If you’ve been to a new McDonald’s lately you may have noticed the largest fast food chain in the world is starting to embrace technology. A recently opened McDonald’s outside of Chicago looked more like a coffee shop than a McDonald’s. Gone were the standard hard booths and in their place were wrap around tables with video monitors, interactive games and tablets. Even the menu boards were digitized.
Well it seems over in Australia they’re even further ahead in the technology cycle.
McDonald’s of Western Australia has introduced a new mobile app that will allow patrons to view the entire menu, and order ahead. Customers in Western Australia will even be able to customize their sandwiches, letting the fast food giant know ahead of time to hold the pickles or add extra special sauce.
Now you may be wondering just how this fast food ordering ahead will be executed. The way they described it is very similar to the technology that several American stadiums are using to let you order ahead and pay from the concession stand.
Customers will first select the items they want from the McDonald’s menu. They’ll then customize their order, and add drinks. After that they will check out using a debit card or credit card that’s already been linked to the app. Their order will then go into a queue until the arrive at the McDonald’s location where a special scanner will be waiting for the barcode generated from their phone. The customer will scan their phone barcode from the app with the scanner either at the counter or the drive thru. That will signal the restaurant to prepare the food and then their order will be ready.
McDonald’s on a global scale has always been tweaking ways they can make the experience even quicker and if this goes well they will.
Right now there have been no plans announced for any other market but we can expect that if it goes well in Western Australia it will one day end up in the US in McDonald’s more progressive markets.
To encourage people to use the service McDonald’s of Western Australia are offering 50% off all orders made through their mobile app on Friday December 6th. The app, in Western Australia, is called My Macca’s.
