McDonald’s Tests Having Customers Make Their Own Darn McCafé In Chicago

Image courtesy of Michael Kappel

Do you have a credit card and very little time to spare standing in line at McDonald’s? If so, the chain’s new piece of technology that they’re testing in Chicago may be useful to you: it’s a McCafé kiosk where customers can tap a few buttons and the machine makes your drink.

This solves a few problems for customers and franchisees alike: the expansive McCafé menu is something that franchisees want to cut from the menu to make preparing everything on that menu simpler for their employees behind the counter.

https://twitter.com/bizzle_scott/status/716330510750990336

For customers, it solves the problem of having to interact with other humans before drinking coffee, and allows people who just want an espresso-based beverage to skip the lines at busy mealtimes if they prefer to use the machine.

The process is similar to the chain’s Create Your Taste burger-ordering platform: you choose your drink on a touchscreen, and the McCafé machine makes it for you. You may wonder, “Why am I ordering a $3 latte out of a glorified vending machine?” but if the machines are the same as what employees have behind the counter, logically, the drinks should be too.

McDonald's Tests Self-Serve McCafe Coffee Kiosk [Brand Eating]

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