Dave Worth

I worked in Marketing and Research for McDonald’s corporation for 15 years. Left 10 years ago.

Even back then we had something similar. There was a company RMS (Revenue Systems Management I think) that worked on pricing at the store level. The average owner had 6 stores back then and most had the same prices across their organization.

RMS was able to show that was a bad mix. A cheeseburger at one location was worth something else at another location…even if they were across the street from another. A big factor is the pricing inthe whole menu.

They were able to look at a couple of years of price changes at the store level and see how it impacted other items. They would use this to optimize pricing. Meaning going up 10 cents on item X may encourage trade up at that store. Or the opposite. They would propose new pricing that would optimally have no impact on foot traffic but move to more profitable product mixes.

It was entirely optional and it was a hard sell to convince an operator to give up that kind of control. So much about running that business was already dictated by corporate. By law the corporation can’t dictate pricing unless it was an advertised price voted on by the owners. They also hated having different pricing from store to store. RMS did eventually offer pricing by operator instead of location with the caveat it was less effective. It was also very complicated and over most people’s heads

That was 15 years ago. No idea what they’re capable of now (RMS or whoever is doing it), but it’s got be way more advanced and nuanced.

I worked for corporate McDonalds for 16 years in marketing. I left 10 years ago.

The biggest driver was the shift to more drive thru business over time. Drive Thru made up roughly 75% of the business at the average location. That meant the foot traffic inside was dramatically reduced by “a hole in the side of the building” as many called it originally.

Combine drastically lower demand with the costs of maintenance and cleaning and you have an answer. I don’t remember any direct conversations about lawsuits but it was most likely a positive benefit if not another outright factor.

There were complaints from some Owners and customers, but not as much as you would think. And sales were steadily increasing at the time (including some very good years while I was there) so there was no noticeable negative impact at the time. I have no contacts with anyone from the company any more so I can’t speak to what’s going on now.

If everything was my call when someone wins the Heisman I would approach it this way. Can also work for other highly decorated players like a Dorsey. No number is retired. Put their number/jersey/name in the Stadium as a Legend. Then put a hold on anyone using that number for 10 years. After 10 years it’s back in circulation. The legendary player is honored differently than other mere greats. No issue with numbers being permanently phased out and lost.

If a player comes in and wants an unavailable number, leave the decision to the Legend or their family. Leinart at USC just did this…he refused to give his number to a freshman that had done nothing and was statistically likely to transfer before playing meaningful snaps.

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I think my role could be partially replaced with AI

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This is similar to me. I’m a business analyst for a country wide company. Due to different laws by state our hierarchy is organized by states.

When I started I had 1 state. The norm was either 1 BI person per state or nobody (and somebody attempted to do the job plus their own). Then a couple years ago I got one of those empty states added. Now the norm is 2 states per BI person. Some bigger states still have 1, some people have more than 2 if the states are smaller.

Everybody always talks about how necessary my job is. There’s too much gray area for AI or a non expert to be adequate. What most don’t see is how much easier many of my responsibilities have become. I use AI to write complicated formulas (literally tell AI what I want and copy/paste). The company tools that we use are much better and more efficient than they used to be.

For the foreseeable future someone needs to be in place to do my job. But each year we see more combined roles. I’ve told others the more the company dictates more similarities between how states are run the easier it is to cut/combine positions.

Good to know. Thanks!

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Too bad Tom Hardy got fired from "Mobland."

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Not so fast my friend. Apparently things have calmed down a bit and all sides are talking about Hardy remaining on the show. Who knows what will happen but it’s not over yet.

I would think it’s pretty clear that no matter how much of a jackass Hardy may have been (based on rumors of showing up late and being hard to work with), there is no successful show without him.

Games that are fun and only 15-20 hours are great for replays for me. Replays usually go faster so they work out as good “breaks” between bigger games. Something I can get through in a few days.

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There’s always a risk with any type of procedure but it’s very difficult to find a perfect match

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This was our issue. MD Anderson rates a match based on 8 proteins/genes (very simplified way to describe it and again not accurate but gets the point across). She has twin brothers that are a 5/8 match…not good enough. A sibling has a 25% chance to match, a stranger I believe is 1 in 3000.

My wife’s issue is her dad was born in Spain and mother in Bolivia. That’s a very difficult makeup to find. Her current donor (and the ones that backed out) are a 7/8 match. Perfect is better but not an option. Without a transplant she would have likely died within two years due to a specific mutation in the cancer she has that less than 1% of MDS patients have (her cancer is a less than 1 in 100 chance of developing from her first chemo, and this mutation is less than 1 in 100 of the already rare cancer!). That’s big because Ochner wanted to wait two years for the transplant because they didn’t know about the mutation. That’s why you always get a second opinion and go to the Best if you can.

The transplant brings a lot of changes. Your blood type will change to the donor’s…my wife is already the same so no change there. That happens gradually over 12 months after. All of your immunizations you ever had are wiped out and need to be redone. She will also show some sort of male DNA in blood work after this…I’ve been assured I’m not considered gay when have sex again :lol:

Finding a match comes down to a lot of luck and genetics. White people have the best chance because there are more white donors. Black is the hardest because there are less black donors. I don’t think it’s necessarily a white person needs a white donor, but it’s definitely more likely to find a good match within the race. I think a lot of donors come from Germany because they actively encourage their military to sign up, but I may be off on that.

Major upvote. I’m at MD Anderson with my wife right now for a stem cell transplant. She has MDS, a blood cancer that was caused by her treatment for breast cancer a few years ago…happens in less than 1% of people that had her regiment.

She’s currently on Day 9 since the stem cell infusion. It’s complete hell. They basically destroy your current marrow (that’s a very simple and incomplete way to describe it but gets the point across) and you wait for your marrow to start producing again. Takes two to three weeks on average. During that time you can’t fight any infection or heal your injuries…and there are a lot that come with it. She has throat sores from the chemo and can no longer swallow without extreme pain. Nothing to do except wait for engraftment and take heavy pain meds that do nothing but help you sleep.

Hardest thing by far I’ve ever seen and we’re probably not at rock bottom yet. And 50% of MDS transplant patients relapse and die within two years (we’re hopeful her odds are a little better since she’s only 49 and this is more commonly an elderly issue).

So my heart goes out to this girl. The best case scenario is an incredibly difficult path and she’ll need support and prayers. Being a donor is typically an easy process. A week before you donate, they give you shots to boost your production of stem cells. It does cause some bone and joint pain as the marrow ramps up. The cells are extracted through IV in I believe 90%+ of the time. Overall a small cost to save a life.

Thought the first episode was okay at best. But I really liked the second episode and hope it continues like this.

The hardest thing in shows like this is figuring out the tone early on. Is it a drama with some comedy, slapstick, dark comedy, fantasy, ect.? This show is a little more absurd and not grounded in normal reality. Once I get that it makes shows like this easier for me to get into.