McDonald's, which has remodeled a dozen Manhattan locations over the past year-and-a-half, is planning on opening a dozen locations in Manhattan over the next half-decade.
Currently there are 73 Manhattan locations. And while the quick-serve restaurant category isn't expecting any real growth spurts, McDonald's is looking to take advantage of the decline in retail rents and landlords are looking for safe tenants, so it works out for both groups.
We'll be conducting our 2012 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index in January, but currently Quick-Serve Restaurants rank as follows:
- McDonald's
- Subway
- Burger King
- KFC
- Wendy's
- Quiznos
- Hardee's
- Jack In the Box
- Taco Bell
Those are the national rankings, but anyone who's visited a Manhattan McDonald's can't have overlooked the lines of locals and tourists, which thus count the brand among the company's most profitable.
It's been reported that the new New York store designs are modeled after locations in Paris and London, although to be fair it was Julia Child who noted, "It is the Americans who have managed to crown minced beef as hamburger, and send it round the world so that even the fussy French have taken to le boeuf hache." So Vivre le hambougaire!
Or, as we say in New York, "Yo, McD!"