McDonalds drivethru- whole premise is gone

[savethecat]

After a long few hours at a walk-in centre, I took my teen for a drive-thru. I haven't' been to McDonald's for such a long time and was so surprised to find that the drive-through now involves you ordering and the parking up for a good ten minutes waiting for a staff member to come and find your car to deliver the order. There were at least 15 cars waiting.
Now I am not bothered about waiting but wasn't the whole idea of a drive-through for speed and convenience? Seems the whole concept is down the pan now.
AIBU?

I think you've maybe mis understood the server. This is normal when busy for obvious reasons, but clearly they aren't sending cars to the car park when empty and food ready as that would be pointless and inefficient.

'Fast food'. It was never food, but at least in the States where it came from it was fast. The British service culture made it neither food nor fast.

It's literally busy all the time now due to uber eats et al. Sometimes quicker to go in on foot

The menu is massive now and has more complicated items. (Example- Toffee latte which can take twice as long as a black coffee.) Some of the standard (so not grill orders) can have five or six items on there and it all takes time. It's especially bad if you order fish (which tends to be cooked to order, at least in my store because it's not a huge seller.)

Sounds quite typical for my store at peak times. We can serve hundreds of orders over the busiest periods and unfortunately you may have to wait sometimes.

There's also more ways of getting your food which increases the demand on kitchen and you can only get so many people in there at once.

What did you order?

@MrsTerryPratchett

I think that's really unfair to say. It's just food... The fries are made by McCain, for example. Same as what you'd buy in the supermarket. The burgers are 100% beef (flank or fore quarter). Chicken is all breast meat.

Maybe it used to be full of nasties but not any more.

And please don't forget that McDonald's UK and McDonald's US are vastly different beasts.

Depends how busy you are and what you order.

Mostly it's straight through at my local McDonalds- no waiting.

I agree with the OP. We've stopped going through the drive-through. We park up, go in and order/pay at the machines. A lot more pleasant experience. Even better is that you can check the fries are actually hot and ask them to replace before you leave the counter. When you do the drive-through, you end up having to go in anyway when the fries are cold/soggy or they get the order wrong. So, yes, the entire concept is now a failure. One of the main reasons is that they don't have burgers pre-prepared anymore - it seems to all be heated to order now which inevitably causes delays.

It’s been like this for a while, they do it when they are busy (so most lunch times) so traffic doesn’t back up through the drive though causing issues for nearby shops. I now go in to order as it’s less hassle.

Hate to break it to you all but they don't cook the burgers fresh to order. They MAKE them fresh to order, as in, when you order they take the meat out of the Universal Heating Container where it's been sitting to put the condiments on it. Even if you order no cheese, you'll still get the same meat that's been sitting there.

They aim to only pull you over or park you up if it's busy. If your order is more complicated, you're more likely to be parked, but if it's really busy you might need to be parked even if your order is simple. Drive-thru are still fast and efficient when the amount of people coming through is at reasonable levels.

(I'm a McDonald's worker).

I find that ordering on a touchscreen make me MUCH more likely to customise things I'm ordering. For example, DS7 will always have a cheeseburger Happy Meal but will want the burger with no mustard, no onions, no gherkin, extra fresh tomato, cucumber and lettuce. Multiply that by everyone in the queue (or even, say, one in five of them) and you've quickly got a car park full of people waiting for stuff to be brought out to them.

To be honest, I've never understood the point of a drive-through. You get your meal just as quickly inside. These days if you were in a rush you could order on the app before you even arrived and pick up at the counter inside - no queue at all!

Only ever had this once and it was very it was a small branch and a busy time.

*when, not very

To be honest, I've never understood the point of a drive-through. You get your meal just as quickly inside. These days if you were in a rush you could order on the app before you even arrived and pick up at the counter inside - no queue at all!

Yep, I agree. The drive-through is basically just for lazy people these days who can't be arsed to get out of their car. It's seldom quicker, especially now the touch screen order points seem to be in all their outlets which makes ordering inside a lot quicker.

Drive thru would ideally be just for small orders like a burger and drink or single meal. Had two £50+ orders on there today which slows everything down. Its just so much food/drinks to process.

Its a normal drive through here....

Although, very rarely go, as food is always pre prepared and put under "lights" its always cold...

Had a burger without the actual burger once and a 7up, with just the fizzy water and no flavour....

It doesn’t happen at our local drive thru, they give you the food as the kiosk as has always happened.

Went to McDonald drive thru yesterday and didn't have to wait. The only time I ever have to wait is when it's busy but even then it's only a few minutes.

Sorry but that isn't true.

The meat is cooked in batches and kept at a specified temp for a set time. Buns/wraps are toasted to order. Some items are heated to order because they can't be held.

Occasionally the soft drinks will run out of syrup. With coke you can tell but not with sprite. It should have been replaced for you.

Holds depend 100% on how busy it is. If it's quiet and you've got a simple order you shouldn't be parked up (unless the milkshake machine runs out of syrup or something like that.)

You may be parked when it's quiet if you've got an complicated order that would hold DT up.

Also don't think that because it's quiet in DT that the full restaurant is quiet--DT was empty when I left this afternoon but we had two coach loads of people inside so it was quite busy!

@QuestionableMouse he had a big tasty with bacon meal

Normal when busy - Saturday lunchtime peak I should imagine

bellow through the dodgy intercom, pay, recieve parcel of loveliness at next window.

This is still how it is at my local Mcds most of the time. Saturdays are busier though as it is in a shopping complex so you can expect to park up and wait. Otherwise it is very fast food.

This has made me sad. The only thing I ever got at a McDs drive through was a Dairy Milk McFlurry (the finest dessert ever known to man). But now they have been discontinued and they only offer manky McFlurry flavours. I’d be happy to park and wait if I got a delicious Dairy Milk McFlurry at the end of it. 😢

I’ve never had to wait as long as 10 minutes when parked up.

The drive-through is basically just for lazy people these days who can't be arsed to get out of their car.

the whole place is for lazy people who can’t be arsed to cook!

What’s really bloody annoying is when they give you your mcflurries then park you up to wait for the food, so the McFlurry is half melted.