McDonald's Steps Into The Modern Age

This article was originally published by DriveWealth.

We’re going to throw a few interesting restaurant facts at you really quick, and you can try to spot the common theme between them:

1. McDonald's Corporation MCD – you know, the world’s favorite fast food hamburger chain – has seen its in-store visits fall by 500 million since 2012 – in just the United States alone.
2. That may be partially due to the fact that a growing number of “restaurant meals” – now nearly 15% of all restaurant meals – are actually eaten outside of the restaurant (i.e. delivery or take out).
3. And, that number is even higher – upwards of 20% – when we look at just the restaurant meals eaten by millennials. And almost double that when we look at the meals provided by fast food restaurants.
4. Finally, nearly 75% of the US population lives within just 3 miles of a McDonald’s restaurant.

Are you seeing the pattern yet? McDonald’s is. This chain of facts suggests that one element of the restaurant industry is becoming a huge factor in today’s total sales: convenience.

These days, fewer and fewer customers want to walk into a McDonald’s store, wait in line, order their food, and then eat in the store. Would you? Unless you’re cooking or going out to a nice dinner, you probably try to eat as quickly as possible so that you can get on with your day. And, especially as far as fast food restaurants are considered, the expectation has always been that you can order your food and eat… fast!

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Fast food restaurants stepped up their convenience game for the first time ever with the first food-based drive-through at an In-n-Out Burger in 1948. As you very well know, the drive through offers a convenient and quick method of both paying for and receiving food, without even leaving your car. It significantly cuts down on the wait time associated with dine-in restaurants—and has expanded all over the world since its first appearance in 1948. But, like we said, that was memory lane. These days, as technology grows, customers are even getting sick of ordering at the drive-through – I mean, who wants to yell into that little metal box, anyway? We want something more convenient!

So, in recent years, there have been some newer developments to stack up to the convenience of the drive-through. Consider the Starbucks Corporation SBUX Mobile App, for instance, that lets you order from your phone so that you don’t have to wait in line at the store. Or, thousands of food delivery services worldwide – so you can call your food in, and do other things until it arrives at your door. These developments have been growing steadily as people search for more and more convenient dining options.

But, for many years, as other chains have been exploring these various mobile ordering and delivery options, McDonald’s has sat behind its beloved drive-through. Until this week, that is, when the fast food chain finally announced that it would be joining the modern—of course, more convenient—restaurant technology world.

In fact, on Wednesday, McDonald’s announced that it will be spending nearly $1.7 billion in 2017 to regain the customers that it’s lost to other, “faster” food chains. How does it plan to spend all that money?

First, the fast food chain plans to develop a mobile app, so that users can mobile order their McDonald’s meals and pay online. But, it won’t stop there. To avoid issues that other fast food companies have faced with the mobile order system in the past, McDonald’s will also be redesigning all of its kitchens in order to better accommodate the expected rush of mobile orders. Then, it will allow its customers to pick up their mobile-ordered food curbside, which will take the stress off of both in-store and drive-through lines, shortening the waiting times for those, as well.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, McDonald’s expects to start testing delivery services, so that you will soon be able to order your Big Mac and have it delivered to the comfort of your own home. Sound convenient? We think so. Furthermore, we think it sounds really easy to implement, if you consider the fact that nearly 75% of Americans live within 3 miles of a McDonald’s.

But, will all of these new developments help McDonald’s make up for its 500 million lost in-store visits over the past 5 years? We’re not sure. Its stock price will certainly be telling, so you might consider looking out for McDonald’s stock as its $1.7 billion modernization goes into effect!