Fast Food Giant Tests Upscale Concept
by Susan Davis on 11/23/09 at 8:07 am
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McDonald's Gets a Revamp
American ingenuity is taking a cue from the Europeans as McDonald’s opened its first upscale restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Building upon their design success in France and the United Kingdom, the new McDonald’s look is sleek and sophisticated, with modern, movable furniture, subdued indirect lighting, outlets for laptop connections, free Wi-Fi and wide-screen plasma televisions. It sounds like a modern hotel lobby.
The lounge-type atmosphere is complimented by servers who are dressed in all-black uniforms, which are stylish and classy. Patrons walking into the newly remodeled McDonald’s are taken aback, thinking they’ve stepped into the wrong restaurant. Seating is freestanding and there are tables of various sizes, perfect for small business meetings and networking opportunities.
Although the menu items have remained the same, the atmosphere is conducive to doing more than eating a burger and fries. The space is comfortable and inviting, so diners are more likely to hang around, reading the newspaper or checking their e-mail after eating their lunch or dinner.
Thousands of the chain’s 14,000 restaurants have been remodeled or updated over the past couple of years, but this is the first time an upscale “urban redesign” has been tested in the U.S. McDonald’s personnel indicate that they will evaluate consumer reaction to the space and see if they will roll out the program in other markets.
Modernizing the McDonald’s décor is all well and good, but the fact remains that the majority of their menu items are still highly caloric, laden with fat and sodium — certainly not the fare that one would expect at an upscale restaurant. It really doesn’t matter how fancy the furniture or the lighting, unhealthy food disguised by the atmosphere in which patrons eat it is still unhealthy. It would be nice if McDonald’s took a cue from consumer concerns and revamped their menu to include more wholesome and nutritionally beneficial fare.
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