McDonald's Menu Issue

(1/27/2014) When I walked with my friend on the street in a night market in Taipei, there are plenty of food vendors. My friend commented: "If a restaurant serves good foods, it only needs to be good in a few items. When a food vendor tries to sell everything, it means it is no good in any." This is very true especially for Taiwanese, which eating is very important in its culture.
       When we look at McDonald's recent performance, we see the exact problem: McDonald offers too many options to its customers. Extensive menu can be destructive for fast food restaurant, in which the service speed is critical for its fast-speed customers. The more options customers have, the longer time it takes to make a decision, then the more slowly it can finish an order. A minor increase in the service time can trigger significant performance downgrade in customer's perception if you analyze the queuing problem. So it is not surprising to see McDonald's lackluster performance in recent quarters.

McDonald's recent dollar menu.

The famous "阿桐阿寶四神湯" in Taipei. It's famous of its soup, fishballs, Siu-mai, ... It has 6 items on its menu.