The squeaky wheel gets the grease? Don’t tell that to Erin Carr-Jordan. The Arizona mother of four made some noise about the filthy conditions at McDonald’s play areas and quickly found herself barred from the chain’s franchises in Phoenix.
No more deep fat for you, Carr-Jordan!
It all started last May. Carr-Jordan was in the car with her kids and her 3-year-old needed to squeeze the lemon. So she swung into McDonald’s and, after his bathroom break, she took the lad for a romp around the PlayPlace. She was horrified by what she saw. Grime, caked food, a week-old band-aid. (Good thing she didn’t wander into the kitchen.)
Carr-Jordan complained to the manager but to no avail. She approached other parents and warned them to sanitize their hands before eating. (Yeah, she’s one of those moms.) She made a video and put it up on YouTube. She took a swab and sent it to a lab and discovered “incredibly high levels of bacteria,” including bacteria found in fecal material. (Altogether now: Ewwwww!!!)
Since then the 36-year-old college psychology instructor has started a nonprofit and launched a nationwide crusade to clean up the climbing structures at fast-food places. She says the pathogens she found at her local McDonald’s, including potentially lethal antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacteria, are even more hazardous to kids’ health than the menu items.
Recently, Carr-Jordan went on Anderson Cooper’s CBS show to bellyache about the germ-ridden children’s areas where tots burn off a few of the calories they’ve just inhaled. Soon after her appearance, she got a letter from a lawyer of the franchisee who owns the McDonald’s that set her off, as well as seven others. It ordered her to stay away from all eight and threatened her with criminal trespassing charges if she did not.
Carr-Jordan has vowed to continue her fight. (Somebody get Mayor McCheese on the phone.)
Paint by numbers. Brian Scudamore has built an empire of junk. His company, 1-800-Got-Junk, is now the world’s largest junk removal company with 200 franchises globally and $100 million in sales.
Now he wants to do the same thing for the residential painting industry. His new company, 1-888-Wow-1Day Painting, promises to paint homes or businesses in a single day. Scudamore says his business has already grown to six franchises in a few short months – and has plans to reach 50 by the end of next year.
“We’ve revolutionized and brought service and a national brand to the junk removal industry — now it’s time to do the same with the much larger painting industry. It’s our next $100-plus million opportunity,” he says.
Given Scudamore track record with Got Junk, if anyone can launch a successful new franchise in this economy, it’s probably him.
Frequent-fryer rewards. Ever go to a fast-food place and walk out thinking, I could build a better burger than that. Well, if you live in New York, you can prove it — and win free food if other people like your creation.
A Manhattan quick service restaurant called 4food lets customers invent their own hamburgers. You tell 4food how to make it and give it a name. They store the information in their database and you hype your burger on all your social-media platforms. Then, whenever someone else orders it, 4food credits your account.
So far, customers have contributed over 20,000 burger recipes to the vast 4food menu. A thousand have been ordered by other customers. A handful of burger brains have sales upward of 1,000.
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