Years back we did a lot of work for a family corporation that owned a bunch of McDonalds "storefronts" (as they called them). I noticed that we were tearing out a bunch of perfectly good not so old work and replacing it. I asked the clan's patriarch why. He smiled and said they had studied the situation (they studied everything) and found their sales went up 30 to 40% during remodeling projects. People like to watch change.
So they deliberately did at least one every other year or sooner in every store. I started watching how people sat when we were working. He was right; the seats far away stayed empty as people watched us from as close as they could sit while trying not to look like they were.
I was taught to build it well so it would last a long time. The McDonalds business plan is different; more like the theater business, constantly morphing to keep people's interest engaged. Kid's playgrounds brings people in? Every store soon had one added. Outdoor dining? We mocked up tile tables and they put them into their freezer to see how they'd hold up. And so on and so on.
Similarly, while we were talking one day one of the young folk working the counter rushed up to him with a competitor's coupon a customer had submitted, asking what to do. The owner looked at him like he was clueless (he was) and told him to honor it, of course. They knew exactly how much it cost on the average to get a customer in a store and were determined to get product into the hands of whoever came in.
You don't have to like their food, but when it comes to knowing how to work their business they are no slouches. I paid attention and learned a lot....
And the families keeping McDonalds alive also represent the railroad's future hope of a market as well. You don't have to like Polar Express, Thomas, oil firing, diesels and so on either, but does the railroad stay alive frozen at 1968? Or to ask the question another way, what does it take to keep the interest (and raise the money) to keep as much of 1968 as possible around?
Timothy
