Sports bore me but I can’t get enough of the great burger battle. McDonald’s reported sales increases of 4.8 last month. Most of the increases are overseas but it is no surprise that its domestic sales are solid as can be.
Their new coffees, which now include frozen drinks, are a close competitor to Starbucks, and in buying them you don’t have to endure a lecture about how you are doing your part to save the planet.
For breakfast, you can get a traditional biscuit or croissant with sausage or move into the new line that includes a fruit parfait for a buck (how is this possible?) or an apple-walnut salad. This stuff is amazing.
And I would compare their Angus burger next to any hamburger in a fancy restaurant that costs twice as much.
This is a company that knows how to market, how to adapt, how to change. And in my town, the McDonald’s is the happiest place around. They offer wi-fi and smiling employees who are quick with a quip and a smile. The place is full of energy and life and is teeming with the sense of progress.
Meanwhile, Burger King’s sales slipped 8.2% in January and February. Corporate headquarters blames bad weather. They ought to be looking more carefully at their menu. They are only now catching up to the wonderful Angus Burger with a new offering called a steakburger or something like that. But even now, they lack the coffees and fruity breakfast choices.
Still, there is something to admire about both companies. They are responsive to the consumer, and the employees at both places must deal with the most demanding consumers you can imagine. If only one thing goes wrong, they are going to hear about it. People demand more ketchup than they will use, fill up their drinks eight times, and start yelling if the meal they ordered doesn’t appear in 10 seconds.
To be sure, there is a strange way in which Burger King is the benefactor of McDonalds and visa versa. The existence of competition inspires emulation (good!) and the striving for excellence (good!) and an overall increase in the demand for the product they both offer. So, yes, they are competitors but they are also cooperators in a great industry.
It always amazes me how demanding Americans can be toward private enterprise. Everything must be 100% correct or the customer flips out. But put these same people in line at the post office or the customs line at the airport and they become complacent slaves doing everything they are told. They don’t even complain about it.
It’s as if our expectations are different and we are okay with that. We expect the government to be slow, rude, abusive, unreasonable, and unresponsive and we adapt ourselves to that and figure that this is what is necessary for security or the general welfare or whatever. We let them have our money and our lives and call it a day.
But when we enter private businesses, we have the opposite way about us. Everything must go our way. We suffer no fools. We demand to speak to the management right now! and so on. Yes, it is bizarre, but it is part of the socialization we endure in our mixed economic system. We live double lives – one for the real economy and one for the phony economy.
One nice step would be to at least allow the same level of competition in public services that we have in private services. Where is the McDonalds vs. the Burger King when it comes to the Customs Bureau or the Courthouse? It would not be a real market but at least it would interject some life into this static world of the public sector. And yet, it remains as Mises said: there is no real competition without prices and private property. All the rest is just playing market. The burger companies are struggling every day to get ahead. It is a glorious thing to see, and a model for the way the entire world ought to work.
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In the UK Burger King has the Angus Burger, while McDonald’s has nothing like it, and while BK does seem to be losing “the fight”, their burgers have a reputation for quality vs. McD’s (at least among those people I know).
That’s amazing.
I was thinking the same thing. I had an Angus burger from Burger King recently, whereas I never eat at McDonalds because their food is (or at least, was) rubbish in comparison.
Agreed. Burger King is far better in the UK than McDonalds. The only problem is I only knew of 3 Burger King branches in London compared with dozens of McDonalds branches.
I’m not too fond of either. I prefer Subways. Bear in mind in the end McDs is a franchise.
You’ll appreciate this, especially if you’re also a Simpsons fan: http://ewot.typepad.com/the_economic_way_of_think/2010/03/mconomics.html. Blogging it at Division of Labour in a minute.
I don’t understand the dichotomy either Jeff. We expect our computers to be more powerful at less cost. We expect our TVs to grow in size, be more energy efficient, and come cheaper.
The government disinformation scheme however scares the average citizen into thinking we can’t have adequate health-care, banking, or defense unless they are involved. Somehow paying $600 for a toilet is fine even though the average citizen would never think of it.
This is why Mises.org is so important in re-educating the average person. Your growth will be in proportion to the number of government officials, mainstream economists and media corporations that attack what you have to say.
I stopped in a Burger King for the first time when I was at Alton Towers in October. They had little more than Burger King’s and KFC’s.
Government is more predictable and valued than Business. Businesses sometimes make promises they don’t keep, surprising and angering their paying customers. Government makes promises that it almost never keeps. This doesn’t surprise anyone, who are still happy for whatever free help they receive. (smile)
Great article.
Zero Percent Taxation Solves Unresponsiveness Of Government Bureaucracies!
One of the main reasons the behavior is different is because the response is different. Imagine yourself at a government run service demanding better service or even asking to speak to the ‘manager.’ Both of these requests will be fruitless.
Whereas in market enterprises there is quick and decisive response, most of the time favoring the consumer.
The solution is to stop taxation since that is what funds the government. If government operations are the best means of providing a good or service then it will be able to out compete any and all challengers and pay its operational costs by charging its customers a fee.
“It always amazes me how demanding Americans can be toward private enterprise. Everything must be 100% correct or the customer flips out. But put these same people in line at the post office or the customs line at the airport and they become complacent slaves doing everything they are told.”
^Very solid point. And I definitely know how ridiculously demanding consumers of fast food can be: I worked at McDonald’s when I was a sophomore in high school. It’s amazing that these same types who beg the state to regulate and punish private enterprise are very often the same types screaming at fast food cooks for forgetting a pickle.
i don’t think we should be extolling the diligent work ethic of fast food service employees…or their food quality. they seem to appeal to the lowest common denominator of society. normally, i’m not snobby; but i’ve gotten way too many incorrect/incomplete drive through orders, let alone orders of day-old fries. i’m more polite to them than they are to me, and they don’t even apologize when they mess up and waste both of our time. the last thing these people need are apologists. maybe the service is better in other areas…
i’ve found they’re so incompetent that lately i just make my own burgers. i guarantee they’re cheaper and MUCH tastier than that mass-produced garbage.
Hardee’s actually introduced the “premium” burger in like 2003 – the six dollar burger, then the thick burgers.
That hasn’t been my experience. Out of over a thousand orders over my lifetime, I think I’ve had a total of maybe a dozen wrong orders. Orders which I either got refunded for or got replaced quickly.
Are any of these, the perfect restaurant where a porter parks you car, a maitre d’ greets you, you personally meet the chef to diccuss your meal, and the staff constantly kisses up to you? No. One thing to keep in mind is while Burger King, McDonalds, Whataburger, Taco Bell, Carls Jr, Dairy Queen, Long John SIlvers, KFC, etc are great enterprises but not supposed to be a fine dining experience. They are quick and cheap. To me, the funny thing about it being “cheap” food is the way the stores and product has continually upgraded over time. The level of quality, breadth of product, signage/marketing and the inside aesthetics of the stores themselves are much higher than when I was a child in the late 1970′s.
The thing that impresses me the most about all of this is that the labor required for these jobs is usually the lowest skilled and lowest paid kind. It speaks a lot of those enterprises that even with possibly the worst labor possible, they still churn out good product that people want.
Honestly, I don’t know how these places make money at all.
I’ve worked at 3 different Burger Kings over the course of 8 years and the simple fact is that many branchs dont make money. The last store I worked at was well located and brought in almost 2 million a year, but 45% of the stores in the franchise were running at a loss. There were about 90 stores, and apparently their losses were more than offset by a few high volume stores. They make most of their money on basically two items, pop, and fries. Items like woppers, hamburgers, milkshakes, and salads all use realtivly expensive ingredients (beef, vegitables, sugars), and take more labor to prepare (a proper wopper takes at least 9 seconds, but with unskilled hands 3 times that). Basically these items draw people in, but very little to no profit is made on them. However pop and fries are different. They require far less time and are far cheaper to produce. When a “value” meal is sold, the price of the sandwich is basically breaking even, but there is alot of profit with the fries and drink (drinks are mostly water (especailly when you add ice) and CO2) with only a tiny amount of syrup, and pop requires almost no on sight labor to prepare (hence all the self serve). I was told that 90% of the actual profit came from these two items, the rest just gets you in the door.
This has not been our experience with McDonalds. First of all, as a customer, I can see that their product is fresh when I go inside to order. They are always making fries and other products as the orders come in. Now, granted, the products that are typically associated with McDonalds are not especially healthy if eaten regularly, there are healthier alternatives like grilled chicken wraps and salads which I order when our little girl wishes to eat there on occasion. The price is extremely reasonable for what is provided. Their coffee products are cheaper than Starbucks and taste quite good.Our only issue that we see on occasion is some employees are immigrants and their English isn’t the best. This has caused an occasional misunderstood order, but it is always remedied very quickly. In the scheme of things, if the government worked as well as McDonalds did, we’d have a lot more money in our pockets, and probably a lot more products and services available to us that we can’t even now imagine.
There is a Simpsons episode where the IRS takes over Krusty Burger. Can’t find it on youtube, but there is a scene with someone ordering a burger afterwards. The guy behind the counter says something like “fill out this form in triplicate and you’ll get a burger in 2-3 weeks”.
i don’t think we should be extolling the diligent work ethic of fast food service employees…or their food quality. they seem to appeal to the lowest common denominator of society.
the mcDs on las vegas blvd beside circus circus is a very stylish and clean restaraunt.
low priced tasty food, with wifi, bars to sit at and plug in and relax. not low or common at all, imo. i would choose it over many other places.
the hardees/carls burgers were good. in the southeast back in the late eighteis hardees redid their burgurs i believe touting the angus beef attribute and increasing pattie size.
Jeff, it sounds like you have had a VERY different experience with MD and BK than I have. At the ones near here, the employees are usually too stoned to make coherent sentences.
Good article. By the way, what planet is that McDonalds on? Doesn’t sound much like the ones on my planet.
I agree with Mr Tucker, a least here in France, MD offers better quality than its competitors, in terms of higyene, price, and variety of food.
I feel always good in a MD.
I agree with Bruce Koeber that the behavior is different because the response is different.
You do not expect a quick response and a smile from a post office or subway worker.
Jeff,
You are forgetting the global reach both companies have. McD is far larger and expands greater into emerging markets such as India and China than BK does. These sales will continue to grow and BK playing catching up will continue to see their sales to dwindle compared to McD.
The free market is efficient in bringing you the best fast food, but that doesn’t change the fact that the food is still garbage, even if it tastes good
“They offer wi-fi and smiling employees who are quick with a quip and a smile. ”
I wonder what drugs they put in their food to keep them quick and smiling despite their FILTHY wages.
“But put these same people in line at the post office or the customs line at the airport and they become complacent slaves doing everything they are told. ”
I don’t, I FED-EX my shipments and I no longer fly, I use my car or train because I’m fedup with airport security.
“It’s as if our expectations are different and we are okay with that. We expect the government to be slow, rude, abusive, unreasonable, and unresponsive and we adapt ourselves to that and figure that this is what is necessary for security or the general welfare or whatever. We let them have our money and our lives and call it a day.”
This only goes on to say that the one with power makes the rules. Looking at government and how people behave towards government, I want my own private army instead of my own business.
That way I could extort people, berude them and they will still obey. One has got to be stupid to run a company trying to please people when they could just force people into submission.
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Seriously can’t believe none of you has seen this.
We do live in a free society so you folks are free to eat what you will. That said the food that Mc’ds and other fast food joints serve is disgusting and all frozen. I much prefer to cook for my self or choose a slightly more premium spot to eat out at. The ground beef at mcdonalds comes from one of the most disgusting processes and any animal product that Mc’ds uses I can asure you that animal was mistreated.
Feel free to eat what you want but think about what you’re eating and where it comes from.
Ha! Some of the responses here are unbelievable. Fast food is fast and it’s cheap. There’s nothing like a McD’s double cheeseburger or two when you’re short on time and money, and sometimes even when you aren’t.
But at least with McDonald’s, you have the choice to go there or not.
Well in fairness Burger King takes the Gold on the Burger war, considering the patties are juicy and the bread are fresh and the fries are more better. But Mc Donalds takes the Gold on Breakfast war, they offer a far tasty breakfast meal.
I absolutely can’t stand mcdonalds low priced value menu…Honestly I think you may experience a healthier meal by opening up a fresh can of ALPO! LOL
The burger battles are turning into the burger war. Wendy’s, Five Guys and Jake’s are all joining the battle over market share. The big question is how many burgers can one planet eat? It seems everyone has their favorite. I’m a big burger fan and must say I have eaten them all. My favorite – Applebees. Okay, maybe that’s cheating. But since Applebees is now a franchise, I think not. It just goes to show that franchising is more than fast food. And burgers, with a little tender loving care, can be quite flavorful.
Each of these have their own basic burger that pulls crowd. Anyways, competition is good for us
Thanks,
Smith – chefs coat
Isn’t it about the time that we reduce some burger consumption in the light of all articles published recently? Let’s pay a little more attention to our own health. http://www.lifestyle-after50.com/nutrition.html
There are also protein-rich delicious Veggie Burgers. See my recipe at http://www.vegetarian-zone.com/burger.html
Royal Takeaway Clayton
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