Mcdonald's and Burger King Essay

What do you typically order when dining at McDonald’s or Wendy’s? When I am having a meal from either place, my favorite choice is a fried chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, bacon and extra mayo. Sometimes, I may make it a combo and enjoy the greasy, salty french fries and an ice cold soft drink. Most of their customers often purchase the unhealthiest options because they feel as if that is what fast food is all about, right? Fortunately, it does not have to be that way. Fast food can be convenient and nutritious. Wendy’s and McDonald’s are both fast food restaurants, so they are alike in many

From a practical standpoint, cleanliness is an important part of the fast food industry, not only in the restaurant image, but also health safety of the customer. If customers received a dollar every time they ate or entered a McDonald’s, they could probably buy a franchise themselves. Sadly, most McDonald’s restaurants from Los Angeles to New York look the same, somber and bleak. In stark contrast, In-N-Out Burger painted sterile white inside and out, makes their restaurants look refreshingly clean and bright. In-N-Out’s fire engine red sign catches customer’s eyes as they drive along side of the famous restaurant. The employees are super friendly and accommodating at all times during the dining experience.

It’s hard to believe there are five problems with In-N-Out Burger because of how successful the company is and how delicious the burgers are. Well at least that what I heard, one of my friends that moved to California confessed to me that the reason he moved was because he loved In-N-Out Burger’s. But as I began to read I found more than five devastating problems that the Snyder family encountered as pioneers of the fast food business.

Unlimited, endless, fast food choices, and yet there are two that stand out above the rest. McDonald’s and Burger King are the two biggest burger fast food chains in the world. So let me ask you this, who has a better menu? Who’s Cheaper? And which one is healthier? This debate will once and for all come to an end, once all of these points have been met throughout my paper. McDonald’s vs. Burger King has been a long running argument. You will finally come to realize that McDonald’s is the better choice for you.

Often people buy a book at a bookstore after reading the first few pages to make sure that the book is interesting enough to continue reading at home. That is why Amazon has a “Click to LOOK INSIDE!” button on each book. It is the most important part of a whole book in order to catch potential readers. One would expect that both In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation must have strong hooks at the beginning since they were both New York Times bestsellers. Although they both focus on the fast food industry, there is quite a contrast in the way they are written. In the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, the author Stacy Perman writes not about the hamburgers or the company, but mainly about the phenomena that the burgers caused. On the other hand, in

Their food seems to be the same, but it isn’t. On one hand, McDonald’s hamburger weighs less and has only 9g of total fat, while Burger King’s hamburger has 12g and they have a saltier taste. On the other hand, Burger King’s beef are 100% pure and they flame-boils their burgers, while McDonald’s fries their beef. That’s why they taste different. Concern at cost, McDonald’s simple burger is lower at $0.89 while Burger King’s has their simple burger at $0.99.

BK, on the other hand, uses the continuous chain broiler, with a capacity of 8 burgers per chain, where no human intervention is necessary because the patties enter the broiler on one end and come out on other end after 80 seconds. Furthermore, sandwich dressing is standardized at McD’s with lever based dispensers and portion controlled condiments. At BK, sandwich dressing is handled by employees using plastic squeeze bottles without pre-measured quantities. The lack of portion-controlled condiments at BK can result in different taste and quality of products in addition to wastage. Exhibit 5 and 6 reveal the operating results for McD’s and BK, respectively. McD’s is ahead of the game in the sandwich dressing department, Exhibit 6 shows that BK spends 1.1% of their sales in condiments wastage. BK also uses microwave ovens to maintain the “Made to Order” warm and fresh burgers. The use of microwave ovens result in a 2.1% increase in utility cost compared to McD’s. On the other hand, the cost of food at McD’s is 1.9% higher compared to BK because McD’s keeps finished goods inventory in a bin for 10 minutes before they are discarded. In addition, the paper used to wrap the burger contributes to higher food cost of 0.9% at McD’s.

McDonald’s emphasizes cleanliness and food safety, in addition to quality and value service (QSC&V), through which it has succeeded in obtaining customer trust. The company also stresses ethical practices, dependability, and truthfulness in dealing with customers (McDonald’s, 2012, p. 1). Moreover, McDonald’s employs a coordinated marketing strategy that involves analyzing customer wants, creating products to satisfy his or her needs, setting the right prices and enhancing awareness of

Whether it’s in a store, a restaurant, at the library, or even in school, I will always rehearse what I am supposed to say, even going as far as to slow my walk to said person to ensure what I have rehearsed is sufficient for this upcoming interaction. I really do not think this shy demeanor is reserved for a McDonalds routine, nor do I think the assembly line, standardized technique of fulfilling orders is a McDonald only system. All companies wish to maximize their profits, and while I do think McDonalds has found the sweet spot in the system to maximize the profits to the fullest, I’m not sure if they were the pioneers of such a service as I’m not aware of what unknown franchises have had to offer. What is unfair however, is that for as much profit McDonalds rakes in, for as far as they have gone in securing their position as a super power of systematic routine of filling orders, you would think that they would be able to provide full time jobs for people and discontinue the practice of selfishly hiring workers for only part time. This is conniving and devious, as it allows them to provide next to no benefits, further saving them

Not having to answer to a corporate boss is the dream of many and the flexibility that owning a business franchise creates provides this option. Success is not reached by simply creating a business, however. The level of success is measured by the size and efficiency of the business. Business growth is the driving force of the economy. The additional jobs and revenues created when a business expands allow the economy to grow at exponential rates. One of the fastest and most popular ways to increase the size of a business is to turn it into a franchise, which can then be purchased by individuals. Franchising provides opportunities that are beneficial to both the parent company and the purchaser. The company that owns the business can expand

Employees were taught to disregard disgruntled patrons and move through the line as fast as possible so that each patron would be served in a timely and satisfying fashion. Just as a machine would pull items in at the beginning of the assembly line and throw them out at the other end of the line, so did the employees treat the patrons of their establishment. This is achieved by calling them to the counter and filling their order then sending them on their way with a kind, almost sarcastic, "Thank you, have a nice day!"

George Ritzer describes McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world”. McDonaldization is the idea that our society is becoming more efficient and more fast paced. Rational systems can be defined as “unreasonable, dehumanizing systems that deny the humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within them or are served by them”.1 Today there are many types of businesses that are increasingly adapting the same values and principles of the fast-food industry to their needs. Rational systems are dehumanizing our society and seem to be even more irrational than convenient. “Almost every aspect of

While researching this topic, so many things were found to be eye opening. One in which is the way that Wal-Mart conducted themselves when they had to manage their employees. How they dealt with promoting them and demoting them. Last year Wal-Mart started a new management style and wanted to promote more family time and create a less workload on each of the managers and employees. Therefore, they changed the schedule to becoming 3 days on and 3 days off which created more room for managers to fall into the field. Managers would be thrown into the position of an area of the store they knew nothing about and expected to understand each thing and help customers find exactly what they

The McDonalds Corporation’s strong internal workings also serve as benefits. In 2005, Fortune Magazine listed McDonald's as the "Best Place to Work for Minorities." McDonalds also invests more than $1 billion annually in training its staff, and every year more than 250,000 employees graduate from McDonald's specialized training facility called Hamburger University [4]. McDonalds also offers scholarships and opportunities to earn college credits for their employees who are still in school [5]. Internally McDonalds also has high standards for food safety regulations. While this might not be more to avoid lawsuits than to take care of their customers, McDonalds claims to go above and beyond national regulation to bring its customers a clean and health dining experience [5].

By producing a regular number of identical sandwiches, this batch system helps ensure standard and predictable cycle times, consistent quality, greater predictability (less loss to error) and limits the amount of overlap activity; all of which align with McDonald’s objectives. To make a custom burger, the McDonald’s process ensures a level of freshness (relative to industry standards), but creates a delay for the customer. A “grill” sandwich is not processed until the next batch of that particular meat is cooked, and delivered to the customer as quickly as possible, with no opportunity to wait in a warming box. While this leads to fresher sandwiches, it also presents several logistical setbacks. Lead times for grill sandwiches are longer, which means that customers must wait longer, inconsistent with McDonald’s process objectives. This is particularly problematic with drive through customers, who must pull up to a parking space to wait, and may cause bottlenecks. Customers inside are asked to step aside and wait, which can be unnerving for a customer on a short lunch break. Notably, though, the cycle time during rush periods is increased, so the customer will not have to wait as long as during slow times. The grill sandwiches also present problems for the cashiers/servers who must deviate from their standard operation to accommodate