Leather sofa, coffee table: Can this be a McDonald's?

The company is helping its franchised restaurants change their image.
HARPER WOODS, Mich. (AP) -- The company known for fast food wants people to relax, take a load off, stay awhile.
So when customers enter Errol Service's corner McDonald's in this busy Detroit suburb, they're greeted by tall, dark cafe tables near phone jacks and electrical outlets for laptop computers. High-backed private booths are padded with shimmery rust-colored fabric, and frosted glass partitions with tropical scenes subdivide the dining room into nooks. Silvery tiles glitter along the cashier counter.
Tucked away in an alcove is the restaurant's centerpiece. A soft black leather sofa is surrounded by cushioned corner chairs and a framed modern art print, and on an angular coffee table of dark wood are leaflets from the local library. Service just bought a flat-screen TV to complete the corner. He'll tune it to CNN.
"We want people to spend more time sitting down with their families, having dinner. We want them to feel like they're at home," Service said. "We want them to sit back, relax, read the newspaper."
He's infused the restaurant with flavor from his native Jamaica, occasionally bringing in reggae bands and giving away trips to the Caribbean. All the changes make the restaurant warmer, he says.
New program
He won't say what the undertaking cost, but he had help from McDonald's Corp. The company's re-imaging program offers to match costs of up to between $50,000 and $100,000 for franchisees who want to update and remodel, said Mike Perry, McDonald's director of operations in Michigan.
The nationwide campaign started several years ago to boost sales at existing McDonald's restaurants, and the goal is to make the restaurants "more relevant to customers" by giving operators the freedom to tailor their decor, style and offerings to their local environment and consumer base, said McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman.
Whitman said 650 restaurants were remodeled in 2003, and the company hopes to help with about 1,300 more nationwide this year. He would not say how much the company has spent on renovations, citing competitive concerns.
The Oak Brook, Ill., company recently tried some other ideas, like a McCafe and a diner with homestyle food, but they haven't caught on in any widespread way. The re-imaging campaign is more open-ended, encouraging improvements and paying for chunks of projects it thinks will boost business.
"What McDonald's is doing is trying a lot of different things," said Gregory Thomas, a restaurant industry analyst. "Most of the good ideas for renovations come from franchisees, but it's a touchy subject because it's a lot of money to ask them to put down."
Increasing sales
Thomas said an overhaul that changes the look of a restaurant 100 percent is virtually assured to increase sales by a third.
Of the 390 McDonald's restaurants in Michigan, about 50 recently have received face lifts. Perry said the Michigan restaurants that have gone through the re-imaging process are doing on average about 10 percent better than their market.
Jerry Olinik bought two franchises in Howell, about 50 miles west of Detroit, three years ago.
"They looked like cafeterias," he said. "If you sat at some of the tables up front around lunchtime, you had people's backsides right next to you."
Feeling the pressure from coffee shops and mid-scale chain restaurants in the area, he closed one of his stores for nearly a month at the end of May, installed booths with shutters that rise to the ceiling, gave each table a Tiffany-style lamp, and rich, dark woodwork and sectioned off the play area to create a more defined dining room.
He said he's seeing the return from the "couple hundred-thousand" dollars he spent. Sales in July were up 12 percent to 15 percent over July 2003, a record month, he said, and August sales are up 11.5 percent.