McDonald's Shareholders Vote for Racial Audit

The proposal won with 52% of the votes in favor

With Envirowhackos and Unions CA Doesn't Stand a Chance

Orange County Register - Opinion on SEIU legislation

Big Plans at Subway and Wendy's - QSR Mag

Subway to focus on larger, multiple operators

Maybe an on-premise single-store operator could make a $400K sandwich shop work. But a multiple with dozens of stores? Not so much. 

This is simply an indication they can't find buyers for new or used stores.

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Wendy's maybe going to be privately held?

Shareholders Fry Carl Ichan's McDonald's Proposals

All McDonald's board members re-elected

Analyst's Tweet on Beyond Meat

Howard W. Penney

@HowardWPenney

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I have breaking news! This press release from $BYND saying Kim Kardashian to be featured in the new campaign as 'Company's First Chief Taste Consultant' is not going to change that the product is no better than dog food. #SHORT as it has the potential single-digit midget stock!

A Beef With Beef Down Under

Aussies told to stop eating meat - save the world

Pregnant Lady Commits Felonies at McDonald's

With nearly 14,000 U.S. McDonald's stores, news articles about customer behavior incidents are pretty common. This YouTube video is a little different in that the Sheriff is having a good time with his press conference and attaches "Mc" to almost everything.

Sheriff Judd - press conference - Polk County Florida

Speaking of misbehaving customers...

Two-year-old orders 31 McDonald's cheeseburgers on Doordash

Pretty Pictures of Food is illegal?

"Wendy's and McDonald's advertisements for its burger and menu items are unfair and financially damaging customers as they are receiving food that is much lower in value than what is being promised." the complaint says.

McDonald's, Wendy's accused of beefing up burgers in ads

"Financially damaging customers" - What a joke. These are the same people who comment on financial websites claiming that every time they go to McDonald's the beef patties are smaller.

Consumers to Corporations - Get Out of Politics

Poll shows - Americans want corporations out of politics

McDonald's to Russia - See Ya Later

McDonald's to sell Russian assets - CEO says "Until we meet again"

Comprehesive Article From Restaurant Business

 Mass Exodus: McDonald's franchisees are leaving the system

I'm From Chicago And I'm Here to Help

NOA survey and our Kalinowski survey say:

“The PACE audits will hold us back from building sales and will increase our turnover of employees. The worst time in the history of the system to implement such a program,” one respondent said. “Stop PACE programs, which will decimate the staffs we need to operate,” another said. Overall, the proprietary survey ranks franchisee relations with corporate a 1.19 on a scale of 1 to 5, the third-worst score in its history dating back to mid-2003. 

McDonald's Operator Surveys - PACE is poorly timed -CNBC

Oak Brook Has a New Occupant

 Ace Hardware to move to former McDonald's HQ

Jonathan Maze on Burger King

 

  

   The article is available on their "Premium" side at Restaurant Business

Profits not Politics

More than a few visitors to this website are fans of Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants. Andy and a few friends have an investment venture based on doing the opposite of what ESG and the like demand. It will be interesting to watch.

"We are not supportive of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DE&I”) or similarly “fashionable” investment criteria that place ideological, social or political goals ahead of our investors’ financial interests." - 2nd Vote Advisers

2ndvoteadvisers.com

Vendors Suffering Thru the Recession

Tyson says profit up 74% in Q2

McDonald's USA Boss Sells 42% of Owned MCD Shares

 McDonald's insider sells $1,468,463.16 in stock

The Disease Called ESG

While we often complain about someone or some entity being "Woke" there's a greater long-term danger out there for corporate America. That's "ESG" or Environmental, Social, and Governance. This is Wokeness on steroids and is a more formalized way for non-stakeholders to have a great influence on public companies. There will be no end to their efforts to reshape the corporate world to their personal liking.

For instance, the efforts of activist investor Carl Icahn to change the way McDonald's handles pork production has morphed into an effort to eventually remove animal protein from the McDonald's menu entirely.

In other words, McDonald's will be forced to replace animal protein with fake meat just because some people think it's better for the environment. That doesn't mean customers will buy the product.

Icahn Pushes McDonald's to Expand Meatless Options

McDonald's Chairman of the Board mentions ESG several times in his annual letter to shareholders. He also states that "climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time". That give the environmental whackos a blank change to hassle McDonald's about an endless list of supposed sins.

What is ESG? - A course description

Starbucks Fighting to the Death

Starbucks increasing wages and perks, but not at company stores

Interesting CEO Pay

 

While putting together the aforementioned "market cap" numbers I  happened across the recently-released numbers for the CEO of Walmart. In their fiscal year 2022 he was paid $20.83 million. I thought that number sounded familiar. Sure enough, it's just a little more than McDonald's Corp. paid their CEO for the period of time.

Let's see, we've already established that MCD market cap is $188 billion while Walmart's market cap is $431 billion, more than twice the value of MCD.

But Walmart sales for fiscal 2022 were $572 billion, more than five times MCD system-wide sales of $112 billion.

Yet the CEOs make the same $$$?

There's another difference - Walmart's CEO began his career 30 years ago as an hourly paid teenager unloading Walmart trucks.

Activist investor Carl Icahn recently called compensation for McDonald’s execs “unconscionable” and said, "the board was condoning multiple forms of injustice."

Walmart CEO earns $20.83M in fiscal 2022 (nwaonline.com)

"The Boardroom Initiative" Fights Wokeisam in Corporations

This topic is even more important in a system that is predominantly franchised.

Having little in common with self-employed franchisees it's easy for the corporate side to speak out on issues and give the impression that their personal positions represent the entire franchise system.

Meanwhile, the franchisees are shouting "no comment"!

Wouldn't it be delicious if a group (any size) of McDonald's Owner/Operators publically supported the Boardroom Initiative"?

Led by former McDonald’s USA CEO is initially taking on Bank of America

The Boardroom Initiative's website

McDonald's Q1 Earnings Transcript

One way to gain insight into where your franchised brand is going is to pay attention to what management is telling the investment community. Pay particular attention to the questions from the analysts.

Seeking Alpha - McDonald's Corp - Q1 2022 - Earnings call transcript