I have to admit I am liking the Mickey D’s app, for some of the deals and mostly for avoiding the lines at the drive thru. It’s life in the fast lane!
When I decide I want a little lunch or a breakfast nibble before I head out to run errands I fire up the app, place my order then drive to town. It thrills me to glide past the double line of cars, trucks with trailers etc piling up and coast into a reserved parking spot for mobile orders. Within 5 minutes a friendly employee brings me my order and I’m on my way. No squawking, no inching forward bumper to bumper, no tension at the merge lanes, no misunderstandings at the order window. Just prompt accurate service every time.
Also loving shop and scan, where I shop and scan items as I go along. Checkout is a breeze takes 5 minutes to pay, load coupons and go. I feel like a celebrity with an entire lane all to myself especially when the cashier and self checkout lines are clogged.
More people should get on the bandwagon. Who’s with me?
I’ve used the Taco Bell app before but the McDonald’s one is confusing to me. The way it’s described on the app, it seems like they don’t actually make my food until I check in, so why did I order ahead? I’m certain I must be misunderstanding something.
I usually order the fish sandwich, they always come out freshly hot and crisp. I would say they start the order once they get it? But they don’t bag it until you get there?
What do you like about the Taco Bell app?
BK is okay but you have to join the drive thru queue to let them know you’re there.
Well, you only want to eat the food when it’s fresh so that’s why they wait for you to get there. What if it takes you twenty or thirty minutes to drive over there? There would be a lot of wasted food if they made it as soon as you ordered it.
I feel like Taco Bell, and most other such places just make the food when you order it and it’s your responsibility to get there to pick it up in a timely manner. I order, drive over there, go to the drive-thru or inside, tell them who I am and they just hand it to me.
I admit I’ve never actually used the McDonald’s app to order food. I’m expecting it to work just like the above and it doesn’t seem to, but I concede I may be making bad assumptions.
The Sonic app has you tell them when you’ll be there (ASAP or I think 15 minute increments). I’m always ASAP which normally results in me pulling into a stall, checking in, and getting my blast within a couple of minutes (leading me to believe it was in the queue). I then drive past all the folks waiting in the drive-thru lane (which leads to another question - why would you get in the line, when you call pull into a stall, order, and your food is brought out - if nothing else, you save gas on idling).
McDonalds seems to have broken the app yesterday. It now opens, for me anyway, to a “Join my rewards plan” splash screen that I can’t get rid of. There’s a “join now” button that doesn’t work. I’ve forced quit on the app to see if it would reset itself, but no luck.
Annoying, I usually use the app about once a week.
I tried the McDonald’s app out a couple of weeks ago, just out of curiosity. I was not impressed. I ordered, drove to the local McDonald’s, parked in a “check in” spot, checked in, waited, and after what seemed like a long time (much longer than it would have taken to go through the drive through), an employee who was friendly but seemed to have some mobility issues came slowly walking out toward my car.
It’s my understanding they can see your driving progress via Bluetooth that and it’s nothing to keep the burgers and fries coming so as soon as you pull in they’re pulling together your order. Though I wonder about the fish, if they drop it when I’m within 5 miles so as it comes out piping hot.
Taco Bell is often made to personal preferences as to toppings so I can see why they’d wait.
One McD’s I had issues with because I’d park and the app wouldn’t see I had arrived. Rather than circle around to drive thru I canceled that order, fish sandwich, then order it again and poof it registered. But my meal still came out immediately.
The Starbucks app.
I know that when I’m out for a walk or a run, it (usually) takes about 2-4 blocks for my drink and/or snack to be ready. I enter my order and by the time I get to the Starbucks, it’s ready.
I don’t have any of the other restaurant apps.
That seems unlikely. Bluetooth doesn’t have enough range to track people like that. Presumably they could use Location Services on the phone to do so, but I turn off Location Services for almost every app, because of privacy concerns. For a very few apps, it’s on while I’m using the app.
I like the Target app. It allows you to add all your gift cards to your digital wallet. I always have a bunch of cards around with a couple of leftover dollars on them. Now they all go in the app.
To be honest, it’s a bit annoying that every store or restaurant I enter and every business or organization I interact with says, “Oh! Install our app!”. It’s too much. I was in a hospital that had a wayfinding system installed, but that of course required an app to be installed.
I’m sure most haircut chains have something similar now but I love being able to check wait times and pre check-in at SportsClips. Used to always be a crap-shoot on how long you might have to wait. Now I can check-in at home, show up an hour later, and be first in line.
Has McDonald’s started pushing their app recently? This morning, along with my Egg McMuffin, I was given a little flyer hawking the app, saying that it would give me a code that I can use when I order to earn points for big discounts! Something like a loyalty program, it sounds like.
I’ve honestly never used any fast food-related app. When I’m in the mood for fast food, I don’t really mind waiting in the line all that much. I kind of agree with Dewey_Finn that the overabundance of apps for every business you could possibly interact with is getting annoying.
I use the McDonald’s app because it offers special deals that save a few dollars regularly, but as an app I think it’s pretty poorly designed in a lot of ways. Search is slow and doesn’t update as you type. It often keeps tracking my location even after I’m not actively using it, forcing me to kill it manually. The order summary screen can only show a few items at a time, which means you have to scroll to make sure you’ve got the whole order.
Once I set my store, I can search for an item and it will tell me if it’s in stock, how many are in stock, what aisle it’s on and what bay I can find it in. It even has the correct location for things that were in special areas for promotional purposes, such as near the check out.
If it doesn’t have it in stock, it tells me which nearby stores have it and how many they have. It will also offer to ship it to my store or home with certain item categories.
The rewards is a new roll out iirc, not working for me either. I’m enrolled but it doesn’t generate a reward code I think the franchise has to participate.
Sonic! I would if I could. Exactly!
It’s the little things like coffee on demand that brighten our day!
True,But I do get a grin out of the bouncing fries
The Bkt is wtf, K Pop merch & stars posing with fast food?
Not getting it!
I would load that in a heartbeat anything to find my way about even if one time. I have a honey do at home so I’m spared.