Word: mcdonaldization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...McDonald's opens a new store somewhere around the globe every eight hours, but these days the fast-food giant is trying to attract attention to the demolition of one of its 30,000 outposts. In a Chicago suburb just a few miles down the road from corporate headquarters, the head of McDonald's USA hired a band and had balloons strewn about before a Caterpillar backhoe clawed down the walls of one of the company's older locations. After 24 years, the Hinsdale branch, like the rest of McDonald's, looks a bit tired and frayed at the edges...
...next couple of years, more than 1,000 other aging McDonald's outlets may get the bulldozer treatment, and 6,000 others could be given a face-lift. But rebuilding the company's formerly sizzling burger business in the U.S., which accounts for half its $40 billion in global sales, will be much more difficult. In July and August, revenues at its U.S. stores open for at least 12 months shrank 2.7% from the year before. The company has suffered declining profits for six of the past seven quarters and just lowered its earnings expectations for 2002. Wall Street...
...McDonald's to get cooking again, its marketing also has to be accessible. For the past several years, a virtual revolving door of corporate executives and an overreliance on regional campaigns have resulted in a diffuse, largely ineffective message. "Our marketing has become too democratic," says Irwin Kruger, a New York City franchisee, who this week will open his massive McDonald's in Times Square, complete with a video-laced menu board, flat-panel displays with subway maps and movie schedules, and his own creation, Mini McDonuts...
...McDonald's new national ad campaign will revolve around a national "dollar value menu" that will eventually include the Big 'N' Tasty burger, the McChicken sandwich and special sizes of fries, soda, salad and various desserts. It may not strike anyone as anything particularly new, but it will transmit a unified, consistent message about a bargain. By moving away from sporadic deep discounting in favor of a permanent two-tier menu that keeps signature products like the Big Mac at the top, Mickey D's is following the model that Wendy's has successfully used to lure in penny-pinching...
...restaurants, McDonald's may have to do more than just open up a dual drive-through lane or replace the brown-shingled roof with a red metal one. Some of its most successful locations seem to be the ones that stand out from the pack - whether it's the Orlando, Fla., outlet with a pool table and an air-hockey table, or the one near Chicago with a fireplace and leather armchairs. "McDonald's is a restaurant, not a hamburger stand, and we need to treat it as such," says Chicago-area franchisee David Bear. Who knows, some operators...