Day 161 - 24 Jul 95 - Page 22
1 not concern yourself about it. That is not your
2 responsibility, anyway.
3
4 MISS STEEL: Right.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Open court again, please. Thank you
7 for letting me know.
8
9 (The proceedings continued in open court)
10
11 MISS STEEL: Did you ask to take on that particular store, or
12 was that selected for you?
13 A. It is a choice.
14
15 Q. It was your choice?
16 A. Yes.
17
18 Q. Were you allowed to choose from all the stores in the
19 country, or was there a selected number that you could
20 choose from which the Company was interested in franchisees
21 taking over?
22 A. The store close to where I live. There was a choice of
23 three to four restaurants.
24
25 Q. So you could not have chosen any restaurant; there was a
26 list that the Company provided of stores that they were
27 interested in being taken over by franchisees?
28 A. There was not given to me a list. There was in the
29 area, I picked that restaurant, and my second choice would
30 have been another restaurant if that was refused.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I just understand the situation? You
33 were, presumably, one of a number of people who were
34 interested in becoming franchisees, and McDonald's had
35 reached the stage where they were prepared to consider you
36 as a franchisee?
37 A. Yes, my Lord.
38
39 Q. Was it then left to you to say: "If I become a franchisee,
40 I would be interested in such and such a store", or did
41 they give you a list of stores which they were prepared to
42 contemplate going franchised?
43 A. I mentioned names on my interview for franchising.
44 I mentioned the stores then where I am interested.
45
46 Q. I see.
47 A. So from there, and I was given this restaurant.
48
49 MISS STEEL: Going back to the Strand store, you said that that
50 was a particularly busy store, the busiest store in the
51 world. Was it just in 1987 that it was the busiest store
52 in the world?
53 A. The two years I have been there, 1987 and 1988 only.
54
55 Q. But had it been the busiest store in the world before you
56 arrived?
57 A. No, it was not.
58
59 Q. It had not?
60 A. No.
