Does it matter who your suppliers are?

Wi-Fi is pretty much expected by anyone at a coffee shop in Canada. The independent coffee shops got on the band wagon pretty early on, but the chains have followed and McDonald's is finally providing Wi-Fi.

As with most things, the small independents can try new services quite easily. They probably had Internet access anyway, so it was just a matter of setting up a wireless router for the customers to use. But for a big chain like McDonald's there are corporate standards to meet, and chain-wide agreements to sign.

McDonald's in Canada, or the "more than 1000 participating locations", use Bell as the Wi-Fi provider. Does it matter that the service is provided by Bell? Do the customers know? Do they care?

And that is the key issue. If your customers don't care who your suppliers are then they won't pay a premium. And if they won't pay a premium, how do you recoup the cost? Even if Bell is giving McDonald's the service for free, Wi-Fi encourages lingering. And for a "quick service restaurant", as fast food joints insist on calling themselves, lingering costs money. The person who bought the $3.29 breakfast deal may want to stay all day. And since the ad says "Unlimited Free Wi-Fi", it would seem that they are entitled to do just that.

Luckily for McDonald's the seats are far too uncomfortable to linger for long, but some people will put up with a lot for free anything.