Is fast food giant McDonald's finally paying the price for its arrogance?

There were probably many Yamba residents muttering “I told you so” under their breaths after reading this in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 August 2014:

Sales at McDonald's have recorded their worst results in over 10 years.

Global sales at the fast food giant dropped 2.5 per cent in June and July.

Not since March 2003, when global sales plunged 3.7 per cent in consecutive months, has the world's biggest restaurant chain suffered such losses.

Australia is part of McDonald's Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa operation, which was the worst performing sector in the second quarter of 2014. Its sales declined 7.3 per cent.  

After similarly disappointing first quarter results, Australia was singled out as a poor performing market in April…..

One aspect of the Australian psyche the multinational fast food chain, McDonald’s, never grasped – if you force yourselves on our communities we tend not to buy your product.

In particular I suspect that the amount of national publicity the Telcoma protestors managed to garner is beginning to impact on many household fast food choices around the country.

Which makes one wonder if the fast food giant’s McDelivery trial will also fall flat on its face in Australia.

Background

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/search?q=mcdonalds+yamba

The quiet desperation that is McDonalds Australia

In 2010  thanks to a blindly pro-multinational and Grafton-centric Clarence Valley Council, the little coastal town of Yamba had an ugly prefab, generic designed and unwanted McDonalds fast food outlet foist upon it.

The only thing that this multinational appears to have brought to the town is a level of litter in Treelands Drive and environs that it never had before.

So it was with quiet satisfaction that I read this in Lifehacker at the end of July 2013:

When we heard about McDonald’s Free Breakfast Deal promotion, we were expecting long queues and a lengthy wait. However, you should be served pretty quickly if our local outlet is anything to go by…

Over the next month, McDonald’s Australia is offering free breakfast items each Monday morning, beginning with today’s free Bacon McMuffin. There’s no catch or additional purchase requirements (although there is a limit of 1000 freebies per store and only one item per customer).

The above photo is what the line looked like at McDonald’s Circular Quay restaurant at approximately 8am. As you can see, demand for the free breakfast isn’t particularly overwhelming…..

It would appear that in 2012-2013 McDonalds’ Yamba store is not alone in failing to draw in customers and now this multinational is reduced to giving away its product.

McDonalds talks down Australian economy and tells whoppers to save face as sales fall

Don Thompson

Reuters 22 July 2013:

The world's biggest restaurant chain by sales reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and said it expects global same-restaurant sales in July to be relatively flat, sending its shares down almost 3 percent in midday trading.

Camden Haven Courier 24 July 2013:

McDonald's, the world's biggest fast-food chain, says sales in Australia are going backwards, citing incorrect figures on the level of youth unemployment to help explain why fewer people are buying its burgers and fries.

Although the introduction of the "Loose Change" menu in 2012 bolstered sales of its food last year, thrifty consumers have withdrawn from even that bargain basement offer and are spending less at the McDonald's counter.

Addressing investors in the US, McDonald's global chief executive and president Don Thompson warned that lower levels of spending in Australia and cut-throat competition among fast-food chains in the region had slashed revenue for the company.

He told the mostly US audience that the economy in Australia had worsened since 2012 and is reported to have said that youth unemployment had hit more than 25 per cent…..

So has Australia's youth unemployment hit more than 25 per cent as Don Thompson asserts?

This is what the International Labour Organisation's report Global Employment Trends For Youth 2013 states:

The weakening of the global recovery in 2012 and 2013 has further aggravated the youth jobs crisis and the queues for available jobs have become longer and longer for some unfortunate young jobseekers. So long, in fact, that many youth are giving up on the job search. The prolonged jobs crisis also forces the current generation of youth to be less selective about the type of job they are prepared to accept, a tendency that was already evident before the crisis. Increasing numbers of youth are now turning to available part time jobs or find themselves stuck in temporary employment. Secure jobs, which were once the norm for previous generations - at least in the advanced economies - have become less easily accessible for today’s youth. The global youth unemployment rate, estimated at 12.6 per cent in 2013,is close to its crisis peak. 73 million young people are estimated to be unemployed in 2013. At the same time, informal employment among young people remains pervasive and transitions to decent work are slow and difficult. The economic and social costs of unemployment, long‐term unemployment, discouragement and widespread low‐quality jobs for young people continue to rise and undermine economies’ growth potential… Since 2009, little progress has been made in reducing youth unemployment in the Developed Economies and European Union as a whole. The youth unemployment rate in 2012 is estimated at 18.1 per cent, the same rate as in 2010 and the highest level in this region in the past two decades. If the 3.1 per cent discouragement rate is taken into account, the discouragement adjusted youth unemployment rate becomes 21.2 per cent. The youth unemployment rate is projected to remain above 17 per cent until 2015, and decrease to 15.9 per cent by 2018….. Regional youth unemployment rates show large variations. In 2012, youth unemployment rates were highest in the Middle East and North Africa, at 28.3 per cent and 23.7 per cent, respectively, and lowest in East Asia (9.5 per cent) and South Asia (9.3 per cent). Between 2011 and 2012, regional youth unemployment rates increased in all regions except in Central and South‐Eastern Europe (non‐EU) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America and the Caribbean, and South‐East Asia and the Pacific. Encouraging trends of youth unemployment are observed in, for example, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and the Philippines......

In June 2013 Forbes, The Centre for American Progress and Armstrong Economics were reported that youth unemployment in the USA has hit 16.2 per cent.

While the Australian Bureau of Statistics's 6202.0 Labour Force Australia states that in June 2013 the unemployment rate for people looking for full-time work in the 15-24 year old age group was 11.2 per cent and the unemployment rate for those looking for part-time work in that age group was 11.7 per cent. Australia's overall unemployment rate is currently 5.7 per cent.

So it seems that Mr. Thompson might be searching just a little to hard for excuses and, if he were to look at McDonalds history in Australia of poor workplace practices and equally poor corporate behaviour he might find the real answer as to why its 'burger and fries' sales are falling in this country.

Background:

McDonalds on the NSW North Coast

McDonalds in Tecoma, Victoria - BurgerOff, Tecoma Village Action Group, Tecoma Petition, NO McDonalds in The Dandenong Ranges

Yamba versus McDonalds revisited

[Tiley, Dr. Ian (2012) Divided We Fall: An Insider’s Perspective on Local Government Amalgamations]

Click on image to enlarge text

Anybody else smell a whiff of McDonalds 'greasy PR?

 

This was up on The Daily Examiner website on 13^th July 2012:

“Can Maccas come back?

IT WAS a Whopper of an argument that may have been solved by a Big Mac.

Police have responded to a call about a dispute over the price of a Whopper burger at a Hungry Jacks store in Rockhampton.

Initial reports indicate the issue was resolved by the aggrieved customer going to a nearby McDonald's store.”

The one thing I smell is APN head office doing a transfat-laden Clayton’s advertising deal with Maccas Australia.

 

McDonald's Yamba's spin machine revs up

                 Where there's smoke there's fire.

The franchisee of McDonald's Yamba must live in some parallel universe. In today's Daily Examiner the franchisee says the only negative reaction to the restaurant (that's his description of the dump, not mine) since its opening has been damage done to four of the five signs on bus shelters in Yamba that carry its advertising.

“I haven’t had any problems since we opened other than that,” the franchisee told the Examiner.

That's strange because word on the streets of Yamba is the place is doing so poorly Head Office has taken a very keen interest in the figures appearing in the hamburger joint's financial books.

 Source: The Daily Examiner, 13/6/11

McDonald's Yamba: a marketing and public relations disaster

The word around the traps, which is said to be coming from "informed sources", is that the Big M in Yamba is in big, big trouble, perhaps heading towards going belly up.

The other day I journeyed to Yamba for a spot of fishing with a couple of mates, Blue and Snow. When we were putting Snow's tinnie in the water at the boat ramp an old-timer (OT) who said he's lived in Yamba for over forty years started yarning to us about a thing or two.

OT told us that Maccas in Yamba is in big strife with its turnover being a lot less than was anticipated. OT reckons its staff turnover is probably higher than its cash turnover.

We drove around to check out the place for ourselves. We didn't venture into the place but had a good 'Captain Cook' from outside. The car park said it all. We suspected the few cars that were there all belonged to staff. While we were there (about 15 minutes) we didn't see a solitary soul enter or leave the premises on foot or drive-through.

Our group also saw a Macca's sign on a bus stop that's been "touched up". Another local said, "That's been like that for ages. You'd reckon they (Maccas) would either fix it up by restoring it or having their logo totally removed."

While not condoning the behaviour responsible for the sign's current appearance, something is terribly wrong with the local management's marketing and public relations to allow the sign to stay like that for so long. 

Long memories may plague Williamson in March 2011

On Facebook this month at No to McDonalds in YAMBA:

Dave Fleming Dont forget our spineless Mayor Ritchie Williamson's involvement in the Yamba Maccas when you vote in the state election next month.

Is this man trying to impose a 24hr McDonald's fast food outlet on unwilling New Norfolk residents?

North Coast Voices recently heard from a resident of New Norfolk in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania, with news that the Rockefeller Group had lodged a development application with Derwent Valley Council for a 24 hour fast food outlet in that town and that this was thought to be on behalf of McDonald’s Australia.

The Derwent Valley shares many characteristics with the Lower Clarence Valley where McDonald’s opened another of its fast food outlets in December 2010 in the face of opposition from many Yamba residents.

This is the public face of the Rockefeller Group - Mr Robert Rockefeller.

As Mr. Rockefeller is currently a board member of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry he can presumably be contacted at email admin@tcci.com.au or fax 6420 7541 if any reader wishes to let this developer know what they think of a McDonald’s 'restaurant' in a relatively small town dependent to some degree on tourism based on early Australian history and the natural environment.

Please feel free to discuss in the comments section of this post.

McDonald's rubbishing Yamba in 2011 - Part Two

Photographs taken of branded litter within one metre of and one quarter of a kilometre from McDonald's fast food outlet in Treelands Drive, Yamba, 13 January 2011.

Perhaps Clarence Valley shire councillors Comben, McKenna, Howe, Dinham, and Simmons might like to recall that when considering the Yamba community's rejection of the Westlawn development application on behalf of McDonald's Australia, they dismissed the thought of any litter problem because of a promised daily 'litter patrol'.

McDonald's rubbishing Yamba in 2011 - Part One

McDonald's rubbishing Yamba in December 2010

McDonald's Yamba - only open days and the littering of surrounding streets begins

McDonald's rubbishing Yamba in 2011 - Part One

While Petering Time is away chasing that illusive fish catch of a lifetime it has fallen to me to keep the McDonald's Yamba fast food outlet 'rubbish pile' evidence.

So here is the first installment for 2011 of Maccas branded litter found in Yamba public spaces within a few metres of and/or or less than a kilometre from the McDonald's Australia fast food outlet opened in December 2010.

More rubbishing.....

Are we too late to add Maccas rubbish in Yamba today to the North Coast Voices online pile before Santa comes tonight?

Anony-mice
Yamba

McDonald's Yamba - only open days and the littering of surrounding streets begins

Maud up the Street wants to know if she has the first 'official' pic of branded litter from the newly opened McDonald's hamburger joint in Yamba.
Maud reckons on the third day of Maccas opening its door she followed a trail of tossed litter down one of the streets leading straight to this store.

Hot on the heels of Maud's pic came this one from a Yamba resident who picked it up in Admiralty Park - at least half a kilometre away from Macca's new outlet.

Clarencegirl sent me evidence of this bit of branded litter picked up from the vacant lot opposite McDonald's fast food outlet and she tells me that she has heard that clusters of Macca's litter are now turning up in front yards on the outskirts of Yamba.
Well done, Ronald McDonald - you're living up to your lousy and very messy reputation!
And please write a reminder note in block letters on your Neanderthal foreheads, all those Clarence Valley shire councillors who voted to impose this architectural and social eyesore on a very reluctant Yamba community.

UPDATE:
This cluster of branded litter ran in a trail from outside McDonald's in Treelands Drive, Yamba and on through to Telopea Steet at about 10.30 am on Sunday 19 December 2010 according to the Yamba resident who picked it up.

NRMA in 2010: how not to win friends and influence people in Yamba

McDonald's fast food outlet in Yamba under construction in October 2010

It has to be said that the NRMA office in Yamba enjoys a solid reputation with locals for efficient service delivered with a smile.

So one has to wonder who in that office made the decision to handout promotional McCafe vouchers to customers, whilst up the other end of this small coastal town the much loathed architectural nightmare of a pre-fabricated industrial strength McDonald's fast food outlet is nearing completion.

The strong feelings in relation to this McDonald's Australia inappropriate development continue and, I know of one resident who is seriously considering pulling their NRMA policies when these come up for renewal in the next couple of months.