MrSchroeder
Lombard, IL
Male, 33
I *was* an assistant manager for a McDonald's Franchisee in Tucson, AZ from 2007 to 2008, and was hired with the explicit intention of being management and not a standard crew member. I worked hard in learning the procedures and processes of the corporation, with a goal of a much longer career than I actually had. My every day life evolved while I was there, starting from the least desirable position to overall operations. I wrote a blog detailing my experiences as well.
Most people call it the worst job they ever had because the work is hard, the pay is relatively low, and most stores aren't run by rock stars like me. But seriously, there rarely are positive work influences at McDonald's. The training is available but poorly implemented, and many of the people working there (as I've mentioned in other posts) are not society's best and brightest - although sometimes they are. Because you have few highly educated or well trained people, and few leaders to look up to. This, in my experience, is no different than most work environments, however. I think a large part of the reason many people hated their McDonald's work experience comes down to one of two facts. First, many people work at McDonald's as their "first job" or their "first real job". This means this is their first taste of not having their time be their own, their first experience of exchanging their mortality for a few dollars. That's never a good feeling, especially if you've spent your life having everything handed to you. So, they're learning the real value of their time, taking orders for the first time, have obligations and expectations for probably the first time in their life, and it's not quite what they think it should be. Yes, this all sucks - but it's not McDonald's fault. Second, many people work at McDonald's as a "last resort" type job, and is not the job they would have if they had their preference. These are people who would prefer not to be doing this demanding, sweaty job with many policies and procedures to adhere to. They may have to take direction from a some "kid" who has been on the planet half as long as they have. Yes, this all sucks - but again, it's not McDonald's fault. I'm a firm believer that perception is reality. The job I had immediately before McDonald's paid me about 50% more in base pay, and I received frequent bonuses and commissions. My title was "Vice President of Sales". My third month at the company I worked at immediately before McDonald's I won a contest and got a three-nights-two-days stay at a $250 a night resort for myself and my family, free food and drink, and room service. While working at McDonald's (I mentioned this in another thread about injuries), my boss bought me $175 shoes and it was the best fringe benefit I got. I was dozens of times happier at McDonald's than I was at that company (until my last two days that is). Perception is, I reiterate, reality.
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Meh, we knew where we were working. I don't know of anyone who felt personally attacked by any of these movies, not even Owner/Operators. Some of the corporate folks probably got their panties in a bunch over it, but for the most part I don't think anything about either of those movies really changed anyone's minds about McDonald's or other fast food. If they did, you'd have to be a pretty dim individual to not comprehend that greasy, cheap food is not that healthful nor does it deliver good nutrition. Let's be real here - it's relatively low quality food (compared to what you might make at home, but this isn't true for everyone) for really cheap (making it very appealing to poorer people) and those people they're marketing to are truly ignorant of the facts of basic nutrition (sorry for calling those people dim, but it is what it is). The fat/sodium content is really high in these products, and that's most of what makes them so delicious to our programmed-to-survive palates. For people who are the "perfect storm" of ignorant, poor, lazy, and easily addicted, McDonald's and other fast food can be very harmful. But so could trying to cross a busy street. For everyone who relies on McDonald's as their main food source, and say it's because it's so inexpensive, I say Mac & Cheese, an apple, and a banana. Go hit up the grocery store. You can find store brand Mac & Cheese for 45 cents, apple and a banana cost maybe a buck together- $1.70 with tax and you have a more wholesome and satisfying meal than McDonald's offers for a higher cost. For $5 you can get a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and a few apples. I know several bachelors who live on peanut butter on bread and fruit. Clean protein, moderate carbs, fruit - you'll feel great and look like an Adonis while not spending much on food. It's just much more convenient to swing through the Drive Thru and spend $5 off the Dollar Menu, or if you have a couple kids, $25 for dinner, than it is to go home, prepare food, and sit down for dinner. It's even more convenient to claim that somehow this is cheaper than the alternative. I think that anyone who eats nothing but fast food isn't very wise, and anyone who feeds their kids McDonald's 3 or 4 times a week is just doing it wrong. That said, it's a delicious treat, hits the spot, and as long as you pace yourself and don't eat out regularly, you should be fine. That, and there actually are quite a few really healthful items on McDonald's menu, and lots more in the past 2 years. Even back in 2007/8 I'd say 25% of the parents who came in with kids under 8 or so got Apple Slices instead of French Fries for their kids. People know about these options, and choose them if they want. Then again, I'm a big, mostly sedentary fat guy these days, so what do I know? (Although I don't eat fast food except maybe once every two weeks, because I don't want my 3 kids getting addicted to it.)
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Good question. This depends on the market, really. Urban areas or rural areas with generally lower incomes definitely do not experience a downturn in traffic after New Year's resolutions are made. Suburban areas definitely experience this - many pictures are out there on reddit of empty post-New Year restaurants. Areas where shopping happens (near malls, in malls, etc.) *definitely* experience a downturn in traffic after the New Year but mostly because most people are not shopping as much.
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This really depends on the franchisee's policies and the market. In some locations, they really only hire bright-eyed, fresh-faced, clean-cut and clean-recorded individuals. They do this because they have a volume of people like this to choose from. In other locations, a guy with forearm inks (like myself) and a minor record with no felonies might be the very best candidate they can find. Generally, I would say as long as it's not domestic violence and is not related to stealing, theft or robbery, a record should not inhibit you from being employed at a McDonald's.
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Some restaurants have switched to ketchup tubs, like the various nugget type sauces have available. Heinz apparently is in a court case over this very thing right now, because they appear to have violated someone else's patent by marketing these. This could seriously be a dissertation on ketchup - ketchup packets are a really important part of American fast food society. I know that sounds silly, but Americans are generally very "nostalgic" people. We do many things in a nostalgic way, the way our parents and grandparents did them, for no reason other than that's how we've always done it. This could turn into a diatribe about vertical toasters and gasoline combustion engines, concrete roadways and steel-beam bridges - but it won't. Suffice it to say that the ketchup packet, while annoying, tiny, and an undesirable expense to owner/operators, they are also the most effective balance of cheapness, convenience, and nostalgic ketchupy goodness.
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This differs depending on the operation. Most franchisees and corporate offer 1 free meal per day that you work, up to anywhere from $5 to $10, though most that I know of are in the $7 range. Some franchisees do not offer this, and they're completely jerks for it. As for "eating for free while working", every manager is required to taste pretty much every product during the course of the day. You need to make sure the fries taste right at various times during your shift, taste breakfast food items to make sure they're coming out correctly, taste burger patties and completed product, test some shake of various flavors, try all the flavors of drinks from all the different dispensers in the store. It really does get old at times, because you're not enjoying it, you're testing it. It was common for me, when I was working, to get people I relied on to do this. So, if someone mentioned they're hungry or something, I'd have them place a "complimentary" order (required manager override to get it to ring up at $0.00 for inventory management purposes) and go eat it. We didn't have people eating full prepared items endlessly, but in the course of a day at least 25% of the various food items would be made completely and someone would eat them. We, for obvious reasons, didn't make things like Double Quarter Pounders, and it's unlikely the fancy Angus burgers (which we did not have when I worked there) get made and tested, but it's likely about 4 times a day someone's trying the Angus patties for quality.
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I don't have a great amount of knowledge about this, but I can tell you what I do know. The franchisee I worked for acquired 4 stores in Tucson that were all already existing. Prior to this, he had a single store in Colorado. He either bought out the previous owners because they wanted to sell or was "awarded" the right to buy the franchise based on his previous recorded - awarded by McDonald's corporate, usually this happens when the existing franchisee is not succeeding financially (is unable to pay franchise fees or for inventory), or they fail heavily on the Operations Reviews that occur periodically. I know that one of his 4 stores was turning over $75k in profit per month. Another one, the one I worked at, lost $5,000 the first year he had it (also the first year I worked there). I was actually able, in the first month I was put in charge of managing inventory, to reduce over/under ordering costs by a bit more than $5,000, thus cancelling out his previous year's loss. There are a huge variety of factors in the success or failure of a McDonald's location. I've spoken to franchisees who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the course of a year, and others who made several million dollars. It depends on so many factors - most of them basic principals of McDonald's management. Some unmanageable ones are nearby traffic and location, ease of entry, competition, the neighborhood. Manageable ones include quality of service, speed of service, inventory management, labor management, cleanliness, and more (these are the basic tenants of McDonald's operations, referred to as "QSC&V: Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value"). No actual location will "fail" unless it truly is a loser based on unmanageable factors. Otherwise, if a franchisee fails, McDonald's will either buy back the franchise and make it a corporate store, or sell the franchise to another, more successful franchisee who has demonstrated success and is interested in the location. A fun note on franchises with McDonald's... The franchisee owns everything inside the walls, the parking lot and structures outside (such as trash bins, or external storage areas). Everything else belongs to McDonald's. The land, the shrubbery, sidewalks, signage, flagpoles all belong to McDonald's. As do the walls, windows and doors. The franchisee has to maintain and upkeep all aspects of the property, and is required to purchase all fixtures, equipment, plumbing, seating, counters, signage, food prep and drink dispensers, etc. It's an open secret that McDonald's really isn't in the hamburger business, they're in the property business.
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