There’s an old saying that the cobbler should stick to his last. The thought being that – a last is the metal workbench that you shape a shoe upon – experts in something should continue to be what they’re expert in. Not try to go off and do what they’re not very good – or at all good – at. So here with McDonald’s. Sure, there’s a growing appetite for fancy burgers with different toppings and additions. And other people are rather better at it than McDonald’s is. So, what should Maccy D’s do?

One answer is to try and make fancier burgers. The other is to not do so. McDonald’s has tried one path and is not going to the other. No shame in that, try, fail, do summat else:

Well, it’s not a huge and great surprise that those who like McDonald’s like McDonald’s. The answers from those who are already customers are likely to be different from those who are not but might become.

All of that is because of Five Guys and the others. More expensive burgers, with better ingredients, a much wider range of toppings and so on. OK, try it out, see what works.

Well, yes, altho’ there’s another way to read this:

Sure and Five Guys does well with those different, luxury (the trade word is “craft”) burgers. But did McDonald’s? Apparently not. So, ditching them saves in costs. That they are being ditched almost certainly means that the costs of those Signature burgers were higher than the revenue gained – ie, they lost money.

There’s merit in that cobbler idea. If you’re really good at something – low to mid-market burgers – then why not continue to be just that, good at low to mid-market burgers? Why try to be and do something that you’ve no great talent at? Nor, obviously enough, at something your customer base doesn’t seem to want very much?