A Shrewd Moo Cluck Moo Gets National News Attention

The fast-growing and young fast-food establishment Moo Cluck Moo is on a massive national media kick after a recent Daily Beast piece, with coverage in both digital and cable television news outlets this morning.

While it's true that we're already big time fans of this fast-food done fine in Dearborn Heights, it's nice to see that other people are catching on to their smart and media-friendly living wage salary plan. Now that national debate is quietly brewing around issues of living wages for fast-food workers at big chains like McDonald's and their ilk, the story at Moo Cluck Moo is especially appealing to cable news-types.

On the Huffington Post's national video show, HuffPostLive, Moo Cluck Moo's Brian Parker spoke highly of his restaurant's hopes to "spread the wealth a little bit." He also praised the metro Detroit area's penchant for being hard-working, middle class people.

"The one thing where [outsiders] can't find fault for is that people love to work," Park said. "It's been a working-class metropolitan area for a hundred years. We take pride in what we do."

Over on MSNBC, where Moo Cluck Moo's living wage efforts were the subjects of reports by hosts Thomas Roberts and Alex Wagner, co-founder Allen Fisher took a deeper look at the recent national debate on fast-food workers and pay discrepancies. The series of strikes by fast-food workers across the country — including by workers in the metro Detroit area — has made Fisher's company a media darling, and he walked through the reasoning this morning.

"We believe in paying our people right because that's what we think we should do," Fisher told Roberts. "Working at Moo Cluck Moo is not an easy job to do. We pay [our workers] for that."

If the string of national news features spurs local folks and visitors from out of town to check out the storefront in Dearborn Heights, Moo Cluck Moo could add thousands to its projected $700 to $800 thousand in annual sales. That might not be so bad for a restaurant that's only been open since early April of this year.
· Detroit-Area Fast Food Joint, Pays Workers $12 An Hour, Still Profits [HuffPo]
· Detroit Eatery Pays Workers a Minimum of $12 an Hour [MSNBC]
· A Fast-Food Joint Thrives, Even by Paying $12 an Hour [TheDailyBeast]
· Moo Cluck Moo [Official]