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.
Well first and foremost, a store generally wouldn't be "way overstocked" - it likely wouldn't even be a little bit overstocked. Every McDonald's is a business and as such doesn't just pile up their stockrooms, coolers and freezers with more product than they need (at least not enough to benefit a shelter or other organization) unless in a gross case of incompetence.
Directly to the point of the question, most of the food that was wasted (the term for throwing out food that doesn't meet quality or safety expectations) was food that was already prepared and exceeded it's hold time - and at that point it can't be given away. Because all of the products that make McDonald's food have a long shelf life, and the few products that do have a high rate of spoilage (such as lettuce and milk) are used in quantity, there's little actual stock spoilage or food going bad. Also, once food is spoiled, it's spoiled. I'm sure you can agree, it would be far worse to give a shelter or some organization food that has gone bad than to give them nothing.
The vast majority of stores actually run understocked in an effort to reduce costs. However, this backfires seriously because it is much more expensive to get stock that a store is short of (by immediately delivery or borrowing from another store) - not only realistically (it costs more to have immediate delivery from a warehouse or the costs associated with driving to another store and borrowing product) but also from a paperwork standpoint. Also, product requests/shortages affect a management team's performance assessment as these inventory inconsistencies are tracked on a daily basis. Inventory management being the second most manageable aspect of a McDonald's restaurant (labor being the first), this is rightly a big deal.
In the rare case that a product goes bad inside of it's shelf-life, in most cases it gets returned to the distribution warehouse for a refund/replacement. I think this happened with maybe 1 product box every 10 deliveries or so, a really great record considering most deliveries were on the order of 2,500 individual boxes.
Managing inventory well is one of the most costly aspects of managing a McDonald's and one of the most difficult. The first store manager I briefly trained under (before moving to the store I worked at primarily), never walked her stock rooms, coolers and freezers before making orders - she relied on her managers to accurately count inventory for reporting purposes. These staff members followed her example and barely put any effort into their work, meaning her inventory reporting was never accurate (something I encountered nearly instantly and tried hard to resolve in the short time I was there, ineffectively). This manager never reviewed her inventory reporting prior to making orders, but only used that reporting to meet the requirement that it be done. She also could never comprehend why she was always running out of stock and had high spoilage. So basically, she had no idea what she had on hand when she went about the task of ordering more stock, and even if she had used the tools at her disposal, they would have done her more harm than good through their inaccuracy.
The second store manager I worked with had more experience (a decade with McDonald's, as I recall him mentioning repeatedly) and thought he could "eyeball" product stock and made orders based off of usage and studied the inventory reporting but also never walked the stock room, walk-in or cooler. He delegated all inventory counts to a capable manager (usually me) and used that inventory reporting to determine what he would order.
I mentioned elsewhere that my first year, the store I was in lost $5,000 for the year. In the course of one month, strictly controlling inventory and actively reviewing reports *and* the physical stock, I was able to reduce our inventory overage by $3,500 and reduce stock requests (borrowed/immediate shipped) by a further $1,500 - negating for that loss from the year before. The trick was to make sure there was not a surfeit of stock that had very long shelf life and increase the stock of short shelf-life items enough to cover but not enough to waste. It just so happens that the products with the longest shelf-lives (generally proteins) are the most costly - so cutting the number of them by a small amount has a great effect. The shortest shelf-life items (like lettuce, tomato and milk) also had a lower cost. 5% fewer protein items in stock (let's say $1000) and 10% more vegetable/perishables stock (call it $250) had a net positive effect on the inventory.
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Menu is not dictated entirely. Some stores don't participate in sales/specials/promotions/seasonal items. Right now McRib is back - some stores aren't carrying it. Some stores have found they don't sell salads as well, so maybe they price those higher or don't carry the same variety.
Pricing is definitely up to the Owner/Operator, and depends on market. Most of the stores don't have a "Dollar Menu" anymore, or if they do it's very limited. They have a "Value Menu" where items are $1.19-$1.59.
However, franchisees can't "add" items that are not part of the McDonald's menu to their menu and cannot serve food "off menu" as a rule (like a Land-Sea-Air burger (Big Mac with a Fish Filet and a McChicken on the burger patties).
As far as decoration goes, there is a ton of leeway allowed. In Tucson, one of the stores was decorated like an expensive, rich guy's library. Shelves and books, dark floor, the vinyl seats were faux leather, a couple of large lounging armchairs and ottomans... A very impressive design. In Chicagoland, there are several theme restaurants, including a 1950s pastel diner look. However, I do believe that they must predominantly have the familiar Gold and Red in some way and all deviations are probably required to be approved by McDonald's Corp. but I'm not certain.
Here's a couple links with the more unique McDonald's restaurants including one that's a freaking AIRPLANE! http://www.sortrature.com/unique-mcdonalds-restaurants/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckroes/galleries/72157622406186208/
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No matter how well it’s designed, it’s still a speaker and microphone system, often with an LCD or LED screen, which is exposed to sun, wind, rain, snow, and everything that comes with those 24/7/365. Not to mention that it consists of electronic devices that are running continuously, which causes it’s own wear and tear, as well as it being activated and in use nearly constantly in most moderately busy stores. Next take into effect the equipment inside the store. It’s worn literally constantly, which means from 19 to 24 hours a day. The equipment usually consists of either simply a headset which is connected to the 2-way receiver/transceiver wirelessly or a headset connected by wires to a belt pack which houses the battery, talk and channel buttons, and connects to the 2-way receiver/transceiver. While each type is constantly in use - again 19 to 24 hours a day - each type also encounters its own issues. The headset only style might fall off the head of the wearer constantly, striking the ground *every time* the wearer bends their head forward more than 15 or 20 degrees. If the wearer is really swift, they may catch it 4 out of 5 falls. But fall it will. Part of the reason for this is that all of the communications devices and batteries are stored in the headset. It’s heavy and by nature has imperfect balance. The device is in motion endlessly and the electronics fail due to constant use. There are generally several headsets as they’re also used by management to hear orders and used to communicate with kitchen teams as well. In some stores, everyone wears a headset. They may have a rated lifespan of about 2 years, a functional lifespan of 1 year, and get used for 3 years. The belt-style headset systems are awesome and terrible. On the one hand, they’re not a stupid headset falling off you every time you, because even though they consist of a headset as well - it can be lighter weight and better balanced because it doesn’t need to house receiver/transceiver and batteries. Those are on a belt at your waist. The problem these types have is that they’re constantly smacking into things, generally the sharp corners of brushed aluminum prep tables and the counters. I’m sure you can understand what this might due to sensitive electronic parts? Also, they face the same issue of constantly being in use 19to24/7/365. These have a rated lifespan of about 4 years, a functional lifespan of about 2 years and are used for a long, long time. I’ve seen some as old as 8 and I’m sure there are 10 year old sets still in use. Last, two huge, brief factors of the inside-the-store equipment. First, grease. Grease is in the air everywhere in a McDonald’s. It gets into the electronics, even though they’re usually mounted away from the kitchen area and they’re housed in reduced-airflow systems. Second, idiots and jerks. I’ve already discussed how many McDonald’s employees are not the creme de la creme. Many of them are disgruntled, or immature, or simply jerkfaces who don’t give a whit about life. They’re the sort who like to destroy stuff for fun’s sake. Idiots and sensitive electronics leads to those electronics not working optimally.
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McDonald's menu is often changing. They spend a large amount of money on product development and improvement, and I really don't think there's anything they *don't* have that I would like to see again.
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In short, none. There really aren't any fast food restaurants that can take over McDonald's position as #1 in volume. Not only is McDonald's historically successful in nearly every market they enter, they have momentum of growth. There are many, many new restaurants opening every year, worldwide. McDonald's is something of a symbol of Americanism throughout the world as well - a food-related space that no other brand other than Coca-cola holds. Also, the McDonald's franchise system works remarkably well, putting a large amount of risk on the shoulders of franchisees and minimizing exposure to loss on McDonald's part (they generally own the property - and can always sell it in during a seller's market). While I don't think there are many restaurants that will overtake McDonald's for volume either domestically or internationally, several brands are growing and have many locations around the world. "Worth" of brands per statista.com, 2012. Subway - 27,000+ locations, worth $15B KFC - 11,000 locations, $10B Pizza Hut - 12,500 locations, $5.4B Wendy's - 10,000 locations, $4B You could also include Starbucks in that listing, although it's not quite "fast food", they have 21,000 locations and a brand value of $17B. Now, compare that to McDonalds - 34,000 locations and a brand value of just short of $100B.
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During the hiring process, there are generally cues that potential employees will give to the content of their character and their interest in doing well. Sometimes, people would shine that they were management material. Other times, someone who I thought would be a 3 month-turnover employee who had to be coached constantly would turn out to be a shining star. So, sometimes but that initial impression is generally not very reliable.
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Mon-Fri 11:20 AM
Breakfast is over, Store Manager is probably there (80% likelihood or better, considering usually they take a single weekday and a weekend day off), and lunch has not gotten full swing yet.
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