McDonald’s new café chain could be a disaster for coffee shop workers like me

Whilst it’s easy to imagine a dystopian society of McDonald’s and conglomerates like it dwarfing every dining option, impulse, and human need, I fear the real consequences of this venture will be at a much more everyday level

I’ve always thought that national service should be replaced with a stint of working in retail or hospitality. Rather than arming teenagers with military discipline, we would instead end up with a workforce equipped with a far more formidable CV: experience in dealing with the nonsense of the general public.

Like many other hospitality veterans, I earned my customer-service stripes in a selection of independent cafes and restaurants. Never swayed by the staff benefits that a chain cafe could have offered me, I always preferred the small, intimate nature of working for an independent, and the flexibility, authenticity, and human factor that is unique to smaller brands.

It’s these same values that have long driven people to support independent cafes like the ones I worked in during my teenage years. But over the last few months, customers are finding it harder to justify this charm and authenticity over something that is more consistent, convenient, and more often than not, cheaper. Something that chain cafes are simply better equipped to offer.

But the latest blow between independents and chains comes with news that hospitality giants – no, founding fathers – McDonald’s are opening their new chain of cafes: CosMc’s.

This retro-style eatery will offer an expanded range of drinks and beverages to rival the likes of Starbucks, with a slimmed-down version of popular McDonald’s menu items. It’s said that this new venture has been created in order to “solve the 3pm slump” seen across locations in between the lunch and dinner rush. McDonald’s president and CEO announced this with the assurance that this mid-afternoon echelon of the industry was one that they “have a right to win”.

But do they really?

Given that the golden arches are already synonymous with the hospitality trifecta of breakfast, lunch and dinner (with the added accolade of post-night-out pit stops), this “3pm slump” remains one of the only portions of the day that haven’t already been officially absorbed into the McDonald’s empire. Perhaps McDonald’s will soon be filling IV bags, becoming a 24-hour solution to our every dining need.

But whilst it’s easy to imagine a dystopian society of McDonald’s and conglomerates like it dwarfing every dining option, impulse, and human need, I fear the real consequences of this venture will be at a much more human and everyday level.

The decision to open a small, independent business is something that’s conducted with the utmost care, often with extensive research into target demographics, market trends and other industry variables. The expansions of already successful independent businesses are done with yet more precision and care, executed by business owners who dread falling victim to their own greed, but who also don’t want to rest on their laurels and accidentally snooze their way into foreclosure.

The idea that a business the size of McDonald’s can throw all the resources in the world at a new venture in the name of boosting trade for two hours a day is corporate greed at its most frightening.

They know that independents cannot, and will not, compete.

Things are already tight for independent cafes. The pressure that cafe owners I’ve worked with are under to make enough money to meet costs, let alone pay themselves, is overwhelming.

When something goes wrong in a chain restaurant, the wrath of the customer can still be vicious and brimming with entitlement. But I’ve always thought that being able to blame mistakes, mishaps, stock and staffing issues on the “management” of a chain cafe was the hospitality version of blaming a poorly filled Christmas stocking on “Father Christmas”.

Unlike being able to refer to “management” as some ethereal, non-corporeal overlord, for independents, “management” is stood right over there in a batter-stained apron, arguing on the phone to his wife about not being able to get the kids from school while he tries to salvage a pensioner’s jacket potato.

The things that go both right and wrong all land squarely back with the people right there in that cafe. The stakes are higher for independents. They always have been.

The decision to open these CosMc’s feels like it was made on nothing more than a whim. If CosMc’s fails, which it may well do, there will be no single individual’s life savings drained, dreams dashed and local economy damaged. But if it succeeds, I know countless business owners, employees and families that will suffer as a result.