Nostalgia abounds for many Americans who grew up eating a Happy Meal beneath the Golden Arches. Whether you’re old enough to remember McDonaldland Playland — including the Officer Big Mac jail cell and the Hamburglar swing — or more attached to the McDonald’s PlayPlaces, complete with ball pits, you likely made many memories through birthday parties and casual visits with family.
Now, McDonald’s has announced a prototype restaurant that forgoes the dine-in experience entirely, as Restaurant Business reported.
McDonald’s ‘On the Go’ Restaurant in Los Angeles Launches
Testing out a new concept, the first of its kind on U.S. soil, McDonald’s has launched an “on the go” restaurant in Los Angeles.
What makes this restaurant different from all of the others dotting the American landscape? The Los Angeles-based test restaurant does not feature dine-in service whatsoever, skipping the traditional lobby in favor of speedy drive-thru service — complete with an entirely separate mobile order pickup window as well as one other major innovation: an array of lockers for delivery order pickups.
This means that those working for various partner delivery apps could find themselves headed to a locker instead of the service counter to pick up ordered meals. While this service has already gained ground in international markets, it’s the first time McDonald’s has tested the locker option stateside.
1st ever…
This week a @McDonalds in Los Angeles (I wonder why…🤔) opened up the first “on the go” $mcd.
It appears to be:
Drive thru focused
No lobby
Mobile pickup window
McDelivery lockers
The lockers are a big deal because they have not been approved for the US… pic.twitter.com/sFXHYJbUgT
— McFranchisee (@McFranchisee) December 13, 2024
X user McFranchisee, who first broke the news of the new prototype opening its doors, appeared enthused over the news while also speculating as to why Los Angeles would have been chosen as the test market. In subsequent X posts, they indicated that their own McDonald’s location did 80% of its business via drive-thru.
A second anonymous poster claiming to be a franchisee agreed with the move toward drive-thru-only service — particularly given changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
McDonald’s Joins Chick-fil-A, Burger King, and Taco Bell in Embracing Drive-Thru Over Dining Room Service
As Eat This, Not That! pointed out, dining room service requires a great deal of space, and in an era that is seeing fast-food eat-in sales decline steeply, it may soon be the end of the line for lobby dining in quick-service restaurants.
Restaurant Business continued to say that McDonald’s was not alone — nor the first — to test the waters concerning a move to drive-thru-centric operations. Burger King and Taco Bell have already dipped into these waters, and Chick-fil-A opened a two-story elevated drive-thru restaurant south of Atlanta in August.
Like the McDonald’s “on the go” concept restaurant, Chick-fil-A’s Atlanta operation also removed dine-in capabilities from its plan.
According to a separate Eat This, Not That! report, the closure of fast-food dining rooms is a growing trend across the industry, both for fast-food and fast-casual businesses. In addition to McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell, the outlet named Schlotzsky’s, Wingstop, Panera, Portillo’s, IHOP, Del Taco, KFC, and Chipotle as moving toward a more futureproof drive-thru model. Many restaurants are making room for curbside pickup locations and drive-thru lanes by shrinking the sizes of dining rooms, if not getting rid of them altogether.