Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 24


     
     1        country, is it not?
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:   22 million.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:   The latest figures from Mr. Fairgrieve showed
     6        that -- it is only a market research extrapolation so it
     7        has to be treated with some caution -- but that
     8        extrapolation suggests that the McDonald's customer base in
     9        the course of the year, that is to say people who have been
    10        once or more often in the course of the year is 22 and a
    11        half million, 22,511,000 to be precise.  That was in 1995.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, 1 percent is 225,000, if that is right.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:   Between 2 and 4 percent.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So 2 percent would be about 450,000 and 4
    18        percent is about 900,000.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:   I cannot get my head round this at the moment.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have made my own little note to that
    23        effect.  If you think it is wrong, you can put me right.
    24        But it is all on the basis of that 38 percent and 22 and a
    25        half million figure.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   Yes.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:   The most important point is McDonald's gives the
    30        impression that, all right, if it is just 22 million people
    31        are there -----
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Ms. Steel has made the point in relation to
    34        the States and I assume she is now making the same one.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:   The same applies to the UK.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   The inconsistency between banging on about
    39        balance and targeting the people who are eating there quite
    40        a lot already.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, that the company is actually completely
    43        dependent on loyal clientele, a small percentage of
    44        population make, in the USA, 77 percent of all the visits,
    45        so the typical McDonald's visitor is in fact someone who is
    46        eating there regularly.  And that is the point.  Not only
    47        are they dependent on those customers, but they actually
    48        target those customers to increase that regularity of
    49        visits.
    50
    51   MS. STEEL:   On top of the evidence from the company, we would
    52        say -- well, there is also the evidence referred to by Dr.
    53        Tim Lobstein and Fiona Winters, who was accepted under
    54        Civil Evidence Act by the Plaintiffs, her surveys, or the
    55        surveys that she carried out.  The one in 1987 had found
    56        that 31 percent of people questioned at fast food stores in
    57        Peckham ate fast food every day.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What was the proportion again?
    60

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