David Stern: I agree with your comments about the marketing plan. The thing about McDonald's is its consistency - in food - menu and taste, preparation style, cleanliness of restaurant, and so on. (In the USA. In Europe menu varies with nationality as you mention.) McD's plays the Ronald McDonald clown ads to get kids to whine to their folks, "I want McDonald's!". Also when it seems that teenagers are hanging out or loitering too much at their local McD's, McD's then re-emphasizes Ronald, clown, and children, and for teenagers this makes being seen hanging around a McD's as very uncool. Which is what store managers want. (Eat and scram teenagers!)
In my local area, I will guess that the fast food hamburger of choice (by critics and out-of-towners as well as a devoted following) is the In-and-Out Burger chain. If I get back to Atlanta, I'll try The Varsity, which this month's Forbes says is the best fast food (hamburger) restaurant chain in the USA.
I find your comments on JBX very ironic. I review JBX stock occasionally, but I've always passed on it. Never could get it near its lows. And I almost never eat in any of their places, even though there's one close to where I live. OTOH, I'm a fan of the Australian-themed Outback Steakhouse - the stock. And the food's okay and reasonable for what you get. So, you come here for JBX. I go to Australia (or what Americans perceive as Australia). Lol.
Paul Senior
still holding OSI, but it's a little too expensive to buy here (imo).
I'll relook at JBX. Relative to other chains, and JBX's expected earnings, JBX looks like it could be undervalued at current price. |
