Terrestrial versus Lunar Franchise
McDonald’s is launching the first lunar franchise. At first sight it looks like a joke. Whom to serve on the Moon? How to deliver the food ingredients? Who will work there?… These and many other questions appeared in my mind immediately after I’ve read that information.
Certainly, they can’t consider this as a profitable project. As I understand they can’t even think about getting their investment back within the next dozens of years. But as I understand they are thinking about indirect benefits.
The first unquestioning benefit is promotion and advertising. That idea is enough interesting and strange for many journalists to write about it. People will discuss it too… At the same time the idea gives rise to positive emotions. Just listen to your emotional reaction when reading the following:
“The famous astronaut is lending the Moon and he has only 2 hours to meet his sweetheart. They meet at the McMoon. The stars are surrounding them. They can see the Earth through the window…A robot in a traditional uniform is serving them… ”
OR
“A small space ship flies up to the McMoon using the special corridor. Two strange aliens are ordering 4 BigMacs and 2 Colas. It’s a “McMoon drive”…”
Is it funny? Yes! Fantastic? Sure! But I bet that you’ve smiled while reading this. That’s what I meant while speaking about positive emotions. And what will you say about Ronald McDonald in the rocket?…
The second benefit for the company concerns costs. According to the official information, because of the high cost of providing living space and life support technologies, all food preparation, serving, cashier duties and maintenance will be performed by a crew of specially designed robots. And if everything works OK they will start using the same technology in some terrestrial restaurants! As a result this can help saving thousands in annual labor costs (certainly if trade unions will not lobby a law to forbid it).
I hope I managed to prove that this idea is not so strange and stupid as it seems from the first sight.