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Hamburger Business Review

Zach Rose, Mike Merrill, Chris Higgins
Hamburger Business Review
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  • Tone Down the Clown
    Today’s episode is a talk with Cabel Sasser, the co-founder of the software company and video game publisher Panic, and full disclosure, also Mike’s former boss. But we’re not here to talk about software or video games. We’re here because Cabel discovered Wes Cook, a McDonald’s artist (and so much more).The Blind Push of Vision 2020McDonald’s transformed out of the Mascot Era of using Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Mayor McCheese, and their other characters with the Vision 2020 plan (a plan leading up to 2020 which was started around 2017).Part of this plan was the EOTF, or Experience of the Future, which included the ordering kiosks as part of a major redesign for stores. To incentivize the franchisee owners McDonald’s offered to cover 55% of the costs of the remodel if an owner was able to complete the renovation by a specific date. This was free money no operator wanted to turn down. And this is where the new generic feel of a modern McDonald’s came from. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe
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  • The 10-K Keeps the Score
    We’re excited to have Marcus Estes back on the podcast to talk about finance because of his ability to make this stuff compelling! This week we’re skipping the case study in order to talk about the 10-K. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe
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  • Burgers from the Machine
    Welcome Hamburger Enthusiasts!Our guest today is writer, reporter, and author Brian Merchant. He writes the Blood In the Machine newsletter about AI, Silicon Valley, labor and power. He joined us for a discussion based on the very recent case study McDonald’s: Moving Toward a Fully Automated Future? and to teach us some lessons from the luddites.The case study, and much of our conversation, is really asking if we as a society have a problem with a certain level of automation. And the fully automated burger is still a capitalist fantasy. It’s more cost effective to hire low wage workers than install and maintain expensive robotics. The case study’s example of an “automated” McDonald’s was actually not automated at all.As our discussion moved into science fiction Chris asked the philosophical question, “If we could make a fully automated machine that sold burgers, should we?” To which Brian replied that it’s not up to us and our ethics. As soon as it’s profitable for a company to do it, they will. The problem for automation is that the United States has kept labor costs very low. The minimum wage in that Texas location is $7.25 an hour.If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe
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  • Every McDonald's in Manhattan
    Hello HBR Friends,Today at Hamburger Business Review we are focused on Zach’s annual great challenge to eat at every McDonald’s on the island of Manhattan in less than 24 hours while traveling only on foot. Also, he has to make a purchase at every store.This year there was a single overriding focus to the challenge:By eliminating the four hour break in the middle and doing McTrot without stopping Zach was pushing himself to go as fast as possible. Of course, he also needs a route, and even before the route he needs to get a list of all the stores in Manhattan, which is harder than it seems because you can’t trust services like Yelp, Mapquest, or even Google to have the right data about which are still open and what hours.After getting all the data Zach then has to decide how to attack the problem. We’ve talked about this before but with some 48 locations this is an almost incomprehensibly difficult problem, that combines all the math of the traveling salesman problem with the added logistics of only some locations being open 24 hours, and not to mention the issues of traffic, weather, and anything else the city of New York might throw at you.Zach’s solution was to map all the locations on paper and then starting at the northern tip of the island work his way south zig zagging as efficiently as possible. He was joined by his friend Alex for a part of the journey and we can see based on his Strava map a little slice of what this looks like:We spend the first half of this episode diving into this endeavor including some clips that Zach sent us from the streets of New York as he was taking on this challenge and encountering challenges like foot and leg pain, shakes, cold, and more. Somehow after all this Zach ends his adventure holding on to the motto of McTrot, which is:“Have fun out there.”Case Study: Obesity and McLawsuitsAfter their success in litigation against tobacco companies, trial lawyers sought a new mass tort, and in 2001 obesity was their next campaign with McDonald’s being the target. John Banzhaf, a professor at the George Washington University Law School, said, “A fast-food company like McDonald’s may not be responsible for the entire obesity epidemic, but let’s say they’re five percent responsible. Five percent of $117 billion is still an enormous amount of money.”This is a shorter case study at only seven pages, but it generated a lot of discussion! but we also didn’t talk about a number of things!Super Size MeWe had planned to talk about this case study in light of it being the 20th Anniversary of the Super Size documentary, which famously showed filmmaker Morgan Spurlock gain 25 pounds and suffer liver dysfunction and depression. Six weeks after the film’s debut McDonald’s discontinued their supersize portions. And later in 2006 a study showed that while this kind of heavy diet does affect liver enzymes, it did not show the same dangerous effects. In 2017 Spurlock admitted to drinking heavily and hiding it not only from the camera but also his doctors. Obesity RatesIn September of 2024 new CDC data suggested that the obesity rate in US adults is no longer growing. Which seems like good news until reading that while the obesity rate is “holding” at 40%, the severe obesity rate is on the rise in the US. We do mention in the podcast how doctors continue to use BMI to screen for obesity even after admitting it’s a flawed tool. Policing Fast Food?* Planning policies to restrict the number of new fast-food outlets leads to fewer overweight and obese children according to research led by Lancaster University (link).* Levying surcharges on other foods that health policymakers want to curb the public’s consumption of might also work, according to researchers tapping into data from Chicago Booth’s Kilts Center for Marketing. (link)* Removing fast-food restaurants from bases would cut obesity within the military, said Marine Sergeant Maj. Troy E. Black, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (link)* OTOH, it turns out that consumers’ buying habits do not change markedly in response to the higher prices, and that the burden of those taxes falls most heavily on the low-income, who allocate larger shares of their budgets to food than wealthier people do. (link)Taste Test: Larry’s Chili DogIt’s hard to really enjoy a burger with all the talk about how unhealthy it is, so this week Hamburger Business Review checks out Larry’s Chili Dog, a southern California restaurant that is not part of a chain, but a classic example of a Los Angeles burger joint..Next Up: Automation w/ Brian MerchantNext week we’re talking about a recent attempt by McDonald’s to introduce more automation into a store and the backlash that happened after. To help us dig into the issue we’re being joined by author and reporter Brian Merchant who wrote Blood in the Machine which is about the Luddites rising up to fight the factories coming for their livelihood. Should be fun!If you enjoy Hamburger Business Review you can support us by subscribing, buying merch, or even just buying us a burger. Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe
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  • Burger Partner
    Our guest is Kathryn Borel, a television writer and the romantic partner of co-Host Mike Merrill. Chris and Zach go deep with Kathryn about what led Mike to start working at a hamburger restaurant and the impact of that on their relationship.McTrot Is Just About To Happen!Mike comes back to join Chris in the final interrogation of Zach who is in the final hours of preparation before his annual trek to visit all the McDonald’s in Manhattan on foot within 24 hours.He seems calm and confident. Is he posturing? Is he hyping himself up? How confident is he that he will set a record? Get full access to Hamburger Business Review at www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com/subscribe
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Analysis and discussion about the business of burgers. Also original reporting and investigation! www.hamburgerbusinessreview.com
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