McDonald’s to expand espresso service across U.S.
Posted by TheShot on 02 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Restaurant Coffee
Some say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. By that standard, McDonald’s executives should be fitted for straight-jackets and kept away from the plastic knives and forks in their fast-food restaurants.
Despite repeated failures of McDonald’s McCafé in America since 2001, bull-headed McDonald’s execs are doing their best to outdo Sony’s Mini-Disc fiasco-that-wouldn’t-die: McDonald’s to expand espresso service across U.S. | Reuters. This time, McDonald’s excuse to try reanimating the corpse again is their financial and taste-test success of their premium drip coffee.
A Dow Jones Industrial Average blue chip stock must continue to find growth for their shareholders from somewhere, especially when same-store sales go dead in the water. This is what got GE into the unplugged businesses of trailer rentals and leasing contracts. Here McDonald’s Corporation seems bent on turning their fast-food restaurants into entire shopping mall food courts, even if consumers aren’t interested.
UPDATE: July 14, 2007
OK, so maybe McCafé has been a multi-time failure in the U.S.. But the Japanese don’t know any better and can perhaps save the egos of some of our McDonald’s execs!: McDonald’s to Convert Some Japan Locations Into Cafes (Update1) – Bloomberg.com: Worldwide.
2 Comments »
on 31 Jul 2008 at 1:37 pm +00:00T 1.Starbucks Forgot Its Story « Marketing 4 Change said …
[...] know the process has gotten simple when McDonald’s joins the fray. If all it takes to be a barista is to push a couple of buttons, then why shouldn’t Mickey [...]
on 27 Mar 2009 at 11:49 am +00:00T 2.Joe said …
fortunately for McDonald’s, it is more respectable to move from lower-end products to something more moderate (McCafe), as opposed to Starbucks, who is moving from high end to moderate/lower-end