December 21, 2012
Christmas at McDonald’s
McDonald’s is encouraging its franchisees to stay open on Christmas after seeing healthy sales at those locations operating on Thanksgiving.
In an early November memo obtained by Advertising Age, Jim Johannesen, chief operations officer for McDonald’s USA, pushed for its franchise partners to remain open on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. He wrote, "Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays. … Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, [company-operated] restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales."
The request came after the fast food chain in October reported its first monthly same-store sales decline in nine years. Afterwards, November’s comps surprisingly rebounded. Almost one percentage point of the company’s 2.5 percent U.S. same-store sales growth was attributed to Thanksgiving’s boost.
In a second memo that came out on Dec. 12, Mr. Johannesen said average sales for company-owned restaurants, which compose about 10 percent of its system, were "more than $6,000" this Thanksgiving.
McDonald’s spokeswoman Heather Oldani told Reuters that 1,200 more McDonald’s restaurants were open on Thanksgiving this year versus last year. She said the decision to open on Christmas "is in the hands of our owner/operators."
She explained as well that overtime pay is also up to the franchises, while noting that, at company-owned restaurants on the holidays, "the staff voluntarily sign up to work. There is no regular overtime pay."
Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee who now advises the chain’s owner/operators said some restaurants began to open on Thanksgiving around 15 years ago. But as recently as five or six years ago, "you would never even talk about being open on Christmas, even if some were open on Thanksgiving. For the franchisees, this is a big cultural shift."
The responses to several articles covering McDonald’s request ran overwhelmingly in disfavor, with some even vowing to boycott any restaurant or chain that opened on Christmas.
A few said not everyone celebrates the holiday and some pointed to the challenges of finding any food on a busy travel day. A former Pizza Hut owner wrote in response to the Ad Age story, "The holidays are when you have a lot less competition and a lot more people on the road. I always wondered why more places didn’t open with double pay and voluntary employees only."
- McDonald’s to Franchisees: Merry Christmas. Now Open Your Stores – Advertising Age
- McDonald’s reportedly urging franchisees to open on Christmas – Chicago Tribune
- McDonald’s for Christmas? Burger Chain Asks Franchisees to Make It Business As Usual – Time
- Who Eats at McDonald’s on Christmas? – Business Week
Discussion Questions
What do you think of McDonald’s urging its franchisees to stay open on Christmas? Is making it completely voluntary for employees along with double-pay enough? Should retail be addressing the lack of food options on the travel-day holiday?
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There should be no issue with McDonald’s letting the franchisees know that Christmas represents a great opportunity to generate extra income (and yes more franchise fees for McDonald’s). Each individual franchisee has the right to make their own decision and as the article indicates, some have opened in the past. The one caveat to my position is that I would like to see them use only volunteers to work, and pay them accordingly.
My local Starbucks has been doing this for the last few years running and it has been a big success. Baristas and staff work on a voluntary basis. The atmosphere is festive and jovial. Customers and staff feel like they are celebrating the holiday together—if even for a few moments. That’s an emotional bond to the brand if there ever was one. And a humane one too.
If restaurants want to open on the holidays with voluntary employees, why not? I have a problem with forcing employees to work key holidays.
Of course this makes sense. There’s a reason all those Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas day.
We now live in an age where nothing, including Christmas, is considered holier by a great many folks than the greenback.
When many folks volunteer to work at double-pay on Christmas day, when many people apparently like a holiday meal at McDonald’s, (ugh) let there be a room in the McDonald’s Inn on Christmas Day.
I’m glad they are open. For those traveling on the holidays, its nice to have the option when driving on the road or changing planes at the airport. Sure it’s easy to boycott a restaurant on Christmas when you probably were not going out to eat on Christmas anyway.
Christmas is just another day. Its meaning is special but life goes on. Everything else is open and running like hospitals, airlines, hotels, Disney World, etc. It’s Christmas, so what’s wrong with celebrating the holiday at McDonald’s?
It is a huge travel day for many and the many are probably not too happy about having to travel on that day. How nice to be able to walk into a McDonald’s and be welcomed by volunteered, not mandated employees. I for one will be traveling this Christmas so I think I might stop at McDonald’s for dinner! Merry Christmas!
Staying open on Christmas will create competition for the Chinese restaurants when have been open for years and do a great business as they are the only ones open.
Like all things retail, look at the customers. We have a growing population of Eastern Catholics, Muslims, Jews and others which do not celebrate Christmas. Asking for volunteers is good coupled with double time pay, but also stagger the shifts so few lose the complete day.
I’m wondering if the memo would have been better received if it had emphasized the public service aspect of this (being open benefiting not only travelers, and those whose Xmas dinner was eaten by hillbilly hounds, but also those who—depressingly—have nowhere to go) rather than just paying homage to Henry F. Potter. Or maybe not…perhaps blunt honesty was Mickey D’s gift to us. Happy Holidays, everyone!
This is a great idea. Most restaurants are open during Christmas as well. Why should McDonald’s be any different? More and more we see families that do not cook during the holidays, but prefer instead to celebrate these at their local restaurant. McDonald’s is just offering this as another alternative for these dining options. This is a great idea, and the rise in Thanksgiving sales only supports this.
One of the franchisees in my area has been opening until 2 or 3 PM on Christmas Day at a few (not all) of his locations ever since I can remember. One is in a pretty heavily trafficked tourist area, one is at an offramp on the edge of the heavily trafficked tourist area, but the other is just more of a neighborhood location.
Where this can get difficult is when you decide you want to be open, but do not have enough volunteers.
I know of one grocery chain, which shall go unnamed, that was once publicly held but then its assets were sold off to a few other companies not too many years ago… that some time ago decided to start being open on Christmas Day. They asked for volunteers. If nobody volunteered, in order to get staffing where they felt it was needed, some people’s arms got “twisted” as you could say, into volunteering. The redeeming factor was they got double or triple pay for working that day.