I worked for them once. We had a kitchen fire while preparing the store to open, about 5am. McDonald's brought in a crash team of people that worked with the fire department, insurance adjusters, cleanup workers, and health inspectors to get that store back into shape to open...at 7pm THAT NIGHT. On a SUNDAY. That's how serious lost business is.
I have a general rule not to visit a new restaurant for the first two weeks because of this exact same "meltdown" scenario.
[Little known unpublished McDonald's fact: Not sure if it's still true, but at one time they honored all competitors coupons. Yes, they'd give you a free Big Mac with a free Whopper coupon.]
[And yeah the coupon thing is still there. I once spent half an hour arguing with a woman who knew about this fact and was trying to convince me a free Strawberry Shake was equivalent to a free Slurpee coupon she was holding. Had to say no to that one.]
Plus the demand for broadband and hardware goes up every time something new and useful appears, as some group of people buys or upgrades so they can use the new service (e.g. buying netbooks so more of the family can use facebook at once without buying full PCs; or upgrading to better broadband for youtube).
The growing availability of APIs enabling functionality without reinventing the wheel is very important as well.
Years of study have taught something counter-intuitive in the fast food industry (especially in a small town where everybody knows everybody else): the better Wendy's does, the better McDonald's does. With more choices downtown, there will be more traffic.
The best food service organizations welcome others, not as competitors to fight over a bigger piece of pie, but as "partners" to make the whole pie bigger.
It's up to us to figure out how this lesson applies to our industry. There's probably a symbiotic relationship out there for us to find as well.