June 20th, 2002

One Small McStep; Fast-Food Giant Lands at Air and Space Museum

By Sabrina Jones
Washington Post

The Flight Line cafeteria in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum badly needed some pizazz after 14 years of serving sandwiches, burgers and salads. The roof leaked, the air conditioning was spotty, and long lines drove museum visitors to eat elsewhere.

“We were not having much success with our previous operation,” said John R. “Jack” Dailey, the museum’s director. “School groups would walk down the street to McDonald’s.”

World’s Busiest Museum, meet the World’s Biggest Restaurant Chain. World’s Biggest Restaurant Chain, meet your new highest-volume location.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, McDonald’s Corp. opened the high-tech, 1,000-seat Wright Place restaurant, which features fare from McDonald’s and two of the company’s other brands, Boston Market and Donatos Pizzeria.

Wright Place is the result of nine months of construction. Some might also call it the result of the Smithsonian’s quest for additional revenue, one that is taking the institution down the path of commercialization.

In March, Air and Space renamed its movie theater for the world’s largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., in return for a $ 10 million donation. The transportation hall at the National Museum of American History has been named for General Motors Corp. (another $ 10 million gift), and Dailey says he’s looking for a sponsor for the planetarium.

While some criticize the museum for cozying up to corporations, the union representing 80 to 100 workers at the museum’s former food facility criticizes Air and Space’s treatment of its subcontractors, specifically the cafeteria workers. Union officials yesterday announced a rally in front of the museum at noon tomorrow. Local 25 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union says workers were displaced last September when the Air and Space cafeteria closed for the renovation. Those rehired by McDonald’s are working in nonunion jobs for lower wages and fewer benefits, the union said.

With government funding on the decline, the Smithsonian’s need for more money is real. Last fall, according to Edward H. Able Jr., president of the American Association of Museums, state and local government funding for museums dropped about 30 percent, and grants and donations dipped as well.

The Smithsonian is not alone on this name-brand path. It’s also not the first museum to realize it is better equipped to mount exhibits than to feed its visitors. McDonald’s has locations in several other museums, including the Field Museum in Chicago, New York’s USS Intrepid Museum, and children’s museums in Boston, Indianapolis and Baltimore. Other chains, including Pizza Hut, are also vendors in museums.

It’s the 9 million annual visitors to Air and Space who are expected to make this the highest-volume location in the 30,000-unit McDonald’s chain. The glass-encased restaurant is able to serve more than 15,000 diners a day for breakfast and lunch, up from the 6,000 people at the old restaurant.

Museum officials predict the site will earn up to $ 10 million more in revenue for the Smithsonian over the contract period than the old cafeteria. The chain declined to say how much revenue its operation might take in per year.

Air and Space Museum officials thought McDonald’s was a perfect fit for their clientele, about a quarter of whom are under age 19. The corporation itself, not a franchisee, is operating the restaurant through an agreement overseen by Smithsonian Business Ventures, which manages the museum’s gift shops, restaurants and other business activities. In addition to the three McDonald’s brands, there’s an upper-level cafe selling lattes, beer and fruit smoothies.

The restaurant renovation cost the Smithsonian $ 5.6 million, of which $ 1.6 million came from federal funds. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s supplied an additional $ 1 million. The chain has guaranteed the Smithsonian more than $ 1 million a year in commissions over the 10-year contract, in addition to a $ 5 million marketing sponsorship agreement, said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas.

Under its marketing agreement with McDonald’s, St. Thomas said, the Smithsonian is contemplating more public ties to the fast-food chain: placing tray liners that promote the Smithsonian inside McDonald’s restaurants around the country; putting articles about the museums in McDonald’s Fun Time children’s magazine; and joint advertising. The deal includes marketing for the entire Smithsonian, she said.

The path the museum has taken has been roundly criticized.

“Some things should not be for sale,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Portland, Ore., organization that opposes the commercialization of nonprofits and other entities.

Air and Space’s Dailey acknowledged that “franchising the Mall” was the phrase some used to describe the Air and Space Museum’s latest venture.

Dailey said museum staffers reviewed the restaurant’s development to determine whether it would make the Smithsonian “too commercial” and wanted to make sure “it was done in good taste.”

“I’m very pleased with it,” he said.

Under the museum’s cafeteria contract with Guest Services Inc. (GSI), a Fairfax-based food management firm, the Smithsonian received a $ 1.4 million commission in 2000 and $ 1.3 million in 2001, St. Thomas said. GSI will continue to manage some other Smithsonian food operations. Another firm, Restaurant Associates, has about five years left on its Smithsonian contract.

GSI managed the Air and Space Museum’s restaurant for 12 years and had problems handling crowds because the location’s design allowed for only two customer lines, compared with 12 lines for the McDonald’s, said Ron Hallagan, GSI’s vice president. When plans for renovations came up, museum officials expressed their interest in pursuing a national brand, he said.

Hallagan said GSI will continue to operate food service at two other Smithsonian buildings, and it also manages dining areas at other museums, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Hillwood Museum.

“We’re not concerned about fast-food operations coming into other museums,” Hallagan said. “The ones we have, they wouldn’t want national brands. They don’t want really want any commercial names there. This is relatively new for the Smithsonian.”

There will also be a McDonald’s at the Air and Space gallery under construction at at Dulles International Airport. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is scheduled to open in December 2003.

On a recent afternoon, young students, families and other tourists ate rotisserie chicken, pizza and Chicken McNuggets inside the Wright Place restaurant. Visitors ordered food from large digital menu screens listing items from McDonald’s, Boston Market and Donatos. The upstairs Mezzanine Cafe sold biscotti and gigante-sized chai teas. Near the entrance, video screens displayed the restaurants’ logos.

“It’s better than to go into town trying to find something,” said Mary Ann Reinschild, 37, a resident of Swansboro, N.C., as she ate lunch with her husband and three children.

Officials at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry seem to agree; they will have a new food court soon, with a pizza and pasta station and other food stands. But they have decided not to reopen Pizza Hut, or any other brand names, in the court, said Andy Zakrajsek, the museum’s director of business operations.

But at the Please Touch children’s museum in Philadelphia, President Nancy Kolb said the museum’s new, larger location will have a McDonald’s for its 200,000 annual visitors, with the museum receiving a cut from food sales. Some critics wondered why the museum didn’t choose a “gourmet” eatery, but the tastes of children prevailed, Kolb said.

“There’s always a lot of controversy around McDonald’s, but they make food that children will eat,” Kolb said.

Researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

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