#1 on the Franchise 500: How McDonald's Evolved With Its Customer
Started franchising: 1955
Total units: 37,406
Cost to open: $1.06M–$2.23M
If you haven’t walked into a McDonald’s in the past year or two, prepare to be disoriented.
You’ll be greeted with smooth wood and glass surfaces, along with digital menu boards that run promotional footage to stimulate your appetite. You can order at one of the touchscreen kiosks that allow you to explore the menu at your leisure and customize your order without worrying about holding up the line and pissing off the cashier. You can pick up your food at the counter, request table service, or, if you’re rushed, skip the whole process: McDonald’s new mobile app allows you to order from your phone and have a store clerk run out food to your car in the parking lot. Actually, McDonald’s will bring you food anywhere. Through a partnership with Uber Eats, the order-however-the-hell-you-want-to company now offers home delivery from roughly 9,000 U.S. stores.
This is part of what the company calls its Experience of the Future overhaul, a massive rethink that’s already rolled out to 7,000 of its 14,000 U.S. units and will ultimately transform every McDonald’s in America. But the new look isn’t just physical. The iconic Quarter Pounder -- formerly a frozen, puck-like patty that clanked when it landed on a hot metal grill -- is now made from never-frozen meat. The chicken in its sandwiches is from birds raised without human-grade antibiotics. The frappés contain milk lacking bovine growth hormones.
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