When McDonald’s restaurants first hit the scene decades ago, you would drive up and somebody would come out to take your order. We all know that it evolved into a drive-up system first with a single window, then with two or more. Know, you can skip the drive-thru process entirely, and you won’t even have to set foot inside the restaurant thanks to the McDonald’s app usable in an increasingly wide network of places around Michigan.
While not every McDonald’s is wired into the network yet, some 500 Michigan McDonald’s restaurants now allow you to place an online order through the McDonald’s app, pay for it online, and just drive over at the appointed time that you want your order to be ready and pick it up. You’ll have the option of picking things up in one of three locations — in a special curbside parking area exclusively for online orders…at the drive-thru itself…or you can, if you wish, go inside to retrieve your custom made order.
The essential goal is to give you the ultimate control of placing your order ahead of time, up to 24 hours in advance, and it will be filled once your arrive at the restaurant you have selected through the online order application.
The new “Mobile Ordering” concept is, according to McDonald’s officials, “The latest way that we’re building a better McDonald’s by providing customers with more choices, engagement and services.”
Because your online order is pre-paid, the ultimate on-site transaction is even speedier and the ability to order exactly the meal that you would like with whatever special instructions you like helps avoid any potential mistakes in the process.
If you are a regular who has a favorite meal that you order regularly, the app is even more valuable, because it will save the order for your next visit if you wish, after you have left the restaurant for the day.
In an online test today, the only immediately local restaurant that the app recognized as part of the online network was the McDonald’s on Pipestone at Mall Drive in Benton Charter Township. However, the owner of that restaurant is Mike Knytych who also owns McDonald’s in Coloma, South Haven and Bangor, all of which are also utilizing online ordering capabilities. Calls to McDonald’s officials for further details on other participating stores in the system went unanswered this afternoon. Stay tuned.
(Photo courtesy of McDonald’s)
