to think the Northern California market just acted rather proud of itself due to the tech situation and it was justified due to the extreme wealth in the area, but there seem to be serious problems with what has happened in Northern California coming to surface now that are having a serious impact on the retailers with regards to theft, vandalism, and various other issues that aren't obvious to the consumer.

The attitude is much different in Southern California. I know there are parts where things are really rough but once you get outside those areas and go around areas in southwest Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego things are great. Lots of choices for the consumer, well run businesses, many independent businesses, an efficient service culture, and above average execution.
All I can say is that in my experience even upper management in Northern California turns over annually or even more frequently at most chains. This has been going on for about 5 years now.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 8:51 am

All I can say is that in my experience even upper management in Northern California turns over annually or even more frequently at most chains. This has been going on for about 5 years now.
Grocery business is a bit more stable than this. But this is what I am observing at other retailers.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by Knight »

ClownLoach wrote: May 11th, 2022, 12:55 pm https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/mcdonal ... rkers.html

Interesting article - McDonald's is trying to improve execution and consistency through extra corporate visits and a rigid grading system. Based on the conversations on other threads, McDonald's operations range from flawless execution to disgusting between markets and franchises. But the franchises are afraid of being held accountable to higher standards and think that being graded on their performance will cause employees to quit?
McDonald's wants to improve and perfect its brand across all operating locations. Having a rigorous grading system will determine which locations are excelling and other locations that need to address issues for improvement. Locations that develop a paper trail of consistent failures could be subject to change in operator or permanent closure.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by storewanderer »

Knight wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 5:31 pm

McDonald's wants to improve and perfect its brand across all operating locations. Having a rigorous grading system will determine which locations are excelling and other locations that need to address issues for improvement. Locations that develop a paper trail of consistent failures could be subject to change in operator or permanent closure.
They need this program- desperately- ASAP.

Especially in the Reno, NV area.

Things are much more solid down in Southern California. For instance a number of units I went into were run by some group called "Piazza McDonalds." One of these locations was very interesting in that the entire interior of the location was full of old photos of high school sports teams and other sports related stuff. At these locations they had signs in multiple places and also on the receipt about how to contact two different Piazzas via phone or e-mail with any feedback. But the thing is there wouldn't be any feedback. These locations were well staffed, had multiple management on duty (easily identifiable by their uniforms which were also very neat and professional) at any given time, and were running like well oiled machines. The way every unit should run. These units actually reminded me of an In N Out in how they were being run.

I suspect a simple sales and financial analysis of the units comparing the two regions above would validate the above without even sending anyone out to observe conditions.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 7:17 pm At these locations they had signs in multiple places and also on the receipt about how to contact two different Piazzas via phone or e-mail with any feedback. But the thing is there wouldn't be any feedback. These locations were well staffed, had multiple management on duty (easily identifiable by their uniforms which were also very neat and professional) at any given time, and were running like well oiled machines. The way every unit should run. These units actually reminded me of an In N Out in how they were being run.
Of course, feedback could be as simple as saying what you just posted here - it doesn't have to mean BAD feedback :)
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 9:33 am
ClownLoach wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 8:51 am

All I can say is that in my experience even upper management in Northern California turns over annually or even more frequently at most chains. This has been going on for about 5 years now.
Grocery business is a bit more stable than this. But this is what I am observing at other retailers.
Agreed - the traditional grocery store business historically is very stable, which is also why the average cashier or stocker is never going to reach middle management in their lifetime.
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Re: Franchisees opposed to improved McDonald's operations?

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 23rd, 2022, 5:41 pm
storewanderer wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 9:33 am
ClownLoach wrote: May 22nd, 2022, 8:51 am

All I can say is that in my experience even upper management in Northern California turns over annually or even more frequently at most chains. This has been going on for about 5 years now.
Grocery business is a bit more stable than this. But this is what I am observing at other retailers.
Agreed - the traditional grocery store business historically is very stable, which is also why the average cashier or stocker is never going to reach middle management in their lifetime.
Part of the problem in NorCal may also be these folks taking the jobs are moving out of the market. I talk to some retail people who say their middle management wants out of NorCal and it is real easy to find people to transfer to other regions from there... and the folks who transfer couldn't be happier because they find operations so much more stable in basically any other region (including OR/WA). Reno for a while was a place many wanted to transfer to but in the past year for new folks moving into Reno they get the experience of Oklahoma City for not much less than the price of the bay area, so it no longer is so desirable. Actually it is worse than Oklahoma City because you can't staff your stores properly and then you get one disgruntled employee who quits, go gets a job at some warehouse making $22/hr, and comes back to the store and tries to recruit away every employee they possibly can leaving you in an even bigger bind and even less staffed.
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