Be CAREFUL with this particular McDonald's location, have questioned their Drive thru tactics now 3 times to them. This marks the third time in a row that I went through Drive thru ordered a small meal and was asked to park my car in the parking lot and staff would bring out the food.
The first time I was confused why but parked anyways, the second time it happened I questioned the "runner" of the food why this happened and they said it was Managements decision with the hopes of speeding up times to put through the cars.
The third time and this time that happened last night I order 2 double cheeseburgers and a Med Fries, note that there was already a car ahead of me. When I went to pay I noticed the car in front of me didn't get their food and pulled forward. Then I paid and drove to the next window and was told by the girl that I had to move my car up and park and that a staff member would bring the food out to me. I questioned to her why she was "quing" my car upfront for something like cheeseburgers and fries. She told me it was because they were waiting on the cheeseburgers??
keep in mind when you order at the speaker, the order starts to get made, and I had one person in front of me slowing down the time to get the food so there was no reason then why I needed to park my car up front. So I questioned the girl again asking why I needed to be qued for something that should already be made, she told me again I had to pull my car around so I questioned her again? and she let out a visible sigh closed the window and in less than 10 seconds presented my rolled up bag with order inside.
When I asked her how she could all of a sudden have my food, she said that oh we took it from an order in the restaurant...nope don't believe it!. When I called and spoke with the acting manager there she told me it was because there was a coffee order behind me and they wanted to get that customer served right away....keep in mind I order my food at the speaker and the staff is already making these burgers, you never need to wait for meat replenishment from the grills, having worked for McDs for 3 years.
When I asked why the staff had me park my car for this order, the manager said that they were waiting for the fries, even though the girl who handed me the food said she was waiting for the double cheeseburgers. One thing to note aswell is that both the fries and the burger were luke warm, there's no way they were waiting for either and again when I questioned why they were parking me, immediately were able to present my order seconds later rolled up in the bag with napkins straw and receipt??
The reason this McDs does this is to fudge their drive thru times. McDs management are graded on drive thru times and when higher ups come into the restaurants for inspection one of the crucial things they measure are the Drive Thru times, you are expected to take and serve the order in 2 mins or less. I believe they start the time when the order is placed and then stop the time and "que" the cars so that the Drive Thru times are distorted to appear faster than what they are.
The second time this had happened to me at this restaurantm they had "qued" 6 cars in a row, literally customers are parked bumper to bumper in the parking lot all waiting for their food before one runner came out with multiple bags in hand trying her best to distribute the correct bags to the correct cars,...several times getting the wrong order to the wrong car and fumbling trying to find the correct vehicle. You can't tell me there was a food slow down issue with 6 cars in a row going through Drive Thru? I don't think so.
Be careful with this location, other than for Chicken related menu items and the Filet O Fish which are cooked in smaller batches and take the longest in the fryers to come out, nothing else should be "qued" where you have to park your car. Clearly calling them out on this when it happened the third time was able to produce the already prepared bag in seconds, even though parking my car would have resulted in a several mins wait time on my end.
Question the Drive Thru staff at this location if they ask you to park your car and ask them why they are parking you, it will likely have your food mysteriously appear out of nowhere. Just so you know this isn't a correct practice for McDs and if they are doing this to fudge their drive thru times to make themselves look better while sacrificing customer loyalty and the convenience for the customers ordering, then they are shooting themselves in the foot and can get into serious problems with their headoffice as McDonald's frowns upon this distortion of Drive Thru time read more
