MrSchroeder
Lombard, IL
Male, 33
I *was* an assistant manager for a McDonald's Franchisee in Tucson, AZ from 2007 to 2008, and was hired with the explicit intention of being management and not a standard crew member. I worked hard in learning the procedures and processes of the corporation, with a goal of a much longer career than I actually had. My every day life evolved while I was there, starting from the least desirable position to overall operations. I wrote a blog detailing my experiences as well.
This is entirely dependent upon the franchisee and the market. In general, standard crew members do start off right at or barely above the minimum wage. Managers have several pay brackets and most of it is based off experience. You might have two people with the exact same job title and responsibilities working in the same store with a $2/hr difference. Depending on the market the store is in, and how many qualified applicants there are, pay might be as much as $9 for crew, or it might be bare minimum wage. Store managers might make anywhere from $27k to $75k a year depending on the market, performance, and many other factors. As far as raises, there were 6 months reviews for crew and lower tier managers, annually for store level managers. At these reviews someone would receive anywhere from nothing to 25 cents an hour pay increase. Usually it was about 5 to 10 cents. For assistant and store managers, the range was nothing to $1 per hour, with 50 cents being the norm. Keep in mind, assistant and store managers also got bonused (as explained in a previous post).
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I don't have a great amount of knowledge about this, but I can tell you what I do know. The franchisee I worked for acquired 4 stores in Tucson that were all already existing. Prior to this, he had a single store in Colorado. He either bought out the previous owners because they wanted to sell or was "awarded" the right to buy the franchise based on his previous recorded - awarded by McDonald's corporate, usually this happens when the existing franchisee is not succeeding financially (is unable to pay franchise fees or for inventory), or they fail heavily on the Operations Reviews that occur periodically. I know that one of his 4 stores was turning over $75k in profit per month. Another one, the one I worked at, lost $5,000 the first year he had it (also the first year I worked there). I was actually able, in the first month I was put in charge of managing inventory, to reduce over/under ordering costs by a bit more than $5,000, thus cancelling out his previous year's loss. There are a huge variety of factors in the success or failure of a McDonald's location. I've spoken to franchisees who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the course of a year, and others who made several million dollars. It depends on so many factors - most of them basic principals of McDonald's management. Some unmanageable ones are nearby traffic and location, ease of entry, competition, the neighborhood. Manageable ones include quality of service, speed of service, inventory management, labor management, cleanliness, and more (these are the basic tenants of McDonald's operations, referred to as "QSC&V: Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value"). No actual location will "fail" unless it truly is a loser based on unmanageable factors. Otherwise, if a franchisee fails, McDonald's will either buy back the franchise and make it a corporate store, or sell the franchise to another, more successful franchisee who has demonstrated success and is interested in the location. A fun note on franchises with McDonald's... The franchisee owns everything inside the walls, the parking lot and structures outside (such as trash bins, or external storage areas). Everything else belongs to McDonald's. The land, the shrubbery, sidewalks, signage, flagpoles all belong to McDonald's. As do the walls, windows and doors. The franchisee has to maintain and upkeep all aspects of the property, and is required to purchase all fixtures, equipment, plumbing, seating, counters, signage, food prep and drink dispensers, etc. It's an open secret that McDonald's really isn't in the hamburger business, they're in the property business.
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I had no idea what you're talking about. I think you mean this snippet from a Reddit post about what things you would not recommend eating from the restaurant you work at: “I accidentally left a whole bag of about 100 chicken nuggets out on a counter for way too long. They melted. Into a pool of liquid. I never understood why. But they were completely indiscernible as being the nuggets I once knew.”" The stupid things people will say for karma. No. Just no. The only way I could imagine anything close to this actually happening to McNuggets would require so many levels of poor food handling that it's as unlikely as it gets. The only way this could possibly happen would be for somehow the nuggets to be soaked in liquid for a long period of time, to the point where they begin decomposing and are barely discernible as a solid, then flash frozen so they retain their nuggety shape. After this, they'd have to be left out for long enough that the frozen substance melted and then left out long enough again for the last bits of solid degrade into liquid themselves. Seriously, if a redditor tells you that somehow the basic laws of physics are defied by a fast food product, perhaps you should take it with a grain of salt. Or a dollop of BBQ sauce.
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Menu is not dictated entirely. Some stores don't participate in sales/specials/promotions/seasonal items. Right now McRib is back - some stores aren't carrying it. Some stores have found they don't sell salads as well, so maybe they price those higher or don't carry the same variety.
Pricing is definitely up to the Owner/Operator, and depends on market. Most of the stores don't have a "Dollar Menu" anymore, or if they do it's very limited. They have a "Value Menu" where items are $1.19-$1.59.
However, franchisees can't "add" items that are not part of the McDonald's menu to their menu and cannot serve food "off menu" as a rule (like a Land-Sea-Air burger (Big Mac with a Fish Filet and a McChicken on the burger patties).
As far as decoration goes, there is a ton of leeway allowed. In Tucson, one of the stores was decorated like an expensive, rich guy's library. Shelves and books, dark floor, the vinyl seats were faux leather, a couple of large lounging armchairs and ottomans... A very impressive design. In Chicagoland, there are several theme restaurants, including a 1950s pastel diner look. However, I do believe that they must predominantly have the familiar Gold and Red in some way and all deviations are probably required to be approved by McDonald's Corp. but I'm not certain.
Here's a couple links with the more unique McDonald's restaurants including one that's a freaking AIRPLANE! http://www.sortrature.com/unique-mcdonalds-restaurants/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckroes/galleries/72157622406186208/
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This really depends on the store, how common a problem this is, customer flow, and local and state laws. Your best bet is to ask someone who works at your neighborhood McDonald's.
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I was hired as a manager - I didn’t work as a crew. However, when someone had their hours significantly cut like you’re describing, it was generally due to performance issues or a lack of motivation to succeed at the work assigned. I’m not saying that is definitely true for you, and I don’t know what you were hired for, how your training has progressed, and how your store is staffed. $200 every two weeks? I can barely management my household on that much money every 3 days (which still isn’t all that much). I’m no life coach, but I would say the very first thing you should be doing is reassessing your performance. Identify your strengths and your opportunities for growth. Have a conversation with the store manager (or if needed, the Owner/Operator) and highlight your strengths while finding out what you can do to address those opportunities. Explain that you know you are good at <strengths> and that you have to improve upon <opportunities>, but you’re not only willing but able to learn to capitalize on those strengths. Be honest and explain that you need as close to full time hours as possible, and find out what you need to do to get those. If that’s not possible, or they’re not willing for whatever reason to help you grow and give you more hours, then perhaps you should hunt down a new job.
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