Put the Luster Back on the Golden Arches

Herald News, Sunday, December 29, 2002
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

WITH THE SEEMING demise of one multinational corporation after another it comes as no surprise that an American icon like McDonald's has come up against hard times.

For the first time in 47 years, the company reported that it will lose $75 million in its fourth quarter.

If you have been an investor since McDonald's went public 34 years ago, you are still sitting pretty even though the shares recently hit a seven-year low of about $16. On a split-adjusted basis, those shares cost less than a dime each.

While analysts cite all kinds or reasons for the burger giant's struggle, America's shifting demographics may be the culprit.

We are all getting older and looking for healthier alternatives, and McDonald's has been criticized as being nothing more than a purveyor of salt, sugar and grease.

Nonetheless, even though I am trying to eat more fruit and salad these days, I have fond memories of meals eaten at McDonald's. Some of those memories date all the way back to my high school days.

As a teenager, I spent many springs and summers fishing for trout on the cold streams interconnecting New York City's reservoirs located in the Croton Watershed in upstate New York.

I always went fishing with my buddy Nicky, a chubby kid with freckles and carrot-red hair who lived across the street from me. We were good friends and had lots of fun together as teenagers, most of it surrounding either fishing or eating with the latter activity definitely occupying most of our free time.

The west branch of the Croton River was one of the trout streams we frequented. It offered several miles of secluded trout fishing away from the cacophony of modern life. And there was a McDonald's only a short, 10-minute drive away.

Who could resist?

Whenever we fished the west branch, we would always break for lunch around noon and head up to the McDonald's.

Nicky was an average fisherman. But when it came to eating - at McDonald's especially - there was simply no competition.

Seven Big Macs was the norm for him with two orders of fries and a large chocolate shake to wash it all down. I'd say I don't know how it all fit, but judging from Nicky's girth back then, it was pretty easy to figure out.

He came to be affectionately known as "Big Mac Nick."

My next carbohydrate and fat-laden recollection dates back to the mid-1980s.

It was during a short vacation to Florida in mid-February at the end of a difficult winter. I had been dieting for several months and had lost almost 20 pounds eating exciting things like salad, baked potatoes, salad, yogurt and more salad.

On my way to a friend's home in Orlando on a warm morning, driving with the top down in a rented convertible, I spotted the golden arches in the distance. Who could resist?

As the saliva ran down my chin, I swear the car pulled into the drive-through all by itself.

"I'll have two bacon, egg and cheese biscuits with a large coffee," I said.

I sat alone in the car and enjoyed myself. I had earned this one. It proved to be the undoing of my diet.

I got married the following year and a year after that our first son was born. When he was finally old enough to go to kindergarten, I decided to make his first day at school a memorable one. We went to breakfast together.

There was a McDonald's across the street from his school. Who could resist? Breakfast together became a weekly Friday tradition that continues to this day although we rarely eat at McDonald's now. Somehow it has lost its luster.

I feel a twinge of guilt about that. My patronage and apparently that of millions of others is the reason the chain has been forced to close 175 restaurants and cut 600 jobs. The chief executive is retiring at the end of the year.

Howard Penney, an analyst at Sun Trust RH securities said, "The real answer for McDonald's is they need to serve better food."

Maybe that's part of the equation. And maybe demographics have something to do with it too. But I think it's something else. It's deeper. It's psychological.

Management needs to rekindle whatever it was that made eating at McDonald's a memorable experience.

As soon as someone figures out how to accomplish that, then, who could resist? n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist and author of The View from the Grass Roots. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. 

E-Mail Rummo at  GregoryJRummo@aol.com