Monday, September 19, 2011

Mcdonald's



Hillary White
Professor Fleury-Lawson
Business and Society
9/16/11



McDonald’s is one of the world’s largest businesses. McDonalds started out with about 30,000 stores and now has about one million stores all across the world today. I found out that today it can cost about one million or more to buy a McDonald’s franchise. This was very surprising to me. It’s crazy to think about how much a fast food restaurant can go for. In this video they talked about McDonald’s busiest location in the world, the expansion of the business across the world and there nutrition and many other important points.
McDonald’s busiest location is located in Darien, Connecticut right off of I-95 North. I was surprised that McDonald’s busiest location is not that far from where most of us are from. I’m sure I have driving by this location without even realizing that this is the busiest location in the world. They have what they call “bus loads” of people about five to fifty times a day. Each day there is about 120 thousands of cars that drive by this location. It’s in the perfect place to attract customers who are traveling long distances. They treat the bus driver’s like royalty by giving those many advantages such a free food most of the time. This helps there business because they are basically saying if you bring us lots of customers, then we will give you a good deal. I also thought it was interesting how in china they had to teach their customers how to use a drive thru properly. It will make it easier for customers to grab something to eat in a rush. And it will most definitely help their business.
In this video I remember them talking about McDonalds nutrition and how some people think that McDonalds is the one that is causing obesity in America. A Big Mac, large fries and a large coke is 1400 calories and 59 grams of fat. That is almost the amount of calories that you need in about a day. Not in one sitting. Business wise this is not a good reputation. In order to have more customers they had to add some healthier options to the menu such as apple slices, salads, grilled chicken sandwiches ect. To expand their business they need these options to have an even higher income. They have actual chefs that make their food and make healthier options for their customers, which I was very surprised by. I figured that all of their food was just processed. The food that they make has to go through different test before they can put them in the stores. I remember them saying that even though it’s called fast food each entre has a particular way it can be made and it takes some time. They also talked about the movie” Super-Size Me” and by people watching that it also gave McDonald’s a bad reputation. McDonald’s needs to look into more of a variety of different healthy options on their menu or they might start to lose a lot of their customers in the future.

2 comments:

Alley Euglow said...

Hillary, I really liked your opening paragraph to this article. I also loved your photo; I think McDonald's slogan is very catchy and appropriate! I also found it quite surprising that they started with about 30,000 restaurants and is now about one million! I find that absolutely amazing, it just goes to show you how marketing is key to getting your name out there and for your success. I believe McDonald's clearly markets themselves appropriately and they have done a great job with that. I mean, there is a reason why the "golden arches" are so well known. I loved how you brought up their location in CT, which is also very close to me and I have been there on several occasions as a stop during long trips! I also found it funny that China did not know how to use a drive-thru properly. I also put the obesity problem in my blog, but I believe that McDonald's has added new items to their menu and the obesity problem is not only McDonald's fault. All in all, I liked your blog and I think we had a lot of the same points. -Alexandra Euglow

Fuller said...

When reading this post, I agreed of how crazy it is that McDonalds has companies everywhere, and not just in the U.S but also across seas as well, or that the biggest McDonald’s is on I-95 North. I live in Massachusetts so there is a good chance I have yet to pass it, but I am a big McDonalds fan and might have to make a trip up. However I do have to disagree about McDonalds being a cause of the obesity in the U.S. and how there food can hurt their business. Everyone has a choice to eat right, excise, and stay in shape to prevent obesity, it is just whether the person wants to go for quality or quantity for their food, which in this lifetime is quantity because of the economy. Also for their food to be hurting there business is very unlikely because billions of people each year walk into a McDonalds and order their food at a cheap price that not many people can beat and not to mention the taste of there food is out of this world.