With the release of films such as Supersize Me the golden arches has taken a public relations hammering in the past year, but this has not deterred local McDonald’s owner Tom Horler from embarking on what should be another marketing boom for his store.
Last year Horler had a huge hit with the Whistler community when he offered 10 cent hamburgers for the first 10 days of November, to celebrate his store’s 10 th anniversary and help out new seasonal workers who had arrived in the valley but had yet to start work.
Horler, and his feverish staff, sold more than 17,000 burgers in 10 days, which is extraordinary considering only 10,000 people live in Whistler.
This success has spurred Horler to repeat the sale, with a slight twist.
"I’m not a very creative person," admitted Horler.
"But it’s our 11th anniversary so we’re going to sell 11-cent hamburgers for the first 11 days of November."
"This is basically in response to the great success it had for us, our staff and our customers in general last year."
Horler, who is a former Director of McDonald’s Marketing — Asia Pacific, does this burger drive because it’s at a time when many seasonal workers are running out of money quickly and a lot of people are between jobs.
The result is that there are usually hundreds of people in Whistler looking for cheap ways to live and Horler’s hamburger deals are a great way to fill the fridge.
Last year hungry, mostly young, seasonal workers flooded Horler’s restaurant, ate enormous amounts of food and many even took the burgers they didn’t eat home to freeze and eat the next day.
The burger drive also does great things for Horler’s staff because they’re working 40 hours a week, which is usually about 20 hours more than a lot of other people in Whistler have in shift work during November.
Horler confirmed that: "We’ll be able to give more hours to current employees and bring some people down from our Pemberton location because it slows down up there at this time of year."
"We expect the customers to be lined up out the door as the same significant economic impact factors will be prevalent again this year.
"A lot of people will be coming to town with no money and will be looking for alternate means to feed themselves besides Kraft Dinner."
Horler speculated that if his store does sell more than 20,000 burgers it would "have to be some kind of world record."
But the Communications Manager for McDonald’s B.C., Chris Stannell, said McDonald’s did not keep "those kinds of records."
"McDonald’s doesn’t keep official records on those kinds of details but certainly if they can do it, it would be tremendous and I’m sure it would generate a lot of excitement."
