McDonald's remodels?

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cjd
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McDonald's remodels?

Post by cjd »

All of the McDonald's in my area have been remodeled. In my town specifically, both McD's were built in 94, typical tile mansard roof ones. One I was told replaced a 70s era store, the other to my knowledge was a new location. The first was remodeled back in 2012, the first in the area to be redone. The second one was demolished last year along with an adjacent vacant restaurant and a new one built.

I liked the older McDonald's decor, layout and seating. I've noticed in these newer stores, while they all have different arrangements, the seating is not as comfortable.

For example, the 2012 one, there are three types of seating. One is hard chairs each facing tables along the windows. The tables are very close together to where there's just enough room to pass between tables. The second type is a long bench along the wall with tables and then chairs facing the other side. The third is round tables with ottomans around them.

The other demolished one got an entirely new layout. This one used to have the L shape with booths and tables around the other side with restrooms at the back and the soda fountain was between the front dining area and the rear dining area. Now, everything is in the main dining area. This has mostly tables with plastic chairs. There is one high counter with stools.

I just wonder why McD's has gone to these strange and sometimes uncomfortable seating arrangements that cram everyone together. I like my personal space and this seems to go against it. The first one feels like a subway station to me.

I've also noticed signs in all these remodeled locations that the maximum visit time is 45 minutes. Maybe this whole thing is to discourage loiterers?
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Re: McDonald's remodels?

Post by Brian Lutz »

Virtually all of the McDonald's locations here have had remodels in recent years, with several being completely demolished and rebuilt. The ones that get torn down and rebuilt tend to be older locations with a basement underneath the main kitchen where food storage and other facilities were located, which caused some significant ineffency in operations. I've also seen Wendy's either demolish and rebuild several locations or move to a new build location nearby (I believe those ones were former Rax locations) but they also have a number of older locations (some as old as the late seventies) that continue to operate with minor updates.
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Re: McDonald's remodels?

Post by cjd »

I see. My town's original Wendy's was built in the late 70s, I remember back when it had a salad bar. It didn't get much updating either over the years and closed back in 2015 which I thought was odd because it seemed to get good traffic. It has now been remodeled into a Popeye's Louisiana Chicken during the last year.

The remaining Wendy's is on the other end of town and built around 2004, Oddly enough, all of the other Wendy's around me that have been rebuilt if they were old ones, or ones built around the age of this one have been remodeled. But this Wendy's has not gotten any remodeling. The only updates have been painting over the wallpaper and removing the lights hanging over the tables. I ate in there at night a while back and it was so dark in there with just the fluorescent lights on, it felt cold and depressing. I do eat there occasionally, but rarely because it's so far away from work. It doesn't seem to get as much traffic during the evening I've noticed.

Another of the remodeled Wendy's we ate at one night, had its fluorescent lights off and the pendant lights on, which gave a very warm, upscale feeling. Only saw that once but it looked really cool.
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Re: McDonald's remodels?

Post by pseudo3d »

Brian Lutz wrote: August 20th, 2018, 7:58 am Virtually all of the McDonald's locations here have had remodels in recent years, with several being completely demolished and rebuilt. The ones that get torn down and rebuilt tend to be older locations with a basement underneath the main kitchen where food storage and other facilities were located, which caused some significant ineffency in operations. I've also seen Wendy's either demolish and rebuild several locations or move to a new build location nearby (I believe those ones were former Rax locations) but they also have a number of older locations (some as old as the late seventies) that continue to operate with minor updates.
Yeah, a lot of the old McDonald's stores from the 1970s had basements, even for areas that typically didn't need basements. Basements were one of the things that Kroc argued with the McDonald brothers about (I'm not sure if that was recreated in "The Founder" or not), something that was needed in Illinois but not California, yet the basements appeared as far south as Texas.

Even some of the "rebuild" sites from the early 2000s are getting exterior/interior remodels now, and "themed" interiors are disappearing at a shockingly fast rate.
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Re: McDonald's remodels?

Post by Super S »

pseudo3d wrote: August 21st, 2018, 10:11 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: August 20th, 2018, 7:58 am Virtually all of the McDonald's locations here have had remodels in recent years, with several being completely demolished and rebuilt. The ones that get torn down and rebuilt tend to be older locations with a basement underneath the main kitchen where food storage and other facilities were located, which caused some significant ineffency in operations. I've also seen Wendy's either demolish and rebuild several locations or move to a new build location nearby (I believe those ones were former Rax locations) but they also have a number of older locations (some as old as the late seventies) that continue to operate with minor updates.
Yeah, a lot of the old McDonald's stores from the 1970s had basements, even for areas that typically didn't need basements. Basements were one of the things that Kroc argued with the McDonald brothers about (I'm not sure if that was recreated in "The Founder" or not), something that was needed in Illinois but not California, yet the basements appeared as far south as Texas.

Even some of the "rebuild" sites from the early 2000s are getting exterior/interior remodels now, and "themed" interiors are disappearing at a shockingly fast rate.
The themed interiors are one thing I enjoyed about McDonald's. Every town had something to offer....small towns would highlight high school sports teams, while larger towns often had themes relating to the town's history, universities, pro sports teams, industries, etc.

Nothing about any McDonald's I have been to in the last ten years really sticks out to me though...most look the same now.
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Re: McDonald's remodels?

Post by StoreLiker2006 »

Speaking of McDonald's remodels, this past Wednesday, my local McD's at 15870 SE McLoughlin Blvd. (which first opened in 2000 to replace the original 1963-built location at 15114 SE McLoughlin Blvd.) is currently undergoing its remodel/expansion, which seems to be long overdue.

~Ben
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