Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 11


     
     1        A.  They wanted to remove an annoyance as much as anything.
     2
     3   Q.   If we turn to page 15 of this document.  It is a letters
     4        page, which apparently have been sent in by members of the
     5        public praising your company, and the one from Telford, the
     6        final paragraph, says:
     7
     8        "Thank you once again for I find all your staff are very
     9        cheerful and helpful.  I usually drive through the
    10        Drive-thru five nights a week.  Keep up the good work."
    11
    12        Would that be an unusual comment to see from a customer?
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which part of it?
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:   All of it?
    17        A.  Well, I cannot say as I have seen many letters in my
    18        life saying, "I am a diabetic and ...."
    19
    20   Q.   I am talking about the paragraph that I read out?
    21        A.  "Thank you for your cheerful and helpful staff".  Is it
    22        unusual?
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is why I ask which part, because one can
    25        fix on the "very cheerful and helpful" or one can fix on
    26        driving the Drive-thru five nights a week", or one can fix
    27        on how many people use it five nights a week "find everyone
    28        cheerful and helpful", ie both of them together.  That is
    29        why I ask.  I wonder whether you were getting at "cheerful
    30        and helpful" or a habitual user.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:   It is just a general question, but obviously the
    33        only point I am interested in is the five nights a week.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    36        A.  We get letters of this sort occasionally, but I would
    37        have said they are certainly not typical; they come in.
    38        You feed a million and a half people a day.  If you get one
    39        of these about how often I come in, it is not very often
    40        really.
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:  Right.  But you feed a million and a half people a
    43        day and some of those, like yourself, I think you said that
    44        you ate at McDonald's four or five times a week, but do you
    45        consider yourself particularly unusual?  I mean, obviously,
    46        you are the President?
    47        A.  Yes, I think I am.
    48
    49   Q.   You think you have unusual dietary tastes?
    50        A.  No.  I think I am probably an unusually heavy user of 
    51        McDonald's in the  United Kingdom based on all the 
    52        statistics I know.  My marketing people have researched the 
    53        talks about the frequency of the average usage in Britain
    54        and it is one every 18 days.  Whether they come in for a
    55        Big Mac or a coffee or a fish sandwich I cannot tell you,
    56        but the most typical user of McDonald's frequents us one
    57        time every 18 days.
    58
    59   Q.   But it is not incredibly unusual for people to come in four
    60        or five times a week?

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