McDonald’s At Your Door: Fast Food Giant Now Delivers

Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus and Phoenix are lovin’ it: on Wednesday, May 17, McDonald’s expanded its delivery service to customers in these four U.S. cities, now delivering Big Macs, fries, beverages and desserts right to diners’ doors.

The McDelivery program is possible through a partnership with UberEats and encompasses around 1,000 restaurants in the U.S. The pilot program rolled out in January with 200 Florida restaurants and was a super-sized success as more customers became aware of the option for delivery.

For fast-food restaurants, convenience is king, and the new program serves that purpose. The UberEats app makes it easy to order, easy to control, and easy to personalize orders. The only hard thing about it will be choosing what to order with so many options and possibilities.

“We are bringing a new level of convenience to more of our customers as we continue to transform the McDonald’s experience,” said McDonald’s president and CEO Steve Easterbrook. “Through the ease of the UberEats app, our customers can enjoy their favorite McDonald’s foods delivered right to them — giving them greater choice, control and personalization than ever before.”

McDonald’s delivery may sound like the fast food of the future, but in fact, it’s been a thing in Asia and the Middle East for over two decades. These markets (McDonald’s two most-developed) generate as much as 40 percent of their sales from delivery, totaling $1 billion in global revenue in 2016.

Uber, too, has been around this block. In addition to the UberEats program, the company recently partnered with Kroger Co. to solve the “last mile,” post-purchase operations conundrum of putting merchandise into customers’ hands quickly and efficiently.

Users of the app ClickList can now order groceries from a local Kroger store and have them picked up and delivered by an Uber driver. The arrangement is still in the testing phase.