I’d like to buy a McDonalds franchise, and pay all the workers substantially more than minimum wage. Perhaps $10 per hour, plus benefits.

In return, I would demand high quality workers. In my opinion, this could become a very successful business model. In fact, it already is at places like Costco and In-N-Out but I’d like to prove that it can be successful at a place like McDonalds. The payroll might even not increase that much, as motivated workers may be more efficient than the typical unmotivated retail employee.

There is a McDonalds in Cuba, New York where I used to always stop on the way to visit my brother in Ithaca. Not because I love McDonalds, but because the staff was always friendly and helpful, the restaurant was very clean, and the food was simply delicious. I don’t know if that store was more profitable than other McDonalds, but it earned at least one repeat customer by having great customer service.

I have been following your blog for a while and always enjoy your posts. I worked at a Target Store for almost 7 years, from the time I was 15 until I was 22. I am now 23. I did many jobs throughout the store from cashier to sales floor to stockroom in all the departments of the store both part-time and full-time so I feel I am qualified to respond. First of all, the cashier should have offered a price check and when she didn’t the woman should have politely asked for one. I am a little concerned that you failed to point out the emergence of apathy and laziness in our culture as a whole not just in retail workers. In a response to a comment, you said, “…retail workers would get the message pretty quickly that we’re just as much their bosses as their managers are.” This statement scares me a little bit. Would you accept disrespect and rudeness from your boss? Because I have several stories of being screamed at by a woman who was angry at another employee (a supervisor), people using profanity, or dishonest “guests” who try to get lower prices on or even steal merchandise. I can go into extreme detail but I would like to keep this response relatively short. I do agree with you that there is a serious problem with the attitude and work ethic of some of today’s young workers. However, I would like to venture that there is also a problem of corporate mistreatment of these “unskilled” workers and a problem with service industry patrons and their sense of entitlement. I think the solution to this problem is pretty basic: following the golden rule. I always try to treat everyone how I would like to be treated. I am certainly not perfect but I believe I treat all service workers (retail, fast-food, restaurant servers, CS reps on the phone) better after working in the industry for so long.

Sincerely,
Ex Target Employee in the Midwest

Larry, it’s great to hear from local folks! I’ll have to include more DC-oriented stories like this more often.

Great website man. I’m a regular reader now, and fellow DC Metro resident!

She wasn’t working there long after that, thankfully.