McDonalds Saves the Day?

These days, the real difficulty after waking up in the morning is not surviving the commute, but attempting to find an uplifting news article. Sure, there are the typical ‘cats dress up in costume’ or ‘dog saves local woman’ stories that everyone loves. However, if you have pulled into a McDonald’s drive thru or looked at their stock recently, you might not find such a bleek, depressing story.

The Chicago Tribune calls the road trip stitch ‘recession-resistant,’ proving that it is one of the only companies doing well in these difficult economic times. After it’s stock fell last year, McDonalds reported an income tax benefit and sales rose 5 percent the United States.

However, their success reaches beyond just sales and stocks. The golden arches can be found in nearly any place you can visit, making them “the best-run major international company in the world,” according to Jim Cramer, a well-known market analyst. While double cheeseburgers certainly do not compare to Italian food actually eaten in Italy, the basis of their appeal has yet to change.

Also, Forbes mentions that the real key to their success is empathy. They understand the current situation of the world, especially the United States, and are doing their best to keep their company’s practices simple and their french fries delicious.

In a place where merely bringing up the name “McDonalds” normally gets a dirty look and a scoff at best, some fashion designers showing collections this coming week at New York Fashion Week are singing a different tune. The company’s success has fueled them to aid beyond their own company and help financially back new designers attempting to make it big. Of the 200 designers showing at Bryant Park, roughly half of them are new on the scene, causing them to run into problem when people do not want to shell out the big bucks for clothes made by people of which they have not heard.

For example, one of these new designers named Duckie Brown gained McDonald’s financial support by promoting their new McCafe coffee products backstage during the show. They also have program during some of the shows where they will publish some of the designers ‘McStories.’ At this point, these 100 plus designers have no problem promoting any kind of product to get their lines off the ground…

…maybe just not feeding McDonalds to their models. That would be the real travesty.