Sunday, July 24, 2005

Insights

The McChronicles spoke with a multisite McDonald's owner recently. We were told these interesting tidbits:

1) the total units of chicken-based items sold is expected to exceed the beef-based units sold in September 2005. This would mean that McDonald's would become a predominantly chicken store (versus a hamburger store). We are looking for information on this to verify if it is true.

2) the new Premium Chicken sandwiches (joining their line of Premium chicken selects and salads) went on sale this past week. While advertising will start on 02 August, the soft introduction has already begun.

3) the corporate-wide "reimaging" program, mentioned in an early-2005 corporate press release, (where corporate subsidizes part of the mandatory appearance upgrade) is hitting a few snags. It seems that the few approved vendors for certain critical items (lamps were an example given) are unable to keep up with the huge demand for new hardware. this means that several stores are getting part way into their reimaging, only to find that they can't expect delivery of critical, approved items until way beyond the expected completion date. Expect to see semi-reimaged stores for the balance of 2005. Photo by Todd McInturf, The Detroit News

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