McDonald’s meets Argos!

On Saturday my 7 year old daughter decided that we were going to have lunch in McDonald’s. She and I were out having what we describe as ‘girly time’, which meant shopping! So I had to relent on the choice of lunch venue.

We were in ‘Milky Beans’ as she has always called Milton Keynes since she was little. There are several of the ‘golden arches’ there, and we were at the out of town Kingston restaurant – typical out of town location where there’s a Tesco and other major retailers.

So what makes this different? Well – it is one of McDonalds flagship new technology sites. I can only describe it as being akin to Argos. You have two options for ordering. You can speak to a real person, who takes your order and payment – or you order on one of the several machines. You get a receipt for your order – with an order number – and then wait at the collection point for your order number to appear on the screen. When your number appears your order is there!

Considering we were there at 12.45 on a wet Saturday lunchtime, the process was surprisingly quick. From start to finish – no more than 4 minutes.

Next issue – where to sit? It was packed – but we found 2 bench seats on stools. In front of iPads! Erin was delighted – I was fairly gobsmacked! Sticky happy meal fingers were all over the screen in seconds.

How many restaurants McDonalds will roll this version out to remains to be seen. The argument for me would be that the iPads increase dwell time – perhaps not ideal for a fast food restaurant – but then again, the desire to go back to there has certainly been seen in my daughter!

Jo Lynch

Posted by Emily in General

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