McDonald’s Expands Custom Sandwich Option
By Matthew Lyle • December 8, 2014
Responding to declining same-store sales, falling stock prices and a shrinking base of younger customers, the world’s largest fast-food chain will announce plans to vastly expand its “Create Your Taste” test platform.
Create Your Taste lets customers skip the counter and head to tablet-like kiosks where they can customize everything about their burger, from the type of bun to the variety of cheese to the many, gloppy toppings and sauces that can go on it.
What has until now been a tiny test in four Southern California stores is immediately expanding to 30 locations in five more states and in 2015 to 2,000 U.S. locations, or about one in seven of the 14,000 domestic McDonald’s restaurants, says Watson. The five additional states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
Not only is McDonald’s preparing to widely spread the new menu platform, but it’s also adding a second meat option to it: Chicken.
But change comes at a price: Time. It’s a price patrons in the test sites seem to be willing to pay. The wait-time for a burger from the new platform at McDonald’s is about seven minutes — an eternity in fast-food land.