Even though I worked for state government much of my adult life, I do owe some good work experiences and lessons to corporate America. At one point in time a McDondald’s hamburger cost $0.15, yep 15 cents. Seems unbelievable today. The other day it seemed unbelievable, nightmarish even, was when they brought back the 15 cent hamburger for one day and one day only. Get them while they’re hot, 15 cents each, limit 10. Yes, 10. Two crazy ideas… as if the 15 cent hamburger wasn’t enough, sell them 10! This was probably around 1975 and a small hamburger was about 40 or 50 cents. So yes, 15 cents was a decent “sale” price. The only problem, apparently everyone loves a hamburger sale. Who knew?
I suppose the promotion geniuses, I want to say it was McDonald’s 25 year anniversary, figured the customers would order a few extra burgers for the family. I don’t believe they anticipated what actually happened. Nearly every customer ordered 10 hamburgers. Somehow I was lucky enough to be on the schedule that day. It was crazy to say the least.
Unprepared for the volume of the customer enthusiasm for the “sale” I recall the manager calling other stores for additional raw materials, burgers and buns. Every store was slammed. None to be had. Customers were waiting and often became angry because they had to wait and often we couldn’t keep track of who ordered first. There was no system in place for those who had to wait. Something that was supposed to be happy and fun, an anniversary near give-away promotion, turned ugly. Needless to say, that promotion never happened again. Later I learned the store had to close early because they completely ran out of product.
I started at McDonald’s the summer I was 16. I had a paper route that I wanted to quit. It wasn’t much of a route, it was one day a week, a before school, early morning route on Thursdays. The paper was called The Independent. I don’t think it was read for its journalism, but rather for the weekly food ads and recipes. The papers must have arrived in the middle of the night. Near the curb on what we called the parkway. A narrow strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk. There were five stacks totaling 125 papers. I had to deliver to every house in about a 4 square block area. Technically, I suppose, the paper was free, but for delivery we would ask for $0.25 per month. Walking around knocking on doors at night once a month and tearing off receipts from a receipt book. And get this, I had to remit $0.05 per customer to the office and purchase my own rubber bands also from the office. About half the people paid, some reluctantly.
One customer, whom I believe was paying regularly, after asking me if I would continue to deliver the paper even if he did not pay, told me he no longer wanted to pay. I thought to myself “You’ll continue to get the paper alright, I’m just not sure if it’s condition.”
Granted we lived in a modest neighborhood, I’m pretty sure he was a homeowner and it was 25 cents per month. I was in disbelief and a bit ticked off. I couldn’t believe he couldn’t find 25 cents per month in his budget for the free paper delivery boy. So the next Thursday I may have missed tossing a paper his way, entirely by accident. Other weeks, I may have made sure the paper skipped across his wet lawn and another week I may have removed the food section from his paper. I can’t say I’m proud of my actions. I was out $0.20 per month, over $2.00 per year. My mother, raised with the work ethic of an Iowan, said I’d have to find another job in order to quit.
I must have been in the McDonalds with family members and saw the help wanted sign. I must have been instructed to ask for a job application. The paper route I kinda inherited from the older brother of the kid across the street. Not sure why he didn’t just pick it up himself. He must have known it was more work than it was worth. I do seem to recall having a group interview of sorts outside at one of the tables along the side of the restaurant. Basically the assistant manager wanted to know when we were available and told me to get a haircut. So much for being a cool kid at 16 with a bit of hair.
While the burger discount day was the most memorable single day, the other was the new assistant manager that showed up. And it seemed like he was a bit lost. That was rather unusual. All of the previous assistant managers knew their way around the operation backward and forward. I was closing the store as the manager with one year of experience. It turns out he was a recent college graduate with little or no McDonald’s experience. To some degree, I had to help him learn the ropes. Me, barely above minimum wage worker, teaching the college grad to do the job. What’s wrong with this picture.
I started working when the minimum wage was around $1.65 per hour. I recall receiving work performance reviews, possible every three months. If you were doing a decent job you would be rewarded with a five or ten cent per hour wage increase. I had worked there for a while and recall the minimum wage went up to $2.00. I figured since I was making slightly about that, based on my experience and past performance that I would get bumped up. After all, an increase from $1.65 to $2.00, 35 cents, represented a 20% increase or thereabout. I recall asking one of the assistant managers, who were salary based, they claimed not to know if experienced hourly workers would see any more. I felt as if my past performance didn’t really count, I wasn’t rewarded for it. So here I was training new employees off the street and I was barely making five or ten cents per hour more than the newly hired.
As my first “real” job, swapping time and labor for money, McDonalds taught me a slew of lessons, such as a college education had much more value than real experience. The existing workers can train the new management. Thank you corporate America. Shortly thereafter I became more motivated to earn a college degree.
I also realized that when the minimum wage goes up, corporate America will not pay a penny more than your existing wage as long as it is above the new minimum, even to the experienced people. In other words, your experience isn’t that valuable even though it can make a big difference in how a store runs. If the store runs well, the customer benefits and they return again. It’s about the experience. A good customer experience will rewarded the business with a repeat visit.
