Summary
➡ The U.S. economy reported the addition of 199,000 jobs in November, lowering the unemployment rate to 3.7%. However, the actual status of underemployment and the nature of these jobs require more in-depth analysis.
➡ McDonald’s has launched their first concept restaurant, Cosmic, in a Chicago suburb. This drive-through-only fast food stop, based on an 80s McDonald’s character, is primarily beverage-led, offering a different set of menu items compared to traditional McDonald’s.
➡ McDonald’s opened its new restaurant in Bowling Brook, Illinois, where the company is headquartered and provides training for owner-managers. Innovative aspects like the drive-through from McDonald’s have been incorporated and lesser menu items requirement for preparing a variety of drinks, a beverage-heavy concept like Starbucks, makes it a cost-effective business. The new restaurant also plans on the highest margin items(drinks) as the major part of their menus and emphasizes minimizing in-person interaction by focusing on drive-through. The company is likely to franchise this successful concept soon, making it a promising investment opportunity, given its history of high returns.
Transcript
This is where he was found here. This is the 600 block of Northwest 47th Avenue. Implantation. And take a look at his newest mug shot. Officers say when they opened the door to the vehicle, they also smelled pot and they smelled alcohol. And when they got him to come out of the SUV, the arrest report says they also noticed a white powder coming from his mouth. Police say the substance tested positive for cocaine, and they add he had around 4.
1 gram of it in a baggie. Back out here live. Kodak, who is 26 years old and whose real name is Bill Capri, is, of course, facing several charges. One for possession of cocaine, another one for tampering with evidence, and also for violating a federal probation. You may remember he was arrested on July of last year for trafficking and possession of oxyconone. We do expect Kodak to be in court for his first appearance as early as this afternoon.
As soon as that happens, we’ll report back. We’re live. So Kodak was passed out in a Bentley truck on the side of the road with trees, alcohol smell, and cocaine in his car. According to the police reports and the news reports. You can have everything. You can have everything and lose it all, and it could be the worst thing for you. Most people that become super successful, especially in the entertainment industry, wind up regretting it, falling off, and their talent took them places that they character could not keep them.
So we have Kodak black because I actually like Kodak. I mean, I think that he talk crazy. I think that he’s hilarious. But I love when he be dancing on stage and stuff like that. And some of his songs is dope. I like some of his music. I actually like Kodak as a character person, entertainer. I’ve never met him. I’ve never talked to him, never got a DM from him or anything like that.
But, yo, y’all smoking y’all on cocaine, and you on probation, so it’s a strong possibility you gonna go back to jail. Habitual offender, coke, doing that hard stuff nowadays. Anyways, let’s move on. So also, 199,000 jobs was added this month. Let me bring you up to speed with that. We are back with some breaking economic data. This morning. The US economy added 199,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate came in at 3.
7%. Here to help us make sense of all these numbers, NBC’s business and data correspondent Brian Chong, and investopedia’s editor in chief Caleb Silver, our economic Dream team. Good morning to both of you. So, Brian, let’s start with you. Walk us through the numbers and how they compare with last month. Yeah, well, in short, the jobs market still continues to look good. As you mentioned, 199,000 jobs added in the month of November.
That’s above the pace that we had seen in October of 150,000 and above what economists had expected. They expected 190,000 jobs. Also, the unemployment rate ticked down from 3. 9% in the month to 3. 7%. This comes ahead of some concerns leading into the report that maybe I want one of these TVs, I actually want one of those TVs that you can draw on. I’ve been looking at them for some time now.
I’m just trying to figure out how I can implement it into what it is that I do here on the morning, this show. But I’m very much looking forward to getting one of these TVs and I’m going to implement it in this morning show next year. You watch, this number wouldn’t be that good. There was a report from Challenger that shows job cuts over the course of 2023 and 2022, where we did see an uptick in the amount of monthly job cuts.
But as you can see, still certainly not that bad compared to the job cuts we were seeing earlier in the year, specifically in the tech sector. But nonetheless, again, good to see that the unemployment rate is ticking down, especially this late, into the Federal Reserve making interest rates higher. All right, so here’s the key in the caveat, and the devil is always in the details. So don’t always go just buy off of the jobs report because they like to report it a certain way in order to try to make the administration look good.
Right. So the idea of it is to say or to use metrics, especially when they’re talking about unemployment. How many people file for unemployment, how many people fell off of unemployment, how many people then got a job? But it doesn’t represent full time work. It doesn’t break out exactly how much the people are making or what type of jobs. It does break it down by sector, but those come later.
Right. So what they’ll wind up doing later, like a week later after. So they’ll release the jobs report, and then they’ll revise it down a week later instead of waiting a week later. They’ll revise it down when the news dies down. And nobody is actually paying to the numbers anymore. But they only looking for the quick hits. Right. But that doesn’t report how many people are underemployed, meaning that they may even just be working part time in order to replace their full time until they find more full time work.
How many of the jobs are now not as lucrative or fruitful as the ones before it? It’s a lot of detail. So when you look at these jobs reports, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t add 199,000 jobs. Was it private sector? Was it government? Was it holiday season work? Are they going to revise it down after the new year? Once the holiday season dies down, how many of these people are going to be kept? You got to start paying attention to it longer term when you’re comparing it against the year before.
Right. But they saying that they added about 200,000 jobs throughout the year. And so I guess that’s a good thing. Right? And then last but not least, cosmics, right? Cosmics recently opened their first concept restaurant, which is a McDonald’s concept that is now extended over into cosmics. Over in A ChicaGo suburb. The first ever McDonald’s Cosmics restaurant has opened, and it’s right here in the Suburbs. The drive Through Only Concept has Seen Long Lines All Day.
As you can imagine, We Sent Our Elizabeth Matthews out of this Universe to see what It’s all about. Elizabeth. Don, I don’t know if you remember this, but Stefan and myself, My Photographer, we don’t remember. Cosmic was a McDonald’s character Back in the 1980s. There were very Long Lines. Today, Cosmic Is what this is Obviously based off of, as it’s called. There were very Long Lines Today. A lot of People really expecting Maybe to See some McDonald’s Food, but do Not expect to see cheeseburgers and Fries.
This ain’t your Mama’s. Mickey D’s. Hi there. Welcome to Cosmic. Thanks for the wait. And patience was a must Thursday in Bowling Brook. For how long? About 2 Hours, Maybe a Little over. Y’all waiting in Line for 2 hours? Y’all waiting in Line for 2 hours? Y’all ain’t got Nothing Better to do? We’ll get there. I’m Sorry. We’ll get there. No. All this attention and traffic for this Cosmics McDonald’s First Pilot Location for the Small format Beverage Led Fast Food Stop.
Why Bowling Brook? Because we’re amazing. After Sitting in a very Long Line, Patrons Pull up to order. What can I get started for you today? And with List in hand, Ratle off Their Orders. How Many things did you order? On Top of my Head, maybe like a good Ten things. Yeah, it was like about Almost $60 Altogether. No 20 Piece Chicken NUgs Here, Though. There are only a couple sandwiches, including a spicy queso sandwich, a few snacky items, but lots and lots and lots of drinks, like a churro frappe and a sour cherry.
Energy Burst. Having Driven through the Window Today, once you get There, you get Overwhelmed Because there’s so Many Options and so Many Additions. So you order, Pay at the Kiosk, and Sit There Until Your Order IS Ready to be Picked Up at the Drive through window. What is that, like a doughnut? Yeah, it’s like a doughnut with, like, filling. We caught two locals who couldn’t wait to get out of the parking lot after their two hour wait.
So good. Was it worth the wait? Got the creamy avocado tomatillo sandwich, and it’s so creamy. It’s so good. I love it. Excuse me for being embarrassed for my consumers and my Americans that wait in two hour lines for cosmics, but McDonald’s is incredibly smart. Let me look at this from a business perspective. Right? McDonald’s is incredibly smart. Well, first, the question that you would ask is, and let me answer the question more correctly, of why they actually opened up in Bowling Brook outside of Chicago.
Well, the reason that that is is because McDonald’s is in Illinois. Let me say that again. It is an Illinois company. That is where their headquarters is. That is where Hamburger University, where you go for training once you get to a certain level. How do I know? Because Rita used to be working at McDonald’s since she was in high school, since she was like 1415 years old, she was working at McDonald’s and she was on her way to being like a store owner, manager and all of that stuff.
But I said, we’re not going to do that. But, yeah, that is where they’re headquartered, and that’s where they send the owner managers and all of that other type of stuff for training. And so they’re headquartered over in Illinois. That’s one of the reasons why they opened it up, because it’s much easier for them to scale up and then test out their concepts closer to where their headquarters is now.
In addition to that, if you notice, the drive throughs are very much just like the McDonald’s drive thrus, which are innovative in itself. Right? I see a lot of other drive thrus actually trying to copy McDonald’s drive through similar. Similarly, I seen Taco Bell trying to do it. I see Burger King trying to revamp and do it because they have the two lines and then they’re able to manage it more effectively and get more people through quicker in which they tested it at McDonald’s.
And then they took all of the best of what they seen happening at McDonald’s and then they implemented it over at this new restaurant concept, which actually takes less menu items. And here’s the real benefit, and here’s the real business lesson in it, because I know a lot of us just like to look at the novelty of it, the newness of it cosmics the marketing and all of that other type of stuff.
What’s really great about this is that if anybody has ever actually been into the restaurant industry, which obviously I have, and I’m still a participant in, you know that the highest margin items in a restaurant are the drinks. The highest margin items in a restaurant are the drinks. And it is a drink heavy menu largely modeled after a lot of what you see happening and learned from as far as the McDonald’s concepts combined with like a Starbucks type of concept.
And they have very few menu items in which you can mix and match, and it takes few ingredients in order for them to make a bunch of different drinks, which is a phenomenal business concept. And if anybody is looking to get into franchising, which I’m not sure that they’re going to be franchising yet, but I’m sure that they will soon. Anybody looking to get into franchising, I think that this is a really good concept.
I haven’t dug deep into it. I’ve just been looking at the news and following McDonald’s as a investment company because I think it’s an incredible company to invest in. If you are going to invest in a restaurant or fast food concept from a stock perspective, I recommend McDonald’s. They have largely always gave great returns and they have phenomenal company that is greatly managed, tight lipped, and they control a lot of what their franchisees do by owning a real estate and then leasing it back to the franchisee in order to control what it is that you’re selling and how you’re doing it.
Right. So I think that McDonald’s is an incredible, incredible investment opportunity. I like the new concept. I like that they took the best of McDonald’s combined. It with the highest margin items and then made it drive through only to where they don’t even have to deal with anybody coming inside of the concept of the restaurant. It is a phenomenal and incredible concept. So I’m going to look at it from a business perspective where everybody else is waiting in line so they could taste the avocado stuff or whatever.
I think that it’s a great concept, so shout out to McDonald’s. .
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