MdDonald's

MCDONALD'S

McDonald's, (Frazer Chronicles)

What a great place to eat, delicious hamburgers, great chicken nuggets and mouth watering french fries. Although I shouldn't eat there, (my age and health reasons) I still find myself there several times a month to enjoy their tasty bill of fare. Did you ever wonder exactly how big McDonalds is in the United States? Well I did and the numbers astounded me and made me sit up and take notice.

There are, in the United States  12,804 McDonalds and world wide an additional 25,663 restaurants. It is estimated in America, that you are less then 150 miles from the delights of this hamburger heaven that has completely taken over the United State's palate and most of the rest of the world as well.

Their hours of operation have come to fit right in with America's week-end life style as well as her work week business hours. In fact some are even open 24 hours a day, just in case a night time traveler needs to refresh his intake of carbohydrates. We here at Chronicle headquarters can only say "bless you."

It would seem that a corporation the size of McDonalds would be now the less pretty cut and dried, right, wrong. McDonalds has been involved in a number of lawsuits, most of which have involved trademark disputes. Others involved worker's rights,  defamation, health records and of course the most famous, the lady that dumped a cup of coffee on herself, causing third-degree burns.

Another side of McDonalds is the shortages that are a continuing problem with the company. Several weeks ago, my wife and I decided to load up with chicken nuggets, burgers and fries. Sadly we didn't do are routine check of any shortages in our order, coming up with a shortage of one Big Mac, a truly tasteful delight. A quick call to the restaurant alerted the manager to the problem and he told me to "come back and he would (make things right).

I thought the suggested remedy was rather absurd, gave him our address and hung up, never imagining that a letter would be sent from burger headquarters with a free happy meal coupon enclosed. The coupon gave me another excuse, (as if I needed one) to sample my favorite food and this time I even got a price reduction, life is good.

I am not saying the shortages are a purposeful part of McDonalds business practices, rather a fact of their lives given the number of young people that they employ. Teenage kids need to learn how to work and McDonalds is a perfect setting for their (teenagers) education, and they even get paid.

However, taking into account, the number of United States only, McDonalds, rounding off the numbers to 12,000 restaurants, if each one made a $1.00 mistake every day, which is very possible, the additional income would be $84,000 per week and an astounding $4,360,000.00 per year, in the U.S. alone.

The original McDonalds opened in 1940 by, who else, the McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant, although some might debate the (fast food service) in today's world.

McDonalds today, is operated either by McDonalds corporation  itself, a franchise owner or an affiliate. Income is realized by rent, royalties, or fees paid by franchise holders. In 2010, U.S. gross revenue was more then $24.075 billion, with a net profit of $4.949 billion, now that's a lot of burgers.

I guess in the long range view of things, being shorted a Big Mac and $3.50 isn't very important and anyways, I didn't really need it. The (food cops) told me as much, as did my wife, who by the way ordered a lovely Fish Filet sandwich.