A Glimpse At The Unitied Corporations of America's Future

A Glimpse At The United Corporations of America's Future

The below article shows how a Corporation (PERSON) responds to an economic slump. (By frantically trying to figure out how to get customers back to stuff unhealthy food products down their unwitting throats again.) It’s a peek at what We the Non-Corporation "People" are in for. Plummeting sales make them scramble to come up with new ideas to bring their ever loving profit margin back up to greed speed. Proving (as if we didn’t know) that profits rule and the Corporation type "People" care about little else. So, in the future when the Corporation "People" start buying our politicians... (the ones who they can readily scratch their backs with some scratch ($$$) and get them elected so laws can be changed in a Corporation’s favor, like lowering quality of already crappy food because FDA will surely be in their pockets also and recalls will be a thing of the past). We the Non-Corporation "people" will be left holding the Burger King and McHappy Meal bags. Welcome to the new Robert's vision of the United Corporations of America! thinkingblue

As Sales Drop, Burger King Draws Critics for Courting 'Super Fans'

by Julie Jargon

Monday, February 1, 2010

WALL STREET JOURNAL

©The Associated Press

For five years, Burger King Holdings Inc. was on a roll, successfully courting its "super fans" -- 18- to 34-year-olds who account for half of all visits to Burger King restaurants.

Thanks to high unemployment and healthier eating habits, those
super fans haven't been so super lately. Burger King has felt the
impact more acutely than its main rival, McDonald's Corp., whose
sales are growing.

As Burger King prepares to report earnings this week after two
straight quarters of same-store sales declines, the question is
whether the chain has relied too heavily on customers that may be
permanently changing habits.

Former super fan Noah Rubin says he has. The 28-year-old Seattle
man used to wolf down bacon cheeseburgers three or four nights a
week at Burger King, Jack in the Box and local bars. But he and
his fiancee started cutting back last year after both were laid
off, then found jobs at lower pay.

Now they cook at home using organic vegetables and dine out only
on weekends. Mr. Rubin figures he is saving more than $100 a week
by eating fewer burgers. "I don't think we'll go back to
eating out as often as we used to," he says. "We always
used to talk about eating at home more, and now that it's
happened, we've found that we really enjoy it."

Burger King's same-store sales in the U.S. and Canada declined
4.6% in the three months ended Sept. 30, while McDonald's posted
U.S. same-store sales growth of 2.5%. North American same-store
sales at Wendy's, a unit of Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc., fell 0.1%
in the quarter ended Sept. 27. At CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of
the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. burger chains, company-run
restaurants saw sales decline 3.7% in the quarter ended Nov. 2.

Some Burger King franchisees and industry analysts say the
company's marketing and advertising focus on super fans alienated
women, children and other customers. "Maybe catering to the
super fan was the correct strategy to kick-start the business,
but maybe they relied on that for too long," Morgan Stanley
analyst John Glass says.

Brian Gies, Burger King's vice president of marketing impact,
says, "There's no question that, broadly speaking, this
recession probably will change the way many people will spend
going forward. We can't quantify what the impact will be for
fast-food hamburger restaurants, but we're on the lower end of
the affordability spectrum, and we stand a pretty good chance of
remaining part of the super fans' repertoire." (continued
below or...)

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Let's keep our heads, while we continue to watch THE

THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!! thinkingblue