But how long would Mike last? In this, the last episode of the season, we find out.

A snack-sized podcast episode like this one demands some snack-sized news to go with it. McDonald’s is bringing back the Snack Wrap. It’s a chicken tender wrapped in a tortilla with lettuce, cheese, and either ranch or spicy sauce. The Reddit community seems unimpressed.

We’re thrilled to be in the company of Dr. Marcia Chatelain for this episode. Dr. Chatelain is the author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, an engrossing history of fast food franchising’s path through the civil rights movement and Richard Nixon’s big idea for what should come next. (Hint: it was not favorable credit terms for independent Black-owned businesses.)

We start off our discussion with a retelling of the boycotts and eventual dynamiting of a Portland, Oregon McDonald’s on Union Avenue in the summer of 1970. We learn where to go when the corporation you’re researching doesn’t want you in their archive, what it is like to win a Pulitzer Prize for history, and why McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has a bigger opportunity than he seems to realize.

Come for the multifaceted American story of not-so-small business and not-so-free markets. Stay for her approach to McDonald’s-neutral parenting, why it helps to look like a soccer mom, and a brilliant prequel idea for Coming to America.

Speaking of McDonald’s and Black business, media mogul Byron Allen has settled his 11-figure lawsuit against McD’s last month. Mr. Allen is the owner Allen Media Group, a conglomerate in control of the Weather Channel, nine different TV court shows, and 40 TV stations across 16 states.

Allen’s lawsuit alleged that McDonald’s classified his networks as specifically for Black audiences, thereby excluding them from the main tranche of McDonald’s ad spend. McDonald’s and Allen settled for undisclosed terms. The restaurant chain says it will buy advertising time from his networks at market rates.

Here’s an 18-year-old Byron Allen doing stand-up on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1979:

What’s behind the smash burger phenomenon? Mike and his friend Xavier don’t find out, but do dig into double and triple cheeseburgers from For the Win. The verdict? It’s like a Big Mac.

Chicken McNugget inventor…Ray Dalio?!

We like to think that all you need for a good fast food invention is a concept and a recipe. But what about the packaging, the machinery, the supply chain? What about the financial engineering to guarantee your product a stable price over the surges and dips of its underlying commodity?

A few months ago Ray Dalio went on a Bloomberg podcast and re-told the story of doing this work on chicken so that McDonald’s could unveil the McNugget. Cleverly breaking down the cost of a chicken into it’s component parts (mostly soy and corn), Dalio was able to get close enough to a futures market on chicken that suppliers could get their feed, McDonald’s could get their chicken, and we could get our McNuggets.

MCD cooling off from $300

Here at HBR we keep our eyes on the MCD share price at all times. After hovering below $300/share, it finally got there for a few weeks only to be pulled back by tariff chaos and expanded war in the Middle East.

This fall will mark two years since the October 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent leveling of Gaza, obliteration of hospitals and infrastructure, and starvation resulting from a tightened Israeli blockade. As we have covered on the show, these developments invigorate anti-American sentiment and drive down spending at iconically American chain restaurants in the region.

McWieden + Kennedy

You know that Portland, Oregon-based ad agency that did groundbreaking work for Nike in the 1980s? Would it surprise you to learn that they’ve been doing the bulk of McDonald’s strategy work for coming up on six years now? This insightful Reddit thread parses out what they’ve done in that time, particularly the way that McDonald’s promotions now are less and less about the food and more and more about media tie-ins and celebrities.

Come to think of it, didn’t Grimace just have a birthday? It’s been two years since the Grimace birthday meal and milkshake and we’ve yet to see any of that stuff return. Here is to hoping he is still with us.

Today’s episode is a talk with Cabel Sasser, the co-founder of the software company and video game publisher Panic, and full disclosure, also Mike’s former boss1. But we’re not here to talk about software or video games. We’re here because Cabel discovered Wes Cook, a McDonald’s artist (and so much more).

Before listening to this episode we highly recommend watching the video of Cabel’s 2024 XOXO talk. There will be spoilers! It’s under 20 minutes and it’s one of the best things we watched in the last year.

Okay, now please go and enjoy the episode. What follows is some additional behind-the-scenes stories, links, and images from the episode.

SPOILER ALERT: This is a video of former guest Kathryn after she watched Cabel’s video.

Why Is Newberry Here?

We introduce Cabel with a story about him rescuing two Newberry signs during a redesign of the Lloyd Center mall, one of which he eventually gifted to his parents where it is proudly displayed in their dining room.

Cabel wrote more about his history with the Lloyd Center mall on his blog and it’s a fantastic journey of a mall trying its best and the recent “indie mall” initiative under way there.

Sponsored Post: A special thank you to our sponsor Fireproof.storage. As you heard in the episode Mike got a little too into the idea of how Fireproof’s technology could help a modern hamburger restaurant and has written a bit of a supply chain database manifesto called “From Farm to French Fry.”

Farm to French Fry

The Taste Hasn’t Changed

In the episode Cabel mentions how impressive it is that the flavor of the McDonald’s Sweet & Sour sauce hasn’t ever changed. There aren’t many foods that have been able to maintain a consistent flavor outside of giant fast food companies!

One of the best examples of this is a heartwarming video of a woman surprising her granddad with a McRib:

The Shame of McDonald’s

This came up when we talked to Marcus and then Cabel also mentioned the shame of eating at McDonald’s. As much as we roll our eyes at Bill Maher he highlighted the lefty shame of eating McDonald’s in this clip when he gets stroppy and declares that McDonald’s is actually delicious (and bad for you).

And speaking of the joy of discovering the differences of international McDonald’s we highly recommend the book McAtlas by Gary He.

The Blind Push of Vision 2020

McDonald’s transformed out of the Mascot Era of using Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Mayor McCheese, and their other characters with the Vision 2020 plan (a plan leading up to 2020 which was started around 2017).

Before Vision 2020 however was the 2016 event known as Dark Clowning. This was a series of creepy clown sightings around the Unites States that caused McDonald’s to tone down the clown and put Ronald on ice for a while.

And then came Vision 2020, which was a response to declining revenues and disgruntled franchisee owners in the mid 2010s. It was a comprehensive overhaul of the operations and marketing designed to keep McDonald’s competitive with evolving changes and new entrants like Shake Shake and Chipotle.

Experience of the Future

Part of this plan was the EOTF, or Experience of the Future, which included the ordering kiosks as part of a major redesign for stores. To incentivize the franchisee owners McDonald’s offered to cover 55% of the costs of the remodel if an owner was able to complete the renovation by a specific date. This was free money no operator wanted to turn down. And this is where the new generic feel of a modern McDonald’s came from.

A good example of the what was lost is a McDonald’s in Glendale, California. It is currently indistinguishable from any modern location, but if you look at the Yelp review2 and scroll to the bottom of the photos you’ll see they had some wonderfully bizarre art installations built into the space, all of which has been erased.

The Wes Cook Mural

Cabel has collected the material we talk about in the episode from Wes Cook, both his work for McDonald’s and so much more, at WesCook.art. By now we’re assuming you’ve watched Cabel’s talk.

Cabel also shared with us some photos of the removal of the mural, including the transition to the most mediocre of redesigns…

Removing the edges to get a sense of how this removal might work…

Proudly holding his new prize.

And behind the painting was an old reminder that something amazing was about to happen…

And an early unveiling back once Cabel was back at the Panic office:

The Lost McDonalds Satire Triptych

We had to include the only hint we get of the McDonald’s Triptych, which you can see more of here at WesCook.art.

Season 2 of HBR Comes to an End

This is the final episode of Hamburger Business Review season two. In the last few months we’ve covered everything from Mike working at a hamburger restaurant, case studies about expired meat, a failed discounting promotion, Zach’s epic McTrot, and guests including Kathryn Borel, Brian Merchant, and Marcus Estes. We’ve turned our poor producer Chris Higgins into a McDonald’s expert, which he did not sign up for!

Thanks so much to our listeners, subscribers, sponsors, and incredible crew including Jona Bechtolt who provided our theme music and the incredible editorial illustrations from Kriss Knapp.

There is so much going on in the world we can’t help but see how McDonald’s touches everything, so we will be back soon with more. More burger reviews, more conversations, and more experiences from the hamburger restaurant.

Thanks again,
-Mike and Zach and Chris

We’re excited to have Marcus Estes back on the podcast to talk about finance because of his ability to make this stuff compelling! Last season we had Marcus on to talk about a case study on hedge funds and shareholder activism in the burger business. This week we’re skipping the case study in order to talk about the 10-K.

A 10-K is a report filed by publicly traded companies every year about financial performance and is required by the SEC. This filing includes a bit about the history, organizational structure, financial statements, earnings per share, subsidiaries, executive compensation, and other relevant data about a company.

But unless you work in finance you’ve probably never looked at one. This is why we called in Marcus.

Marcus looks at a 10-K like an ancient Babylonian might look at the entrails of an animal to divine the future. He’s not really looking at literal facts and figures, but instead interpreting the larger cultural story that those facts and figures might speak to.

How does Shake Shack compare to McDonald’s? Well, we could pull up their 10-K, or look at their stock price () but I think the Marcus method of analysis means we need to review a burger…

SPONSOR: Thanks to our first sponsor, Fireproof.storage! Now you can code your app first and choose your backend later because Fireproof lets you quickly add live data to any app or page online with zero setup.

Next Up: Special Guest Cabel Sasser

Next week we have special guest Cabel Sasser who gave an absolutely amazing talk at last years XOXO festival. We will be discussing, and spoiling, his talk, so please go watch it now. It also just happens to be one of the best things we watched last year.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

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Can McDonald’s Make it to $300?

Mike is still obsessed with making it to $300 per share and holding there. Not just because he bought some shares, but because of the “behavioral resistance” we talked about in the episode.

While we don’t expect McDonald’s to be making any drastic changes (like switching to beef tallow) there has been news, speculation, and rumors of what is coming next. Could any of the following be the reason for a $300+ share price?

Snack Wrap

McDonald’s US President Joe Erlinger has confirmed that the Snack Wrap is coming back this year:

"The Snack Wrap will be back in 2025. This has a cult following. I get so many emails into my inbox about this product. It will be back in 2025."

There have been rumors the new Snack Wrap will be an extension of the McCrispy brand. This seems to coincide with the McD push on more chicken items which have better margins for the company.

The Big Arch

McDonald’s is testing a new sandwich in Canada called the Big Arch, which is a double quarter pounder with crispy onions and 3 slices of cheese and a new sauce. This seems to be a move to maintain control of the “Big Burger” space, which might be a response to the number of special orders of the Big Mac where people customize it with the bigger quarter pounder patties.

This burger is truly a big boy (it’s twice the calories of a Big Mac) and is being tested in three international markets (including Canada). The rumors of it expanding to the US are based on the fact that CEO Chris Kempczinski himself first introduced the new item and CFO Ian Bordan said in March of last year:

“In the past, you would have seen us try and get after that opportunity in 20 different markets in 20 different ways. And then you don’t have the ability to build a global equity that you can drive at scale.”

Deals & Promotions

Starting this month the company will launch a new McValue menu and the popular $5 Meal Deal (sandwich, 4-piece nuggets, small fry, small drink) will be extended through the summer.

They are also kicking off a BOGO $1 (Buy One, Get One for $1) promotion on a number of sandwiches this month.

The $5 Meal Deal has been matched by rivals, but it is credited with a boost of 0.3% in US same-store sales from a year ago. The question is, as people save money by eating at home, can the new deals and promos not just keep customers coming back but entice more people to choose a stop a McDonald’s instead of the grocery store?

The origin of today’s episode goes back to the late 1800’s when the first automat opened in Berlin, and was brought to America soon after. The automat, which presented food in a wall sized coin operated vending machine, adapted quickly to the United States and actually became the first fast food chain.

Our guest today is writer, reporter, and author Brian Merchant. He writes the Blood In the Machine newsletter about AI, Silicon Valley, labor and power. He joined us for a discussion based on the very recent case study McDonald’s: Moving Toward a Fully Automated Future? and to teach us some lessons from the luddites.

The case study, and much of our conversation, is really asking if we as a society have a problem with a certain level of automation. Obviously the automat is a charming and nostalgic idea of an “automated” restaurant, but what about Miso Robotic’s pop-up CaliExpress where they demonstrated a robot arm chef?

Should Mike rally the people at his hamburger restaurant to go smash some robot arms? Brian isn’t so sure… He points out that the Luddites were highly skilled textile workers with great pride in their craft, which is a pretty different scenario from the modern day fast food employee.

The fully automated burger is still a capitalist fantasy. It’s more cost effective to hire low wage workers than install and maintain expensive robotics. The case study’s example of an “automated” McDonald’s was actually not automated at all.

We’ve seen this kind of layout before with Starbucks, and while the inside of this McDonald’s is a dystopian hellscape, anyone using the drive thru would likely not even notice the difference.

The case study ends by asking:

… with its most recent innovation of an almost-fully automated location, McDonald’s came up against mixed and strongly felt reactions. … how should [McDonald’s] move forward? Should [they] commit to having solely human employees or continue to move toward fully automated stores?

Which is, as we get into on the podcast, not the right question. This is not in any way an “automated store” and while it uses less employees it also serves fewer customers and in a very different way. If you look at the location on the map you’ll see that Burger King, Popeyes, and Starbucks all have smaller drive-thru focused stores at the same location:

As our discussion moved into science fiction Chris asked the philosophical question, “If we could make a fully automated machine that sold burgers, should we?” To which Brian replied that it’s not up to us and our ethics. As soon as it’s profitable for a company to do it, they will. The problem for automation is that the United States has kept labor costs very low. The minimum wage in that Texas location is $7.25 an hour.

Of course it is not the binary of “to automate or not to automate.” It’s simply a matter of how much savings are there at scale for a massive company like McDonald’s. And if there is a move to less human interaction (something some customers and employees both seem excited about) that opens more opportunities for the smaller, less automated locations to differentiate themselves even more from the chains.

A great example of this is the taste test Mike did at Rick’s Drive In in Los Angeles, California. This is a drive thru fast food restaurant but the inside maintains a level of charm that is unimaginable at scale.

Next Up: How To Read a 10-K

Next week we have our most interesting friend coming on to help us understand the most boring regulatory filing. Marcus Estes returns to the podcast to talk about finance, culture, seed oils, and everything else that relates to the public filings of McDonald’s.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

Subscribe now

Today at Hamburger Business Review we are focused on Zach’s annual great challenge to eat at every McDonald’s on the island of Manhattan in less than 24 hours while traveling only on foot. Also, he has to make a purchase at every store.

This year there was a single overriding focus to the challenge:

By eliminating the four hour break in the middle and doing McTrot without stopping Zach was pushing himself to go as fast as possible. Of course, he also needs a route, and even before the route he needs to get a list of all the stores in Manhattan, which is harder than it seems because you can’t trust services like Yelp, Mapquest, or even Google to have the right data about which are still open and what hours.

After getting all the data Zach then has to decide how to attack the problem. We’ve talked about this before but with some 48 locations this is an almost incomprehensibly difficult problem, that combines all the math of the traveling salesman problem with the added logistics of only some locations being open 24 hours, and not to mention the issues of traffic, weather, and anything else the city of New York might throw at you.

Zach’s solution was to map all the locations on paper and then starting at the northern tip of the island work his way south zig zagging as efficiently as possible. He was joined by his friend Alex for a part of the journey and we can see based on his Strava map a little slice of what this looks like:

We spend the first half of this episode diving into this endeavor including some clips that Zach sent us from the streets of New York as he was taking on this challenge and encountering challenges like foot and leg pain, shakes, cold, and more. Somehow after all this Zach ends his adventure holding on to the motto of McTrot, which is:

Case Study: Obesity and McLawsuits

After their success in litigation against tobacco companies, trial lawyers sought a new mass tort, and in 2001 obesity was their next campaign with McDonald’s being the target.

John Banzhaf, a professor at the George Washington University Law School, said, “A fast-food company like McDonald’s may not be responsible for the entire obesity epidemic, but let’s say they’re five percent responsible. Five percent of $117 billion is still an enormous amount of money.”

This is a shorter case study at only seven pages, but it generated a lot of discussion! but we also didn’t talk about a number of things!

Super Size Me

We had planned to talk about this case study in light of it being the 20th Anniversary of the Super Size documentary, which famously showed filmmaker Morgan Spurlock gain 25 pounds and suffer liver dysfunction and depression.

Six weeks after the film’s debut McDonald’s discontinued their supersize portions. And later in 2006 a study showed that while this kind of heavy diet does affect liver enzymes, it did not show the same dangerous effects. In 2017 Spurlock admitted to drinking heavily and hiding it not only from the camera but also his doctors1.

Obesity Rates

In September of 2024 new CDC data suggested that the obesity rate in US adults is no longer growing. Which seems like good news until reading that while the obesity rate is “holding” at 40%, the severe obesity rate is on the rise in the US. We do mention in the podcast how doctors continue to use BMI to screen for obesity even after admitting it’s a flawed tool.

Policing Fast Food?

• Planning policies to restrict the number of new fast-food outlets leads to fewer overweight and obese children according to research led by Lancaster University (link).

• Levying surcharges on other foods that health policymakers want to curb the public’s consumption of might also work, according to researchers tapping into data from Chicago Booth’s Kilts Center for Marketing. (link)

• Removing fast-food restaurants from bases would cut obesity within the military, said Marine Sergeant Maj. Troy E. Black, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (link)

• OTOH, it turns out that consumers’ buying habits do not change markedly in response to the higher prices, and that the burden of those taxes falls most heavily on the low-income, who allocate larger shares of their budgets to food than wealthier people do. (link)

Taste Test: Larry’s Chili Dog

It’s hard to really enjoy a burger with all the talk about how unhealthy it is, so this week Hamburger Business Review checks out Larry’s Chili Dog, a southern California restaurant that is not part of a chain, but a classic example of a Los Angeles burger joint..

Next Up: Automation w/ Brian Merchant

Next week we’re talking about a recent attempt by McDonald’s to introduce more automation into a store and the backlash that happened after. To help us dig into the issue we’re being joined by author and reporter Brian Merchant who wrote Blood in the Machine which is about the Luddites rising up to fight the factories coming for their livelihood. Should be fun!

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

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Our guest is Kathryn Borel, a television writer and the romantic partner of co-Host Mike Merrill. Chris and Zach go deep with Kathryn about what led Mike to start working at a hamburger restaurant and the impact of that on their relationship.

The Life of a Hamburger Spouse

Kathryn and Mike are not married1, but they live together and Mike is essentially the adoptive father of Georgie the poodle2. Kathryn’s support of Mike in starting at the hamburger restaurant, but also her support in the ongoing day to day life of hamburger restaurant-ship3, has been essential to Mike’s success.

Listen to the full episode to hear about Mike’s origin story and the inciting incident at the donut shop that led him to reset his life. Hear about the erotic impact of Right Guard4, and how well it works in fighting the smells of hamburger labor.

And Chris asks the big question… where does all this end for Mike5? Is he on the path of becoming a manager? Will he turn his back on the burger business? From Kathryn’s perspective, what is on the horizon and what sort of projects might happen next?

McTrot Is Just About To Happen!

Mike comes back to join Chris in the final interrogation of Zach who is in the final hours of preparation before his annual trek to visit all the McDonald’s in Manhattan on foot within 24 hours.

He seems calm and confident. Is he posturing? Is he hyping himself up? How confident is he that he will set a record?

Competitive Analysis

We don’t talk a lot about Burger King around here because it largely exists as a reaction to McDonald’s. But the world of Hamburger Business Review is obviously much bigger than just the conquered space of the Golden Arches. So let’s take a look at the signature sandwich from Burger King:

Subscribe, Buy, Follow, Like, Star, Etc…

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

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We’re also expanding our Burger Empire into Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and even Mastadon. Follow us as we post clips, news, ideas, and the emotional, financial, and new products of the hamburger business world.

Why Can’t MCD Hold at $300?

On Mike’s Apple watch he keeps the stock of McDonald’s up all day, watching the rise and fall of the share price. Over and over he gets excited when the ticker approaches and then crosses the $300 line, only to be disappointed to watch it fall in after hours trading.

What is it about the $300 barrier? Certainly it’s not directly related to the boots on the ground battle of selling burgers? The share price is a collective impression of the future value of the company, which is perhaps the reason? Is there a psychological effect of the big round number of $300 that is preventing the cold-hearted financial professionals from committed to keep buying after it crosses that mark?

It’s honestly baffling and we’re planning to bring back Marcus Estes later in the season to talk more about the share price and the cultural impacts of finance and how maybe it’s all the same thing. (Long time listeners will remember Marcus from season one when we talked about Burger Hedging. He is our financial soothsayer and we’re excited to get his take on this.)

Coming Up Next

Next week we have another guest! We’re going to talk to Brian Merchant about McDonald’s attempt to automate a store and what impact that has on labor, the culture of the restaurant, and the response to burger robotics.

Today at Hamburger Business Review we keep talking about politics and burgers, the McTrot, more from inside the hamburger restaurant, and a new case study about what McDonald’s had to do in order to make it work in India.

Hamburgers on a Plane

We open with the viral image of Trump forcing RFK Jr. to eat hamburgers which prompted one of the funniest New York Times articles in a while.

We also enjoyed the story of Pharrell Williams getting fired from McDonald’s.

And we have Charlie Munger defending the educational role of McDonald’s.

The Holiday Pie is Back

The holiday pie is back? What is the holiday pie?

McDonald’s says, “It's the greatest gift to yourself—creamy, smooth custard nestled in a flaky, buttery crust glazed with sugar and topped with rainbow sprinkles. There are 260 calories in McDonald's Holiday Pie.”

It was first launched in 1999 and it’s weirdly popular. Mike tries it out and is a little underwhlemed.

And we don’t discuss it on the podcast, but Mike also tried out the McRib.

Chris K’s Tips on Running a Marathon

As Zach prepares for his annual McTrot we look to McDonald’s CEO Chris K. for a little advice:

• Find Your Fuel

• Nothing New on Race Day

• Trust Your Training

If you don’t know what McTrot is… here is Zach explaining it:

Case Study: McDonald’s in India

India has probably the most unique McDonald’s menu of any country. We had a great time talking about this one! It’s all about the 1996 launch of McDonald’s into India, which was weirdly cautious and slow because of how much they had to adapt to the cultural, business, and political factors of the country.

The choices that McDonald’s made to adapt and incorporate into a new culture speaks to the power of a corporate giant and highlights the roadmap to their international expansion.

Next Up: Dating a Hamburger Restaurant Employee

Next week we kick Mike off the mic and talk to his partner Kathryn about what it’s like to date someone working at a Hamburger Restaurant.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

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Great deals abound in the world of Hamburger Business Review, but it’s not always as easy as the ads make you think. Today we’re talking about the tactical use of prices and deals and looking at how much value you can squeeze out of a value meal (or how much value they can squeeze out of you).

Our case study is about a flawed 55 cent promotion that over promised and underdelivered, upsetting both customers and franchise operators. It’s not too different from today’s maze of one day promotions and in-app coupons.

Since the dawn of the 5¢ burger in the 1920’s the hamburger has been the food of the people, but as inflation pushes prices up and income disparity keeps wages low the humble hamburger is going out of reach of the common citizen.

The Price of the Hamburger is Too Damn High

The cost of ground beef has risen sharply from the mid-80’s. In 1984 it was just $1.29 per pound and today is $5.59.

As consumers, desperate for their burgers, cry out in pain, some politicians are seeing this as an opportunity to get involved.

“Three Democratic senators are asking McDonald’s about its menu price hikes in recent years, arguing that the increases are higher than they should be — even with inflation and rising operating costs.” -NBC News

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bob Casey, and Ron Wyden sent a sternly worded email to McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski demanding to understand how a company could dare increase prices more than inflation (which they also shared with the press of course).

Chris Kempczinski is rumored1 to have responded with a patronizing sigh, “We are driven by profits you morons,” before McDonald’s released a statement saying this letter from the senators:

“demonstrates a lack of understanding of our franchise business model and contains contortions of facts and many inaccuracies.”

Elizabeth Warren, showing a lack of understanding about how the world works, said “Fast food is supposed to be about making life easier for Americans, not a fast profit for McDonald’s executives and Wall Street.” We aren’t sure there is one thing that fast food is supposed to be about, but it definitely has a something to do with profits!

What is a Modern Hamburger Restaurant To Do?

And it’s not like McDonald’s isn’t already very aware of the problems with escalating hamburger prices. Back in June 2024 we saw headlines like “Companies Counter Pushback on Price Increases With Promotions.”

We talk about this on the podcast but this article kicks off with the story of McD USA president Joe Erlinger pushing back on the “inaccurate” reports that McDonald’s had doubled it’s prices over the last decade. No, said Joe, we only increased them by 21% over five years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As consumers and politicians (and even the companies themselves) grow more concerned with increasing prices (let’s ignore that pesky income disparity issue, right?) we have entered a new era in the hamburger business…

The Discount Wars

In recent weeks, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s announced new value meals, while Target, Walmart, Walgreens and Amazon Fresh said they would cut prices on thousands of items. Other companies are becoming more creative: Domino’s will offer $3 coupons to customers who tip their driver at least $3, and in February, Applebee’s launched a “date night pass” that gave couples a chance to eat $1,500 worth of food for $200.

This is different than the Burger Wars of the 80s, which was an ad war pitting McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King in a battle for market share. While McDonald’s won that war in terms of market dominance, Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef” campaign won the cultural battle.

The Discount War is more like the famed Breakfast Wars from about ten years ago. That battle started when Taco Bell rolled out a breakfast menu and McDonald’s also fought against Tim Horton’s in Canada (we have an episode about that from last season). Like the Breakfast Wars, this is a contest that goes beyond just the burger business. This is a fight for the very limited dollars of the consumer.

So McDonald’s isn’t just fighting other fast food brands, or even other restaurants, but companies like Target, Amazon Fresh, and local grocery stores. Uber Eats and DoorDash present every local food option, meaning a price conscious consumer has a lot of choices.

In the trenches we see McDonald’s using a two-tiered discounting approach. First is the “Meal Deal” where they pair a mid-level sandwich (the McDouble or the McChicken) with a small fry and drink, but add in support from a 4-piece budget item to create a sense of abundance for $5 or $6. The McDouble and McChicken are also part of the “Mix & Match” campaign, which discounts a collection of various items. These deals are heavily promoted and do not require the use the app.

The second approach is to move all the really amazing deals (like a 10 piece nuggets for $1) into the mobile app. The in app deals are exchanged for customer information and also allow for pre-ordering and paying for food and deliveries. Utilizing these tools makes McDonald’s incredibly affordable for those willing to limit their options or use the apps, but still capitalize on the brand power of the Big Mac™, Quarter Pounder™, and, for a limited time, the McRib™.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski is expecting a rough 2025.

“We’re starting to talk about 2025, and my message to our teams has been: ‘We need to be preparing for another challenging year’,” Kempczinski said in remarks at a Boston College Chief Executives Club event.

Case Study: McDonald’s 55 Cent Promotion

All of this leads into our case study, which comes from Dr. David Robinson and the University of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

The problem: By 1997, McDonald’s was facing an unsettling challenge: slowing sales growth and intense competition. The fast-food giant unveiled an ambitious and nostalgic strategy—“Campaign 55.” The plan was that each month, a signature burger would be spotlighted at the throwback price of just $0.55, a nod to the year McDonald’s was founded. The campaign launched with the iconic Big Mac.

What seemed like a sure-fire way to delight customers took an unexpected turn... Instead of applause, McDonald’s customers, alongside restaurant owners, erupted in protest. The “C-55” promotion became a lightning rod for backlash when the deal ended up feeling like a bait and switch.

Faced with customer and franchise owner anger, McDonald’s corporate abruptly pulled the plug on the campaign that was supposed to last the entire year. We go into more detail on the podcast and discuss how these price reduction strategies can backfire.

Next Up: McDonald’s India

Next week we look at the 1996 expansion of McDonald’s to India and how the country forced the king of standardization to adapt to an incredibly diverse culture that seemingly had no interest in the hamburger.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

Subscribe now

The Golden Arches and the Frequency Illusion

The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.

Family, friends, and loyal HBR listeners have been reporting to us the various ways in which our hamburger investigations and reporting is leading to them seeing more, and craving more, McDonald’s. Comments have included...

“I've never been more interested in eating food from McDonald's than I have been in the last few weeks”

“I am definitely getting a ton more McD ads in X/Twitter than past months.”

“The only thing Maps wanted to show was McD’s?!?”

While we take some responsibility the truth is, as we often say over here, McDonald’s touches everything. And once you start to see that you can’t unsee it. Think of it as being yellow-pilled.

“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the yellow pill – you stay in McDonald’s PlayPlace and I show you how deep the dipping sauce goes.”

And Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (or a great day watching football for those that don’t observe). Mike worked a shift (for time and a half!) and they even had a family meal spread in the break room.

And this year we’re thankful for our co-hosts, producers, media managers, graphic designers, guests, fans, and listeners.

Today at Hamburger Business Review we’re looking at how technology and media intersect with fast food, and we wonder, which is selling which? We also see some positive regulatory actions that help BOTH consumers and McDonald’s, which feels like a nearly impossible win-win these days.

And then let’s go undercover where Mike is working at a hamburger restaurant, and ask Zach to explain his upcoming McTrot challenge. Finally we’ll close with our case study, which as you might guess from the image by Kriss Knapp is about expired meat.

Let’s start by trying really hard to not make a joke about chicken appetizers…

Chicken Apps + IP

Let’s talk about chicken. Well, chicken apps… Chick-fil-A has launched “Chick-fil-A Play” and it’s currently the #11 entertainment app in the App Store.

We first saw this in an Adweek article about the launch, but the app is available now in the Apple app store and the Google Play store.

The cow mascots are here, and the app lets you “watch, play, create, listen, and read” and will occupy your kids so you can enjoy your Honey Pepper Pimento Sandwich.

This is a free app. The only monetization strategy is hoping you buy a chicken sandwich.

We’ve talked about how McDonald’s leans heavily into its own IP. Not just in terms of Grimace, Ronald, and the rest of the cast of weirdos but the corporate heads speak reverently about the brand value of the sandwiches like the Big Mac™ and the McRib™.

But this chicken app reminds us of the anime shorts McDonald’s released last year under the “WcDonald’s” brand as part of their special dipping sauce promotion.

Our theory is that McDonald’s is leading the race in the QSR1 transition from restaurant to media company and we expect more apps, shorts, experiences, activations, and eventually full TV shows and movies to follow before all fast food is eventually competing with Mickey Mouse.

The End of the McBroken Era?

According to McBroken.com 14.72% of McDonald’s ice cream machines are broken right now. This site no doubt causes some ire at McHQ, especially after Wendy’s sponsored the site as part of an ad campaign.

But thanks to the work of Public Knowledge and iFixit the US Copyright Office has partially granted an exemption to the DMCA which will allow people to circumvent digital locks in order to repair commercial and industrial equipment.

What this means is that individual owner/operators of a franchise can now legally attempt to repair their own machines!

Rob Walker wrote about this in his Branded column for Fast Company with the headline Trump served fries, but Democrats helped fix McDonald’s broken ice cream machines.

The E. coli Story Continues

Mike talks about the impact of the E. coli outbreak at his own hamburger restaurant (spoiler: less lunch sales). The latest news as of today is that at least 104 people got sick, 34 were hospitalized, and one person died.

Not counting the costs of the lawsuits that have started, it’s now being reported that McDonald’s is investing $100 million to bring customers back, with $65 million going to support owners who lost business and $35 million into marketing efforts.

My Hamburger Restaurant

Mike says he is pretty good at drive thru now, and he gets complimented on his radio voice pretty often. The multi-tasking is next level and the tasks never end, but the system is pretty well designed. Mike adds,

It’s strange to be part of an invisible interaction (to them). I am trying very hard to make everything easy and quick and I want it to be pleasant too. But I can’t spend very much time on any one customer. I’m constantly trying to gauge how to present myself to them. Do they want Friendly Mike? Helpful Mike? Efficient Mike? Some combination? Most people don’t even seem to think of me as a person until they get to the window, which is weirdly fine (because it’s efficient)!

Zach asks how to be a good customer, which is probably something most people never think about, but Mike’s main point is to let the person on the headset drive the pace.

Chris asks, “What is a senior coffee?”

AD Would you like to reach all the business and burger enthusiasts who love Hamburger Business Review? We haven’t polled them but we assume it’s a lot of C-level executives and big time decision makers who are also really attractive and ready to buy something.

Peter Armstrong, CBC Senior Business Correspondent, said about us, “The podcast is fascinating, very fun and every time I listen to an episode, I learn something new.” Maybe that new thing could be your service, product, project, idea, or whatever we can help you promote2.

Introduction to McTrot

Zach is prepping for his 3rd annual McTrot, which he explains as a “challenge to eat at every McDonald’s in Manhattan within 24 hours, entirely on foot.” It’s an absolutely audacious, and seemingly impossible task.

As impossible as this sounds, Zach is not alone in creating strange athletics around McDonald’s. We’re big fans of Braden Roggow’s marathon literally AROUND a McDonald’s in Colorado.

Maybe he can join Zach next year! There is a lot more about McTrot on the podcast, and you can follow us on Instagram for more updates about this new attempt.

Case Study

This week’s case study is McDonald’s China: The Expired Meat Scandal that takes us back to 2014 when a Shanghai broadcaster secretly filmed inside the food processing plant of Shanghai Husi Food, a subsidiary of U.S.-based food supply giant OSI Group.

The footage shows workers handling food with their bare hands and picking up meat that has fallen on the floor and returning it directly into the processing machine. The shut down of this facility meant that beef and chicken products were unavailable across northern and central China and also impacted McDonald’s in Japan, which imported about 20% of their chicken nuggets from China.

This was an era of rapidly rising meat consumption in China which also led to a series of scandals including Wal-Mart recalling donkey meat after it was found to be contaminated with fox meat and Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, having just emerged from a food safety scandal that began in late 2012.

This did impact the share price back in 2014, but about a year later all was forgotten!

Obviously this case study made us think a lot about the E. coli situation McDonald’s is currently navigating (though is mostly out of the news now) with a slight dip in the share price. Mike remains bullish, but we don’t make recommendations and in fact recommend not choosing individual stocks.

Next Up: A 55-Cent Promotion

Next week we’re looking at McDonald’s 55 Cent Promotion, which happened in the late 90’s and is known as a huge marketing failure. As we dissect what went wrong we also look at the current era of promotions and the rising costs of fast food in America.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

Subscribe now

Book Recommendation

We don’t recommend stocks, but we do recommend books. McAtlas isn’t out yet, but listener Aidan Flaherty sent this to us and Mike has already pre-ordered it. Gary He, a James Beard Award-winning photographer has independently travelled the globe and photographed the non-standard items within the standardized universe of McDonald’s.

A Glowing Endorsement

Peter Armstrong, the Senior. Business Correspondent at the CBC, wrote a glowing recommendation of Hamburger Business Review in his Mind Your Business newsletter.

Welcome to our new 🇨🇦 Canadian subscribers, which is home to so many essential aspects of McDonald’s expansion. Not only was it the first international push but we talked a lot about Canadian McDonald’s in the episode about the Russian economic crisis.

We are so excited to start the new season with our producer Chris Higgins and an updated format for the podcast:

• News

• My Hamburger Restaurant

• Case Study Review

We recap and add a little context on each of these sections for you in the newsletter below but then we also have:

• Finance

• A Review of the Chicken Big Mac

• Some Political Reflections

Let’s get into it…

News

As we prepped for recording this episode we were still reeling from the news of E. coli cases related to the Quarter Pounder. The story continued to develop but it was the perfect tie-in to our case study about supply chains.

At the time the CDC was reporting 49 confirmed cases and one death. The investigation was looking at the possible culprit being either the slivered onions or the beef with cases spiking the most in Colorado.

CNN then reported, “McDonald’s supplier Taylor Farms has removed yellow onions from the market ‘out of an abundance of caution.’”

Then on October 24th AP News reported the official word from McDonald’s:

Taylor Farms, of Salinas, California, sent onions to one distribution facility [in Colorado], which led the fast-food chain to remove Quarter Pounder hamburgers from restaurants in several states. McDonald’s didn’t say which facility it was.

The story has continued to develop as we recorded so we created this video timeline using various news reports:

What Does This Mean for the Quarter Pounder?

In a New York Times article economics professor Jay Zagorsky said:

“I don’t see this as really affecting McDonald’s dramatically. And I think Wall Street agrees with me because the stock is only down about 5 percent.”

The Quarter Pounder is a big deal to McDonald’s, and was highlighted as an important brand itself in the 2023 Investor Update event. The NYT article closes with the following endorsement:

After McDonald’s made the switch from frozen to fresh beef, which boosted sales by 30 percent, even a Food & Wine critic was impressed.

“The Quarter Pounder, if you’re asking, was pretty good, in the muted way that Quarter Pounders generally are — a classic, simple thing, with enough heft to make you feel like you’ve had a meal, without having to order fries or guzzle sodas,” David Landsel wrote. “Sometimes, simple is good.”

My Hamburger Restaurant

Probably the biggest change to this season of HBR is that Mike is now working at a hamburger restaurant in southern California. Our producer Chris Higgins interviews Mike about why he chose this and what his first few weeks have been like.

Mike compares his memory of working at a hamburger restaurant now and when he worked part-time at McDonald’s back in high school. He has developed a fan-theory that the world of Star Trek is actually the result of McDonald’s being the last global organization after an apocalyptic event that destroyed capitalism. But we’ll save the details of that theory for another time.

Case Study

Our case study today is all about sustainability and supply chains, but obviously food safety was very much on our minds as we analyzed it.

You can pick up a copy of McDonald's Corp.: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain by Ray A. Goldberg and Jessica Droste Yagan at the Harvard Business Review store for $11.95. Both Zach and Mike agree that this is one of the best case studies they have ever read.

The case study is a Shakespearean story of two warring brands — McDonald’s and Greenpeace — and how they came together to fight the clearcutting of the Amazon rainforest. While the focus of the piece is on McDonald’s and its willingness to work with Greenpeace, we were far more fascinated by the complexity of the supply chain logistics required to run a global operation like McDonald’s.

Greenpeace was able to use people dressed in chicken suits to elucidate every otherwise invisible connection that makes up the supply chain — how the chicken in McNuggets is fed soy that is grown on farms that are built on the recently deforested tracts of land within the fragile ecosystem of the Amazon.

Next Up: McDonald’s China: The Expired Meat Scandal

That’s the first episode of the second season! We have more information to share below, and stay tuned for the next episode where we are planning to look at the The University of Hong Kong’s case study McDonald’s China: The Expired Meat Scandal.

If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger.

Subscribe now

Finance

Even before the E. coli outbreak that caused the share price to drop we had CEO Chris Kempczinski say in early October that he expects 2025 to be “another challenging year.” This was in reference to the rising costs of providing so much beef to customers.

Kempczinski said on Thursday that McDonald’s will aim to offer more affordable meals by including chicken-based items on the menu since poultry is more than half the cost of beef on a per-pound basis.

Which explains the launch of the Chicken Big Mac from an economic point of view.

This shift in the focus on protein and the concerns about 2025 being difficult have been largely overshadowed by all the political shenanigans as well as the recent E. coli outbreak which has had a major impact on the share price.

Should Hamburger Business Review Do Food Reviews?

We are a business podcast, but as my mom says, everyone’s gotta eat. In the burger business, new products are a great marketing strategy. But is the new take on an old favorite really any better? Can it move the needle?

And the real question is, should HBR do food reviews? Do you care what we think about the Chicken Big Mac? Should we compare smash burgers across LA? What about blind taste tests of French fries? We’re no Doughboys, but if you’d like our take on “product”, let us know:

Response to October Surprise

Mike was surprised the response to the T@McD event at his hamburger restaurant was… nothing. No one said a word about it. Of course the online discussions in the of McD employees had a lot to say. Here are some highlights from Reddit:

"I'd like to see him running headset while running fryers and making multiple mcfrappes at once, during a rush.. I doubt he figured out how to use the cash registers.."

"w/Trump there is always a certain irony, a playfulness, where he knows you are in on the joke and you’re both having fun. You both know who he is, who he is pretending to be, and it’s not at all malicious."

"This is cosplay and insulting to people who have actually worked any amount of time in their lives."

And one of our favorite hamburger writers, Marcia Chatelain, author of the incredible Franchise book, wrote a great NYT Opinion piece and was on CNN discussing how political theatrics block political change.

In the grand scheme of everything that is lining up to happen for the next four years this event might seem small. But we believe it remains the second most iconic image of the campaign and it highlights our theory about how McDonald’s touches everything.

I’m very excited to announce that we are launching season 2 of HBR on Friday, November 15th. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen, and of course we will be sending out the podcast here with all the additional information, links, and updates that create a value meal of hamburger business information.

Season 2 will run for 6 to 8 episodes and we already have case studies chosen for the first few episodes:

• McDonald’s Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain

• McDonald’s China: The Expired Meat Scandal

• McDonald’s 55 Cent Promotion

• Obesity and McLawsuits

With the help of our new producer Chris Higgins, we’ve really paying attention to how these academic topics relate to all the things happening right now in the world. It’s another way of exploring our thesis that there is nothing in the world that McDonald’s doesn’t touch.

We will also have our frontline reporting from Mike working at his hamburger restaurant. You can read about how he gets ready for his 7am start time, and in the first episode we’ll dive right into what it’s like to work at a modern hamburger restaurant.

Zach will be taking us on his third attempt at visiting every McDonald’s on the island of Manhattan in a 24 hour period. Zach’s been actively training for the event this year, both physically and mentally.

His work to determine the optimum route is a version of the traveling salesman problem complicated by the limited hours of some McDonald’s locations.

His mapping of all the locations in New York has led Zach to the archives of the yellow pages at the NYC public library. He has now started to map all the locations of past McDonald’s in the city, allowing us to see the slow migration of the franchise across the city.

Guests!

Last season we our entrepreneurial business advisor Marcus Estes on to discuss deep finance and we look forward to booking him again to help us understand the quarterly and annual reports of McDonald’s.

We are also working to book Cabel Sasser on the show, who gave an absolutely incredible presentation at XOXO this year about going maybe a little too deep into something (spoiler, it’s McDonald’s) and finding all the beauty and wonder along the way. Honestly we couldn’t recommend this more:

The Friends We’re Meeting Along the Way

As we mentioned before we have a podcast producer joining us this coming season. Chris Higgins is not only making sure we sound better but is joining us on the podcast to make sure we don’t drift TOO far into the weeds.

We have a new theme song from Jona Bechtolt. We’re working on a new logo with Kriss Knapp. We even have a social media manager! Colette Wacker has joined the team and will be helping us spread the word.

Mike has been absolutely amazed at how many people have reached out to him about their own past jobs working at hamburger restaurants. You may not realize it, but someone you know definitely worked at McDonald’s. That’s kind of insane but the 1-in-8 statistic that McDonald’s turned into a marketing/recruitment slogan is true and mind-blowing. Almost as mind-blowing as the $185 1 in 8 Alumni Jacket:

And with Substacks fun financial tools we’ll be keeping at eye on the share price with embedded charts like this:

Support and Thanks

And lastly, we’ve activated subscriptions as of today! We are an entirely self-funded operation! We hope to support ourselves with sponsors in the future (reach out if you’re interested) but greatly appreciate listener support.

Subscribe now

We’ve set our subscription rate to equal a Big Mac a month ($5.69 according to the Big Mac Index). You can also support us with a one-off contribution via the Buy Me a Burger page. We also will have some merch to announce once the new logo is finished!

Thanks to everyone who signed up for season one. We are really excited for the new season which is going to sound better (thanks Chris!) and dive into all the ways we can learn about the complexities of our world via the hamburger business.

Yours,
Mike, Zach, Chris, and Colette

There is a delightful amount of “Elect Mayor McCheese” fan created imagery, which is a wonderful escape from the brutal reality of the US Presidential Election. But never before has McDonald’s played such a role in politics, and so today we explore some context about what the heck is happening.

Why Are We Covering Politics?!

Donald Trump is purportedly scheduled to work the fry station at McDonald’s in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 19th.

Trump can’t stop obsessing over Harris’s McDonald’s job. So now he’s off to work the fryer at the fast food joint.

We think this is perhaps more than just a publicity stunt and the subtext here is nothing less than the essential difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Kamala Harris & McDonald’s

In November of 2012 the New York Times reported, With Day of Protests, Fast-Food Workers Seek More Pay:

The biggest wave of job actions in the history of America’s fast-food industry began at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday at a McDonald’s at Madison Avenue and 40th Street, with several dozen protesters chanting: “Hey, hey, what do you say? We demand fair pay.”

The unionization drive, called Fast Food Forward, is sponsored by community and civil rights groups — including New York Communities for Change, United NY.org and the Black Institute — as well as the Service Employees International Union. The campaign has deployed 40 organizers since January to rally fast-food workers behind unionization, saying the goal is to raise wages to $15 an hour.

This long running battle for fair pay for fast food workers is a big issue for Kamala Harris, and it puts her ideologically opposed to Donald Trump. Here is a Fight For Fifteen video with Harris posted on Facebook:

Trump’s Beef

Initially it might seem Donald Trump is just jealous. We know he loves McDonald’s and maybe he is mad that Kamala Harris gets to “claim” his favorite restaurant. But his response is so weird. It’s both predictable and also uniquely Trump:

He claims she didn’t work at McDonald’s.

Like with Obama’s birth certificate, he demands to see records that prove she worked there. This is an unhinged way to attack a political opponent.

Presidential Politics and McDonald’s

There is a history of Presidents and hopefuls showing up at McDonald’s to seem more like a “man of the people.” Some, like Bill Clinton, really liked McDonald’s. There is a famous SNL skit about it (possibly based on this Clinton and Gore C-SPAN video).

But McDonald’s has been used as a symbol of the people by many politicians. Ronald Reagan campaigned at a McDonald’s…

And Mitt Romney tried to win over some positive press coverage by handing out fries to reporters.

It's an amazing aspect of our democracy that the most powerful person would eat, and occasionally relish, a food that is so pervasive and maligned just to seem like a normal guy. (Seems easy enough but it can backfire and make you seem weird.)

McDonald’s is like what Andy Warhol said about Coca-Cola:

Trump & McDonald’s

Where Harris comes at McDonald’s from the angle of the labor, Trump comes at McDonald’s as a customer.

Like with Clinton, we know that Trump honestly loves to eat McDonald’s. The most iconic image of Trump is him with fist raised in the air and blood on his face. But the other for me is from the White House dinner when the government was defunded, and he assembled a feast of fast food. He just looks so pleased with himself.

On an episode of Election Profit Makers they theorized that this election is barely a fight between the two candidates because Trump talks to his side and Harris talks to hers and other than one debate, they don’t really interact. This limited interaction gives the McDonald’s argument more weight, even though it is wildly stupid.

Why Is Trump Working at McDonald’s?

On the surface he seems to be implying that Harris never worked at McDonald’s because working there is easy, and she said it was hard. But the subtext here is that he’s saying McDonald’s is an easy and small job, one that does not deserve higher pay or benefits.

He also figures that if he can cross the counter from customer to employee he can negate the labor power of Harris’ punch. He is a self-professed “counter-puncher” and if he can undermine Harris edge out a little more media attention then that is a victory.

His measuring stick is attention, and people love talking about him working at the fry station.

Predictions

Zach: Yes, he will work at the fry station. No, it will not give him the election.

Mike: He will not “work” the fry station. He may be photographed standing near it. He may touch parts of it, but he won’t be working. And I agree, it won’t change anyone’s mind or vote.

New HBR Crew Member

We are also incredibly excited to announce that the Hamburger Business Review team is expanding. We’re bringing on the talented and experienced Chris Higgins as our producer for the second season (which will be the next episode you hear!).

What Chris lacks in McDonald’s knowledge he makes up for with his technical audio skills and storytelling acumen. You might know Chris from his documentary series Best of Five: The Classic Tetris Champions, as writer/host of the Election Ride Home Podcast, from his writing for Mental Floss, or maybe his report for This American Life.

For Fun

This short film captured in a single aerial shot, shows a young man’s proposal to his girlfriend at a McDonald's drive-thru is interrupted by an eager customer offering help with their order. We don’t’ often recommend experimental shorts, but when we do, they are about McDonald’s.

Announcing Season 2

We are in the early planning for our second season of the podcast, but so much is happening in the world of Hamburger Business we decided to use the email feature of Substack to share what we’re reading and talking about internally and what we’re working on for the next season.

Our first ever episode of Hamburger Business Review was a test pilot where we dove into a Harvard Business Review case study from 1990 about McDonald’s and the Environment.

Choose Your Own Case Study

As we kick off the second season we’re going to look at the evolution of caring about the environment via the new corporate focus on sustainability. There are a few case studies we’re considering launching with and we’d love your feedback! Which case study should kick off Season 2?

The title “Where’s the (Sustainable) Beef?” is just too good which makes this poll a little unfair, but perhaps there some other supply chain stans and decarbonizing fiends out there?

Working at the Hamburger Restaurant

A new feature of Season 2 will be updates from the front lines of the burger wars. Mike now has a job at a hamburger restaurant and is learning the ins and outs of what’s it like to make a living in the fast paced and highly competitive world of the southern California burger battles.

Other Perspectives

We might also hear from Mike’s partner Kathryn about what it’s like to date a “burger boy” and how his career shift (and his early morning shifts!) impact their relationship. Mike is also starting to be active on the various McD subreddits and will surface interesting posts like What to do because we're being forced to work during a major category 5 hurricane? which was unfortunately deleted by the user but you get the idea.

Every McDonald’s in Manhattan

Zach has been on the elliptical machine, training for his third attempt to eat at every McDonald’s in Manhattan within 24 hours. What started when his partner Suzannah took a 24 hour shift at the hospital on Thanksgiving of 2022 has become an annual ritual-cum-fitness benchmark that will be opened up as an extreme walking tour in 2025. This November he’s taking one more solo trot against the clock.

In so doing he has fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole of current and past restaurant locations in Manhattan. From going through microfilm of old phonebooks at the New York Public Library, massaging those entries into geospatial data and making his own map with open source GIS tools, he hopes to not just find the fastest theoretical route to every restaurant but also become one of the leading experts on America’s number one hamburger chain in America’s largest city. We’ll be sharing some really great maps and photos of the old locations.

Calories In / Calories Out

Mike has been comparing the calorie count of the McDonald’s menu to the amount he burns on a typical bike ride. His small, medium, and long routes are now thought of as the McDouble, the Big Mac, and the Double Bacon QPC. Here’s a rough draft:

Serving orders at the Hamburger restaurant and seeing a wide variety of orders also made Mike wonder about what the most efficient meal at McDonald’s is from a price per calorie perspective. Of the three sandwiches above the price per calorie is $0.009 for the McDouble, $0.01 for the Big Mac, and $0.008 for the Double Bacon QPC. Does this approximation of 1 cent per calorie hold up for the rest of the menu?

News and Finance

One of the neat features of Substack is that you can insert financial charts. So we can keep a regular look at the share price.

And as we watch the number rise and occasionally fall we'll look to see what is happening in the world of McDonald’s, the wider world of the hamburger business, and the even wider world of the Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) industry.

For example, the Wall Street Journal looks at the new Chicken Big Mac and sees a business and hospitality trend of using chicken as a protein on the ride (WSJ 🔒).

Just in the last week we’ve seen some really fascinating stories, and we could do a whole episode or newsletter about any one of these:

Headline Round Up

• McDonald’s Sues Major Beef Suppliers for Alleged Price-Fixing Conspiracy

• McDonald’s customers are cutting back on fries. Its biggest supplier is cutting jobs

• What’s McDonnell’s? Here’s why McDonald’s created a dupe restaurant in Los Angeles

• The McMiracle 50 years later: How the Eagles, McDonald's turned tragedy into triumph with the Ronald McDonald House

• How the Mets and McDonald’s are capitalizing on the ‘Grimace effect’

In these headlines we see more examples of our theory that there is nothing in the world McDonald’s doesn’t touch. Beef price fixing, big french fry, fake knock-off restaurants as marketing ploys, the Eagles, baseball, and more are all connected to McDonald’s in these five stories.

Stay Tuned…

Using the full features of the Substack platform we’re expanding Season 2 into more than just a podcast. We look forward to connecting with our readers and listeners, bring in guests to the newsletter and the podcast, and keeping up a regular conversation as we dive back into the burger business.

For those that were supporting us in Season 1 we want to say thanks again so much! We won’t be turning the subscriptions back on until the podcast launches but your support helps us put in the quality time to make the best version of this we can. We’d really appreciate your support for season two:

Subscribe now

And please spread the word if you know anyone else who loves the intersection of business and hamburgers. It’s a weird place to hang out, but we’ve found it tells a lot about the wider world.

Yours,
Mike & Zach

Retail sales are expected to be up this holiday season, with bars and restaurants leading the way, so you’d think McDonalds would be leaning into the holiday cheer. But maybe when you are so dominant in the IEO space you don't need to flaunt it?

What’s IEO? They kept saying it at the Investor Day presentation and I had to look it up. It’s the McDonald’s segment of the restaurant industry and it stands for “Informal Eating Out.” This includes other Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), casual dining full-service restaurants, street stalls, specialist coffee shops, and juice or smoothing bars. Basically any place that makes your neighborhood nice is the enemy of McDonalds.

Rather than discuss the doom and gloom of McDonalds ongoing battle for third spaces we have our Holiday Special for you. It’s been about four months since we wrapped season one and we have a lot to cover:

1. Zach’s annual McTrot!

2. McDonalds position in the Israel/Palestine conflict

3. CosMc’s

4. The stock price

5. Where is Santa?

6. Expanding McDonald’s IP

7. HBR Merch!

8. And what’s could be next for HBR

🍔 Hamburger Business Review Merchandise

There is no way you’re getting any of these before Christmas, but that’s the point. These are not christmas gifts. This is something you buy for yourself. Because after listening to Season One you’re also a Hamburger Expert!

There is nothing like a fleece vest and a matching cap to make you feel like some combo of tech industry titan and delivery person. It’s great.

The HBR Hat in Mustard

An embroidered hat with with HBR logo. Discreet, because maybe people will think this is associated with a fancy college, but also a signal to all business burger enthusiasts with the burger icon.

HBR Hat

The HBR Mug in Mustard

Add a splash of burger business to your morning coffee or tea ritual! These ceramic mugs not only have a beautiful burger design and bold HAMBURGER BUSINESS REVIEW on them, but also a bright yellow rim, handle, and inside, so the mug helps keep your focus on the business of burgers.

HBR Mug

The HBR Fleece Vest

Make the right choice with this Columbia fleece vest! It’s a modern yet classic piece that’s perfect for layering during cold weather and you’re ready for your business conference in Switzerland, Idaho, or the Bay Area!

HBR Business Fleece

Thanks again to all our listeners and supporters. We’re excited about the future of the burger business and can’t wait to get back to it.

-K. Mike Merrill + Zach Rose

Paid subscriptions are now turned off as there are no new episodes coming, but thanks so much to our financial supporters! We will send out occasional updates letting you know what we’re working on.

👟 McTrot 2023

Last Thanksgiving, while his partner was working back-to-back shifts at the hospital, Zach set out to eat at every McDonald’s in Manhattan in 24 hours on foot. Two pairs of shoes, a four-hour nap, and 23 hours, 54 minutes after starting, he sank his teeth into an apple pie at the Wall Street location.

While it certainly felt successful, the truth is that he didn’t eat at the McDonald’s in the children’s section of Macy’s or the McDonald’s on Varick street because they were closed for the holiday. He finished having checked off only 48 of the island’s 50 McDonald’s restaurants.

He’s been on the StairMaster basically ever since. This year he’s confident he can close out all 50 and he’s looking to make it happen on Thursday, November 30th, 2023. If this sounds like something you or someone you know would be interested in, email Zach at zachrose@fastmail.com.

We will of course be keeping you all up to date on our various adventures, but this is a unique opportunity to join one of the most distinguished McDonald’s experts of our time in a truly historic attempt of fast food patronage.

📋 After Burgers

I wrote my personal After Action Review about season 1 here. The tl;dr is:

• we didn’t really know what we were doing

• the process changed and improved as we went

• not all case studies are created equal

• a weekly pace was too ambitious

🗂 Mike’s Tab Dump

I have a number of saved articles and links I gathered during the last few months and maybe you’ll find some of these interesting. I think it’s funny that all press seems to be bad press for McDonald’s.

• April 8th, 2023: Work From the Office, Get Laid Off at Home

• April 27th, 2023: Rev. Al Sharpton Threatens Action Against McDonald's Over Racial Discrimination

• April 27th, 2023: The U.S. economy is losing steam. Bank woes and other hurdles are to blame.

• May 2nd, 2023: Low wages, short hours drive many fast-food workers into homelessness

• May 5th, 2023: You may never eat inside a fast food restaurant again

• May 6th, 2023: The Death of a Place to Sit

• May 7th, 2023: Burger King vs. McDonald’s (video/reel)

• May 11th, 2023: Supreme Court Upholds California Law on Humane Treatment of Pigs

• May 12th, 2023: Krispy Kreme set for doughnut ‘halo effect’ at McDonald’s and Target, say analysts

• May 13th, 2023: Wendy's Makes a Key Change McDonald's, Burger King Hasn't

• May 24th, 2023: 10-year-olds found working at a Kentucky McDonald's until 2 a.m.

• June 5th, 2023: A NEW ‘REPORT’ FROM MCDONALD’S COULD CHANGE THE FAST-FOOD CHAIN FOREVER

✅ Closing Remarks

We’ll be continuing to keep an eye on McDonald’s and the burger industry. This week I’m meeting up with Brian Thompson who hosts the investigative “Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s?” podcast.

If you’re in Los Angeles or New York please reach out and we’ll meet up for a McCafé!

-Mike (and Zach)

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." -Cersei Lannister

There have only been 10 CEOs of McDonald’s:

1. Ray Kroc: 1961 to 1973

2. Fred Turner 1973: to 1989

3. Michael Quinlan: 1989 to 1998

4. Jack Greenberg: 1998 to 2002

5. Jim Cantalupo: 2002 to 2004

6. Charles Bell: 2004 to 2005

7. Jim Skinner: 2005 to 2012

8. Don Thompson: 2012 to 2015

9. Steve Easterbrook: 2015 to 2019

10. Chris Kempczinski: 2019 to Present

Chris Kempczinski took the “Golden Throne” and became CEO of McDonald’s after the sudden departure of his mentor and boss due to an inappropriate workplace romance, and he’s the first CEO of the modern social media era with his Instagram account @chrisk_mcd.

We’re looking at the 2019 case study  titled simply “McDonald’s Corporation” that looks at the situation when Chris took over. He has taken the “Easterbrook Inititives” and developed that into a wonderful “Accelerating The Arches” strategic plan.

We also use this as an opportunity to look back over our first season of Hamburger Business Review and take some educated guesses about what we might see happen next.

Thanks for listening! We hope you learned about more than just the burger business during season one. There really is very little in our modern day culture that doesn’t touch McDonald’s and it’s been an absolute joy to share these case studies and discussions with you.

In Grimace We Trust,
-Mike & Zach

It starts with a promoted "#MeetTheFarmers" hashtag designed to introduce the wholesome sourcing of McDonald’s. Something like this:

To boost “engagement” they switched from from #MeetTheFarmers to #McDStories halfway through the first day of the campaign, hoping to get regular customers to say wonderful things. Of course, that isn’t how Twitter has ever worked…

The new hashtag got people’s attention! McDonald’s quickly pivoted back to the original #MeetTheFarmers as more people piled on their #McDStories.

A few days later, the media picked up the story and ran negative coverage with mocking headlines. In the articles they were able to highlight McDonald’s blunder and quote the negative tweets. This coverage turned the minor misstep into a major mistake.

Following along with the case study we discuss what happened, and what we can all learn from McDonald’s mistake and the evolution of how brands use social media.

Note: This episode mentions the Grimace takeover of McDonald’s Twitter but was recorded before the reaction videos of the Grimace shake became a trend.

In 2001 the CEO of McDonald’s in Switzerland got the green light to apply the franchise DNA of McDonald’s to a hotel. As a frequent business traveller Urs Hammer thought of everything, and used his deep understanding of scalable efficient service to design a hotel like no other.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that it failed. But it failed in a pretty interesting way, and in fact the hotel itself continues to operate under a different brand. The URL goldenarchhotel.com now redirects to the rebranded Radisson, with the super sized McDonald’s still attached to the structure.

The infamous exposed showers are still there, now covered with scenes from around Switzerland to provide a little more privacy.

Join us as we imagine what it was like to pull into the not-so-grand Golden Arch Hotel and chat with our fellow confused travelers over a beer some chicken nuggets at the hotel bar.

Your Hosts,
K. Mike Merrill and Zach Rose

Case Studies:

• McDonald's and the Hotel Industry

• Golden Arch Hotel: McDonald's Adventure in the Hotel Industry

In this episode we look at the 2020 case study McDonald's: Can A Behemoth Lead in the Era of Artificial Intelligence? by Fabrizio Di Muro of the University of Winnipeg.

Coming Up Next:

Next episode we’re looking at the ill-fated McDonald’s hotel launch. And after that we will review the social media strategy for selling more burgers. For our final episode of the season we’ll take a look at everything Chris Kempczinski inherited as the newly appointed CEO.