Beach Stands Are Not Golden Without McDonald’s Arches

McDonald’s has opened five hamburger stands on the beach in Santa Monica, but you won’t find them by looking for the company’s famous golden arches.

In response to community concerns about protecting the scenic beach from commercialization, McDonald’s has agreed to keep a low profile, with only a brown lettered sign on the front and American flags flying overhead to identify the location of each stand.

But, unfortunately for the company, the stands seem to be so unobtrusive that some potential customers have not found them.

The absence of McDonald’s trademark golden arches was a definite factor in low first-year sales last summer, said Reginald Webb, the company’s regional vice president. Although it respects the community’s wishes to keep the beach beautiful, he said, “a little more signing in any kind of way would help.”

In its winning bid to run five of Santa Monica’s beach concessions, McDonald’s predicted first-year sales of $3.5 million, city officials said. But, because of construction delays, they said, the stands opened late and sales totaled only $295,235 last year.

$200,000 Annual Fee

Revenues were barely sufficient to cover the $200,000 minimum annual fee McDonald’s agreed to pay the city to operate the concessions.

The main reason sales were so low is that the stands were not open for the full season, Webb said. McDonald’s found that, instead of remodeling existing facilities for about $500,000 as planned, structures had to be built nearly from scratch at a cost of more than $1 million.

Besides, Webb said, the city ordered construction stopped after it was half finished because of community objections to the height of beachfront development that inadvertently violated a municipal ordinance. That problem was corrected, he said, but McDonald’s lost much of the summer business because of the delays.

One stand did not open until Sept. 29 and one never opened, said Donald Arnett, city director of recreation and parks. The others opened last year on June 30, July 16 and Aug. 22, he said.

Brought Lunches Instead

Webb said that, because there were no golden arches, many beach-goers did not know McDonald’s was there, so they brought lunches instead.

Because its distinctive signs cannot be used on the beach, Webb said, McDonald’s has initiated other marketing strategies. The company is advertising the locations of the beach stands--two are south of the Santa Monica Pier near Ocean Park Boulevard and three are north of the pier--on tray liners and bag stuffers at 70 McDonald’s restaurants in Southern California.

To attract beach customers, McDonald’s has added to its usual offerings suntan lotion and hot-weather treats such as ice cream bars and snow cones.

Hope to Fly Flag

He said company officials hope eventually to gain community acceptance to fly the McDonald’s flag along with the American flag to help beach-goers spot the stands.

Webb said that business picked up dramatically last week when Los Angeles temperatures hit record highs and residents headed for the beach.

This summer will be the test for the project, which is the first time McDonald’s has entered into a cooperative agreement with a city to run beach concessions, he said.

“This is very much a pioneering kind of thing,” he said.