How’s this for timing: McDonald’s is opening its largest Nevada store next week — a two-story version on the Strip — while we’re in the throes of the worst recession in decades.
And if McDonald’s wonders just how bad the economy is, it need only look over its shoulder to the property next door, where the huge Echelon construction site employing hundreds of burger-hungry workers is shut down for want of money.
But Ronald McDonald isn’t flinching because his burger counters are still seeing good numbers.
The company says same-store sales, a figure used to determine the increase in business at existing stores, rose more than 8 percent in October from the previous month. In the United States, overall company sales jumped more than 5 percent.
That kind of growth shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you can’t afford a $400 bottle of cognac, a $1,000 suite or a $5,000 ticket to the big fight, the dollar double cheeseburger is still within reach.
McDonald’s has had a restaurant in that area of the Strip for more than 25 years. The smaller store will close when the new one opens Thursday, with its Strip-front video screen showing super-sized images of all-beef patties and enough sitting room inside to accommodate
186 diners.
“It’s a beautiful restaurant,” says Brad Hunter, west division marketing manager, as if he’s talking about the Louvre, instead of another McDonald’s serving the same Big Macs and fries as the other 31,000 that dot the world’s landscape.
The company-run Strip store, named Viva McDonald’s, belongs to a new generation of McDonald’s restaurants, featuring wireless Internet access and eschewing the older, bright plastic look with brick exteriors and a muted version of their signature red and yellow colors.
McDonald’s did not disclose the cost of construction.
Forbes.com wrote last month: “McDonald’s low-price formula — such as the recession-friendly Dollar Menu — is a winning strategy during a difficult economic period.”
McDonald’s posted an 11 percent gain in third-quarter profits over the previous year, prompting investment gurus to call it one of the safest stocks to buy during the slump.
Jerry Newman, a University of Buffalo management professor who wrote “My Secret Life on the McJob,” a first-person tale of the business and management of the fast-food industry, says gasoline is the only industry more recession-proof than fast food.
“If you have less money than a month ago you stop going to the nicer restaurants,” he says. “But you still want some entertainment and there is entertainment in fast food.”
And all the more if that fast food is delivered on the Strip.
Customers can spread out over a bi-level dining room that’s roughly the size of two basketball courts and gaze at 14 flat-screen televisions or revert to that time-honored sport of people-watching. With some 40 million visitors on the Strip annually, this McDonald’s won’t want for fanny-packing customers.
Not to mention the construction crews at the
Fontainebleau across the street.
That $2.9 billion project is still being built.
Mike Trask can be reached at 259-8826 or
at mike.trask@lasvegassun.com.
Source: Las Vegas Sun
