Get Updates in your Feed ReaderMcDonald’s to Install Coffee Bars
January 08, 2008
According to the Wall Street Journal article McDonald’s Takes On A Weakened Starbucks, coffee bars and espresso drinks will soon be on the menu of Mickey D’s. Starbucks is softening a bit and they’re looking vulnerable. Here are some thoughts:
- Going into a McDonald’s is different than going to a Starbucks. One smells like coffee, which entices you to purchase a tasty drink. The other smells like caked-on two-week-old solidified fryer fat. Where would you buy coffee?
- Starbucks stores are generally clean. McDonald’s restaurants are generally not.
- To get a nice espresso drink from McDonald’s, I still have to go into a McDonald’s.
- Starbucks will lose some customers to McDonald’s. But those are the people that only came to Starbucks because McDonald’s didn’t have a 32oz 500 calorie chocolate coffee drink. When that is available, they’ll get it there.
- McDonald’s are franchised. Starbucks are not (except at airports and Target stores, I think). Starbucks controls quality pretty well. McDonald’s invented this type of business, but for some reason I doubt they have the agility and dexterity to scale out making good coffee beverages. To me, at least, it’s much different than frying a burger and dropping a basket of fries in a vat of fat.
- Hey, McDonald’s, don’t underestimate the value of the customer experience.
What do you think?
If someone wants to go into a McDonald’s to drink a Latte (Super Size that for me, please.") , eat an Extra Value Meal scone and work on their computer while a birthday party of kids jumps around in the Play Area in those colorful balls, be my guest.
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They’ve been doing that for some time in Australia, some of the McCafe’s (as they’re dubbed here) are entirely stand alone, with no burgers or deep fryers in sight.
I can’t say the coffee is exactly the best I’ve ever had, but it’s not exactly toxic either.
I have heard that the largest factor that goes into purchasing a cup of Joe is simply location. It might be a lot easier to find a McD’s then a Starbucks… Maybe not.
What Starbucks showed is that people want better coffee. Better than your average diner drip, not perfect. If McDonald’s can provide better coffee, they will be successful. The best part is McDonald’s does not have to rely on coffee like Starbucks. They have a proven track record and can keep chipping away at Starbucks.
As for your comment on quality, this is wrong. McDonald’s main success is in controlling quality. As someone who travels and is no stranger to fast food, McDonald’s is pretty much the same from place to place. This is the main strength of their company.
As someone who drinks Starbucks, I would make do with ‘better’ coffee even if it came from some place uncool like McDonald’s.
Like Brendan says, they’ve been doing the same thing in Australia for a bit and, while the coffee isn’t good, it isn’t awful either.
They’ve gone some way to automating the process so that they don’t have to train their staff to master barista skills. The coffee machine automatically grinds, packs and pours the shot on the fly. The only thing the staff have to do it froth and pour the milk, and they use some funny attachment to make that easier too.
I care about my coffee a lot — maybe too much — and I’m willing to drink a McCafé espresso when on the road (or somewhere that decent coffee is unlikely to be).
As for your comment on quality, this is wrong. McDonald’s main success is in controlling quality. As someone who travels and is no stranger to fast food, McDonald’s is pretty much the same from place to place. This is the main strength of their company.
I wrote that with some trepidation because I know exactly what you’re getting at. I do agree (and mentioned it) that McD’s practically invented quality control over thousands of restaurants. I still think they’re weaker because the restaurants aren’t corporate controlled, which gives employees less of an incentive to create a quality product. I think anyone that has worked for a fastfood franchised restaurant knows that there is zero morale and motivation to work for a common good. I’d guess that’s different at Starbucks.
But, as always, my opinion and not fact. :)
We do have a McCafe here in Raleigh, NC. I’ve not yet been inside it.
We saw a copule of these McCafes while visiting New Zealand recently. They were somewhat segregated from the rest of the restaurant, and a bit nicer/classier than the rest of it.
That said, the coffee was pretty bland and average.
> I have heard that the largest factor that goes into purchasing a cup of Joe is simply location. It might be a lot easier to find a McD’s then a Starbucks
There are approximately one-thousand more Starbucks locations than McDonalds in North America.
As some of the other commentators have mentioned, they’ve been in AU for some time now. The coffee is drinkable, but only in an emergency, such as on the road or when you’re stuck somewhere without your fix.
One thing I did find while living in the US is how dirty McD’s are, they’re really disgusting. While I didn’t go into more than 2 or 3, the ones I did go into though were in a really bad state, with doors falling off, etc. The staff are also terrible. This is not the case in Australia; they may make crap food, but they’re very very clean.
One thing I did find while living in the US is how dirty McD’s are, they’re really disgusting.
Exactly my point. I’m sure there are some nice McDonald’s but I can bet you there are almost zero disgusting Starbucks.
If McDonald’s nails the customer experience, they’ll win. But right now, it’s just placing a nice new coffee bar in a smelly fast food joint.
There are approximately one-thousand more Starbucks locations than McDonalds in North America.
Wow, I had no idea. We have one in a Super Wal-Mart shopping center. I think that speaks volumes. :)
What seems to appeal to many people, including those who should know better, is the consistency of those roboespresso machines. You always know what you’re going to get. While you’re never delighted, you’re never disappointed either.
Annie, who works the afternoon shift M-W-F, at the local organic direct trade/fair trade espresso bar, makes brilliant espresso. She cleans the machine before her shift, adjusts the temperature and pressure, tastes a shot, makes some more adjustments, then pulls it ristretto, gets the crema just right. Almost every shot is perfect. But Johnnie, who works the morning shift, and Eggbert, who does the night shift, are wildly inconsistent and more often than not it’s bad. Gets to the point where you look in the door, and unless you see Annie at the Synesso, you keep going.
Go to the local McDonalds or Coke (yes, Coca Cola tried an upscale espresso bar here in Toronto - it failed) roboespresso joint, and you get a consistent, possibly drinkable, coffee every time.
While I’ll get Annie’s cappaccino or go without, lots of people will go for consistency instead.
Here in Germany McDonald’s has been implementing McCafé for about 5 years and has been wildly successful. They’re based on the Australian model, a shop-in-shop with separate counter in the restaurant. Of the 1400 McD’s, over 400 have McCafé and over 800 are planned.
Key to the strategy is to upgrade the entire lobby in a lounge atmosphere, not just the McCafé area, which improves the perception of the entire restaurant is improved. Since the McCafé is put into an existing restaurant, the investment costs are limited. McDonald’s doesn’t to buy land or put up a building… they are both already there.
The market here is different than in the US, of course. American-style espresso bars are just now becoming trendy, and Starbucks themselves came to Germany very late. But I don’t think they are really competing with one another. People willing to pay Starbucks prices are also willing to make the effort to go there, even if they pass several McCafés on the way.
I agree that consistent quality is important to McDonald’s success, but I think it’s *because* of the franchise system, not in spite of it. An individual franchisee can control quality in a few restaurants much better than a corporate structure in tens of thousands.
Disclaimer: My wife worked in mid-management for McDonald’s Germany and was instrumental in implemeting McCafé here. Six months ago she left her job and became a McDonald’s franchisee, and I left my IT career to join her. We just finished the McCafé remodel in our restaurant in December, so we’ve literally bet our life’s savings on McDonald’s coffee strategy.
Some pictures of our McCafé are at http://www.papascott.de/archives/2007/12/02/second-day-with-mccaf/
PapaScott! Glad you stopped by to comment. How’s things in Germany?
Thanks for the information!
Scott, I agree with this:
I agree that consistent quality is important to McDonald’s success, but I think it’s *because* of the franchise system, not in spite of it. An individual franchisee can control quality in a few restaurants much better than a corporate structure in tens of thousands.
But I think Starbucks’ success at quality control among all of its corporate stores is a testament that it can work both ways.