The fully automated McDonald’s restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas that went viral in a TikTok video is a real restaurant. It’s not fake.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the branch is the first fully automated McDonald’s restaurant in the Untied States. A food blogger named Foodie Munster traveled to the restaurant to record a video. You can watch his TikTok video later in this story.
How does it work? Does it use robots? Not really. It uses a restaurant app and kiosk. However, the Chronicle reports, there are no human servers or employees involved.
The Street reported that the Fort Worth restaurant is the first fully automated McDonald’s, following a trend in fast-food chains. “At McDonald’s, we’ve been setting the standard for Drive Thrus for more than 45 years,” Max Carmona, senior director of global design and restaurant development, told The Street. “As our customers’ needs continue to change, we are committed to finding new ways to serve them faster and easier than ever before.”
Here’s what you need to know:
The Full Automated McDonald’s Restaurant’s Location Is in Fort Worth, Texas
@foodiemunster @McDonald’s ♬ Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
Where is the full automated McDonald’s restaurant located? It’s located in Fort Worth, Texas at 8540 West Fwy Fort Worth, TX 76108.
The TikTok video shows an ordering kiosk in the McDonald’s lobby and then bags of food being delivered through a drive-through window on a conveyor belt. It shows a counter with no people in the building.
Foodie Munster’s Instagram video expands on the TikTok video. You can watch it here.
The Chronicle reported that the restaurant doesn’t have any tables and chairs for sitting, meaning it’s a take-and-go facility. According to the Street, the restaurant also includes “shelving area for Uber Eats and other delivery couriers to pick up orders.”
The TikTok & Instagram Video Sent the Restaurant Concept Viral
Food blogger Foodie Munster announced on TikTok and Instagram that the video shows the possible future of fast-food. The trend quickly became controversial, with some people connecting it to attempts to raise the minimum wage or failure to do so.
Some said it was the inevitable result of requiring higher wages, but others criticized McDonald’s for not paying its workers more. “And so it begins…..Instead of paying workers a higher livable minimum wage, Tx has decided to create a fully automated McDonald’s restaurant,” wrote one Twitter user.
“The way we McDonalds may be changing forever,” Munster said on Instagram. “I got to say it worked pretty well.”
“Is this the future!?! The beginning of the end of @mcdonalds as we know it?” the blogger wrote on Instagram.
Foodie Munster ordered a burger and chicken nuggets, and he said they were good. You order on the app and then go in the pick-up lane in your car or you can go in an “order ahead lane,” he said. You are asked for your code, and then the food arrives.
He said it’s also possible to pick up the food at the front counter, and there’s bathrooms in the restaurant too.
McDonald’s already has more than 12 million downloads a year through its app, according to The Street.
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