Fast-food giant McDonald's has been doing its part to support healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic by offering free meals, but the promotion was slated to come to an end on Tuesday. Thanks to the timing of National Nurses Day today, the Golden Arches decided to continue its promotion for at least one more day.
"This Thank You Meal Program we launched was really born from our franchisees and our local communities," said David Tovar, vice president of communications for McDonald's. "We said, 'Why don't we make this a national program? Really try to blow it out, make it huge.'"
This led to a two-week period where the restaurant chain supplied 10 million free meals to help support frontline workers, a value of $50 million, according to Tovar, who also added that the idea to keep the program going came during an online meeting last week.
"We were talking about the program and how it would be coming to an end on Tuesday, and, same thing, some franchisee said 'Well, Wednesday is National Nurses Day, why don't we just extend it by a day?'" he recounted. "So, literally on the spot, our president of U.S. business said, 'Let's do it.'"
Franchisees were then given the option to continue the program and Tovar said that many of them chose to do so. He also said many of them will continue to provide free meals in the days ahead.
McDonald's restaurants were among the fast-food chains to largely remain open for delivery and pickup during the pandemic nationwide, with 99 percent of them keeping some form of operation going. Tovar explained that of the U.S. operations, about 95 percent of restaurants are run by franchisees, who will largely determine how to reopen their dine-in areas using a baseline set by the corporation.
"We're going to set a broad national standard and framework that we want. These are the minimum standards that we think that all restaurants should adhere to, and it's based on things customers and employees are going to expect as they're coming back out of some of the ordinances that are being lifted," he said. Beyond the corporate requirements, franchisees will be given "local discretion" to fully reopen.
Tovar also addressed another challenge facing hamburger chains amid the pandemic: meat shortages. While competitor Wendy's has revealed some supply disruption as meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses deal with COVID-19 outbreaks, it appears that McDonald's is so far weathering the issue.
"Thankfully we haven't had any breaks in our supply chain so far, but we're monitoring it every single day and we're making adjustments as needed to make sure that we can continue to have enough beef supply for our customers," he said.
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
U.S. sports betting is booming as NFL and college football fuel massive activity. BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt breaks down trends, growth, and what’s next.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
Disney's changes to a program for disabled visitors are facing challenges in federal court and through a shareholder proposal. The Disability Access Service program, which allows disabled visitors to skip long lines, was overhauled last year. Disney now mostly limits the program to those with developmental disabilities like autism who have difficulty waiting in lines. The changes have sparked criticism from some disability advocates. A shareholder proposal submitted by disability advocates calls for an independent review of Disney's disability policies. Disney plans to block this proposal, claiming it's misleading. It's the latest struggle by Disney to accommodate disabled visitors while stopping past abuses by some theme park guests.
