McDonald's Urging Stores to Stay Open on Christmas

The COO calls it a sales "opportunity"

McDonald's is pushing for its restaurants to stay open on Christmas Day. After making major sales on Thanksgiving earlier this year, Chief Operations Officer Jim Johannesen is urging franchise owners to do it again, writing in a memo: "Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day." McDonald's had a sales growth of 2.5 percent in November—after a drop of 2.2 percent the prior month—which they say was largely due to staying open on Thanksgiving, a holiday during which many of them traditionally close. Mr. Johannesen showed that average sales for company-owned restaurants—which compose about 10 percent of its system—were at "more than $6,000" this Thanksgiving. And with nearly 6,000 more locations still offering their menu on Thanksgiving than last year, that's about $36 million in additional sales. (AdAge)

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]