McDonald's prides itself on being one of the world's leading fast food companies. Its ability to quickly adapt to the ever-evolving consumer and remain strong amid growing competition is partly attributed to its push for constant innovation, allowing it to continue driving business growth since its inception in 1954.
Lately, McDonald's has made various developments, including launching its café concept, McCosmic's, which went insanely viral on social media, technology implementation, and releasing multiple new food items to expand its brand awareness and physical locations.
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This time, McDonald's surprised its customers by quietly launching a fully on-the-go concept in Los Angeles, California. This smaller concept focuses on digital and drive-thru orders and has no in-restaurant seating or lobby. However, this is not just a regular drive-thru.
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To maximize efficiency at this new location, McDonald's is introducing McDelivery lockers in the U.S., which allow delivery drivers to obtain food orders quickly. This eliminates the task of communicating with the workers and reduces the time it takes for orders to be picked up.
Although new to the U.S., these McDelivery lockers have already been launched in McDonald's international markets. However, only time will tell if they will eventually become more common in other domestic locations.
McDonald's has been testing out new ways to expand its footprint
McDonald's (MCD) has been continuously promoting its digital ordering services and improving its in-app technology to better adapt to customers' needs, especially those with busy schedules who want to beat the morning rush.
"The U.S. customer satisfaction scores reached an all-time high, and service times at the drive-thru have dropped by double digits compared to last year," said McDonald's CFO Ian Frederick Borden during the company's latest earnings call.
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As innovative as this new location may sound to most American customers across the country, Texas has already had the privilege of experiencing a similar concept. In 2022, McDonald's built its first drive-thru-only location in Fort Worth, Texas, to test different ways to handle digital orders.
As the largest fast-food chain in the world, with more than 40,000 locations in over 100 countries, McDonald's has continuously made efforts to expand its reach by opening more restaurants. The development of this smaller concept could drive the company to open more locations with more expensive real estate, as the concept requires less square footage than a usual store.
McDonald's invests in technology and innovation to increase efficiency and grow profits
McDonald's has "aggressively" invested in technology over the last few years, implementing innovations that help employees complete tasks more efficiently while also improving its customer service experience.
"It’s investing to put the most intuitive technology in the hands of our restaurant teams that makes their jobs easier and empowers them to provide amazing hospitality while serving hot and accurate orders to customers even faster," said Borden during McDonald's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call.
More McDonald's:
- McDonald's E. coli outbreak causes recall, hammers stock
- McDonald's unveils partnership with beloved breakfast giant
- McDonald's sues top suppliers over key ingredient
Although these innovative technology implementations aim to help employees with daily tasks to boost business, McDonald's employees should be concerned about job security because as great of help as this new technology may be in efficiency, it could potentially replace current roles or aid in reducing the workforce.
Despite all assumptions, McDonald's has previously stated that its new technological additions will not result in workforce cuts. Instead, they aim to accelerate growth.
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