I would like to find a world-wide definitive list of McDonald’s
restaurants.  The McDonalds website notes that they are now in 121
countries, but they only list specific location information for those
"countries that have chosen to submit information about McDonald's in
their countries."  That means mcdonalds.com is the wrong answer for
the question, and do not answer unless you have the complete list with
street addresses in all 121 countries.  A definitive list for all fast
food chains around the world gets extra rating points.

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Request for Question Clarification by seedy-ga on 07 Oct 2002 05:10 PDT

markbym:

Let's see if I have this correct. You are looking for someone to list
30,000 locations with addresses for $10. Is that correct??

seedy

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Clarification of Question by markbyrn-ga on 07 Oct 2002 13:40 PDT

Well if you want to provide all that information for $10.00, you're
more than welcome!  But what I'd really like to find is a library /
business / online database that include this information.  So the
$10.00 is just the reward for finding the database if one exists.  I'm
willing to pay the database fee, but the database has to be publicly
accessible.

I think 'probably' there isn't one, and if there is it will most
likely be in a database with search via certain parameters such as
town, country, zip code etc. The list could be compiled 'maybe' by
visiting each country's mcdonald's site and searching each database..
e.g. there is one for the UK http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/locator/
regards
lot-ga

No, only a handful of countries have their own McDonald's website and
so a complete list cannot be compiled from those sources.  If there is
a complete world-wide list, perhaps it would be in part of larger
business database of some kind.  That's why I'm posting the question
here for the experts - the easy, obvious answer isn't right.

A complete list may very well be available - but it won't be free or
inexpensive, and it won't be in a publicly accessibe database.

The sort of list you seek might be available from restaurant industry
analysts who keep a special eye on McDonald's.  Expect to pay anywhere
from three to five thousand dollars for the information, minimun,
perhaps more if the directory of nearly 30,000 restaurants is part of
a larger report.

--Missy

You could try asking McDonalds for franchising information. Businesses
that franchise are required to provide a document called a "UFOC" or
Uniform Franchise Offering Circular, which along with other
information should contain a list of all the present franchises, along
with franchises that have closed in the past year. You should be able
to call McDonalds and ask them to send you a copy of this document.
According to their website, the number is (888) 800-7257.
Additionally, you can check out McDonalds' franchising site here:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/corporate/franchise/index.html .

The problem with obtaining information about McDonalds in foreign
markets, which is probably why things are phrased the way they are on
the website, is that most franchisors don't sell individual franchise
locations in other countries. They do something called a "master
franchise" where one person will buy the rights to franchise the
entire country. It's almost more like a licensing agreement than what
we think of as franchising in the USA. The language on the website
suggests that even McDonalds doesn't know the exact location of every
single restaurant owned by their master franchisees.

I know that Entrepreneur magazine collects UFOCs in order to compile
their Franchise 500 report every year, and they ask for a list of all
locations. (Their franchising expert is here:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/Community/CO_ExpertsInfo/0,4586,261707-----,00.html)
McDonalds itself should be able to provide you with the list you're
looking for.

I hope this helps!