STOCK AT ALL- TIME HIGH, MCD’S TRIES TO GET SECONDS AHEAD
McDonald’s is aiming to make a difference in its future — seven seconds at a time.
The company that helped define fast food is making supersized efforts to reverse its fading popularity.
Expanding delivery. Putting digital ordering kiosks in restaurants. Rolling out an app that saves precious seconds. All are part of its plan.
Much of the work is on display inside an unmarked warehouse near the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, where a blowup of a cellphone screen shows the app launching nationally later this year.
McDonald’s estimates it would take 10 seconds for a customer to tell an employee their order number from the app, down from the 17- second average of ordering at the drive- thru — a difference that could help ease backups there.
Elsewhere at the Innovation Center, the digital ordering kiosk shows how customers can skip lines at the register.
“Five, 10 years ago, we were the dominant player in convenience, as convenience was defined in those days,” says Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s chief executive officer. “But convenience continually gets redefined. And we haven’t modernized.”
The push comes as McDonald’s Corp.’ s stock has hit alltime highs, with a turnaround plan that’s included slashed costs and expansion overseas.
Yet, in its flagship U. S. market, it’s fighting intensifying competition, fickle tastes and a persistent junk- food image.
In an increasingly crowded field of places to eat, the number of McDonald’s locations in the United States is set to shrink for a third straight year. And at established locations, the frequency of customer visits has declined for four straight years — even after the launch of a popular “All- Day Breakfast” menu.
Lots of once- dominant restaurant chains are feeling the pressure of people having more eating options. An estimated 613,000 places were selling either food or drink nationwide last year, up 17 percent from a decade earlier, according to government figures.
“Better burger” places are growing. And even if Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts don’t serve burgers and fries, they are among those promoting food more aggressively.
“They’re still taking customers from the same market pool,” says Nick Karavites, a McDonald’s franchisee with 22 locations in the Chicago area.