Maybe someday we’ll tell children about the drive-thru at restaurants the way we talk about drive-in movies.
McDelivery, a new partnership between corporate giants McDonald’s and Uber, was unveiled this week, pairing the famous fast food menu with the ride-hailing service. It’s available to anyone with the UberEATS app.
Seven Clark County locations are already participating, according to local McDonald’s franchisee Valarie Hadwin. While it may make the drive-thru easier to avoid, Hadwin said the new service is actually a complement.
“When you’re out and about during the day, going to work or doing your errands, you can swing by the drive-thru,” she said. “But at night, you don’t want to go out, and it’s that convenience” that the app can tap.
Delivery times hover between 30 to 40 minutes, according to the app, with an added cost of delivery.
McDelivery will be offered at 3,500 McDonald’s locations across the country by the end of June, according to Lindsay Kirsh, a spokeswoman. She said that while people have been curious about food quality, 75 percent of people in the company’s top five markets live within two miles of a McDonald’s.
“So there’s no question about the quality of our food and travel time,” she said, adding that sealed travel bags keep the food protected in transit.
Delivery is the latest innovation for the fast-food company and its Clark County branches. The McDonald’s on Northeast 99th Street was renovated in April to put in digital menu boards, a two-lane drive-thru and digital kiosks for ordering.
Hadwin, who co-owns 17 McDonald’s in the region, called the changes “the wave of the future,” adding that more locations will be brought online with the delivery service and will be renovated with the digital kiosks in due time.
“It answers the needs of our customers,” she said of the changes. Hadwin said McDonald’s ultimately decides when those franchises are renovated, though.
While some worry these technologies will replace employees, Hadwin said in fact her business has hired more people and trained them for different work. With the kiosks, employees now deliver food to the tables. She said the local stores employ close to 1,000 people, of whom 270 have been hired since April.
“We’re focusing on people, which we always have,” Hadwin said.
With UberEATS, orders are registered at the local McDonald’s on a tablet computer. Staff prepare the food and are alerted when the driver arrives on the property. The driver can pick the food up via the drive-thru or in-store.
“(The driver) tells us the order number and it’s already paid for, so there’s no exchange,” Hadwin said.
Most orders, she said, come between 8 p.m. and midnight.
