Inside McDonald's Worldwide
A gathering of the chain's franchisees, suppliers, and executives
LAS VEGAS, Nevada—McDonald’s Worldwide, a biennial gathering of the chain’s more than 14,000 franchisees, suppliers, and executives, has long been a secretive affair, with instructions to even the company’s top stakeholders to limit sharing any photos or videos for fear of potentially revealing any information that could be used by a competitor. This reporter has tried on numerous occasions to attend the convention in the past, only to be rebuffed. No media was allowed.
All of that changed this year.
Perhaps sensing that some loosening of the belt could be beneficial, especially in the wake of the Grimace Shake activation that saw the brand score an enormous amount of earned media with its (initially risky) embrace of viral videos that depicted the purple drink killing the people that consumed it, McDonald’s has seemingly opened the door for previously unimaginable collaborations with outside brands and online personalities. This new policy was reflected in the guest list for this year’s gathering, held in the 4.6 million square foot Las Vegas Convention Center, which saw the presence of social media creators, members of the press, and a certain author who independently documented the chain’s localizations across 60 countries.
Here are some notable things from McDonald’s Worldwide.
The McDonald’s of the Future
The headliner from CEO Chris Kempczinski’s opening keynote, the new store design throws it back to the original fishbowl concept that caught Ray Kroc’s attention when he first rolled into San Bernardino in 1954. It also adds a splash of color and whimsy, possibly a response to complaints that the current store design is a bit too boxy and monochrome and not as fun as the quirky mansard buildings. Will this be enough? I don’t think you can ever satisfy people that are chasing nostalgia as it’s often just a proxy, longing for a time that we simply cannot go back to.
ArchIQ, McDonald’s foray into Artificial Intelligence
Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent a considerable amount of time on stage with the McDonald’s CEO, signaling that restaurant chain is taking AI integration fairly seriously. You already have the one store in Fort Worth, Texas that is fully automated, and several other locations will be testing the Google-developed drive thru system that can take orders in both English and Spanish. Whether this will eventually be rolled out more widely or is just a move to keep the shareholders happy as every company tries to prove that it’s hip to the latest tech trends, we’ll just have to wait and see!
Incredible Localized Drip
As someone who spends an unhealthy amount of time on online auction sites hunting for limited edition fast food merch, I was absolutely floored by the designs at Worldwide. Every market showed up with custom jackets and shirts. Trading was encouraged, and while the Italian jackets were definitely the most in demand, there were so many designs that I wanted, including this sick Australian one featuring a koala holding a casino chip. Gotta set those eBay alerts for when these franchisees offload the goods.
McSampling Galore
Not surprisingly, there was a ton of food at the convention for the largest restaurant chain in the world. At the Taste of the World popup restaurant, which rotated items from international markets, I was reunited with some favorites like Italy’s Pistachio McFlurry and Brazil’s Cheddar McMelt. Admittedly, these were not exactly the version served in their home countries due to supply chain limitations, but after visiting 60+ countries for field work I’m a little tired of flying and will gladly settle for a facsimile here in the United States. There was a hand breaded chicken station, where bone-in fried chicken that has been overwhelmingly successful in the Chinese and Malaysian markets were sampled out to attendees. Dozens of new drinks were on offer at the McCafé booth, apparently inspired by Mormons’ enthusiasm with dirty sodas, according to the radio host Sam Roberts. I’m going to have to look into this for the next edition.
McAtlas in the spotlight
People often ask me, what does McDonald’s corporate think about the book? They like it enough to invite me to their convention and have me speak about it! I shared the stage with another author, Chris Arnade, who had also spent years independently covering the Golden Arches. His focus was on how people use the restaurants as a third space around the United States, so we had a lot of crossover to yap about. Afterward, copies of our books were distributed to attendees.
Anyway, that was fun! Let’s do it again in two years!