Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/25/post-covid-mcdonalds-will-surveil-your-approach-and-prepare-your-meal-just-in-time.html
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One positive thing of personal post COVID is I have not had fast food since February and lost weight.
I will keep this up for some time.
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I remember thinking just this would be an awesome functionality for road trips (not just for drive throughs, certainly not just for McDonalds) - show me the restaurants on my current travel route, with their menus filtered to only the things whose prep time is less than my anticipated arrival time, so I can place an order online or by phoning them, and know that it will likely be ready when I arrive.
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There’s a reason why I don’t have the McDonald’s app on my phone, despite the temptation to get it in order to do the whole ‘order online and pick up’ thing, and that is the app is absolute and utter garbage. I put it there once, and before I could even register on it, it was all ‘coupon this’, ‘deal on that’, and nothing about ‘click here to make an account, then I’ll ask if I can use location services to find the nearest store, and here’s our menu for you to order from.’ (not necessarily in that order.) It got nuked off the phone shortly thereafter.
A couple of the other local fast food places have apps that are actually usable, or just act as a fancy wrapper around their existing online ordering web site.
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It’s fast food, FFS. How much faster does it really need to be?
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I don’t drive. So now, most of the fast food joints on the strip near me, will no longer do business with me. I did end up downloading the DQ app so that I could place an order and have it brought to the door for me, it’s like they’ve reinvented the automat without the dining room.
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If customers are assumed to be part of the entire ‘system’, then — in a sense — this would qualify as Just-in-Time Manufacturiing…if you take into account the customers’ nutritional needs. 
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I don’t know the answer to that. But I’m thinking that if the world’s population continues to grow, and the same percentage of people still want to get that food, then it would become slower, unless something is done to speed it up.
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They’ll just open more branches. Problem solved. 
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When ever has a customer needed an offering to expire after a limited time?!
It’s raining out- are you sure you don’t want the McChicken instead?
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I could see an order-ahead app-driven system possibly reducing food waste. No mention of food waste?
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Good thing i don’t normally eat at McD’s. But assuming one of the other places i get food at does this i would not be pleased if it was done without my consent
Pre-COVID, I’ve walked into a few McD’s in varied western USA locales and immediately walked out because stench. What tasteless schmoes find McD’s acceptable?
Meanwhile, my mountainous county possesses about a dozen FF drive-thrus but limited cell access so calling in an order is rarely an option. Anything concerning such is IMHO a first-world problem.
I actually applaud this as getting closer to the actual original promise of fast food. At traditional slam times as well as late evening, I’ve had wait times of 30-40 minutes. Demoralizing when you’re on the road trying to make good time, or you’re headed home after getting off work at 10pm and just want something quick.
Currently the McDonalds app lets you order ahead of time but they won’t start preparing the food until you arrive and check in. It is the most ridiculously useless thing in the world.
Well, that’s a complete fail, right there, isn’t it.
I have not been in one of those places for the best part of two decades, but when I did the longest wait I ever had was the length of the queue in front of me plus the couple of mins wait to get my order handed to me. I’d be gobsmacked if it was ever more than 10 mins or so in total. If the queue to order was too long, I’d go elsewhere, but it rarely was - when queues build up, they open more tills. Maybe they operate differently these days. But it’s fairly rare for any McD not be be close to umpteen other fast food choices, in my experience. (I may not go in them any more but I see them and know where they are located.)
But if they are so inefficient as to allow 30-40 mins queues I can see why this might be an attractive move for them.
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Yeah, I was going to make a crack about that, but remembered that some locations (near me, for example) will do special offers on double-patty fish sandwiches on Fridays, and during Lent. So it is a real thing.
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Good eye finding that example. Not sure how you came up with it without a mountain of data and a million-dollar algorithm!
Kidding aside, computing is great and all- I just feel like the gains to be made from this would be marginal and would in no way lead to cheaper food or better wages.
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Post-Covid McDonald’s
I wasn’t fucking with McD’s before the pandemic, so I sure as hell won’t be eating any afterward.
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Mabey while they re revamping they can get a new ronald mcDonald . trying to think of someone that has the recent clowning experience , really likes fast food and is going to be looking for a new gig in the next couple of months…but nothing comes to mind.
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There is that bit in Super Size Me where Spurlock asks several nutritionists about how often one should eat fast food like McD’s. Most of them say something like “maybe once or twice a month”.
One of them adamantly states: never ever, unless there is some sort of disaster going on like a raging pandemic.
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