Stay open on Christmas, McDonald s franchisees expected

Many major merchants took heat recently when they chose to keep employees on the clock and from their families on Thanksgiving Day. Now McDonald’s is playing the Ebenezer Scrooge card by asking its franchisees to stay open on Christmas Day. It is unlikely that those store owners will be putting in the hours behind the stainless steel counter on December 25. Article source: why now don't examine personalmoneynetwork .com/?Expected to stay openThe world's number-one hamburger chain (with 34,000 restaurants that feed 69 million a day) that espouses family-friendliness has traditionally closed its doors on main holidays. Evidently nobody cares anymore though.Last month, franchisees were asked to stay open on Thanksgiving.Jim Johannesen is the chief operations officer in the U.S. for the company, according to Advertising Age, and he said: "Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays."Many of those stores did do the same. Now the Golden Arch-shadowed clown wants the burgers to keep flipping on Christmas day as well.Johannesen said, "Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, (company-operated) restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales."Depends upon individual shopsMcDonald’s spokeswoman Heather Oldani made it clear that each individual store owner can decide whether they want to keep shops open or not.Boost in competitionMcDonald’s did really well last year making it the top fast food chain in the market regardless of the bad economy. There is more competition now and sales are decreasing. There is a new CEO Don Thompson who took over in July.However, they rebounded in Nov. "Our November results was driven, in part, by our Thanksgiving Day performance," Johannesen wrote in a December 12 memo.According to Oldani, 12,000 more McDonald's stores stayed open this Thanksgiving than in the past. That, however, contradicts the 6,000 more reported by Advertising Age.Beginning to get desperateThe Chicago Tribune reported that some franchise owners are worried by the request. One previous owner, Richard Adams, said, "It's an act of desperation. The franchisees are not happy."Staying open on the holidays goes against family values that business founder Ray Kroc would have wanted. He said workers should get Thanksgiving and Christmas off so family time could be established as the most essential thing.Tough competition makes all the main difference, I guess.SourcesChicago TribuneDaily FinanceNews 10 4951