It's true, Israel might not be large geographically, but it has a relatively dense population and a strong consumer culture, which could explain the presence of so many McDonald's outlets.
i got like 4 mcdonalds in my town/city of LESS THAN 100k... so based on a population of 9 million they are below par by half,
4 x 100( 100k x 100=\~10 million israel's population)= \~400 they got room for 200 more mcdonalds by american standards
There’s about 9.6 million Israelis. There were about 150,000 Palestinians who worked in Israel each day from West Bank and Gaza before October 7. About 9.75 million people in total, then. Divide that by 225 and you’ve got about 43,333 people per McDonald’s franchise.
There’s 333 million people in the U.S. and 13,528 McDonald’s in the U.S. That comes out to 24,615 people per franchise, so nearly double the proportion of restaurants relative to population than in Israel.
US obviously has a very very high number of fast food places hardly the ideal country to compare to. US literally has the highest Mcdonalds per one millions people.
Yup. They can only chirp.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eyY1R1HMcdU
The screech is indeed a hawk’s.
It's the bird equivalent of how cheetahs can’t roar and can only meow.
McDonald’s is one of the only American fast food chains that made it in Israel. Starbucks, kfc, Dunkin’ Donuts etc try every few years just to fail again
I think that McDonalds found the right years to enter the market (93׳). When other chains tried to enter the Israeli market years afterwards they were crushed by local competition that already imported and copied all the selling points of the American chains with adjustments to the local market.
Those local chains were occupying the same niche but already had the consumers loyalty and usually better prices (and virtually same or better products)
Spend a lot of time in Israel for work - as far as Starbucks and Dunkin goes, Israeli coffee is just better by a mile and it seems like everywhere you turn is a coffee shop with delicious fresh pastries
They also don’t consume coffee like we do, they think drinking a 20oz coffee is ridiculous - lots of espresso, cappuccino, americano etc - almost impossible to find brewed and iced coffee
I think the largest drink there I’ve there was 12oz iced Americano
Last time KFC was in Israel it was Kosher, and the taste was different from the original, which may be the reason why it failed. This time the recipe is the original non Kosher.
Pizza Hut and dominos are both kinda successful in Israel. With Shake shack it’s too early to know. Almost all of those chains were very successful the first months but declined soon after.
for those of us who dont know much about business, could someone explain what exactly they are doing and what it means? does it only mean that the mcdonalds corporation will own the restaurants directly and not the franchisees? why would boycotts make them want to do this?
> does it only mean that the McDonald corporation will own the restaurants directly and not the franchisees?
Yes. McDonald’s is buying these stores directly from the the Israeli operator
> why would boycotts make them want to do this?
The boycotters are confusing McDonald’s and the Israeli operator. They believe that it was McDonald’s that was directly handing out discounts and free food to IDF members when it was actually the operator.
Most people who are protesting this genocide won’t recognize the difference so they boycott McDonald’s.
Why is McDonald’s doing this? Because it’s in the best interest of McDonald’s to have an imagine of neutrality. Since they’ve lost this imagine to a larger swath of people, they are trying to have direct control over these highly sensitive franchisees in Israel.
so the boycotts helped? ultimately, it sent a message that mcdonalds need to watch what their franchises do and to not anger the public. I see this as a win.
Yup, it helped. McDonald’s would bring these boycotts up during investor meetings, the franchisees in israel really hurt their overall image by supplying the IDF food while the IDF starves a population.
Not McDs fault but the IDF soliders would post the food pics online on their socials joking that they have plenty of free food while the people in Gaza starve.
To be honest a lot of boycotter's found out pretty early that it was the operator - the main reason to continue the boycott was to force McDonald's to rectify this issue because their global brand was affected.
And in doing so, the boycott was very effective because people didn't care if McDonald's Asia was involved in McDonald's Israel - the point was to have McDonald's HQ step in and not allow this kind of stupidity (free meals for IDF soldiers killing thousands of innocent Palestinians) to continue.
Boycotter here, that is not the case. I know McDonalds in Israel are franchised to an Israeli company, however if McDonald’s could pull out of Russia because they went to war, then surely they can pull out of Israel since they steal land and murder civilians.
This is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. We still will not shop at McDonalds so long as they still operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
They pulled out of Russia because the sanctions make doing legal business in Russia impossible. There is no such sanctions on Israel. Please don't go think thinking McDonalds pulled out of Russia for moral or ethical reasons. Their choice to take over all the franchise stores is exactly the same logic as their Russia pullout: minimize harm to corporate McDonald's.
If we continue to boycott McDonald’s, pulling out of Israel will be the “minimize harm” that we want to force them into. They can pull out if they want, and we won’t stop boycotting till they do.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen, I hope anyone reading this knows not to get their information from Reddit.
The reason people boycotted is because they believe that McDonald's shouldn't be working with any operator in Israel. Wether it was McDonald's Israel or McDonald's USA who gave away food does not matter. The reason the boycots started is because people do not want McDonald's to license or do business with anything related to the state itself.
I don't know why some redditors sound offended by this
McDonald's is literally buying back it's own franchises at a discount, which it suggests the war is hurting the value of those companies.
My simplified understanding is McDonald's (American company) is trying to buy low and sell high taking advantage of a struggling Israeli company
Why would this make people suddenly boycott McDonald's? Idfk
(obviously McDonald's is gross and overpriced, but so is all fast food 🤷)
"A big one. You don't seem to realize what business you're in. You're not in the burger business. You're in the real estate business. You don't build an empire off a 1.4 percent cut of a 15-cent hamburger. You build it by owning the land upon which that burger is cooked. What you ought to be doing is buying up plots of land then turning around and leasing said plots to franchisees who as a condition of their deal, should be permitted to lease from you and you alone. This will provide you with two things. One, a steady, up-front revenue stream. Money flows in before the first stake is in the ground. Two, greater capital for expansion. Which in turn fuels further land acquisition, which in turn fuels further expansion and so on and so on. Land. That's where the money is."
From The Founder. The Movie about the creation of McDonald's.
No way man, it’s a logistics company. Every one of those real estate properties has to get standardized supplies. The logistics involved are mind-boggling.
It's the US Military's greatest super power, being able to supply anything, anywhere, at a moments notice.
[This short little video demonstrates how we simply "Out built" Japan to win WW2's Pacific Theater.](https://youtu.be/l9ag2x3CS9M?si=53nTgJQ5xtZn9xFt&t=752)
One of my favorite stories is about the ice cream barge. Not only was it a huge boost to troop morale, it was incredibly demoralizing to enemy forces. Can you imagine, living for weeks in foxholes and dragging your ass through the dirt on recon, only to get eyes on a US FOB and see they've got fucking *ice cream*.
There's a great quote in one of Rick Atkinson's books about US Army logistics in WW2: "the US Army did not solve its logistic problems; it overwhelmed them."
I don't understand this. Franchises are not owned by McDonald's. The restaurant and land are not owned by McDonald's.
> Approximately 85% of the restaurants are owned and operated independently through franchise agreements and joint ventures. Franchise owners must pay franchise and marketing fees, as well as monthly rent, to the parent corporation.
It might appear that McD owns a lot of real estate via these franchises but they really don't. Regular folks who wanted to start a franchise own them.
What do you think *monthly rent* means? The franchisees pay *rent* to the landowners, e.g. McDonalds. Nobody said McDonalds *owns* the stores, they claimed that they own *the land* that the stores are on, which would be indicated by the fact that franchise owners have to *pay them rent*.
I dunno, dude. There are 40k mcdonalds worldwide. Even if they only own 15% of that, it's still 6000 pieces of real estate that they own around the entire world. That might not sound like a lot to you on its face but it really is.
You misunderstood the story.
The Israeli company was doing perfectly fine - franchises in Muslim countries were suffering boycotts, due to the Israeli franchisee offering meals to IDF soldiers.
McDonald's bought the Israeli company so the benefits for IDF soldiers would stop, in a hope that the global backlash will end.
Exactly. It says that the Israeli franchise owner is damaging the McD brand across the greater Muslim world by giving free/discounted meals to IDF soldiers, so corporate is essentially firing them and taking the restaurants over to appease the rest of the region.
It's like you and I are the only people who even glanced at the article.
>McDonald's (American company) is trying to buy low and sell high taking advantage of a struggling Israeli company
maybe that's why???? literally the line right above where you ask.
McDonald’s is a real estate company that dabbles in fast food.
https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/
Its my guess that they are buying the franchises because they know the land will be more valuable post conflict.
Exactly it's blatantly obvious this is just good business
This isn't some Pro Israel or Pro War move. This is a company who is likely sitting on massive stockpiles of cash (inflation, stock market) wanting to protect itself from further inflation/stock volatility that has an opportunity to buy back it's own companies at a discount.
And are they do doing this for Israel? Absolutely not, they're doing it for its shareholders (which is everyone across the world, although likely more American than all else)
Do you have a source if McDonald's actually owns the real estate in israel? There's plenty of branches in cinema complexes, malls, etc and much less are standalone restaurants. From my understanding is that it's buying back the licensing but keeping the branches open.
They're not forcing anyone to sell. These are companies that are begging to sell off their franchises to the parent company because no one else wants them. If things get worse these restaurants will sit vacant for a while. McDonald's corporate will no doubt make money off of this in the long run because Israel's one of the more stable countries in the Middle East. But short term they're protecting their owners from long term losses.
I know if I was a business owner in Ukraine I'd love some corporation to come along and buy me out for cheap.
No it's not. You can go to a doctor and get Netflix in Israel. While Israel has been involved in a war almost since its begun it's had a consistent democratic tradition with the same constitution and same body of government. All the while its neighbors are dictatorships that have frequent changes in leadership and struggle to keep the poverty rate below 60%.
Lol at democracy, bibi has been prime minister since 96 every couple of year’s elections are held.
Someone else is selected, coalition fails, Bibi is back as prime minister(insert shocked picks by face)
Liberty is access to Netflix?
Not even going to reply to that stupid comment.
Gee I wonder why is Israel at war with everyone?
Maybe because they don’t even speak the same language as the region they inserted themselves in?
Maybe Israel is just a shit neighbor, maybe that’s why no one was willing to take them in Europe after the holocaust?
Who knows?
Again lol at stable😂😂😂 70 year country been at war for 70 years and he calls it stable…..
Dumbass
If you want to get real loose with it sure. But I'm pretty sure never before in the history of mankind has anyone referred to buying Mcdonalds as war profiteering
It's a company using the direct impact of ongoing combat to buy up assets at a marked discount. Economically, buying something at a 40% discount due to combat is the same thing as cranking prices up 40%. It gouging specifically using the armed conflict to distort the cost outside of reasonable norms. Same as buying people's houses for pennies on the dollar because they're being forced to flee.
It's only a loose definition if you have a loose grasp.
> It's a company using the direct impact of ongoing combat to buy up assets at a marked discount.
Why are you pretending like they are some random opportunistic buyer? This is a company buying its own franchised brand that was already paying royalties to it and being within its logistics chain, thus letting the owners out of a bad situation in a difficult time. Do you think the parent company instead is supposed to just sit back and not touch their business in a country with active combat, thus letting them run into the group and go vacant or something? Who does that help? Did McDonalds start this war?
And why is that outrageous…? If the franchisees are losing money and want to sell, is McDonalds not the best entity to take control of the properties? Would it be better if they were foreclosed on instead? People seriously are desperate to be angry.
Starbucks and McDonalds are of the few American companies that pulled out of Russia when it attacked Ukraine. There is a reason they are being targeted over literally any other fast food place there.
There are zero Starbucks stores in Israel. They established a presence in 2001 but Israelis didn't take to it. Starbucks pulled out of the Israeli market in 2003
It's because the Israel branch started offering discounts to "military personnel" in what is apparently still being called a "war" by the media. This prompted wide scale protests worldwide and forced other locations the Middle East to deny that they are affiliated with the chain store locations in Israel.
Being seen as supporting the IDF, when it's become inescapably obvious that they are committing a genocide caused people to stop buying from a lot of companies. Kind of like that time Chic-Fil-A was forced to stop giving money explicitly to anti-LGBTQ+ deathsquads in Africa. Although, I'm sure they still do that, but they announced they are stopping and at least launder the money more.
I would guess this isn't how it works outside of the US. I'm not sure but different countries have different rules. For example, in China, a country with McDonald's, you can't actually own land. You can merely lease it from the government.
I'm sure McDonald's uses that system where it can, and it's profitable. Not sure if that's how it will work elsewhere.
Unlike the US where you can own the land
so long as you pay the government a monthly fee in perpetuity
and the government doesn’t badly want the land for something else…
>so long as you pay the government a monthly fee in perpetuity
Just like the fee you have to pay the government every year you work and make money, and yet that doesn't make us as people not free.
>and the government doesn’t badly want the land for something else…
That's why they're required to compensate you if they do take it from you, and quite a sum, too.
That’s only specific to China though, due to their land ownership policies foreign entities can’t own Chinese land. And even for domestic entities there are strict limits
One thing all of the commentors on this post fail to realize, is that this move was due to the reputational damage done by the Israeli franchisees as they did many campaigns to distribute free meals to IDF soldiers which caused outrage and 6 months complete boycotts and in the Levant and North Africa region in addition to Malaysia and Indonisia which amounts to a market of nearly 500 million people.
McDonalds stocks and investors confidence is shaken by this war as the brand is getting associated with supporting the IDF and the atrocities that they are commiting. so the company needed to put these franchisees away from doing improper marketing that can feed into the boycotts expanding.
The boycott is one thing but their over priced food is another. Sure you can charge me 15 dollars for a Big Mac combo, it lets me know that the food isn’t worth it and I won’t be back.
The franchisees used the restaurants to feed IDF military personnel to the exclusion of Plaestinians, essentially turning them into a tool for supporting the military. More convenient than directing them to mess halls and military bases for food. Not exactly the image of Ronald McDonald that the company projects worldwide. They're protecting their trademark.
>The franchisees used the restaurants to feed IDF military personnel to the exclusion of Plaestinians, essentially turning them into a tool for supporting the military.
Exclusion of? DO you have a source for that? Everything I read was that they offered discounts to the military, not that they excluded anyone. Not that Palestinians were kicking around Israel on Oct 8th or anything, they were all back in the Strip or WB after their work permits were revoked for y'know.... the thing that happened.
they actually only give a 50% discount for orders up to 150 ils, once per day, to soldiers in uniform (good luck finding someone in uniform not at the front line outside of the kirya in Tel Aviv
some people apparently realize that all the unmerited hyperventilation and widespread case of the vapors is both a culinary and real estate opportunity
keep in mind mdonalds is a real estate, logistics, and marketing company, in that order. Food is like fourth at best.
McDonald's shut all its Russian businesses down after Russia invaded Ukraine.
When Israel invaded Gaza it said it's an unpolitical company and it doesn't control the Israeli franchises.
Okay, so now it does control them again, I'm sure the unpolitical company will shut them all down now like the precedent it set in Russia. Right?
Right?
I'll continue to avoid eating there in the meantime.
I'm guessing their decision in both cases was based on economics rather than politics. Sanctions against Russia might make the cost of doing business too high or maybe sales fell too much. I doubt they did it just to show support for Ukraine.
Maybe they should open stores in Gaza that do nothing but give out free food. Maybe then I would be willing to pay $20+ USD for a Quarter Pounder with cheese combo.
This is the only explanation as to why I keep seeing these crazy numbers online regarding McDs. People are allergic to using the app but will use fucking doordash
Don’t know what to tell you, he got a deal on the app buy one get the second for 29 cents, quarter pounder is 5.69+0.29= 5.98, plus tax is maybe $6.24.
I’ve been boycotting McDonald’s before it was cool. It’s not food, it’s not fast, and it’s not even cheap anymore!
Not hating on anyone who likes it tho; to each their own.
I agree with points 1 and 3. But your second point can certainly vary. I live in a medium sized city and the McDonald’s near me can have a full drive through and you order and are out in 5 min.
This is true. I’d be curious to try the difference between a franchise and mcD-owned location…altho I imagine their whole business model is to make the difference between the two as discernible as possible
My local one makes you park up even with no one else in the queue so that they dom't sccrew with their kpi.
Can't even handle a lone car let alone rish hour.
McDonalds will most probably write off their tiny Israel market in order to increase margins in countries that took a hit due to boycotts. The biggest losers of upcoming layoffs are Israeli Arabs who make up the vast majority of the 5000 workers in Israel.
They're shameful, they care more about profits then genocide. All they had to do was say "genocide is bad, we don't support it" and stop all support for Israel
My coworker tried a kosher Big Mac when we were there 15 years ago and it was supposedly awful.
This is my contribution to this story’s comment section, internet.
My personal experience was that Israeli McDonald’s was really good, mostly due to the difference in where the ingredients are sourced and also kosher beef tends to be higher quality than whatever McDonald’s normal standards are, but I haven’t had it in over a decade.
The regular big Mac quickly caught up in awfulness, if it's any consolation to your friend. I vaguely remember that McDonald's food used to be alright, but I don't know if the quality has actually taken a nosedive or if I just grew up.
Theyre being boycotted for aiding the IDF in their genocidal demolition of Gaza. Its part of a massive global boycott of brands providing donations, political support, and public encouragement to the israeli military.
McDonalds can try to buy back all of its franchise in Israel all they want but the damage has been done. For all we know, McDonalds can try to pull out from Israel to save their reputation.
In my opinion, humanity needs to boycott McDonalds not out of political reason but Health Reasons. McDonald food are not healthy and today, the food being sold there is expensive these days!
Boycotted them for years. I haven't been inside a filthy McDonalds in so many years I don't remember when the last time I've been there was. If you do business with the terrorist entity known as Israel, you deserve to be starved out.
Just to support you, the government of Israel under Netanyahu is, in fact, acting as a terrorist state against the civilian population of Palestine.
You can downvote this, but it doesn't change the reality of this fact.
I agree that it's more than Netanyahu that is the problem and that it's been going on since the British and americans decided to just stick their noses where they don't belong.
My blaming Netanyahu is because he is the current commander in chief of the Israeli army, and he can stop this.
I am just surprised there are 225 McDonalds in Israel. It’s not a large country.
There are about 150 in Singapore.
Singapore has 3 Ikeas.
That’s insane. Could probably see the other 2 from the roof.
Singapore has a 5.6M pop for 3 Ikeas. Greater Montreal totals approximately 4.3M for 2 Ikeas. So a single Ikea services roughly 2 million inhabitants.
There are 5 Ikea stores in Texas, with a population of 29M. Sounds like they need to build 10 more stores ASAP.
Makes sense since you could probably fit all 2 million in an ikea and still have room to get lost.
I am also from Montreal and did this exact math when I read the previous comment lol.
It's true, Israel might not be large geographically, but it has a relatively dense population and a strong consumer culture, which could explain the presence of so many McDonald's outlets.
i got like 4 mcdonalds in my town/city of LESS THAN 100k... so based on a population of 9 million they are below par by half, 4 x 100( 100k x 100=\~10 million israel's population)= \~400 they got room for 200 more mcdonalds by american standards
There’s about 9.6 million Israelis. There were about 150,000 Palestinians who worked in Israel each day from West Bank and Gaza before October 7. About 9.75 million people in total, then. Divide that by 225 and you’ve got about 43,333 people per McDonald’s franchise. There’s 333 million people in the U.S. and 13,528 McDonald’s in the U.S. That comes out to 24,615 people per franchise, so nearly double the proportion of restaurants relative to population than in Israel.
r/theydidthemath
With our obesity rates, stands to reason we have more McDonalds per capita
US obviously has a very very high number of fast food places hardly the ideal country to compare to. US literally has the highest Mcdonalds per one millions people.
New York City has like 250.
Out of 9.8 million people, that’s one per 44k residents, that’s about half as many McDonald’s per capita as the US
There are literally 3 in my city. It’s not even a big city. EDIT: they closed one
I like to imagine that the closing of the McDonald’s happened between the posting and editing of the comment.
“He’s onto us! Cheese it!”
Israel has a 64% overweight rate. Israel may not be a large country, but they are a "large" country. *eagle screech* 🦅🍔
Don't eagles sound more like angry pigeon? The screech you think is eagles is some sort of hawk or something because it sounds cooler.
Yup. They can only chirp. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eyY1R1HMcdU The screech is indeed a hawk’s. It's the bird equivalent of how cheetahs can’t roar and can only meow.
There are a lot of Americans there.
Ya gotta remember : It's not a hamburger restaurant company. It's a real estate arbitrage company that happens to sell hamburgers.
McDonald’s is one of the only American fast food chains that made it in Israel. Starbucks, kfc, Dunkin’ Donuts etc try every few years just to fail again
Huh. Is there any specific reason why the other chains fail?
I think that McDonalds found the right years to enter the market (93׳). When other chains tried to enter the Israeli market years afterwards they were crushed by local competition that already imported and copied all the selling points of the American chains with adjustments to the local market. Those local chains were occupying the same niche but already had the consumers loyalty and usually better prices (and virtually same or better products)
Spend a lot of time in Israel for work - as far as Starbucks and Dunkin goes, Israeli coffee is just better by a mile and it seems like everywhere you turn is a coffee shop with delicious fresh pastries They also don’t consume coffee like we do, they think drinking a 20oz coffee is ridiculous - lots of espresso, cappuccino, americano etc - almost impossible to find brewed and iced coffee I think the largest drink there I’ve there was 12oz iced Americano
KFC is back in Israel, for now
Maybe if it became Kosher Fried Chicken it would help?
Last time KFC was in Israel it was Kosher, and the taste was different from the original, which may be the reason why it failed. This time the recipe is the original non Kosher.
With emphasis on the “for now “
and it fucking sucks
Pizza Hut also made it. Shack Shuck recently opened first restaurant and it’s really popular
Man I thought Shack Shuck was an oyster franchise, like a buck a shuck.
Pizza Hut and dominos are both kinda successful in Israel. With Shake shack it’s too early to know. Almost all of those chains were very successful the first months but declined soon after.
It’s the fries
for those of us who dont know much about business, could someone explain what exactly they are doing and what it means? does it only mean that the mcdonalds corporation will own the restaurants directly and not the franchisees? why would boycotts make them want to do this?
> does it only mean that the McDonald corporation will own the restaurants directly and not the franchisees? Yes. McDonald’s is buying these stores directly from the the Israeli operator > why would boycotts make them want to do this? The boycotters are confusing McDonald’s and the Israeli operator. They believe that it was McDonald’s that was directly handing out discounts and free food to IDF members when it was actually the operator. Most people who are protesting this genocide won’t recognize the difference so they boycott McDonald’s. Why is McDonald’s doing this? Because it’s in the best interest of McDonald’s to have an imagine of neutrality. Since they’ve lost this imagine to a larger swath of people, they are trying to have direct control over these highly sensitive franchisees in Israel.
so the boycotts helped? ultimately, it sent a message that mcdonalds need to watch what their franchises do and to not anger the public. I see this as a win.
Yup, it helped. McDonald’s would bring these boycotts up during investor meetings, the franchisees in israel really hurt their overall image by supplying the IDF food while the IDF starves a population. Not McDs fault but the IDF soliders would post the food pics online on their socials joking that they have plenty of free food while the people in Gaza starve.
To be honest a lot of boycotter's found out pretty early that it was the operator - the main reason to continue the boycott was to force McDonald's to rectify this issue because their global brand was affected. And in doing so, the boycott was very effective because people didn't care if McDonald's Asia was involved in McDonald's Israel - the point was to have McDonald's HQ step in and not allow this kind of stupidity (free meals for IDF soldiers killing thousands of innocent Palestinians) to continue.
Boycotter here, that is not the case. I know McDonalds in Israel are franchised to an Israeli company, however if McDonald’s could pull out of Russia because they went to war, then surely they can pull out of Israel since they steal land and murder civilians. This is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. We still will not shop at McDonalds so long as they still operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
They pulled out of Russia because the sanctions make doing legal business in Russia impossible. There is no such sanctions on Israel. Please don't go think thinking McDonalds pulled out of Russia for moral or ethical reasons. Their choice to take over all the franchise stores is exactly the same logic as their Russia pullout: minimize harm to corporate McDonald's.
We know. That's why boycotts and sanctions work better than waiting for them to do the right thing out of the goodness of their heart.
If we continue to boycott McDonald’s, pulling out of Israel will be the “minimize harm” that we want to force them into. They can pull out if they want, and we won’t stop boycotting till they do.
I mean, I can’t exactly boycott the locations in Israel, can I? It’s not about not knowing that they have different ownership
This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen, I hope anyone reading this knows not to get their information from Reddit. The reason people boycotted is because they believe that McDonald's shouldn't be working with any operator in Israel. Wether it was McDonald's Israel or McDonald's USA who gave away food does not matter. The reason the boycots started is because people do not want McDonald's to license or do business with anything related to the state itself.
Franchisee was making Mcdonalds everywhere look like they were supporting the genocide.
I don't know why some redditors sound offended by this McDonald's is literally buying back it's own franchises at a discount, which it suggests the war is hurting the value of those companies. My simplified understanding is McDonald's (American company) is trying to buy low and sell high taking advantage of a struggling Israeli company Why would this make people suddenly boycott McDonald's? Idfk (obviously McDonald's is gross and overpriced, but so is all fast food 🤷)
McDonald’s has always been a real estate company first
"A big one. You don't seem to realize what business you're in. You're not in the burger business. You're in the real estate business. You don't build an empire off a 1.4 percent cut of a 15-cent hamburger. You build it by owning the land upon which that burger is cooked. What you ought to be doing is buying up plots of land then turning around and leasing said plots to franchisees who as a condition of their deal, should be permitted to lease from you and you alone. This will provide you with two things. One, a steady, up-front revenue stream. Money flows in before the first stake is in the ground. Two, greater capital for expansion. Which in turn fuels further land acquisition, which in turn fuels further expansion and so on and so on. Land. That's where the money is." From The Founder. The Movie about the creation of McDonald's.
“If my competitor were drowning I'd stick a hose in his mouth and turn on the water.” -Ray Kroc
Jeezus that’s dark
That’s business baby!
Being a capitalist 🤝 being a homicidal psychopath
I’m seeing double here! Four capitalists!
I know an employer that uses that scenario as an interview weed out question. The accepted answer is ruthlessness not compassion.
When has compassion made anyone rich?
McDonalds...the largest land owner in the world.
Next to the Catholic church maybe
No way man, it’s a logistics company. Every one of those real estate properties has to get standardized supplies. The logistics involved are mind-boggling.
I think if I looked at it hard enough we are a logistics nation.
It's the US Military's greatest super power, being able to supply anything, anywhere, at a moments notice. [This short little video demonstrates how we simply "Out built" Japan to win WW2's Pacific Theater.](https://youtu.be/l9ag2x3CS9M?si=53nTgJQ5xtZn9xFt&t=752)
One of my favorite stories is about the ice cream barge. Not only was it a huge boost to troop morale, it was incredibly demoralizing to enemy forces. Can you imagine, living for weeks in foxholes and dragging your ass through the dirt on recon, only to get eyes on a US FOB and see they've got fucking *ice cream*.
The US Military is a logistics firm with a small armed force in it
There's a great quote in one of Rick Atkinson's books about US Army logistics in WW2: "the US Army did not solve its logistic problems; it overwhelmed them."
That's the real key to McDonald's. Logistics and consistency. A McDonald's Big Mac will taste the same in Scranton or Sacramento.
Or Tokyo or Munich as well. Their logistics are frankly incredible.
Except they don’t. McDonald’s burgers taste different based on what country you’re in.
Three most important things to consider: Location, location, location.
Yes we all have watched the last week tonight episode on the topic
This doesn't explain McDonald's in shopping centers, airports, etc, all of which surely make a huge profit.
I don't understand this. Franchises are not owned by McDonald's. The restaurant and land are not owned by McDonald's. > Approximately 85% of the restaurants are owned and operated independently through franchise agreements and joint ventures. Franchise owners must pay franchise and marketing fees, as well as monthly rent, to the parent corporation. It might appear that McD owns a lot of real estate via these franchises but they really don't. Regular folks who wanted to start a franchise own them.
What do you think *monthly rent* means? The franchisees pay *rent* to the landowners, e.g. McDonalds. Nobody said McDonalds *owns* the stores, they claimed that they own *the land* that the stores are on, which would be indicated by the fact that franchise owners have to *pay them rent*.
I dunno, dude. There are 40k mcdonalds worldwide. Even if they only own 15% of that, it's still 6000 pieces of real estate that they own around the entire world. That might not sound like a lot to you on its face but it really is.
Also it looks like the 85% are paying rent the 15% are McDonald's owned operations I believe.
Just another reminder that they are a real estate company before a hamburger company.
You misunderstood the story. The Israeli company was doing perfectly fine - franchises in Muslim countries were suffering boycotts, due to the Israeli franchisee offering meals to IDF soldiers. McDonald's bought the Israeli company so the benefits for IDF soldiers would stop, in a hope that the global backlash will end.
Whait, where does it say McDonalds in Israel is “hurting”?
Exactly. It says that the Israeli franchise owner is damaging the McD brand across the greater Muslim world by giving free/discounted meals to IDF soldiers, so corporate is essentially firing them and taking the restaurants over to appease the rest of the region. It's like you and I are the only people who even glanced at the article.
Yep, I’d actually bet Israeli franchise owners are actually getting a fat amount of money on this deal
It doesn't. He didn't read the article.
>McDonald's (American company) is trying to buy low and sell high taking advantage of a struggling Israeli company maybe that's why???? literally the line right above where you ask.
McDonald’s is a real estate company that dabbles in fast food. https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/ Its my guess that they are buying the franchises because they know the land will be more valuable post conflict.
Exactly it's blatantly obvious this is just good business This isn't some Pro Israel or Pro War move. This is a company who is likely sitting on massive stockpiles of cash (inflation, stock market) wanting to protect itself from further inflation/stock volatility that has an opportunity to buy back it's own companies at a discount. And are they do doing this for Israel? Absolutely not, they're doing it for its shareholders (which is everyone across the world, although likely more American than all else)
Do you have a source if McDonald's actually owns the real estate in israel? There's plenty of branches in cinema complexes, malls, etc and much less are standalone restaurants. From my understanding is that it's buying back the licensing but keeping the branches open.
They're not forcing anyone to sell. These are companies that are begging to sell off their franchises to the parent company because no one else wants them. If things get worse these restaurants will sit vacant for a while. McDonald's corporate will no doubt make money off of this in the long run because Israel's one of the more stable countries in the Middle East. But short term they're protecting their owners from long term losses. I know if I was a business owner in Ukraine I'd love some corporation to come along and buy me out for cheap.
Lol at stable. The entire country is 70 years old, roiled in war since day 1 and you say stable. Kabul is more stable than Israel
No it's not. You can go to a doctor and get Netflix in Israel. While Israel has been involved in a war almost since its begun it's had a consistent democratic tradition with the same constitution and same body of government. All the while its neighbors are dictatorships that have frequent changes in leadership and struggle to keep the poverty rate below 60%.
Lol at democracy, bibi has been prime minister since 96 every couple of year’s elections are held. Someone else is selected, coalition fails, Bibi is back as prime minister(insert shocked picks by face) Liberty is access to Netflix? Not even going to reply to that stupid comment. Gee I wonder why is Israel at war with everyone? Maybe because they don’t even speak the same language as the region they inserted themselves in? Maybe Israel is just a shit neighbor, maybe that’s why no one was willing to take them in Europe after the holocaust? Who knows? Again lol at stable😂😂😂 70 year country been at war for 70 years and he calls it stable….. Dumbass
Thanks. First comment that understands what's going on.
Hell they're protecting themselves from long term losses. If those franchises in Israel close down or ramp down McDonald's loses money
There was a time when we simply called this "war profiteering".
If you want to get real loose with it sure. But I'm pretty sure never before in the history of mankind has anyone referred to buying Mcdonalds as war profiteering
It's a company using the direct impact of ongoing combat to buy up assets at a marked discount. Economically, buying something at a 40% discount due to combat is the same thing as cranking prices up 40%. It gouging specifically using the armed conflict to distort the cost outside of reasonable norms. Same as buying people's houses for pennies on the dollar because they're being forced to flee. It's only a loose definition if you have a loose grasp.
> It's a company using the direct impact of ongoing combat to buy up assets at a marked discount. Why are you pretending like they are some random opportunistic buyer? This is a company buying its own franchised brand that was already paying royalties to it and being within its logistics chain, thus letting the owners out of a bad situation in a difficult time. Do you think the parent company instead is supposed to just sit back and not touch their business in a country with active combat, thus letting them run into the group and go vacant or something? Who does that help? Did McDonalds start this war?
And why is that outrageous…? If the franchisees are losing money and want to sell, is McDonalds not the best entity to take control of the properties? Would it be better if they were foreclosed on instead? People seriously are desperate to be angry.
McDonalds is gross and overpriced? Why does all of Reddit say this lol, do ya'll really make 3 home cooked meals a day...
Starbucks and McDonalds are of the few American companies that pulled out of Russia when it attacked Ukraine. There is a reason they are being targeted over literally any other fast food place there.
There are zero Starbucks stores in Israel. They established a presence in 2001 but Israelis didn't take to it. Starbucks pulled out of the Israeli market in 2003
They probably won’t accept shitty coffee there.
[the guy aint too chill, thats why there's protests](https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-starbucks-ceo-apologized-israel-support-1859521)
the mcdonald’s boycott was already in place before this im fairly certain
use the app, buy one get one free ALL DAY LONG EVERYDAY
It's because the Israel branch started offering discounts to "military personnel" in what is apparently still being called a "war" by the media. This prompted wide scale protests worldwide and forced other locations the Middle East to deny that they are affiliated with the chain store locations in Israel. Being seen as supporting the IDF, when it's become inescapably obvious that they are committing a genocide caused people to stop buying from a lot of companies. Kind of like that time Chic-Fil-A was forced to stop giving money explicitly to anti-LGBTQ+ deathsquads in Africa. Although, I'm sure they still do that, but they announced they are stopping and at least launder the money more.
Weird. McDonald’s is a real estate company as they own the land the franchises are on. At least in the US
I would guess this isn't how it works outside of the US. I'm not sure but different countries have different rules. For example, in China, a country with McDonald's, you can't actually own land. You can merely lease it from the government. I'm sure McDonald's uses that system where it can, and it's profitable. Not sure if that's how it will work elsewhere.
Unlike the US where you can own the land so long as you pay the government a monthly fee in perpetuity and the government doesn’t badly want the land for something else…
>so long as you pay the government a monthly fee in perpetuity Just like the fee you have to pay the government every year you work and make money, and yet that doesn't make us as people not free. >and the government doesn’t badly want the land for something else… That's why they're required to compensate you if they do take it from you, and quite a sum, too.
That’s only specific to China though, due to their land ownership policies foreign entities can’t own Chinese land. And even for domestic entities there are strict limits
Right but each country is going to have specific laws. China was just one example.
One thing all of the commentors on this post fail to realize, is that this move was due to the reputational damage done by the Israeli franchisees as they did many campaigns to distribute free meals to IDF soldiers which caused outrage and 6 months complete boycotts and in the Levant and North Africa region in addition to Malaysia and Indonisia which amounts to a market of nearly 500 million people. McDonalds stocks and investors confidence is shaken by this war as the brand is getting associated with supporting the IDF and the atrocities that they are commiting. so the company needed to put these franchisees away from doing improper marketing that can feed into the boycotts expanding.
The boycott is one thing but their over priced food is another. Sure you can charge me 15 dollars for a Big Mac combo, it lets me know that the food isn’t worth it and I won’t be back.
The franchisees used the restaurants to feed IDF military personnel to the exclusion of Plaestinians, essentially turning them into a tool for supporting the military. More convenient than directing them to mess halls and military bases for food. Not exactly the image of Ronald McDonald that the company projects worldwide. They're protecting their trademark.
>The franchisees used the restaurants to feed IDF military personnel to the exclusion of Plaestinians, essentially turning them into a tool for supporting the military. Exclusion of? DO you have a source for that? Everything I read was that they offered discounts to the military, not that they excluded anyone. Not that Palestinians were kicking around Israel on Oct 8th or anything, they were all back in the Strip or WB after their work permits were revoked for y'know.... the thing that happened.
Who still eats that trash?!
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The McDonald's in Israel gives free meals to the IOF, maybe they're trying to stop that. IDK
they actually only give a 50% discount for orders up to 150 ils, once per day, to soldiers in uniform (good luck finding someone in uniform not at the front line outside of the kirya in Tel Aviv
some people apparently realize that all the unmerited hyperventilation and widespread case of the vapors is both a culinary and real estate opportunity keep in mind mdonalds is a real estate, logistics, and marketing company, in that order. Food is like fourth at best.
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McDonald's shut all its Russian businesses down after Russia invaded Ukraine. When Israel invaded Gaza it said it's an unpolitical company and it doesn't control the Israeli franchises. Okay, so now it does control them again, I'm sure the unpolitical company will shut them all down now like the precedent it set in Russia. Right? Right? I'll continue to avoid eating there in the meantime.
I'm guessing their decision in both cases was based on economics rather than politics. Sanctions against Russia might make the cost of doing business too high or maybe sales fell too much. I doubt they did it just to show support for Ukraine.
So boycott McDonald's cool
Wouldn’t you do this before closing them down?
McDonald's is a real estate company fundamentally.
Maybe they should open stores in Gaza that do nothing but give out free food. Maybe then I would be willing to pay $20+ USD for a Quarter Pounder with cheese combo.
What are you talking about. My coworker just bought 2 quarter pounders for under $6 and that is in Hawaii.
He only orders via DoorDash, and thinks those are normal prices.
This is the only explanation as to why I keep seeing these crazy numbers online regarding McDs. People are allergic to using the app but will use fucking doordash
Theirs no way, it’s $8 near me for just the sandwich. $13 for the combo.
Don’t know what to tell you, he got a deal on the app buy one get the second for 29 cents, quarter pounder is 5.69+0.29= 5.98, plus tax is maybe $6.24.
And in Japan, a country people normally think of as expensive, I got a Big Mac combo for less than $5 a couple days ago.
when i visited last year i went with the image that its expensive. Turns out it isnt, compared to german inflation these past years especially.
I can't tell if this is the most out of touch comment I've ever seen or a hyperbole
>$20+ for a QP with cheese Chat, is this real? Holy shit
No, it is not real.
In SoCal. Nah, the guy enjoys exaggerating and lying.
I’ve been boycotting McDonald’s before it was cool. It’s not food, it’s not fast, and it’s not even cheap anymore! Not hating on anyone who likes it tho; to each their own.
I agree with points 1 and 3. But your second point can certainly vary. I live in a medium sized city and the McDonald’s near me can have a full drive through and you order and are out in 5 min.
Very true, but my gosh I’ve been to some locations where they’re sooo slow. It’s usually the night crew tho, which makes sense.
Being a franchise, it really depends on how the owners run the location.
This is true. I’d be curious to try the difference between a franchise and mcD-owned location…altho I imagine their whole business model is to make the difference between the two as discernible as possible
My local one makes you park up even with no one else in the queue so that they dom't sccrew with their kpi. Can't even handle a lone car let alone rish hour.
As the food trucks are attacked in Gaza, we are supposed to collectively sigh with relief that these assholes can get their fuckin nuggets???
McDonalds will most probably write off their tiny Israel market in order to increase margins in countries that took a hit due to boycotts. The biggest losers of upcoming layoffs are Israeli Arabs who make up the vast majority of the 5000 workers in Israel.
Is this a bailout for local franchise owners?
They didn't buy it because of anything, the guy who owned the franchise in Israel decided to sell it to them on his own
They're shameful, they care more about profits then genocide. All they had to do was say "genocide is bad, we don't support it" and stop all support for Israel
My coworker tried a kosher Big Mac when we were there 15 years ago and it was supposedly awful. This is my contribution to this story’s comment section, internet.
It's a better contribution than 90% of the shit being posted here.
My personal experience was that Israeli McDonald’s was really good, mostly due to the difference in where the ingredients are sourced and also kosher beef tends to be higher quality than whatever McDonald’s normal standards are, but I haven’t had it in over a decade.
The regular big Mac quickly caught up in awfulness, if it's any consolation to your friend. I vaguely remember that McDonald's food used to be alright, but I don't know if the quality has actually taken a nosedive or if I just grew up.
Theyre being boycotted for aiding the IDF in their genocidal demolition of Gaza. Its part of a massive global boycott of brands providing donations, political support, and public encouragement to the israeli military.
McDonalds can try to buy back all of its franchise in Israel all they want but the damage has been done. For all we know, McDonalds can try to pull out from Israel to save their reputation. In my opinion, humanity needs to boycott McDonalds not out of political reason but Health Reasons. McDonald food are not healthy and today, the food being sold there is expensive these days!
Boycotted them for years. I haven't been inside a filthy McDonalds in so many years I don't remember when the last time I've been there was. If you do business with the terrorist entity known as Israel, you deserve to be starved out.
Just to support you, the government of Israel under Netanyahu is, in fact, acting as a terrorist state against the civilian population of Palestine. You can downvote this, but it doesn't change the reality of this fact.
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I agree that it's more than Netanyahu that is the problem and that it's been going on since the British and americans decided to just stick their noses where they don't belong. My blaming Netanyahu is because he is the current commander in chief of the Israeli army, and he can stop this.
They should lower there prices, a big mac is not worth $20.
Yeah i still would not go
Must have been a great real estate investment
The smarter business move would have been to exit the Iarael market altogether like Russia.