![\"Happier](\"http:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/email\/tech_ins_150414_1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOver the weekend, I stopped at the McDonald\u2019s off of State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel, FL. While visiting any one of the 14,350 domestic stores is not usually out of the ordinary, the Wesley Chapel location had something more to offer than the others \u2013 new technology.<\/p>\n
I first read about the new kiosk ordering system and \u201cCreate Your Taste\u201d format being tested at the Wesley Chapel location from an article in the Tampa Tribune late March. The article explains how customers are able to search, order, and pay for their meals without any human interaction whatsoever. (If human interaction is necessary, there are employees on hand to answer any questions.) Once the order is complete, the customer grabs a \u201cpuck,\u201d picks a seat, and waits for a McDonald\u2019s employee to bring the food. The meal comes in a metal, mesh basket with the burger in an open-faced manner displaying its various ingredients.<\/p>\n
Could this new technology and open-faced presentation be the new and improved McDonald\u2019s? As a fan of both food and technology, I had to check it out for myself.<\/p>\n
I first want to preface the continuation of this story by saying that I\u2019m usually pretty good at technology, but I\u2019m also far from a technological goddess which will be quite evident below. Let\u2019s begin!<\/p>\n
1:20pm \u2013 I walked into the store to find the restaurant was nearly full with men, women, and children of all ages enjoying their meals. I ventured over to the kiosk and did what any normal human being would do \u2013 stare blankly at this fascinating piece of technology for what felt like a couple hours.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1:22pm \u2013 After snapping out of it, I pressed the green \u201cTouch To Start\u201d button on the screen and up popped the first of many decisions to be made: \u201ceat in\u201d or \u201ctake out.\u201d I\u2019m on my way to a family reunion, so I chose take out.<\/p>\n
1:23pm \u2013 \u201cHow would you like to pay?\u201d Since I\u2019m going for the no-human-interaction-whatsoever theme, I chose to pay at the kiosk with my card. To my surprise, I wasn’t asked to swipe my card yet. I would’ve thought the question on how I would pay would occur closer to the end. Continuing on\u2026<\/p>\n
1:24pm \u2013 \u201cHot off the grill\u2026in 8-10 minutes\u201d If it\u2019s fresh off the grill, I can wait the extra time, so I\u2019ll try the new \u201cCreate Your Taste\u201d menu. First, a picture of the \u00bclb burger pops up and it looks quite tasty. (Made mistake #1 here; will follow up later.) Then I clicked to add bacon and decided on the fresh artisan roll. Next, I added pickles, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, and mustard.<\/p>\n
This doesn’t seem too hard.<\/p>\n
1:26pm \u2013 The screen says something about putting in my locator number. At first, I had absolutely no idea what this meant, so I put in my zip code, which was mistake #2 and was completely wrong. As the hunger started creeping in, I looked around for what might be considered the \u201clocator\u201d that possessed the correct number sequence. I noticed a plastic and metal, pager-like item to the left and figured out that this was the infamous \u201clocator\u201d!<\/p>\n
![\"Happier](\"http:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/email\/tech_ins_150414_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1:28pm \u2013 Now, I am asked to swipe my card. Once the payment process was completed, a receipt printed out and I was instructed to wait for my\u2026 cup? I usually like to fill up my drink cup while I wait for the meal to appear, but this is not the case here.<\/p>\n
1:30pm \u2013 A very nice employee, Cindy, approached me to ask me if I wanted meat on my \u201cCreate Your Taste\u201d burger. (Here\u2019s the explanation of Mistake #1) As I stared at her in complete confusion, I told her that I did want a burger on my burger. As she returned to the kitchen, I questioned my sanity and wondered if I forgot a step in the burger creating process.<\/p>\n
![\"Happier](\"http:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/email\/tech_ins_150414_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1:35pm \u2013 Cindy is now bringing my burger (that, in fact, does contain a \u00bclb burger patty) and asked if there was anything else I needed. Red-faced with embarrassment, I asked Cindy if I was the only person who forgot to press the burger icon during the \u201cCreate Your Taste\u201d process and surprisingly to know, I wasn’t the only one!<\/p>\n
![\"Happier](\"http:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/email\/tech_ins_150414_4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cindy, who has been working at McDonald\u2019s for 1.5 years, reassured me that the kiosks have been a little overwhelming to some guests, but the overall response has been positive. She did mention that although the Wesley Chapel location is open 24 hours, the kiosks are only available for use between 9am \u2013 9pm.<\/p>\n
![\"Happier](\"http:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/email\/tech_ins_150414_5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Even though the learning curve on the new kiosk system was a tad steep at first, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. With a few minor tweaks in the process, I think McDonald\u2019s might actually have something good going for the company, which is a breath of fresh air in comparison to last year\u2019s news. The impeccable service at the Wesley Chapel location holds the bar high not only for other McDonald\u2019s locations in the U.S., but for all quick serve locations nationwide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the weekend, I stopped at the McDonald\u2019s off of State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel, FL. While visiting any one of the 14,350 domestic stores is not usually out of the ordinary, the Wesley Chapel location had something more to offer than the others \u2013 new technology. I first read about the new kiosk… Continue reading New Technology Makes for Happier Meals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-4879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-technology","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}