So, I never visit McDonald’s. Oddly, I have managed to visit them twice this year. Once a month ago while traveling and it just worked out that it made the most sense when we stopped for fuel while traveling.
And second last night. We were at the lake late and coming home just before 9pm. Most non chain places were closing, and the only local spot open was McDonald’s. Had the whole family including my visiting parents.
The experience was pretty awful. First, they had 3 employees in the building, and the expectation was that you use the Kiosk. I didn’t have ‘strong’ opinions of having to use it vs. speaking to a human. However after ordering 4 meals on it, it is quite the nightmare for the casual visitor. Probably took 4x as long to order our food.
My parents took their order on a second Kiosk and were not even able to complete their order (Parents are in their mid 70s). Not sure what happened, I wasn’t watching them. My dad was quite irritated at this point.
After asking one of the humans multiple times for help, he took their order at the register.
<insert 30 minute wait for food>
Our food was placed in their pickup area in bags with napkins (store napkin holder empty). Nearly every burger was overcooked and quite dry. Both my buns were hard. The fry’s were luke warm and not very fresh. The meal for 2 adults and 2 14yos was $40 bux.
I saw a story on Lemmy last week about how McDonald’s profits were down and the general consensus was that it was the over priced food. While I’m sure that has an impact I believe the Kiosk, slow ‘fast food’ and overall experience has to be a huge negative.
My parents were PISSED, and they are historically huge McD Patrons. At least in their case, the price will not be why they do not return. Its the awful experience.
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I personally love kiosk ordering and by proxy, self check-outs anywhere and everywhere. The less humans I have to work with the better, because humans are slow, social, and make mistakes. That said, McDonald’s kiosks kinda suck, and they are one of the least intuitive interfaces out there IMO.
I don’t mind fast food kiosks, but I really hate self checkout at the grocery store. It’s literally making me do the work someone else used to do for me of scanning and bagging items. It makes everything take longer. And if you fuck up even a tiny bit, it starts screaming that you are an idiot loud enough for the whole store to hear until an attendant comes to help.
I can’t think of the last time I went through a self checkout without having to wait for an employee. Sure, a lot of the time it’s just because I’m buying a bottle of wine or whatever, but, like, that’s still a problem.
It’s also super terrible security-wise, because it incentivizes employees to make their account credentials whatever is quickest to type in on the kiosk that seems to have less processing power than my cellphone. I usually look away out of politeness, but I’ve glanced at their codes a few times. Saw one that was literally 0000. Another that was just 1, because apparently they don’t even necessarily have any password requirements lol
If I have vegetables or alcohol, I’m going through the cashier line.
If there’s no reasonable cashier line it’s 50/50 that I’m walking out.
I’ve found that a lot of cashiers don’t know what some vegetables even are. Or there was a sale for large avocados 50 cents each. But they put them in as medium avocados and they cost way more. Just a real life example. So I use the self checkout.
I’m happy to use a self-checkout if I’m only grabbing a handful of items. That tends to be quicker and easier than waiting for an attended till to free up.
There’s no way in hell I’m taking a shopping cart of stuff through though.
Kiosks of any sort can vary, from fast food to grocery to other types. There are some that work well and make self service far faster and easier, and others that routinely have issues. I’ve never used McD’s, but I have used Sheetz a lot before and it flows very well both in displaying the options as well as suggestive selling that isn’t in your face and disruptive. As for groceries, Publix has always been perfect for me, while some others not as much. Walmart’s is 50/50 on if it will work okay or have some issue.
I wonder if there’s a list of what manufacturer supplies what kiosks and a correlation can be made.
Outside of the ordering, McDs has never been the best, but as they’ve dropped in quality to drive profits and still meet the demand that persists regardless, so have others. My favorite used to be Burger King in the 90s, but I will go to McD instead of stepping foot in a BK at this point, that’s how bad they are.
And the stupid thing is, none of them are doing anything much different. The quality doesn’t have to be this low in food and service. I can only assume the bottom line is greater if they sacrifice everything needed to keep standards up and maintain just enough to keep a minimum demand flowing.
Maybe it’s because I worked as a cashier for a while in college, but I don’t find self checkout to be any slower than a cashier. I also very rarely have it yell at me. Possibly also because I used to work the self checkout process at a grocery store, too.
The best thing is grocery stores where they have handheld scanners you can take with you in the store, you scan the item as you put it into your bag and on the way out you just scan the code on the self-service checkout and pay. Least effort possible, plus the scanner doesn’t have the “oh a speck of dust landed on the scales… obviously this means he’s trying to steal shit” issue.
I think early releases of self checkouts were extremely poor and buggy. I have had minimal issues over the last handful of years, most of them would have been issues a cashier would have needed to call for help for anyway.
I also don’t feel that I’m made to do extra work. I think having someone bag groceries is a luxury anyway, and most of the time it’s done differently than I would have. I can fit all of my stuff into two bags, while a cashier will split it across 5. Many cashier’s also don’t know the difference between various produce items that requires me to tell them, when I could have just done it myself.
The only time I don’t do self checkout is if I’m getting alcohol. At some locations, I would sooner wait behind someone finishing up their self checkout instead going to an empty cashier.
It really seems to be two 2️⃣ problems
- They’re not kiosks, they’re an assembly of components that don’t always work well together
- The stupid scales. I understand they want to prevent theft but they don’t, they just inconvenience people. If you want to control theft, either pay a cashier or maybe use cameras
And if you fuck up even a tiny bit, it starts screaming that you are an idiot loud enough for the whole store to hear until an attendant comes to help.
What is there to fuck up?
Not OP but some stores have these hyper-sensitive scales you put your bag/scanned items on. They can be super annoying as tiny differences in the weight will lock up the entire thing and you need someone to unlock it again. E.g. if you didn’t start with all your bags already on it and you try to add a new bag. Or the area is full and you want to remove and already full bag. Or you nudged something with your leg while scanning the next item.
Ah, never seen those. I don’t think we have anything like that over here in the Netherlands. You just scan the barcodes and put it in your bag. Alternatively you can grab a handheld barcode scanner at the entrance and just scan and put the stuff in your bag as you shop.
I don’t understand why they made them so tall that you can’t keep the entire screen in your field of view.
As I was typing my comment and thinking about the kiosks, the absurd height of them was the first thing that came to mind.
They don’t even have all the menu items. At least they didn’t last time I used one.
McDonald’s has been on a really steep decline for the last few years, it seems. They used to be tolerable; they weren’t the best fast food around, but they also weren’t the worst, and were generally a pretty good deal for your money. The last few times I’ve gone, the prices have been higher than the time before, and the quality lower than before.
The last time I went was nearly a year ago; my food was cold and my shake was melted, and it was nearly $20 for just one person. There’s just no reason to go back.
All fast food has been racing each other to total enshitification. I used to each so much taco bell, it was never good, but decent enough for the price. I had one of the large brown bags almost completely full of fire sauce. I haven’t gone in probably a year because their food got blander and more expensive. It feels like everything is just made from nutrient paste but made to look like foods that existed in the old world.
McDonald’s has been on the decline since I worked there 13 years ago. What you’re reporting as dry and overcooked is actually food that has been hot held long past the time it should have been thrown out. You can’t even get a burger patty that has been cooked within the past two hours most of the time unless you’re there during peak times.
While I’ve almost always read bad online reviews for McDonalds in the US, I think the experience might differ a lot in other places around the world, for context on what I’m about to write and why I think many people think the price is the worst offender.
Believe it or not, I’ve always had a good experience at any McDonalds I went to service wise. Over on this side of the pond they’re seen much more positively in general, I think. Their food is pretty good by fast food standards, and it’s way more consistent quality wise than pretty much every other fast food place. In the last few years they’ve also turned most of their restaurants from the typical fast food restaurant decor to cozier and actually comfortable places to hang out in, which is pretty cool.
BUT, the prices just don’t make much sense anymore. The price for a basic menu is currently near the price point of an actual restaurant meal. At shopping centers over here there’s usually always a couple of “somewhat fast” local food restaurants - I don’t know what to call them, kind of an in between between what you would call fast food and what you would expect from a “slow” fancier restaurant - and it’s actually become cheaper to get a normal menu there than at McDonalds. The one big attractive of McDonalds and fast food in general used to be price - but if it’s currently cheaper to get a full plate of great much better food, why would I ever go to McDonalds unless I’m really in a hurry? They seem to be counting on people still going there out of habit, but I think there’s not nearly as much of a fast food culture here, so I’ve started noticing that McDonalds around me have much fewer attendance than they used to.
I don’t know what to call them, kind of an in between between what you would call fast food and what you would expect from a “slow” fancier restaurant
Fast casual? Typical chains considered to be “fast casual” are Chipotle and Five Guys. A local taco/burrito/burger/sandwich place would probably fall in that category.
Well, in all fairness all food prices have gone up, and 4 of us cannot eat for $40 at a non fast food joint.
I am not surprised the service outside the US is better where labor laws are likely also better.
You know, that’s a good point.
I spent a couple years living in Australia: The McDonalds’ over there uses local Australian grass fed beef for all of its burgers and they were honestly delicious.
Moved back to Canada though and the McDs over here is just abysmal. I’d feel bad giving it to a stray dog…
It definitely varies region to region.
Had McDonald’s chicken nuggets in Canada a while back. They were made of real chicken. I’m jealous that Canada gets real food.
McDonalds in developed nations such as East Asia or Western Europe will generally taste much better for the same relative cost.
This is because the US has much, much weaker food regulations than other developed countries and allows all kinds of additives, treatments, and substitutions that are straight up banned in other nations.
This is why Americans tend to rave about the food whenever they travel internationally. Like, no sweetie, your country just allows businesses to feed you carcinogenic slop for luxury prices.
The McDonald’s kiosk sucks. It constantly tries to upsell you on every item or tries to get you to go back and add more items to your order even after you’re done ordering.
The last time I went there I got a 10 Mcnugget “value” meal which still ended up costing $13. For that much I could have gone to a better restaurant and gotten a similar amount of food of much better quality.
To me at this point the only benefit to ordering McDonald’s is convenience. They’ve basically turned what should be an inexpensive value product into a premium product, but the “premium” aspect of it is just that they’re open late lol
I’ve read that McDonald’s is pushing kiosks so hard because on average people order more when they use them vs cashier or drive-thru.
I haven’t been to McDonald’s in like 10 years barring once or twice for a mcflurry or any fast food place other than dominoes.
Street food fills the fast food hole much better. Fuck McDonald’s
I haven’t eaten McDonalds food since I grew out of the play-place’s. That’s right around the time I realized the food itself is garbage (compared to pretty much every other fast food chain); and the ‘quality’ has only gotten worse and worse over time, while the prices just keep rising.
Combine that with every location near me having better options on the same block and there’s no reason to ever visit a McDs.
Ya, same. I think I may have gotten a burger one time when I took my kid (now 14) in there for some ice cream 7-8 years ago. Then unfortunately twice this year. But I’m going to go back to normal of actively avoiding the place
Yeah, I have to have a very specific craving to go to McD’s. It’s always just so disappointing on so many levels.
Same. I’ve avoided going to McDonald’s since they discontinued the Arch Deluxe. I don’t care what the Internet says, that shit was good.
Anyway, I’m more of a char broiled burger guy, so burger king and Carl’s Jr were my thing.
Those stupid kiosks are the worst. And I ly there so they do t have to give another teenager minimum wage for taking orders, it’s not for our convenience at all.
Bingo. I bypass them the rare times I go and go straight to the counter to order like normal.
Honestly, it’s 9pm so unless the store is 24 hours (and even if it is) then they’ll be trying to close down a clean up and get things ready for the morning shift which starts early.
When I worked at McDs years ago a few big orders deciding to sit in the restaurant around 9pm could mean the difference between getting to go home at 12:30 and getting an OK nights sleep vs getting to go home at 2:30 and getting a terrible nights sleep before they might have to come in at 10am the next day.
You could argue that if they didn’t want customers at that time then they shouldn’t be open - which I would agree with - but obviously the low level grunts making your food don’t get to make those decisions.
It appears they close at midnight, and we got there just before 9pm
Too late then, I’m afraid you got the crew who were more concerned about getting home at a slightly more healthy hour than giving you fresh food.
Never go in to any restaurant past 9pm unless it’s in a busy metro area and there are other people about or you are getting food that caters to drunk and high people that can be taken away.
What? 3 hours before they close is late?
Take out is probably OK but as OP has experienced, you won’t always get the freshest food.
Dining in and you’re basically just annoying people.
Drive through is always prioritized way over orders inside
I don’t like the kiosks at all and it seems like the service is slower when you use them. It’s like no employee feels responsible for your order. The food can be good, the biggest variation I usually see is in the fries, sometimes they are hot and fresh and other times you can tell they’ve sat for a while.
As an ex McDicks employee the mistake is going into mcdonalds at the end of the night. Past 7pm things slow down and employees start heading home. And drive thru ordering is always prioritized over in store orders.
If you want good McDonalds show up in the lunch/dinner rush, all other times they’re running low on staff, and the food has sat in their warmers for eons. It’s also kind luck of the draw on if you get the employees that have 3 brain cells. Sometimes you’ll show up late when the non nose pickers are there and actually get good food. Other times you’ll get there and spend 10 minutes staring at a guy picking his nose looking at his phone instead of grabbing the food and putting it into the bag.
I just looked to confirm. They close at midnight and it was just before 9pm.
I like the kiosks and haven’t really received lukewarm fries, but the food IS overpriced, isn’t as fast as fast food should be, and quite often they mess up the order too.
I’m sure if you used the kiosk often you could learn it. I struggled to just order a 1/4 pounder meal. It wasn’t showing me combos.
But i don’t have any desire to learn it or visit McDonald’s :)
Nearly every burger was overcooked and quite dry.
I get stuck eating at McD once every month or two because of food deserts, and I would say it’s a borderline miracle if any of your burgers weren’t over cooked. They’re cooked from frozen on, basically, a giant panini press. And no one checks them, they just cook to until the machine dings… if there’s someone available to do anything about the ding, that is.
McDonalds doesn’t even use auto-lifters on the deep-fryer baskets either right?
The little bit of past kitchen work I’ve done (in a different restaurant), there were rails/actuators that would lift the baskets out of the oil when the timer went off; but I’ve never seen them in a McDs before. Much easier to overcook stuff.
It’s been a while since I’ve done kitchen work but I’ve never had an automatic lifter. We just had someone being paid to cook food and watch the fryer. The issues start piling up in places that make the cashier handle front, drive-thru, fryer, whatever else all at once rather than pay an extra $150 in labor for the day.
As of a few years ago at least, still no auto-lifters in the McD kitchens in my area.
They’re cooked from frozen on, basically,
They are literally taken right out of the freezer and put onto the grill.
I hate the kiosks. But, they are money makers.
As much as I agree that they create shitty experience, they generate so much more dollars per order than having a human take the order that they are never going to leave.
Not that I was there to begin with, but they 100% will push my parents out of there as they do not want to deal with them. I would think their primary long term customers were boomers, and they’re gonna reject Kiosks.
The kiosks are basically what keeps them afloat. All other fast food places are following suit due to their overwhelming financial success.
The McDonalds in my area is pretty amazing (Silverthorne CO). There’s always like 10 employees and it just hums in there. I only ever order from the app; I get a large fries no salt and a large unsweetened iced tea for $2. The fries are always fresh (no salt is key) and they are ready within a minute of me walking in the door.
As a fry jockey. Fuck you. I make all fries fresh to order but all you assholes online just tell people to order no salt fries to be “fresh” it might work at McDonald’s but lemme tell you where I work a no salt fry is made at my convenience and set aside because making a no salt fry means WIPING DOWN EVERYTHING COVERED IN SALT It is not a “hack” eveywhere.
Every other goddamn online order is “no salt” but also extra cheese, double bacon, extra pickle. It slows things down so much I’m actually trying to get no salts for online orders banned.
Hey friend, sorry about that, but there’s just way too much on them otherwise. I end up wiping them down with a napkin and giving up after a handful if they have the typical amount of salt on them—I don’t know how people do it
If you just want less salt I forgive you. If you are trying a fast food hack to get fresh fries when you would have gotten fresh fries anyway then that’s what makes my blood boil
Appreciate the comment! That said, I’m not looking to find ways to better my McDonald’s experience here :)
I just need to build that time since I was at McDonald’s back up. I wanted to vent after seeing the story about price likely causing their 1/4 results. I think there’s more to it.
It has to cost them more than $2 in materials and time for my order; I’m slowly putting them out of business ;p
Haha
