Sunday, August 28, 2005

Blinding Speed

Business is TOUGH at busy locations. And you don't get much busier than at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Customers won't stand in line for much under travel conditions, and often they CAN'T afford to wait.

To maximize profits, the McDonald's in this airport have to be super-fast. The McChronicles is always impressed with the speed of service, AND with the quality of the food, at O'Hare. We sampled the service by ordering a Big Mac in Terminal E, near gate 2 (store #22821). We made it a bit disruptive by asking for no cheese. In less than 60 seconds we were searching for a place to sit - it was that fast. Store Manager Louis Gage is clearly doing something right. When asked, the counter person said that this was a good place to work (though the commute into the secure site is a bit tough).

We wonder what it costs to provide such great service - we notice a relatively high number of crew. And we wonder how a store with such tough demands can achieve this success and why other stores, with much milder conditions, seem to have such trouble.

Image: McChronicles

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A lot of it has to do with sales volume and labour cost. At a location where there is so much traffic all day long it's easier to schedule that extra crewmember without having to worry about labour cost and productivity. On top of that the extra crew will likely increase
the speed of service thus generate more sales.