{"id":7996,"date":"2015-05-11T21:31:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T03:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/?p=7996"},"modified":"2015-05-11T21:31:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T03:31:40","slug":"a-turnaround-plan-for-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/11\/a-turnaround-plan-for-mcdonalds\/","title":{"rendered":"A Turnaround Plan For McDonald’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader sent me a link to an article about how actor James Franco credits McDonald\u2019s for keeping body and soul together<\/a> when he was struggling financially.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the point of this post, but here are some interesting quotes:<\/p>\n

Actor James Franco has written a lengthy endorsement of his former employer, McDonald’s.<\/span> Franco writes in a Washington Post op-ed that in the late ’90s he was a struggling actor living in Los Angeles. He was fired from a coffee shop and golf course and couldn’t find acting jobs. <\/span><\/p>\n

He became desperate after his parents cut him off financially.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Someone asked me if I was too good to work at McDonald\u2019s,” Franco writes. “Because I was following my acting dream despite all the pressure not to, I was definitely not too good to work at McDonald\u2019s.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Franco says he began working in the drive-thru and practicing foreign accents on customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was able to leave his job at McDonald’s after booking a Super Bowl commercial with Pizza Hut. Since then, he’s become one of the most successful actors in the industry, starring in The Interview, 127 Hours, and Spiderman. But Franco says he still feels affection for the fast food chain. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I was treated fairly well at McDonald\u2019s. If anything, they cut me slack,” Franco writes. “And, just like their food, the job was more available there than anywhere else. When I was hungry for work, they fed the need.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, that\u2019s nice.\u00a0 It\u2019s refreshing to see a Hollywood type who doesn\u2019t consider McDonald\u2019s an evil empire.\u00a0 (Full disclosure:\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know who James Franco was until I read the article.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sign of my impending decline into Old Fogeyhood.\u00a0 I see headlines about pop stars and think, \u201cWho the heck is that?\u201d)<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t the article itself that caught my interest.\u00a0 It was a linked article about how McDonald\u2019s plans to turn around its flagging sales<\/a>:<\/p>\n

McDonald’s unveiled on Monday its massive turnaround plan to revive business.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our recent performance has been poor. The numbers don’t lie,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a 23-minute video overview of the plan. “I will not shy away from the urgent need to reset this business.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Easterbrook said the company would strip away layers of management, focus more on listening to customers, and act faster to adapt to consumers’ changing tastes.<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald’s same-store sales have fallen for six straight quarters in the US, where the company is battling a pervasive public perception that its food is unhealthy and over-processed. The chain has also been hurt by a series of food safety scandals in Asia, which contributed to a 15% loss in net income last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company will be restructured into four market segments: the US; international lead markets (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, UK); high-growth markets (China, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands); and foundational markets (the remaining markets in the McDonald’s system).<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald’s will also refranchise 3,500 restaurants through 2018, bringing its total percentage of franchised restaurants to 90% from 81% globally. The restructuring is expected to save the company $300 million annually by 2017, according to the company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going forward, improving food quality will be a top priority, Easterbrook said.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were paragraphs in the article about how the company plans to restructure, re-franchise, etc., to save money.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know or care what those involve.\u00a0 It\u2019s the food quality issue that I believe will eventually make or break McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

When Super Size Me<\/em> was released, there were gleeful predictions among fans that it would sink McDonald\u2019s.\u00a0 I never believed that.\u00a0 The people who cheered Super Size Me<\/em> didn\u2019t eat at McDonald\u2019s anyway.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I sincerely doubt anyone saw Super Size Me<\/em> and said to himself, \u201cOh my gosh!\u00a0 So that\u2019s why I\u2019m fat \u2013 McDonald\u2019s has been selling me too much food!\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s it, I\u2019m never eating there again.\u201d While researching Fat Head<\/em>, I talked to two different franchise owners (both owned multiple McDonald\u2019s restaurants) who told me Super Size Me<\/em> didn\u2019t affect their sales at all.<\/p>\n

Morgan Spurlock didn\u2019t hurt McDonald\u2019s, but I\u2019m pretty sure the paleo movement has.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the CEO talked about food quality, not quantity.\u00a0 The question is whether or not Mr. Easterbrook and the rest of the McDonald\u2019s brass understand what food quality<\/em> means to the public these days.<\/p>\n

Despite what some people think, I have no relationship (financial or otherwise) with McDonald\u2019s and rarely eat there.\u00a0 But it so happens that the day before these articles ran, Chareva and I had one those tight-schedule nights, both of us trying to get the girls to and from different activities while taking care of our own errands.\u00a0 So we ended up meeting at McDonald\u2019s for dinner and a daughter-exchange.<\/p>\n

I ordered one of the 1\/3 pound sirloin burgers \u2013 minus the bun — and it was actually pretty tasty.\u00a0 Not grass-fed, of course, but I don\u2019t expect to find grass-fed beef in most restaurants.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even eat grass-fed beef all the time at home.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe grain-fed beef is bad for us; just not as good for us as grass-fed beef.\u00a0 So I was fine with the burger.<\/p>\n

But then there are the other items on the menu:\u00a0 buns made from mutant wheat, skim milk (whole milk isn\u2019t even available), salads with Newman\u2019s Own<\/em> salad dressing \u2013 main ingredient: soybean oil.<\/p>\n

The girls split a small order of fries.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t eat any.\u00a0 Because of the carbs?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 My diet is low-carb but not zero-carb, and I\u2019ll happily eat a serving of potatoes now and then.\u00a0 But McDonald\u2019s fries are fried in vegetable oil.\u00a0 As Nina Teicholz explained in her outstanding book The Big Fat Surprise,<\/a> the vegetable oils used in fast-food restaurants these days may be even worse than the trans fats they replaced:<\/p>\n

Gerald McNeill, vice president of Loders Croklaan, which is one of the country\u2019s largest suppliers of edible oil, told me something scary.\u00a0 He explained that fast-food chains including McDonald\u2019s, Burger King and Wendy\u2019s have swapped out hydrogenated oils and started using regular vegetable oil instead.\u00a0 \u201cAs those oils are heated, you\u2019re creating toxic oxidative breakdown products,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cOne of those products is a compound called an aldehyde, which interferes with DNA.\u00a0 Another is formaldehyde, which is extremely toxic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Aldehydes?\u00a0 Formaldehyde?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that the stuff that\u2019s used to preserve dead bodies?<\/span><\/p>\n

He went on to tell me how these heated, oxidized oils form polymers that create a \u201cthick gunk\u201d on the bottom of the fryer and clog up the drains\u2026 Partially hydrogenated oils, by contrast, were long-lasting and stable in fryers, which of course is why they were favored.\u00a0 And beef tallow, McDonald\u2019s original frying fat, was even more stable.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I told Chareva over dinner, if McDonald\u2019s ever went back to beef tallow for frying, I\u2019d probably eat there more often.\u00a0 As it is, if we go out for burgers and fries (and we\u2019re not pressed for time), we go to Five Guys \u2013 largely because the French fries are fried in peanut oil.\u00a0 They taste way better than the fries at McDonald\u2019s, and while peanut oil isn\u2019t the best of fats, it\u2019s acceptable.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what Mr. Easterbrook has in mind for improving food quality, but from what I\u2019ve seen lately, McDonald\u2019s is heading in the wrong direction.\u00a0 They still seem to think food quality<\/em> means low-fat and low-cholesterol.\u00a0 Their big idea for breakfast is the Egg White Delight McMuffin.\u00a0 Egg whites?\u00a0 Seriously?\u00a0 Hell, not even the goofs on the USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee think egg yolks are a problem anymore.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t ask me (like I said, we have no relationship), but if they did, here\u2019s what I\u2019d tell the McDonald\u2019s brass:<\/p>\n

Yes, you\u2019re losing sales to consumer concern about food quality.\u00a0 But that concern is driven by the paleo movement and the gluten-free movement, not the anti-fat hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s.\u00a0 If you want to bring back customers, forget the low-fat nonsense and try a few ideas like these:<\/p>\n