Does Mickey Ds really want you inside now?

[tvguy]

The one near me my dad talked to the owners son he said because of staffing issues they can only open the inside two days a week. Another one by where I work I see a sign saying lobby open 7-7.

I was surprised that the Sushi place we frequent has shutdown all take out. The phone orders they were getting far exceeded the capability of the owner and his one employee to handle. Dine in only now, until he can hire more people.

 

[kymom99]

The McDonald’s around me are open for dining, but you can’t walk inside a Taco Bell.

 

[DisneyHardin]

You’ve never heard it called that? I definitely have called it that and another name that I can’t post because it will be starred out.

My Dad always calls McDonald's "The Mac Shack".

 

[Yoshi]

About half the McDonald’s near me are closed for indoor dining. Wendy’s and Burger King are open. I prefer being able to eat inside because of free refills and coupons and offers that sometimes can’t be used at the drive thru. Right now Wendy’s has a $5 off $10 purchase coupon in the app for carry out orders only. If you can’t go inside to pick up the order, you can’t use the coupon.

 

[Mysterian]

I don't go to McD's anymore, last I went was during the Mickey Railroad fiasco. Never ate inside, I only went in to order: if you order via the drive-through, you have a higher chance of the food being poorly made or just heatlamped into a desiccated wad of ersatz.

The one nearest me, the dining room was open 24 hours. At one point they started locking up at night, this was just before the all-day lockdown during the pandemic.
Just prior to the nighttime lockdown, I came in one night and they would only serve cops in the dining room, and I was told to use the drive through. Cops eat for free there too, and they're there all the Big-Mackin' time, as if the Hamburglar were in the neighborhood.

 

[SL6827]

Where is this? My town (Bloomington, IN) hasn't allowed fast food places to open their dining rooms (you can't even do mobile carryout).

South Georgia

 

[RedAngie]

Walk up windows only old school? I do recall these for many years back in the 50's. Two walk up windows only plus there was a ledge on both sides of the restaurant to sit on. You can see those a bit here in this photo.

View attachment 632207

Some still had that design well into the late 60s/early 70s in my area. They had a few outside tables to in addition to the ledge seating on either side of the building.

Americans seem to really like the idea of not getting out of their cars for a number of things now.

Even long before Covid it seemed many McD’s did 70% plus of their business via drive thru.

On the very rare occasions we go, we’d often park, go inside, wait in a short line to order, wait for it to be bagged, walk out, get in our car, and drive away long before the last car in line outside when we arrived even got to the order screen.

 

[Dan Murphy]

People are dying to eat inside.

I would think so.

 

[RedAngie]

I am not from the US I have heard the Big M, the Golden Arches (or something like that).

Here in NL we call it The Mac. (We put 'the' in front of store names, it's a Dutch thing )

Some old timers (and even young people) in the Philly area also put “the” in front of a store’s name while talking about it.

Wesson oil is on sale this week at the Shop Rite.

After dinner I need to go to the Walmart for a few things.

I like Lancaster brand meats at The Acme the best. (Or in true Philly style, “The Ak-a-me.”

 

[kdonnel]

Here in NL we call it The Mac. (We put 'the' in front of store names, it's a Dutch thing )

The on THE line scene from The Internship is comedy gold.

 

[monsterkitty]

In October we spent a weekend in Glenwood Springs, CO. On the drive up we stopped at McDonalds in Idaho Springs for breakfast and to use the restroom. You could only order by kiosk so CC only and there were no tables in the restaurant. It was connected to the convenience store/gas station so only a few tables anyway. There were only two people working - one for the drive thru and the other for the counter. Both were also cooking as they took and filled orders. I felt horrible for them.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Why go inside? Grab the order of fries and eat them in a parking spot then toss the evidence like a normal person.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

There are 2 McDonald's near me. One never seems to have inside dining open and the other does until about 7 p.m. An Arby's has also closed its doors for indoor dining. Chick Fil A has been closed inside for a loooong time. I asked at the drive thru when the dining room will re-open and I was told January.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Some old timers (and even young people) in the Philly area also put “the” in front of a store’s name while talking about it.

Wesson oil is on sale this week at the Shop Rite.

After dinner I need to go to the Walmart for a few things.

I like Lancaster brand meats at The Acme the best. (Or in true Philly style, “The Ak-a-me.”

Happens in the South, too (at least in Coen Brothers' movies):

 

[Colleen27]

Our local owner absolutely does not. He tried to get approval from corporate to completely remove the seating areas from three locations in our area that he was preparing to remodel and was denied, so he remodeled in a very user-unfriendly way which I think is to discourage dining in (and closed one of the three locations completely). No tables that seat more than four, mostly two tops, eliminated all the outlets in the seating area where people used to plug in to work pre-pandemic, no more play areas, padded booths replaced by those hard curved seats, etc. It is a huge about-face from not too long ago when they added outlets at nearly every booth and offered clustered group seating and encouraged people to linger. One of his locations even had a fireplace in the seating area until this year's renovations!

 

[Colleen27]

Any time I go to a fast food place I always use the mobile app, drive through. Most dining rooms are closed (not yet the law again) but those that I see (looking through the windows as I pull in and out) that are open generally have no customers in them.

I wonder how much of that is because people just don't know the dining room is open? Around me, fast food seating areas are mostly still closed but there have been plenty of times when I walked inside and had no line for carry-out while the drive-thru line was backing up onto the street. And several times, as I was leaving some of those people parked to order inside too... I can only guess that until they saw someone go in, they didn't realize it was an option. My son and husband have had the same experience on their lunch breaks. But since no one is really putting up signs telling people that they can come in, customers are just sticking to the pandemic-conditioned response of assuming drive-thru is the only choice.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I wonder how much of that is because people just don't know the dining room is open? Around me, fast food seating areas are mostly still closed but there have been plenty of times when I walked inside and had no line for carry-out while the drive-thru line was backing up onto the street. And several times, as I was leaving some of those people parked to order inside too... I can only guess that until they saw someone go in, they didn't realize it was an option. My son and husband have had the same experience on their lunch breaks. But since no one is really putting up signs telling people that they can come in, customers are just sticking to the pandemic-conditioned response of assuming drive-thru is the only choice.

That's probably true, Colleen. But I have seen several that have large banners (not all) on the front of their property and/or buildings saying they are open for indoor dining. Still mostly empty. A number of the restaurants are totally dark inside. I assume those are closed to indoor.

Hopefully, some day, hopefully not too far off, we can all get back to some semblance of 'normal'.