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?

Saturday lunch times will always be a lot busier than say a Wednesday at half 2. Parking up let’s them take more orders so shift more people at once.. and possibly get a few “black coffee/cheeseburger” only orders in a que where it’s £40 of customised meals to up the speed people move through it. And there’s probably more cars now/less family friendly cafes (there’s a hell of a lot of coffee shops selling fancy shit opened here in place of standard cuppa n chips places).

Definitely order on the app n collect at the counter

She probably meant "we always do it like this when we're busy". It maybe happens 5% of my visits.

I’ve only experienced this a couple of times when it’s really busy. I always order the crispy BBQ chicken wrap, so they have to make that specially, which takes longer. I’ve never waited more than a couple of minutes after parking though.

I had no idea! Mind you, it is probably 15 years+ since I had a McDonald’s.

Our local one is like this. I don't bother and just go in as it's so much quicker.
Which branch OP? Is it in SE London??

The problem now is there are sensors at the intercom, payment window and collection window and every car is timed at every sensor. Employees have to meet a target for each stopping point and the whole time you are in the drive thru so if the food is taking too long you will be parked up so staff can make the target.

I hadn't had McDonald's for years and had one in the summer, my burger came in a brioche bun, tasted like actual beef and had a decent amount of fresh looking salad, a really lovely lady also brought it to the table, I won't let ds have it he's too little but I got him some carrot sticks and she brought him a balloon , we were waiting to collect dh and his flight was delayed otherwise I don't think I would've gone in, but it was certainly a major improvement in the McDonald's I remember from my teens! I think under ten minutes is still pretty quick if it's fresh and brought to your table

I never use the drive-thru. I hate the mess and smell eating in the car. You may as well park and eat in the restaurant.

I always have to wait when I get a Fillet of Fish because it is cooked to order, everything else is ready instantly,

The premise doesn’t work for me full stop, because it would involve having McDonalds in the car. The stench!

They've always had customers park if there's going to be a wait for the order.

Imagine you order a veggie burger and a filet o fish and it's going to take 10 minutes, and the car behind just wants two McFlurries. What's the point of having you sit waiting at the kiosk blocking the people behind from getting their food?

They’ve got a permanent glitch in the cheese deletion mechanism. If you delete one of two, you get none.

Eeugh McFlurry. I’ve never tried one but I imagine it’s like sweetened thickened margarine and vegetable oil. And seeing the monstrosity melt while you’re waiting for your burger. Yuck.

Oh I thought you meant the premises were gone

I saw one put up once- in days- arrived ready tiled. I imagine they go in a couple of days as well.,

I would have taken him in but we had just been to the fracture clinic!

The one near me left me waiting a good 5-10 mins for a hot chocolate when I was the only customer!

It's because the make to order rather than just getting them off the hot rack, surely?

@Davespecifico it's soft serve ice cream. Like you'd get from anywhere else that sells soft serve ice cream.

Seriously people have some super strange ideas about McDonald's.

It's just food. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here are the ingredients:

Skimmed MILK, Sugar, Cream (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Whey Powder (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Glucose Syrup, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Carrageenan), Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Flavouring.

Walls soft scoop:

Reconstituted skimmed MILK, water, glucose syrup, vegetable oils(palm, coconut), glucose fructose syrup, sugar, whey solids (MILK), emulsifier (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids), stabilisers (tara gum, guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan), colours (annatto, curcumin), flavourings.

🤷🏻‍♀️

They once told me to park in the "grill bay" to wait for my order. It was only for a regular fries, so not for any special order at all. Completely ridiculous. They were cold and soggy when they were finally brought too, so I sent them back, hence an even longer wait.

Just to correct something that's bugging me; food isn't now cooked to order, it's assets order.

We use drive thru Mac Donald’s when travelling long distance with the dog. My most recent experience was interesting because I was tempted by the big poster to order a ‘big tasty’. Never do this if you like your car and/or clothing. Completely unfeasible as ‘journey’ food. Big (obviously) but also floppy and with crazy amounts of mayonnaise, fresh tomato slices etc etc. It was so complicated that it demanded a knife and fork. No napkins either.

Normal fast drive through whenever I’ve been to the ones near me.

I loathe fast food and am a food snob....but I am always slightly impressed by macdonalds. Even the label for the McFlurry. I would much rather give my kids a McFlurry than most commercial brands of ice cream. At least it has cream in it! They are making an effort in terms of sourcing their products.

Whereas you can walk into any number of these slightly higher end chain shit holes and pay far more for far crappier food that is not under the radar.

Sorry...as you were...

Depends how busy it is and what you order, but it does happen!

One near me is still drive through but it does get busy, there might be 6 cars in front. People do also go inside and park.

I like the concept of drive through, though as I've got small children so it's the convenience of picking up hot food without getting 3 kids out the car.

I don't really like McDonald's though, so I wish there were other drive through options - a fish & chip one would be very good, and even KFC would be better!