Eating McNuggets Alone
Timothy P. Carney
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McDonald’s, in the eyes of a certain sort of person, represents the ugliness of America. The burger chain has become a totem representing the death of mom and pop at the hands of corporate America.
But in the less status-conscious corners of the country where artisanal burger joints and cocktail bars haven’t popped up, McDonald’s is a beloved hangout, a meeting ground, a third place — even an institution of civil society.
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That’s why the disappearance of self-serve soda fountains should worry us.
Slowly, over the next decade, McDonald’s will remove the soda stations where children have gotten their limitless refills for 20 years.
“This change is intended to create a consistent experience for both customers and crew across all ordering points, whether that’s McDelivery, the app, kiosk, drive-thru or in-restaurant,” the company said.
It’s not that self-serve soda fountains are great in themselves. They represent labor reductions and automation. The problem is that the soda machines are simply the first of many things to be removed from the McDonald’s dining room, with tables and chairs further down the list — which ultimately means ending the whole idea of lingering or even eating inside.
“It’s an evolution towards convenience and (the result of) the growth of digital service,” Mikel Petro, who owns 15 McDonald’s franchises in central Illinois, explained. Convenience, you see, is often at odds with neighborliness.
The fast-food chain’s move toward convenience is part of an industrywide move away from providing a place to eat and instead providing only a place to exchange money for calories, ideally without any human interaction at all.
“More companies are testing digital-only restaurants or seatless restaurants,” Jonathan Maze reported in the industry journal Restaurant Business. “They’re adding self-order kiosks inside their restaurants and mobile-order lanes or pickup windows outside.”
One vision of the fast-food joint of the future is a kitchen on stilts under which four lanes of drive-thru traffic pass, like a car wash of sorts.
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Again, it may be hard for some readers to muster nostalgia or love for a McDonald’s dining room, but for much of the country, it’s a true third place. “McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers and reflections of the surrounding neighborhood,” author Chris Arnade wrote while crafting his book Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.
In the short term, on the upside, customers seeking refills will better get to know the clerks. In the long run, we’ll all be eating McNuggets alone in our cars.