Merry McChristmas! McDonald's Pressuring Franchises to Open Christmas Day

If you are hankering for a juicy Big Mac and soggy fries instead of turkey and ham and all the delicious trimmings cooked with love by your Mother on Christmas Day, you just may get what your heart desires.

McDonald's has sent out a series of internal memos pressuring its franchise owners to remain open on Christmas Day in an attempt to boost sales and the bottom line for the company. The first memo, written by McDonald’s USA Chief Operating Officer Jim Johannesen and dated November 12, says "Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, [company-operated] restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales."

The news comes after the company posted an unexpected  2.5% increase in sales in November, after a 2.2% decrease in October. Company head honchos are attributing the sales increase to the fact that the restaurant chain remained open on Thanksgiving Day for normal business hours. Johannesen states in a second internal memo dated December 12 that the franchises which remained open on Thanksgiving day averaged approximately $6000 in sales. Although that may not seem like a great deal, every penny adds up in a troubled, sluggish economy.

Of course, employees for the company who dream of spending their Christmas Day with family, friends and loved ones are going to be on the losing end of all this, but anything to boost that bottom line, right? Now I feel bad about popping in yesterday for that "special holiday" egg nog milkshake! Unfortunately, it was good...

 We can all enjoy the following video of a McDonald's commercial from the 1980s, a time when family closeness, friendship and celebrating the small joys in life were more important than the Bottom Line...

The Rising Tide: Detergent Theft on the Rise

It would seem that thieves really want to take retailers to the cleaners...by stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of laundry detergent!

The detergent thieving has become so rampant in some cities that special task forces have been assembled to put a stop to the clean freak thievery. In St. Paul, Minnesota, one particularly talented thief has been accused of stealing more than $25,000 of the suds over the course of a year. Some crooks work in tandem, rounding up a cart full of Tide and rolling it out the emergency exit doors where an accomplice is waiting with the get-away car.

Apparently, there is a growing black market for the detergent, as the cost of the product continues to go higher by the day. With the average cost of a bottle now at over $15 nationwide, thieves are stealing the detergent and illicitly re-selling it on the street, bringing in big bucks. As there are no serial numbers on the bottles, they are impossible to track.

As least we know that America's thieves are clean as the economy continues to sink into the crapper!

On Every Corner...

Starbucks has come up with a plan to stimulate the US economy by asking for $5 donations from every patron as a part of its "Jobs for the USA" program. I have a better way to stimulate the economy... stop charging $20 for a super-duper Venti frappuchino muglioso!!! (Not a real product at Starbucks)

Starbucks to Begin Collecting Donations to Help Economy