McDonald’s in the US is to roll out ordering by touch screen and table service at all of its US locations after a pilot in 500 sites in New York, Florida and Southern California during which 44,000 orders were fulfilled. (We reported recently on a UK initiative in McDonalds Touch Screens in Use) The company calls the new concept the “justforyou experience” and uses vertical tabletop touchscreens. Orders placed on the system are delivered by staff to the tables.
As most locations are franchisee-owned and franchisees have to finance the change, the speed of the roll-out is not defined, but it will start in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Chicago.
McDonald’s is also changing the drive-thru system to provide double lane drive-thrus and allow mobile and app-based payment and ordering. The drive-thrus are also experimenting with digital signage that changes the menu during the day.
Analyst Comment
This is going to be a big project for whoever wins it. We haven’t heard that, yet, but no doubt we will. I must say that I rarely use QSRs although I occasionally end up eating at the Burger King in Waterloo Station in London. It has often seemed like a good idea to let me order by mobile as my train is approaching the station to save the wait and queue to collect the food and pay. There is a McDonald’s near my home, but I like to refer to it as a ‘drive-past’ McDonalds.
It was intriguing, in researching this story, to search for news about McDonald’s. The global scope and scale of the chain throws up a huge number of stories. My favourite, when I looked, was this one about a woman in Sweden who has been living in a particular McDonald’s location for three weeks. Her friends are local and she can’t find anywhere else to live! You’d have to be keen…. (BR)
