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Christmas at McDonald's

Written by Tom Ryan

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."

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