I've always resisted postings and comments on this website that discuss upcoming
promotions and marketing plans assuming that's proprietary information and discussing
it here might give competitors some advantage. But, since Nation's Restaurant News and Crain's have already reported on the "Pick 2"idea it's out of the bag.
In that light, I received mail from a McDonald's Operator asking that we try to generate
some discussion about "Pick 2" on this website. While I can't republish the entire E-mail
but will kick things off by posting bullet points from the Operator E-mail.
_______________________________________________________________________
* Please focus your blog on this Pick 2 plan that is terrible for the O/Os.
* I have spoken to a lot of O/Os who are afraid to speak up. I am not sure of what they are afraid. Does anyone want another restaurant at this point?
* Regardless, this OPNAD plan, overall, is terrible and will lead us back down the dollar
rabbit hole.
* NRN has an article about it right now, but O/Os are voting.
* It is crazy on who is voting yes and no.
* Anything we can do to kill this terrible plan is a first start.
* I can’t believe that McDonald’s wants to run it this way, but more importantly, why would you (as an O/O) not see it as your own small business.
* Why worry over what McDonald’s thinks? We are the ones up against tremendous debts (due to McDonald’s) and meeting payroll.
* O/Os need all the votes they can get. They need to know that a lot of Co-Ops have failed
this terrible plan, but not enough.
.
8 comments:
So adb is supposed to be turning things around but we still have to sell sandwiches for $1?
Somethings wrong here!
My bet is that the O/O will give the company whatever they want because that is who we are. An o/o running a viable business, taking care of their customers and employee's, servicing unreasonable debt would not vote for this. For some reason we think MCD knows what they are doing and are concerned about the o/o businesses. Neither is true. It is not MCD's responsibility or interest to concern themselves with operator cash flow. It just isn't. Operator cash flow is the responsibility of the operator. MCD is only concerned about the cash flowing into Oak Brook. If the operators sell product at a loss but top line sales increase that generates more cash for Oak Brook and that is what they care about. That is what they should care about. Operators may make some money on this but the question is "is it enough to make it worthwhile?" Probably not. Making a profit is one thing but making enough profit to pay the principle on the notes, put something aside for reinvestments and growth, increase equity and take something home is something else
altogether. Trying to make up the difference with debt is a big mistake.
Pick 2 is nothing more than a stealth Dollar Menu
It's worse than dollar menu, because now customers are forced to buy two mcdoubles! It's not a long term value plan either. If it passes, it won't last, but many large markets already have voted against this.
It seems that after three years of negative comparable sales, we are finally reaching and coming back from the bottom. September was a very strong month for our organization, but it really has nothing to do with McDonald’s. I have been going against co-op votes and raising the price on Dollar Menu products. I have found that, while my transactions are lacking, I am finally having a healthy average check and gross profit again.
We are lapping several years of soft sales. We are negative guest counts but have taken price increases. Poor sales in previous years will make the end of this year look like we’ve solved all of our problems, but we have not.
Every idea that comes out of Oak Brook comes down to just one thing: discounting and cheap food. Ideas like Create Your Taste and kind of a smokescreen to cover up the fact that all we really do is chase the "value customer".
The projection is that PICK 2 for $2 will have a blended F&P of 43.5% for a measly
1.2% - 1.8% sales increase. That doesn't leave much room for the o/o to make a buck.
PICK 2 for $5 looks like a better deal for the o/o.
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