Something I'm podering...

So, I'm watching The King of Queens and the side story of Aurthur has him trying to become Customer of the Month of a 'Starbucks-like' coffee house. Then I see a few of the new commercials for McDonald's pushing their new cold coffee's and custom cup coffee, and something hit me:

I think McDonald's is taking on Starbucks. Not just a 'lets do what they do' type fashion, but I believe McDonald's is aspiring to be a serious competitor.

I see it like this: Both McDonald's and Starbucks are by far the leaders in their respective markets. Their closest leaders, Burger King and Tully's, are so far behind, the two company's have no one to complete with but themselves. I think McDonald's has realized this, and decided to make a bold move to take on Starbucks.

Here's what McDonald's has done thus far:
- They've re-modeled nearly every corporate owned restaurant and many of the franchises. These re-models have given McDonald's a more elegent, comfertable, 'Starbucks-like' feel that makes you want to stay. Isn't the point of a fast food restaurant turn-over? Why make attempts to keep people in their seats? Jack-in-the-Box has the right idea, their new stores have seats harder then rocks! The new re-models have re-vamped the image from a fun-loving kids magnet full of bright yellow and red colors into a quite, comfortable location for adults full of dark, relaxing, and warm browns and private walls separating tables.
- The new coffee offerings. First, they started with the new coffee options, where they add the sugar and cream for you, they way you want it.
- The attempt at creating a buzz about the new iced coffee. You all probably saw the billboards that read: Cold Is Coming. How many knew that was a McDonald's ad? Now their pushing it hard via commercials. These new coffees are available with different flavors. They are slowing inching their way into the Starbucks market.

The only other thing I can think of that McDonald's may be trying to do is, Starbucks, I believe, owns Seattle's Best Coffee, the coffee McDonald's brews. So could is also be possible that Starbucks is trying to penetrate the fast food industry? Or mabey trying to create a their own competition?

Just something I started thinking about! Kinda dumb, but interesting!