The Customer In Decline

I know that I pick on fast food a lot on this blog, however, I believe those poisons seem to define our society (as evidenced by what is served at the White House lately).  I recently recalled a book that I had read about one of the fast food founding fathers and his success.  This founder was an underling of another fast food monarch who had changed the way we thought about dinner.

The patriarch of the drive-through window to which I am referring to created his own brand of restaurants through the promotion of using fresh, never frozen ingredients such as ground beef.  His daughter was heavily involved in the promotion of his restaurants (there’s your hint for today).  In the early days of this chain, the biggest slogan was the question of the location of the beef (your final hint).

Throughout the book, this restaurant entrepreneur constantly boasted of his belief in the quality of the product served to his customer.  In the early years, he was able to accomplish this and was recognized through numerous awards for quality service and products.  The restaurant had earned its reputation of using only fresh beef for the burgers they served.  It truly was a story of quality brought to life by an entrepreneur’s vision of serving customers only the best quality, but it would change.

In one of the later chapters in the book, the founder, now of advanced age, found himself and his restaurant chain at a crossroads.  Most of the company’s competitors had either been purchased by large corporations or in the process of being acquired.  The offers that were being made were too juicy (pun intended) to resist and the founder soon fell to the pressures of corporation competition and sold controlling rights to a company raider.  The founder managed to retain some creative control and rights for his family to also be involved in some decisions.

In the following chapter, the founder mentions that a freshly minted, ivy league school MBA had suggested that the restaurants use the day’s leftover beef to create the chili for the next day.  This was appalling to the founder of the chain that had so fervently protected the policy of freshness, he rolled his eyes at the suggestion.  But ultimately time and the ever-changing world of profits prevailed, and the policy was changed.  Once again, we see that profits win out over customer satisfaction, unless, of course, you are part of the upper 10% of the wealth chain.

This book was written back in the 1990s, about the time when what was left of quality products and service began to die in favor of making CEOs, board members and shareholders wealthy.  It isn’t only the fast food chains that have suffered this fate but almost every type of consumer product and service.  The movie “Idiocracy” best portrayed how all the services in the world will be delivered, by some jack ass machine that sprays you in the face if you don’t like the quality!  WTF!!!!!!!

Talk to Ya Later