Starbucks Follows the McDonalds Plan

Starbucks (SBUX - commentary - Cramer's Take) is a year away from a turn. The current turmoil is the natural progression of a huge reformation of the company. You simply are not going to get a lot of whole eggs after Howard Schultz's omelet-making.

This story is not a tale of woe. It is a tale of over-expansion and management that had too much on its plate. It is a tale of bad Starbucks locations and a lack of attention to detail.

It is the detail that McDonald's (MCD - commentary - Cramer's Take) showed years ago, before it's revamping. At that time, the stock visited the teens and no one believed that it could pull itself out of the hole of dirty stores, a stale menu and a lack of growth.

In fact the headlines are so similar it is amazing that people don't remember the timeline that it took for MCD to turn: 18 months. The stock did not anticipate the turn, it did not discount it ahead of time, so you had ample opportunity to get it, but most didn't take it.

The MCD strategy, which was powerful enough to last through the deaths of not one, but two fantastic CEOs, was back-to-the-basics: a slowdown in domestic expansion, and increased exposure to underpenetrated areas overseas.

Like Starbucks, MCD was making money the whole time. Unlike SBUX, the stores themselves had become un-inhabitable and the service stunk. All of that changed and it seemed like a miracle.

I think we will get that to happen again. It will require a lot of patience and a lot of blood spilled and many bad headlines, but it will happen. You have to be aware that it will happen by plowing through each quarter to see if we are closer.

Right now, the end of the denials is upon us. The company's closing stores, getting its act together domestically, while rolling out new stores in under-penetrated regions. That was page one of the MCD book, too.

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