YOU CAN LEARN A LOT about the people in a place by watching them in McDonalds.
Sunday morning in McDonalds sounds like a life without meaning but I like watching those who hide in the steam of their coffee while friends huddle together in church.
As a milkshake mechanic in the 50s, Ray Kroc traveled across the States and learned about fast food from both sides of the counter. Small burger bars had a single milkshake machine. But in a rural California burger joint, the McDonald brothers had eight milkshake machines. When Ray Kroc saw the McDonald brother churning out the burgers in 1954, he "felt like some latter-day Newton who had ust had an Idaho potato caromed off his skull. That night in my motel room I did a lot of heavy thinking about what I had seen during the day."
The carbon-copy result dotted itself across America before the decade was out. The franchisee in my hometown has five McDonalds restaurants. The franchise sector plays an important role in the economies of all developed countries. I spend at least EUR 250 in franchise food shops every year. Amarach Research says I will be spending at least EUR 400 annually in fast food franchises by 2010. I think they're wrong--I think I will be out of EUR 550 annually in my purchases from franchised food outlets before the decade is over.
More:
Ray Kroc -- Grinding it out
Ruth O'Callaghan -- "Franchises offer retail by the numbers" in the Sunday Times of Ireland.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative multimedia in the Tipperary Institute.]
