13 ms·

It sure seems like whenever a corporation grows old, large or expansive enough, it will inevitably morph into an spy agency. Even what is obstensibly a burger

It sure seems like whenever a corporation grows old, large or expansive enough, it will inevitably morph into an spy agency. Even what is obstensibly a burger flipping business wants to spy on people. Earlier this week I was in a regional gas station getting lunch, they've got maybe 30 or so locations scattered around this part of the state, and watched them tell an old man that he couldn't get a loyalty card from them anymore because they only do apps now. "But I don't have a cellphone" - "Uhhh... You can also do it online?"

baggachipz 11mo ago
> Even what is obstensibly a burger flipping business Technically, McDonald's is a real estate company[1] who wants to spy on people, but that doesn't make it any less egregious. [1] https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/ https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burg...
- xg15 11mo ago
  Isn't that technically true for all franchises? If every restaurant is its own small/medium business and the corporate franchisor only ever interacts with the franchisees and never with the end customers, then all the direct revenue for the franchisor will be from services or licenses provided to the franchisees, not from directly selling burgers. But the franchisees are still much more dependent on the franchisor than they would be in a normal B2B relationship. And many of those "service costs" can be freely set by the franchisor and have the purpose of channeling revenue back from the restaurants - revenue that would not exist if no burgers were sold.
  - dreamcompiler 11mo ago
    No. The specific point here is that the McDonald's Corporation is often the landlord of its franchisees. Of course most franchisees of any franchisor are required to buy supplies etc from the franchisor, but McDonald's is famous for also charging them rent.
supportengineer 11mo ago
McDonalds is a real estate business. I recommend you check out the 2016 movie "The Founder" which is the story of Ray Kroc. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founder
- jvanderbot 11mo ago
  While very interesting and a great movie, maybe can you explain how it's pertinent to this conversation?
  - supportengineer 11mo ago
    >> "Even what is obstensibly a burger flipping business"
    - jvanderbot 11mo ago
      > ostensibly probably implied they knew.
- the_sleaze_ 11mo ago
  > McDonalds is a real estate business. In the same way that American Airlines is a credit card company. How much rent will they receive if they stopped selling burgers? > The Founder" Good movie but McDonalds is a long long way away from scrappy, morally-bankrupt Ray Kroc's time. I imagine using pink slime to make the nuggets he sold to kids would be right in his wheelhouse though.
  - walkabout 11mo ago
    > In the same way that American Airlines is a credit card company. I thought the "they're not what you think" deal with airlines is that they're actually futures trading companies that happen to own and operate some aircraft?
  - dreamcompiler 11mo ago
    American Airlines is more a credit card company than McDonalds is a real estate company. If McDonald's stopped collecting rent from its franchisees, there would probably be layoffs at corporate but the general public would still be able to buy Big Macs. If American Airlines' credit card revenues dried up they wouldn't be able to pay their fuel bills and the company would be gone the next day.
adolph 11mo ago
> a burger flipping business wants to spy on people "It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17." For example, the Manna software in each store knew about employee performance in microscopic detail — how often the employee was on time or early, how quickly the employee did tasks, how quickly the employee answered the phone and responded to email, how the customers rated the employee and so on. When an employee left a store and tried to get a new job somewhere else, any other Manna system could request the employee’s performance record. If an employee had “issues” — late, slow, disorganized, unkempt — it became nearly impossible for that employee to get another job. https://marshallbrain.com/manna2 https://marshallbrain.com/manna2

baggachipz 11mo ago

> Even what is obstensibly a burger flipping business Technically, McDonald's is a real estate company[1] who wants to spy on people, but that doesn't make it any less egregious. [1] https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/ https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burg...

xg15 11mo ago
Isn't that technically true for all franchises? If every restaurant is its own small/medium business and the corporate franchisor only ever interacts with the franchisees and never with the end customers, then all the direct revenue for the franchisor will be from services or licenses provided to the franchisees, not from directly selling burgers. But the franchisees are still much more dependent on the franchisor than they would be in a normal B2B relationship. And many of those "service costs" can be freely set by the franchisor and have the purpose of channeling revenue back from the restaurants - revenue that would not exist if no burgers were sold.
- dreamcompiler 11mo ago
  No. The specific point here is that the McDonald's Corporation is often the landlord of its franchisees. Of course most franchisees of any franchisor are required to buy supplies etc from the franchisor, but McDonald's is famous for also charging them rent.

supportengineer 11mo ago

McDonalds is a real estate business. I recommend you check out the 2016 movie "The Founder" which is the story of Ray Kroc. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Founder

jvanderbot 11mo ago
While very interesting and a great movie, maybe can you explain how it's pertinent to this conversation?
- supportengineer 11mo ago
  >> "Even what is obstensibly a burger flipping business"
  - jvanderbot 11mo ago
    > ostensibly probably implied they knew.
the_sleaze_ 11mo ago
> McDonalds is a real estate business. In the same way that American Airlines is a credit card company. How much rent will they receive if they stopped selling burgers? > The Founder" Good movie but McDonalds is a long long way away from scrappy, morally-bankrupt Ray Kroc's time. I imagine using pink slime to make the nuggets he sold to kids would be right in his wheelhouse though.
- walkabout 11mo ago
  > In the same way that American Airlines is a credit card company. I thought the "they're not what you think" deal with airlines is that they're actually futures trading companies that happen to own and operate some aircraft?
- dreamcompiler 11mo ago
  American Airlines is more a credit card company than McDonalds is a real estate company. If McDonald's stopped collecting rent from its franchisees, there would probably be layoffs at corporate but the general public would still be able to buy Big Macs. If American Airlines' credit card revenues dried up they wouldn't be able to pay their fuel bills and the company would be gone the next day.

adolph 11mo ago

> a burger flipping business wants to spy on people "It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17." For example, the Manna software in each store knew about employee performance in microscopic detail — how often the employee was on time or early, how quickly the employee did tasks, how quickly the employee answered the phone and responded to email, how the customers rated the employee and so on. When an employee left a store and tried to get a new job somewhere else, any other Manna system could request the employee’s performance record. If an employee had “issues” — late, slow, disorganized, unkempt — it became nearly impossible for that employee to get another job. https://marshallbrain.com/manna2 https://marshallbrain.com/manna2