McDonald's plans to expand a test this year that lets people order customized burgers.
The world's biggest hamburger chain began testing the waters of personalized orders last year with a "build-your-own burger" concept at a location in California. In addition to its traditional menu, the restaurant in Laguna Niguel offers tablets on which people can tap out the bun, patty, cheese and toppings they want on their burgers.
Kevin Newell, U.S. brand and strategy officer for McDonald's, said in an interview that the offering is a "huge driver." Without providing specific figures on the sales impact, he said it's attracting a different type of customer and more of a dinner-time crowd.
The purpose of the expanded test is to get more data, Newell said.
"It'll be more than five, less than a hundred," he said when asked how many restaurants would be testing the menu, hewing to the company's practice of keeping planned tests tightly under wraps. But he said the additional locations will also be in Southern California.
That is amazing. This could be huge for them. If people ordered off of tablets similar to how they do with Sheetz, it could eliminate the need for a cashier and could make it easier to serve food in a timely manner.
That is amazing. This could be huge for them. If people ordered off of tablets similar to how they do with Sheetz, it could eliminate the need for a cashier and could make it easier to serve food in a timely manner.
Eliminating the cashier won't change the serve time. If anything, that'd just be a lot more orders rolling in at once - complicated ones at that.
