
McDonald's delivery to be available in 3,500 restaurants by the end of June - Mz
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/mcdonalds-delivery-to-be-available-in-3500-restaurants-by-june.html
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Animats
McDonalds isn't doing delivery. Third parties are doing delivery.

Doordash delivers KFC, Jack in the Box, and Panda Express in Silicon Valley as
their fast food choices. With Doordash, don't order anything you can't reheat
when it shows up. That's the trouble with these low-end delivery services.
They're not using a vehicle with hot and cold storage. It's just some sucker's
car.

~~~
Animats
Robot delivery is coming along. Here's a Starship Technologies delivery robot
in downtown Redwood City.[1] It's in front of Box.net HQ. Notice the guy in
shorts following the thing around. When I see that robot, it usually has a
minder. The minder isn't driving it, just watching over it.

[1]
[https://s12.postimg.org/9gs8v03j1/robotatbox.jpg](https://s12.postimg.org/9gs8v03j1/robotatbox.jpg)

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ClausSualC
I live in Scandinavia and love McDonalds, but it's pretty expensive so I don't
eat it so often and healthy food is much cheaper. In the U.S. it seems to be
opposite, McDonalds and fastfood in general is cheap, while healthy food is
expensive.

~~~
Veratyr
As an Australian living in the US, I noticed that difference too, in addition
to some others.

The staff didn't seem nearly as miserable (I was one of them for a while) or
apathetic in Australian restaurants. I noticed when I went back that the food
wasn't nearly as greasy in Australia (I've actually noticed that about meat in
general, US meat tends to seem greasier for some reason) and it usually seemed
prepared with a little more care (the burgers weren't falling apart for
example). Also the restaurants were consistently cleaner, better maintained
and more up-to-date than their US counterparts.

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dcw303
I wonder if they are adding delivery options due to pressure from franchisees.
McDonald's is really a real estate company[0], so I would've thought it's
better for corporate if people are coming into the stores. That keeps the real
estate valuable and means they can charge higher rent.

[0] [https://seekingalpha.com/article/73533-mcdonalds-is-a-
real-e...](https://seekingalpha.com/article/73533-mcdonalds-is-a-real-estate-
company)

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SomeStupidPoint
McDonalds in Thailand delivered when I was there a couple years ago. You just
ordered off the McDonald's website. (And one time when we were somehow too
drunk to make that work, by calling the store and getting a cashier's Line SN,
lol.)

They had branded heat-retaining bags (like pizza places) and delivered via
scooter. The cost of labor being somewhat lower in Thailand and the quality of
the food being somewhat higher (a large double-BigMac meal was ~$10 while
delivery was ~$1), it actually worked pretty well for drunk food at night --
or even if you just didn't want to go out to eat. (They usually were faster
and warmer than, say, FoodPanda.)

I somehow think it's not going to translate as well to the US market (cost of
labor; lower quality food; double BigMacs aren't a thing), but I _do_ miss it.

Of course, Thai McDonalds is dead to me now that they no longer have wasabi
sauce. (I suppose it's my schezwan sauce, now.)

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jbm
I once used McDonald's delivery for a board game event in Japan - we were
playing Food Chain Magnate and just got in the mood.

It was late (took almost an hour) and I live in the Tokyo 23-ward area. I
wasn't very impressed; I could have walked to the closest station and picked
up the food with far less hassle, and no delivery charge.

(YMMV)

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douche
Ultimately, McDonalds will have to transition to being a full-service vending
machine.

Realistically, in an automated world, their flesh-and-blood employees provide
negative value.

I wish dearly that I could just enter my own order on the POS system when I am
in such places

~~~
joemaller1
That seems to be the direction they're moving. Several flagship McDonalds have
popped up around NYC with fully self-serve computer ordering kiosks. I haven't
been yet, but people are talking about them -- people who I've never heard
talk about McDonalds before.

They've got a pretty big gulf of social-class-stigma to get past, but it seems
like McDonalds is at the beginning of a comeback.

Delivery might be a guilty pleasure gateway.

~~~
Declanomous
There is a McDonalds with a kiosk on my drive to work. The drive-through gets
backed up out on to the street, so I started parking to go in. There's often a
short line at the counter, but if you use the kiosk you can literally place
your order within 20 seconds of stepping through the door.

Maybe it's because I grew up within a couple miles of the headquarters of
McDonalds, but the only people I know that don't go to McDonalds are health
nuts. That being said, the stores around here are way nicer than the ones I've
gone to in other parts of the country. I think proximity to the HQ probably
keeps the franchisees in line, plus there are a bunch of corporate owned
stores which are _amazing_.

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zitterbewegung
Not sure why there are a bunch of people being negative to delivery to
McDonalds. Sometimes I just want a burger instead of a Sandwhich or a pizza. I
think it adds variety to be honest.

~~~
formula_ninguna
how about fat and sugar diabet?

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lechiffre10
Considering the cost of UberEats delivery (5$ in Canada, 40 pesos in Mexico)
Doesn't seem like it's worth ordering food the quality of McDonalds

~~~
koolba
McDonalds may not be bespoke, but it's consistent. A Big Mac tastes the same
from downtown Manhattan to rural Podunk.

There's a definite market for people who want that and don't/can't/won't make
the drive.

~~~
tw04
Not to mention drunk 20-somethings that are responsible enough to not get
behind the wheel.

~~~
koolba
Its anecdata with a small sample size, but I can confirm you don't have to be
aged 20-29 to be drunk and want to eat McD.

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techsupporter
The two McDonalds restaurants that are on Seattle's 15th Ave NW (at Market and
Mary Ave NW) are both doing this via Uber Eats. I suppose they almost had to
get in on the game considering it seems like basically _every other_ food-
selling establishment north of the ship canal has signed up with at least two
food delivery outlets.

I don't really see the attractiveness but, hey, options are options.

~~~
mrep
How about: if you are lazy and want that style of food?

I like to eat mexican a lot, but taqueria cantina (amazing mexican place in
seattle) is not always delivering, such as tonight. Thus, If I am really
craving mexican, I will order qdoba as a backup.

Same goes for burger places.

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WatchDog
The classism and lack of respect on display here at HN, when you simply
mention a popular restaurant chain, is pretty astounding.

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dugditches
So what happens when they put pickles on a burger ordered without them /s

The big issue with fast food is cost. It's usually eaten by those in a rush
and the poor. It just seems ridiculous how complicated and expensive the menus
gotten.

Even with the coffee, which they seem to be pushing hard. Is now obfuscated
under 100 unnecessary drinks.

~~~
BoysenberryPi
Poor person here. Inflation has made it so it's not even really an option.
Everyone has removed their dollar menu and jacked up the price which is what I
order off of if I was in a hurry. It's cheaper and effective for me to the
burrito hole in the wall and get a massive burrito for 4 bucks than go to any
fast food place.

~~~
nightcracker
> It's cheaper and effective for me to the burrito hole in the wall and get a
> massive burrito for 4 bucks than go to any fast food place.

The burrito place is also fast food.

~~~
wutbrodo
I assume he means the fuzzy sense of the term that includes being part of a
large chain. Most people's usage ofthe term doesn't include holes in the wall
and language is obviously determined by usage.

~~~
dsacco
I believe the commenter you responded is aware of the colloquial distinction,
and is gently asserting a point that this distinction is not to be believed.

Regardless of the cultural zeitgeist about food preparation by large chains,
food from McDonald's is qualitatively the same as food from many fast food
restaurants that try to market themselves as above fast food.

~~~
wutbrodo
> and is gently asserting a point that this distinction is not to be believed.

> McDonald's is qualitatively the same as food from many fast food restaurants
> that try to market themselves as above fast food.

This assumes incorrectly that the only use of the distinction is a one-
dimensional measure of quality. A couple of uses for the distinction that have
nothing to do with "quality":

1) I don't tend to eat at chain restaurants much because I don't tend to eat
at the same restaurants much (ie, I really like variety). This was pretty much
true even for the few years that I ate every single weekend meal at
restaurants (or takeout).

2) Part of chain restaurants' explicit goal is mass appeal and consistency of
taste. Practically by definition, you're less likely to find the niche of
flavor that appeals to you the most directly, or even as high a level of
novelty and diversity of flavor as you would if going to holes in the wall.

3) I'm cheating a little bit making this a separate bullet pt, but #2 works
the other way as well, since some people explicitly prefer consistency of
flavor and knowing exactly what to expect to being adventurous about flavors
and tastes. This isn't a value judgment: I had a girlfriend who described her
taste as preferring bland food and there's no real basis for me to claim that
I had "better" taste than her.

It occurs to me that these examples are all pretty tightly related to the
notion of chain restaurants providing consistency and mass appeal, but that
doesn't really change my point at all.

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Glyptodon
I wonder if they'll follow delivery with breakfast subscriptions. (Do people
really eat any McDonald's food besides Egg McMuffins and coffee?)

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kyriakos
McDonald's been doing delivery for years in my country. I guess it all depends
on the lifestyle and competition.

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sigacts
Yeah... a lack of delivery WAS the reason I had been avoiding McDonalds.

~~~
acchow
This.

The people eating McDonalds and the people paying for food delivery are not
the same people. I'm pretty sure their intersection is statistically
insignificant.

~~~
rainbowmverse
McDonalds probably has better research on their own business than you do. They
wouldn't do this unless they believed it would be worthwhile.

~~~
nickpsecurity
"McDonalds probably has better research on their own business than you do."

This is never something you should believe in a major, for-profit company
heavy on management. Those companies have people investing in all kinds of BS
all the time everywhere from top to store level. That includes McDonalds which
is easy to verify by just listening to the employees talk about management and
company politics.

Now, it may be a good idea that might have come from someone thinking well. A
big company investing in it across the stores isn't proof of that in any way,
though. One needs more details.

~~~
dsacco
_> "McDonalds probably has better research on their own business than you do."

This is never something you should believe in a major, for-profit company
heavy on management._

It takes an astonishing amount of hubris for any single individual to believe
they can really have market research superior to a company's when it comes to
the company's _core competency._ Even where it's true, I expect such an
individual to have a far more reasoned claim than, "for-profit companies with
lots of managers suck!"

Just because companies try things and fail all the time doesn't mean they're
not well-thought out and often even well-executed. Do you honestly believe
"management heavy" companies are full of people who don't know what they're
doing? How do you know what their research teams do or don't do, and know or
don't know?

On what basis can you even begin to assert an absolute statement like the one
you just claimed? You didn't provide a substantive argument, all you said was
companies try things that fail all the time, and implicitly repeated the meme
that managers are just vapid drones in the aggregate.

~~~
nickpsecurity
"It takes an astonishing amount of hubris"

It really doesn't. All it takes is a person to listen to people that work at
these Fortune 500 companies talk about how big decisions get made. I did that
most of my day for years. I also read what many say on online forums. I
believe there's plenty of smart people in them including excellent marketers
at McDonalds. There's even plenty of well-informed decisions and sensible
projects.

However, years of empirical data says what makes most of these companies run
amounts to political skill of managers and the Peter Principle. Again, that's
not my guess so much as what people in the middle and on the ground tell me.
The low-level employees of big, food chains also gripe about corporate
visitors saying they're worthless by adding nothing to what's going on or
things they say are hugely disconnected from how the place runs day-to-day. As
if they're managing a different, better-run company with more staff. Those
people come and go with high turnover but a fraction of them move up into the
positions making bigger decisions despite adding about nothing to the
effectiveness of their restaurants. Gotta be politics and authoritarianism
instead of performance given the data.

~~~
rainbowmverse
Anecdotes and asserting that empirical data exists without providing it isn't
very convincing.

~~~
nickpsecurity
Attempted some quick Googling for you. As expected, it's mostly noise about
what managers think of their _workers_ instead of other way around. However, I
did find this Gallup piece studying a huge number of workers and companies
that supports my hypothesis about management competency in average case.

[http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/167975/why-great-
manag...](http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/167975/why-great-managers-
rare.aspx)

~~~
narrowrail
It's not clear that you understand the majority of the ~36K MCD restaurants
are franchised, so the employees do not work for MCD, they work for small
local franchisees businesses. MCD only owns ~7k locations (i.e. ~16%).

~~~
nickpsecurity
My comments apply to what majority of US workers tell me regardless of owners.
I'd love to see a survey on competence covering both franchisees and corporate
stores.

