back to article McDonald's ordering system suffers McFlurry of tech troubles

Technology certainly helped McDonald's process orders faster, but as soon as a computer fault hit, the burger behemoth was shuttled right back to the 90s. The fast food giant has become so dependent on its ordering system that following a tech meltdown, some restaurants simply gave up and shut their doors. Visitors to the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maccas closed?

    Arteries sigh with relief, cardiac arrests slightly delayed.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Maccas closed?

      Burger King probably had a Whopper of a day...

      1. cookieMonster Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Maccas closed?

        Oooooh, now that’s a burn.

        Upvote and a pint for you!!!

      2. hoola Silver badge

        Re: Maccas closed?

        Anyone remember Wimpy in the UK?

        Red vinyl bench seat things with a Formica table all bolted down.

        No forgetting the giant red tomato with ketchup......

        1. perkele

          Re: Maccas closed?

          Fellow old fart... Mother wouldn't buy me the knickerbocker glories (?) on the rare chance we "eat out" if dragging a bored bratlet around town.

          Oh the innocent time of the 70s.

        2. Outski

          Re: Maccas closed?

          And food served on proper plates.

          Last one I saw was on Kingsway in London, c 2001, wonderful.

        3. FirstTangoInParis Bronze badge

          Re: Maccas closed?

          > Anyone remember Wimpy in the UK?

          Wimpy still lives on in South Africa. Many main road services have a Wimpy also many shopping malls. And the coffee is awesome.

          But none of that beats Roosterkoek, bread baked on the braii (bbq to northern hemisphere peeps).

          1. PG2255

            Re: Maccas closed?

            Wimpy still lives on in UK too.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Maccas closed?

              As do poverty, bad coffee, and body odour.

        4. TheMeerkat Silver badge

          Re: Maccas closed?

          > Anyone remember Wimpy in the UK?

          It still exists.

        5. Azium

          Re: Maccas closed?

          Wimpy are still in the UK. If ever you're fortunate enough to be in Streatham, there's one there that's exactly the same as it was in the 70s (the staff too, bless).

          Well almost the same. They have updated their menu to include a plant-based option!!!

  2. heyrick Silver badge

    Why does it need global scope connectivity to process orders locally?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      “global scope connectivity”

      Those McNugget mines are a long way away!

    2. Tom66

      Some idiotic decision somewhere. Perhaps some stock control or auditing system needs to be up to place an order rather than doing a daily reconciliation?

    3. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Because The CloudTM, obviously.

      It is impossible today to handle things locally. That's just not how business is done now. You have to have your ordering system, your procurement system and your payroll in The CloudTM.

      So, when The CloudTM fucks up, you're out of business.

      Personally, I rather like this result.

      1. FirstTangoInParis Bronze badge

        > Because The CloudTM, obviously

        You don’t want to have to fix an on-prem McServer covered in McGoo, did you?

    4. perkele

      Probably American thinking.

      Englandshire, that's somewhere near Boston maybe.

      Hong Kong, ah china town, must be NY.

      or just shit planning :!)

      1. Korev Silver badge
        Pirate

        Probably American thinking.

        Englandshire, that's somewhere near Boston maybe.

        Well, Boston is in Lincolnshire....

  3. Forget It

    Click ☰ menu

    and reboot.

    I'm loving it!

    1. Mark 78
      Coat

      Re: Click ☰ menu

      Or "I'm Loving IT" ?

  4. spold Silver badge

    McFried

    We apologise for the sudden personal service. Normal disservice will be resumed as soon as possible.

    "Hey, have you seen my buns?".

  5. wolfetone Silver badge

    "Because god forbid anyone would want to verbally place their order with another human in 2024."

    I don't go to McDonalds very much now, but every one I've been to in the last 6 months is laid out in such a way where there is no one to speak to in order to place an order. They all want you to use those crappy stand up massive tablet screens. There is a counter but no one is ever at it (or looks to be at it) unless they're there shouting out the order number for collection.

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Pint

      Table service

      Astonishingly, McDonalds now offer table service. Pick a table, sit down, use the App to place your order, they'll bring it to you. I am quietly impressed, unusually.

      GJC

      1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

        Re: McDonalds now offer table service

        Aha, that's where the fault lies. Someone, somewhere said something about Dropping a Table.

        1. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
          Coat

          Re: McDonalds now offer table service

          Bobby?

      2. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: Table service

        "Astonishingly, McDonalds now offer table service."

        They've done that for ages (6-7 years?) here in France. End result? Fewer staff needed (the only till is now usually [*] for those annoying people paying in coins) and the various McWaitresses have been dehumanised into biological robots. I can't imagine there's much in the way of job satisfaction in that. At least they finally copied The Crown Place and put little chips in the number widgets so the staff know where you're sitting instead of walking in circles trying to read all the numbers to find the right one (and memorise some of the others for next time) - it was the anticipated level of utter chaos during the busy periods.

        "I am quietly impressed"

        I'm usually impressed when they can get your order delivered in under ten minutes when there's nobody else there. Some McDos understand the "fast" in fast food, but most of them are so lackadaisical that they'll get the chips made and stuck in the chip holder quite quickly but by the time everything else is ready the chips are not just cold and icky, but damn near fossilised. And the burger that took so long to prepare? Colder than a corpse in a coffin. They need to stick a microwave in the corner for those of us that like our peculiarly processed proteins something resembling warm.

        * - They do make exceptions for older people ordering coffee and croissants if they figure said old person wouldn't have a hope of getting on with the pokey-proddy device.

        1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
          Holmes

          Re: Table service

          Did you previously have that same downer on waiting staff in other restaurants? Maybe you should try talking to the McDonalds "biological robots" you despise so much, perhaps that would bring in some job satisfaction for them? Is it, in short, just possible that you are the problem, rather than being the solution you so obviously think you are?

          <wanders off, shaking head>

          GJC

        2. Dostoevsky Bronze badge
          Joke

          Re: Table service

          Wow. Remind me not to eat European hamburgers. :)

          — A Texan

      3. mistersaxon

        Re: Table service

        Blimey, it’s Geoff! You still on Cix?

        1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: Table service

          Wotcha!

          No, sadly I left after one threatened law-suit too many. The old place had degenerated into a cess-pit of grumpy, bitter old men by then, so while I was saddened to go, I don't miss it. We had fun while it lasted, though, didn't we?

          GJC

    2. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Linux

      I actually prefer the massive tablet things. It gives me a chance to peruse the menu at my pace rather than being subject to the random timings on the advert screens behind the tills.

      Mine's the fish (see icon ->)

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Alert

        Are you sure you prefer the touchscreens?

        Poo found on every McDonald’s touchscreen tested

        Mmm, finger lickin' good.

      2. Outski

        Can't stand them, the ones in our high street branch don't ever seem to work for me - the branch manager got irate when I pointed it out. A portly gentleman, he wasn't amused when I asked if his ire was due to him having eaten all the stock.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Our local McDs replaced its counters with the touchscreens and destaffed accordingly. With the extensive use of white wall tiles, and shorn of the expected trappings of a sales counter it's now got the ambience of a public toilet. Put me off, but the local peasantry don't seem fazed.

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Holmes

        I amused by the implication that McDonalds was somewhere one might go for the ambiance. We used to have Wimpy for the more discerning diner.

        GJC

        1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

          It has been a long time, but McD's used to be a fun place for the family to go, with colorful characters, etc. Birthday parties at McDonald's were real bragging rights to kids. Now it may as well be a Soviet blockhouse cafeteria. Eventually we'll just be getting in line to accept our 1 McMeal per person per day. There will be no menu.

    4. Benny Cemoli

      Lack of McDonalds Staff

      And that's because all those McDonalds employees demanding $20/hour to stand behind a register and shovel crappy food to the customer didn't consider the consequences of actually getting that $20/hr. As a result franchisees installed those kiosks and terminated most of the counter staff as an unneeded payroll expense. At least that's what happened here in the United States. Not sure about what happened in the rest of the world.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Lack of McDonalds Staff

        McD's don't pay so high in the US, they only get paid slightly over the federal minimum wage which hasn't risen in over a decade... but their jobs are getting automated away anyway. They do get paid $22/hr in Denmark. Source

        By the way, Denmark has no minimum wage.

      2. Shalghar Bronze badge

        Re: Lack of McDonalds Staff

        Even when the "human resources" are cheaper than automated systems, automated systems will come everywhere. Greed above all. And greed is something different than wanting to have a living wage, which somewhat needs to raise when prices keep on rising.

        What corporations dont seem to understand (reference to "making money", Terry Pratchett) is that their workers also are their customers, be it directly or indirectly and that whats called "money" in these times is worth nothing at all when staying static in much too greedy pockets. It needs to circulate to have any semblance of value and you need a lot of people to actually believe this has value. After all, the only important difference between "legal tender" and the stuff in a monopoly box is firm belief that one paper should have value while the other is for playing around.

        As it seems there are a lot of people in the "financial industry" who dont get that distinction right.

        Back to the article, really bad design. One cloudy outage taking down payment and ordering worldwide is a perfect example why one should keep everything necessary to keep running on prem and abuse "the cloud" only for synchronization and maybe backups instead of internal harddisk.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Come on own up. Who ordered the filet-o-fish crashing it worldwide? I doubt it was tested in UAT.

    If I was to hazard a guess at the real cause, my money would be on something to do with the mac address.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      I reckon that something was wrong with the chips...

      1. Tom66

        One of the systems got fried. They shouldn't have specified systems with the power of a potato.

        1. Giles C Silver badge

          They needed a proper potato pc

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWBzsBaU-Os

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The chips are down?

    2. Sudosu Bronze badge

      They forgot to tell marketing that they cannot have the McRib and Shamrock Shake available on the menu at the same time or it will crash the system.

      Maybe we will be lucky and they will restore it to a point where we can get the Mulan szechuan chicken nugget sauce again...

    3. Roger Kynaston
      Happy

      They migrated to Apple

      And they ran so hot that everything melted.

      I couldn't squeeze a raspberry pi crap joke in though.

    4. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
      Devil

      Someone made the mistake of connecting the McFlurry machines to the network, with predictable results...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

    It’s just as well I dislike whatever it is that McDonalds serve as food.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

      Well, those horrible touch screen are on the march - you'll find the same in several other fatty food outlets. Even more troubling, the other half encountered these abominations in a Marks & Sparks cafe. Clearly M&S don't know their customers very well.

      1. cyberdemon Silver badge
        Terminator

        Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

        And quite often, they will have a camera inside. Shortly they'll be reading your facial expressions and decide what you want before you've even poked your finger at it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

          Gonna need wide angle cameras ...

        2. spold Silver badge

          Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

          Uh-oh they are smiling - the quality level is too high, we can make some savings here....

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

            Smiling? In my case they'll be looking at the pictures and thinking "wow, that angry oldster looks like he's going to tear somebody's head off and shit down their neck! Look at those throbbing neck veins, and how he's punching the machine and shouting abuse because the ordering interface is shite, the touch technology is erratic, and the whole thing doesn't work quickly or effectively."

            1. heyrick Silver badge
              Facepalm

              Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

              "and the whole thing doesn't work"

              I used to get the ones in my local burger slinger (about five years ago when I frequented such establishments) to speak to me in Japanese.

              Why? You can get surprisingly far if you can read katakana, and if not there are always pictures. But the main reason is that it amused me no end that the system was clearly neither thought out nor actually ever tested - because it would happily print your receipt.......as line upon line of nothing but question marks.

              And, yes, I'm exactly the sort of annoying bastard that would hand over such a receipt to pick up my "get it later" hot chocolate.

              Hey, ain't my fault if you don't bother to test your ordering system...and, anyway, why are you idiots not providing the collection receipt in user language and local language for the employees that will have to read the thing? Didn't think this through did you?

              Icon for obvious reasons.

              1. Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch Silver badge

                Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

                My favourite language option on a self service terminal is the loans desk at my local library. Touch the Skull and Crossbones flag and ye can put it in talk like a pirate mode. Avast, ye scurvy dogs!

        3. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

          Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies

          .... Before ordering something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike food!

          Share and Enjoy!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Back in the day....

    I used to love getting the tills to print out their takings, entering it into a ledger, using a calculator, and then into a Husky device (this, by the way, was after closing, so, literally, in the small hours) only for the Husky to report an error, and you'd have to start all over again. The youth of today have no idea just how good they have it.

    Anon because of some of the antics we'd get up to...

  9. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Can you spell "SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE"?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      M-C-D-O-N-A-L-D-S

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Roopee Silver badge
    Flame

    Doing their bit...

    ...to improve the health of the nation (or world in this case).

    icon: flame-grilling is the only bit that adds any taste...

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: Doing their bit...

      "flame-grilling is the only bit that adds any taste..."

      Isn't that the other place?

      1. Michael Strorm Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Doing their bit...

        > Isn't that the other place?

        Isn't "the other place" normally a euphemism for hell?

        I'll bet they have no problem flame grilling things there!

        1. Outski

          Re: Doing their bit...

          Or House of Lords (which often seems like a final resting place)

        2. Korev Silver badge
          Coat

          Re: Doing their bit...

          >> Isn't that the other place?

          > Isn't "the other place" normally a euphemism for hell?

          Yes, we mean Oxford

          1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

            Is there such a thing as "Thames Valley humour"? We may never care...

            Is this an Oxford v. Cambridge thing, or just some Thames Valley humour aimed at the town itself based on some local rivalry?

            1. Korev Silver badge

              Re: Is there such a thing as "Thames Valley humour"? We may never care...

              The former

  11. Aladdin Sane
    Coat

    Not lovin' IT

    Yes, yes, I know...

  12. jonathanr7670

    'Because god forbid anyone would want to verbally place their order with another human in 2024.'

    You make that sound like a bad thing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Every dollar that minimum wage goes up (along with all the related taxes) makes automation more feasible for companies.

      The "living wage" crowd have pushed this to the point where the jobs will be automated.

      Young people will lose an opportunity to learn the work ethics that come from these types of jobs

      The focus should really have been on helping people get better education and skills that allow them to earn more than minimum wage...that would be an actual investment.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Young people will lose an opportunity to learn the work ethics that come from these types of jobs"

        I think that boat sailed a long time back.

      2. sqlrob

        "The "living wage" crowd have pushed this to the point where the jobs will be automated."

        Baloney, it's pure greed. Denmark has decent pay for McDonald's workers and has for a while.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          If "pure greed" is the reasoning, then automation will be the answer unfortunately.

      3. david 12 Silver badge

        The original 1960's "McDonalds system" was designed to eliminate labour. The innovative feature of which they were most proud was the elimination of tables: just a walk-up window, no waiters or bus-boys.

        1. Ken Shabby
          Alert

          Each McDonalds creates about 50 jobs, 25 heart surgeons and 25 dentists.

        2. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

          No Tables

          Does anyone here remember "drive-in" restaurants, where you would drive your car up and park in a covered space, and the waitresses -- "car-hops" -- high-school girls in short skirts and on roller-skates -- would skate up to your car window to take your order, and then later, skate back with a car-tray with your food? (The tray had rubber-coated hooks which went over the glass of your mostly-open car window.) That was service!

          Now your "fast food" is not fast, and "drive-thru" means, "wait in line, inside your car, burning gasoline as you do so."

          1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

            Re: No Tables

            There is still a chain called Sonic Drive-In like that in the US. You order through a speaker (it's always been that way), but they still bring it out to you. Sadly not pretty girls or guys in skimpy clothing, but they still wear skates. The company even has skating competitions for "top carhop".

      4. JamesTGrant Bronze badge

        Not even allowed to shove kid’s hands in the loom to fetch the shuttle anymore - how are kids supposed learn the value of gruel?

  13. Mr Dogshit

    Oh no!

    Those, poor, hungry chavs had to go to Greggs instead.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh no!

      You jest, but the concern amongst certain people in my workplace this morning was tangible.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh no!

      Be glad that Greggs exists for those scummy plebs you look down on. That way you don't run the risk of any of them accidentally mistaking Pret a Manger as an alternative and trying to chat with you while you queue up to buy an obscenely overpriced cheese sandwich before you rush back to your desk job.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh no!

        Lolz; I'm just laughing at the concept of a Pret here in Whitburn, West Lothian. Nah, it's Greggs, McDonalds or whatever other UPF-slinging trash is current. Wouldn't bother with Pret even if it were here tbh - bring my own lunch so I know what I'm eating.

  14. Andy Non Silver badge

    Only been to McD's

    a couple of times in thirty years. On both occasions without managing to buy anything. Both times I fancied a cheese burger but was greeted with "Sorry sir, we are only serving the breakfast menu at the moment." So I went elsewhere.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only been to McD's

      "a couple of times in thirty years. On both occasions without managing to buy anything. Both times I fancied a cheese burger but was greeted with "Sorry sir, we are only serving the breakfast menu at the moment." So I went elsewhere."

      With a shotgun, IIRC. I've seen the movie, think it was Michael Douglas played you.

      However, you missed out - the sausage and egg muffin is pretty decent, comes with the same "cheese" as a the alleged cheeseburger, but tastes much better. Still junk, but a very satisfying form of junk.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only been to McD's

      The first I understand. The second time not so much,

      1. Andy Non Silver badge

        Re: Only been to McD's

        I'd just got off a ferry and was famished. McD was handy and I wondered if, after my experience two decades earlier, they had relented in their strange menu restrictions. Turned out not.

        The earlier visit to McD's was etched in my memory as the guy behind the counter, presumably the franchise owner, got quite angry when I said, "No problem, I'll get one from the burger van twenty yards away in the market." He was livid that someone else dared to sell burgers within proximity to his outlet.

        1. Bruce Ordway

          Re: Only been to McD's

          Similarly, I quit McDonald's in the 70's since I always asked to hold the pickles, mustard & onions

          Even after a LONG wait there was always a good chance my burger would include at least one of those undesired condiments.

          1. david 12 Silver badge

            Re: Only been to McD's

            There's a lovely MAD magazine illustration ("What really happens") showing how they handle special orders :) A pimply-faced youth crouched down behind the back counter peeling the cheese off a stock-item burger...

          2. biddibiddibiddibiddi

            Re: Only been to McD's

            That's just fast food and poorly-paid workers in general. Mine lately has been having trouble with even putting sauce into the bag when ordering McNuggets.

        2. Michael Strorm Silver badge

          Re: Only been to McD's

          > their strange menu restrictions

          Supposedly it's impractical to have the kitchen set up to deliver different types of food/menus at the same time (e.g. extra space required, the need to have separate ovens/grills at different temperatures for cooking eggs and burgers, etc).

          They could probably do it, the question is whether it would be worth the additional cost and disruption (to a setup that works best when it's kept simple) for the occasional unemployed former defence engineer who wants a breakfast item at lunchtime- or, in your case, vice versa- is open to question.

          Conversely, the burger van guy probably doesn't do enough business to make it worth *his* time to even bother with separate menus, so that happened to work out for you.

  15. chivo243 Silver badge
    Stop

    My last meal at McDs

    Was in a McD's in France over a year ago, all the french fry\chip containers were re-usable, all drinking cups were reusable... maybe the food was too come to think of it..

    1. Diogenes

      Re: My last meal at McDs

      There is a special place in hell reserved for those who invented the bamboo cutlery and the inventors of the paper straws that become unusable before you have finished half your drink that Maccas uses.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: My last meal at McDs

        "There is a special place in hell reserved for those who invented the bamboo cutlery and the inventors of the paper straws that become unusable before you have finished half your drink that Maccas uses."

        I think you have David Attenborough and his producer to thank for that. A staged shot of a turtle in a plastic bag, and first world politicos rushed to outlaw single use plastics, totally ignoring that we've got a pretty decent waste collection system. The inventors were merely trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to fill the gap.

        If you're willing to "go prepared", then buy yourself some plastic straws and cutlery, keep them in the car.

    2. biddibiddibiddibiddi

      Re: My last meal at McDs

      I barely trust them to make the food clean. I don't trust them to constantly be washing re-usable utensils and containers.

    3. Michael Strorm Silver badge

      Re: My last meal at McDs

      > Was in a McD's in France over a year ago

      [ Insert obligatory quote about Quarter Pounders and the metric system ]

      You should have gone into Burger King, so we could finally have found out what they call a Whopper over there.

  16. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Their app is abysmal

    I've yet to have it start in under two minutes. Five is common.

    No idea WTF it's trying to do in that time.

    1. Lurko

      Re: Their app is abysmal

      Almost every company app is rubbish, IMHO. I think it all starts off with some airhead in marketing saying "Hey everybody, we need to have a corporate app!"

      This rule even applies to companies you'd hope would be able to do something competent with technology, such as Sony.

  17. david 12 Silver badge

    Considerably worse than the 90's

    --- and much worse than the 80's.

    In the 90's the counters were set with multiple stations to handle the fast turn-around of walk-up customers.

    In the 80's, the system used pre-cooked items, you were served off the shelf.

    1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

      Re: Considerably worse than the 90's

      How is pre-cooked food that's been sitting under warmers better? Faster, yes, but I'm happy that most places moved away from that. I went to a famous burger joint in Atlanta a few years ago that still did things like that, just continuously making the same burgers and fries and piling them up waiting for customers to order them, and even though it wasn't sitting for a long time, it was absolutely awful. McD's does obviously still to have many things cooked a little ahead to keep up with demand, but at least they're not pre-assembled so each item can be kept at its own proper temperature, and the items that don't do well when left to sit get made when needed.

      Although somehow they still can't make a burger that can melt the slices of processed cheese product, even when straight off the griddle.

      1. david 12 Silver badge

        Re: Considerably worse than the 90's

        Well, I was referring to the ordering system, not the food quality, but it wasn't something I objected to. Much fresher than the home-delivered pizza, and by my preference, better than the bulk-cooked chicken from the warmer at that other franchise.

        One of the things McD has done to compensate is they've moved from frozen patties to chilled patties. The product is different, and arguably more "authentic", more like "not from frozen meat", and most people prefer steak from chilled rather than from frozen, but it's not at all clear that chilled ground beef makes better hamburgers than frozen ground beef: many people think the current product is just somehow not as good as they remember, and undoubtably that's partly because the product is more evenly cooked -- less on the outside, more on the inside.

        1. biddibiddibiddibiddi

          Re: Considerably worse than the 90's

          They've only done that for one particular item (quarter pounder), and I do notice an improvement, but I also prefer meat that is more thoroughly cooked (medium is the bare minimum for me; I used to cook everything to leather but got better about it as I got older; it's a neurodivergency thing). Generally freezing meat is considered to have at least a slight effect on quality. And "not as good as I remember" in this case is often just "I'm getting older" where everything tastes better in the past, both due to nostalgia and changes in tastebuds. (Chicken nuggets with dark meat however are absolutely better in every way, in every brand.) But anything that has sat under a warmer for more than a few minutes has started to degrade in quality.

  18. NITS

    fast food

    Why do they call it fast food? Because they make you fast before you get your food.

  19. Paul Cooper

    Hong Kong was OK with in-person ordering

    The screens were dark at my local Hong Kong branch yesterday; but even given the language difficulties (I speak little Cantonese), I was able to place my order and get it much quicker than I expected - just long enough to move from the ordering point to the collection point!

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

  21. Gene Mosher

    I was entering orders on a touchscreen with a graphical interface and printing them in the kitchen in 1986. Everything ran very smoothly back in the day.

  22. LordZot

    Ironic

    Just when they finally had the thick shake machine fixed.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "They then go and wait approximately three months to receive their empty calories."

    Usually behind 6 deliveroo drivers waiting for order number Z087C01.

    Grates me that the person who can't be bothered to leave their house is ahead of me in the queue...

    1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
      Coat

      I order ahead via the app, rather than face (Well listen to) the horrors of the accent of the day at the drive through's crappy speaker.

      Arrive, park up & let them bring it to me.

      I had one "Karen*" server bemoan to me that the pickup driving spaces were only for delivery drivers not customers (Despite the signage & app saying otherwise), I'm sure her cow-orkers appreciated my passive aggressive retaliation by parking up in the most awkward stalls to walk to in -10 to -30C temps for my next few visits.

      *I very much doubt that was her name however.

  24. Gwydion

    So McDonalds outage on Friday followed by Sainsbury and Tesco online orders failing the day after, and all three claiming it was a config change.

    Sounds like they all use a common platform somewhere...

  25. Andrew Scott

    Mass turnpike usa

    purely human interaction at least for the first two McDonalds on I90 going west. Have seen McDonalds with the order screens before you get to the counter, and use them at panera, Actually, come to think of it, i think i remember seeing one of these systems installed at the first McDonalds in natick, but it's not there anymore. Seems to me i remember trying to buy a small cup of coffee at one of these, and it couldn't be done.

    1. It depends.....

      Re: Mass turnpike usa

      Mass Turnpike...Natick Mall.... sigh!

      True story - I am a Brit, I joined EMC at the turn of the century, back in the days when most of the training was still based over in Hopkington/Milford and so we visited the area frequently. As we were usually billeted at hotels near the I-90 (I lost track of how often I stayed at The Sheraton Castle at Framingham!) I got to know the area fairly well. As someone who had disliked McD's burgers since my early teens, I had my first ever sausage & egg McMuffin over there - and to this day, it is still the only thing that I will ever eat from them. Plus we would always visit Wrentham Mall to stock up on cheap Levis and Bose headphones .... great memories!

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