McDonald’s owner/operators asked to open on Christmas

McDonald's is asking its franchisees to stay open on Christmas Day to be able to help increase sales. Will the fast food company get the same heat for that move that merchants suffered last month after asking employees to work on Thanksgiving? Whatever the case, it will certainly be the minimum-wage worker who will be lacking his or her Christmas in your house. You can bet it won't be the owner/operator. Article source: why not find out more because of https://personalmoneynetwork.com/?



Christmas day for employees


The world's number-one hamburger chain (with 34,000 restaurants that feed 69 million a day) that espouses family-friendliness has typically closed its doors on major holidays. Evidently nobody cares anymore though.



Last month, franchisees were asked to stay open on Thanksgiving.



According to a November 8 post in Advertising Age, the company's chief operations officer in the U.S., Jim Johannesen, said: "Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays."



The business has asked that restaurants stay open on Christmas this year as well, though many shops did not stay open on Thanksgiving as asked.

Quote:

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Johannesen said, "Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, (company-operated) restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales."

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Not a company-wide decision


McDonald’s spokeswoman Heather Oldani made it clear that each individual store owner can choose whether they want to keep stores open or not.



Top fast food restaurant competes



In July, brand new CEO Don Thompson took over the fast food chain. Last year, McDonald’s did better than any other fast food chain in the country despite the bad economy. Sales started slipping this year though in Oct.



Evidently Nov was a good month. . "Our Nov results was driven, in part, by our Thanksgiving Day performance,", Johannesen explained.



According to Oldani, 12,000 more McDonald's shops stayed open this Thanksgiving than in the past. That, however, contradicts the 6,000 more reported by Advertising Age.



Beginning to get desperate



A previous owner Richard Adams said that franchisees are not happy with the needy request. Owners are upset about it, according to the Chicago Tribune.


The move, Adams says, goes against the original intent of the company. Ray Kroc, the company's founder, wrote in its first operations manual that employees should have Thanksgiving and Christmas off to be able to be with their families.


Unless the competition is getting too tight, I guess he meant.



Sources



Chicago Tribune

Daily Finance

News 10

There are many parts of this country that are multi-cultural and where Christmas is not a holiday. For as long as I can remember Chinese restaurants were open on Christmas... as are movie theaters and some retailers such as Kmart.

I think companies that can be open should be open, but I would hope that they would staff their businesses on holidays with those who choose to work and not force to work those who would want the holiday off.

Through my entire professional career in the news business I always volunteered to work on Christmas and Thanksgiving to give others the chance to be off.