McDonald's plans to transition away from self-serve soda fountains in US by 2032

Bottom tier food. Bottom tier company. I don't know why anyone eats this level of trash anymore. Inflation has hit fast food harder than other types of restaurants, or groceries. It doesn't make sense justifying paying these prices for this when you can get better food for comparable prices now. There used to be an expectation that this food would at least be cheap.

Addiction
I went to Arby's yesterday because it was cheaper than McDonald's and Taco Bell. Was not disappointed. Arby's still slaps IMO.
This food was never cheap tbh

The point was convenience - a hot and ready to eat meal that you can grab at any time and don't have to prepare yourself.
- They had a thing called the dollar menu for decades.
  
  During the 90s-2000s, they'd have hamburger Tuesdays where you can buy a hamburger for like $0.29 cents.
  
  They had ads where families would come with "a few bucks" and feed everyone.
- It used to be cheap. It wasn't that long ago there was a dollar menu. Now a cheeseburger is $2.79.
- I used to get 3 double cheeseburgers and a large tea for $4.20 including tax. McDonald's and Little Caesars were by far the cheapest meals I could buy unless you want to count ramen noodle packs. Groceries were way more expensive. Now both are expensive LOL.
- The point was convenience
  
  And consistency. It may not be the best food in the world, but I can order anywhere between Miami to Miramichi, New York to Nanaimo, or LA to London, and get the exact same Big Mac and fries every single time.
- Except now it takes forever to get your food from a place like this and they refuse to let you order ahead, which is insane.

Value menu is as expensive as a meal. No more free refills.

How un-American.

what an austere dumb cheap fucking company. i went in last week and there wasn't anywhere to get my own soda or ketchups or anything, just a plain dining room. i loved waiting 10 minutes for the 1 guy slaving away back there to get my drink with the food as well instead of having cups by the order kiosk, which WORKED FOR YEARS AND YOU STILL PROFITED HANDSOMELY YOU FUCKING CHEAP FUCKS GOD IT MAKES ME SO SICK IT NEVER ENDS

next they're going to phase out menus, it's just 1 button you hit it and it takes $20 from your checking and they give you berder and 10 grammes of french fries

what a fucking dogshit world. companies used to actually give a shit about UX, but now they're making it as shitty as possible out of attrition

How dare you hurt those shareholders like that

Their food has been trash since covid started (i'm sure some will say sooner)

The snack wraps went off the market, the selects are gone, the nuggets are thinner and more flakey

And i'm sure they just want to make it more difficult to get a drink without ice so they can give as little as possible.

It was never good, just priced properly to match the shitty quality.
Actually mcdonalds is way better than it used to be decades ago. It still blows me away how bk fell so much in quality (this may be just in the cities or my city) while mcDeesnuts rose. Not that its good now, but its been worse.
- Maybe it's regional, but I cannot possibly fathom why you would think Mcdonalds would be better. There's two mcdonalds in my area, i've visited 3, and all of them have fewer options than they did 4 years ago, and whats still there is definitely worse than it was back then.
  
  Like I certainly gave it a chance, but there were times when I couldn't even finish the nuggets and was starting to feel sick. I went from 10 nuggets to 6 nuggets to just looking for other places to eat.
- I've had the exact opposite experience. McDs has gotten worse, BK has gotten significantly better(except the nuggets, those still suck).
Wendy's had the same snack wraps and were a million times better. Then both went away when covid started and I was sad... Wendy's has a new one now but it's super expensive and tastes terrible. I feel like the selects where only ever good the first time they released which was like 20 years ago, never liked them when they came back... as for the nuggets your crazy! Still the same and still love them, it's the only thing I don't mind getting from them every once in a while. Everything else is meh, and the chicken sandwiches are gross.

Any McDonald’s around me hasn’t had self service fountains for years. I assumed up to now it’s been a franchisee decision

Who cares. Their food and restaurant sucks and always has.

And now it's not even cheap. It used to be that it sucked, but you could walk out stuffed for like $4, but the last time my wife and I went on a road trip it was literally like $30 for the two of us.

At those prices you're better off going to an actual restaurant unless you have absolutely no time for it
- Drive-thru so long it doesn't save much time either
- Then y'all are fat AF. A decent meal is like 6-9 dollars

But then how will I get that super pure water or the extra crispy sprite?! 😩

When they say "soda fountains", is that just USA talk for drinks machines?

I must have heard the phrase a hundred times but it only just clicked in my head that that must be what a soda fountain is 😅

It makes sense to just have one machine that employees have to maintain and refill. Sounds like you can still ask for a refill.

Go to 7/11 if you want to make your gross soda combos lol

As a former fast food employee, I promise you that it's much better having to clean an additional machine once a day and occasionally attach a new box of syrup than it is to have to constantly refill drinks for customers, especially considering how annoying the general public are to serve
- I think the corporate goal here is that most customers won't bother asking someone to refill their soda because they don't want to wait for it.
Why are soda combos gross but alcohol combos are not?

People will spend $15 on a cocktail with olives and shit in it, but no we gotta draw the line at people putting a splash of Mr. Pibb into their Coke Zero...

(I love self-serve fountain drinks and I'll die on this hill, motherfuckers.)
- I'm gonna die on this hill with you! 👍
  
  Edit: Where TF you find Mr. Pibb these days?
Wow, the instructions are clear now!

I ask for a refill, I get 80% ice, 10% drink, and 10% air.

Thank you kindly creepy clown restaurant!
I think you mean "employee" because they can't find anyone else willing to work there lol

People constantly steal from self-serve fountains (walk in off the street with their own cups), so this is inevitable.

Fountain soda costs a few pennies per gallon, the lost earnings of which would ordinarily be counted as small beans compared to the wages saved by reducing the bodies you need to pay to run your restaurant. The pandemic taught companies though that you don't need a body for every job, you need only as many as it takes to keep the door unlocked. The single person whipped and frantic doing the jobs of eight people will just have to work harder and maybe next year they'll get a fifteen cent raise
- the extra labor to fill and refill dining room drink orders is very temporary. robots or automated dispensers will be pouring the drinks long before 2032.
  
  they used to have automated dispensers and robotic 'fry guys' at some locations... back in the early 1990s
that's an individual store problem. it isn't one at most stores with self-serve fountains.

many mcdonalds even put self-serve cup dispensers next to the self-serve kiosks, which would make it even easier to grab a freebie.

eliminating 1-3 fountains from every store reduces the maintenance part of their coke contract by a not-insignificant amount. that's the primary motivation here. the somewhat long time frame would be required to accommodate terms of existing contracts and changeovers would happen as those are renewed or renegotiated.