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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

4. Make sure the sign-in link on mobile works with your mobile app.

When McDonald's switched from email/password to magic links I had a hard time getting the magic link to work with the McD app. It usually would just open in the McD website.

Thus was quite annoying because about 98% of the time I eat McD's I would not do so if I could not order via the app [1].

I finally gave up and switched to using "Sign in With Apple" (SIWA). There was no way that I could find to add SIWN to an existing McD account, so had to use the SIWA that hides the real email from McD. That created a new McD account so I lost the reward points that were on the old account, but at least I could again use the McD app.

[1] They have a weekly "Free Medium Fries on Friday" deal in the app available for use on orders of at least $1. Almost every Friday for lunch I make a sandwich at home and then get cookies and the free fries to go with it from McD.

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McD app is the absolute worst.

1) rooted or bootloader-unlocked Android devices are not allowed (granted it's easy enough to get past it for now but the checks are still there). 2) 2FA requirements as if anyone would bother to steal coupons from others

It appears that they want ordering burgers to have the same level of enhanced security as banking apps. Not even crypto or trading apps bother to block unlocked devices in such a way. Blocking rooted devices doesn't even make banking apps more secure but for them I can at least understand the reasoning.

I have heard that you are basically paying double what you normally would if you aren’t hunting for deals in mcd’s app these days. How much truth is there to that?

The difference isn’t nearly that dramatic, but there are definitely savings to be had via the app.

A lot. MCD corporate seems determined to get on the user data gravy train, and appears to be subsidizing it for the franchisees.

Three large fries ordered at the counter costs over ten dollars.

Sure they want user data to observe people's purchasing habits. But they already have that if you always use the same debit or credit cards like most people do.

But the more people use the app, the less cashiers they need and the less ordering kiosks they have to install. Plus customer satisfaction goes up because you can order ahead and your food is ready when you arrive. And getting used to the discounts means you probably won't switch to Burger King or Wendy's.

I think additional user data is a relatively minor part of it.

> you can order ahead and your food is ready when you arrive

That just sounds like a great way to get cold McDonald's...

> I think additional user data is a relatively minor part of it.

You're probably right about that, but I've always undervalued user data because I don't think it's ethical to exploit people like that.

I'm sure that a well-timed push notification suggesting a personalized meal deal right around hungry-o'clock is the real goal of pushing this stupid app on their customers.

>> you can order ahead and your food is ready when you arrive

> That just sounds like a great way to get cold McDonald's...

The idea is to order 3 or 4 minutes in advance, not half an hour before...

> But they already have that if you always use the same debit or credit cards like most people do.

Don't they have only the last 4 digits and the issuer of the card? It is likely enough but there will be some noise.

Not to mention any potential legal trouble if they used the card details without explicit consent. App contracts will get around that.

They have your name too. From what I understand, the tracking is generally done via something like the hash of the card number though. I've never heard of any legal or compliance issues with that, since the card number itself is not stored.

Submitted a Subject Access Request to McDonald's here in the UK. I'll update here on progress.

> your food is ready when you arrive.

The food does NOT start cooking when you order it if you’re picking up at drive thru. It starts cooking when you pull up to drive thru and give the magic code.

In fact if the food is not easy to prepare you get put in a special parking space, where you wait for your order to be prepared. If it includes soft drinks they might serve those before they make you go park.

Disagree on not going to BK/Wendy's. The "deals" game becomes a habit, switching costs are basically zero, people start to comparison shop each app for the best deal (like shopping for air travel). It's a bit of work because there is no single consolidator but it only takes a few seconds to scan each apps offers.

At this point, being a fast food chain that doesnt have an app with deals is probably not viable - but I am very skeptical it generates any loyalty.

I treat food delivery apps the same way. There’s no stickiness for me, I just check all of them and pick the one with the best coupons for my restaurant. A sign that this kind of stuff is very much a commodity. I usually end up on DoorDash, but that’s mainly because the current credit card I use affords discounts for it and as a result wins in the bidding war for my business

It’s not about data, it’s customer segmentation. Frequent customers are more price sensitive, and are willing to use the app to get all the discounts, while occasional customers will not, so they can capture both the more price sensitive part of the market while getting higher margins from occasional buyers.

As someone who spent many years segmenting customers and generating personalized marketing offers -- McDonald's is awful at this. I was a 2-3x/monthly customer (USA based) for years (even more frequent a decade ago, but I'm talking about since the app), ordering the exact same core items every time (except during breakfast).

When they began "value meals" last summer (which don't include their flagship items) they also removed the best deals from the app, the ones that did include Big Mac, QPC, 10-nuggets. I've placed one non-breakfast order in 6-8 months, whenever they started this.

I'm just one person, but if a customer declines from an expected 15-20 visits over a half-year period to 1, and you don't adjust your offer algorithm (and you're the biggest restaurant company in the world so no lack of resources), something is seriously wrong.

They used to have great deals on the app in Germany. I used to go to McDonald's all the time. The deals suck now, and now I only go if I'm really craving a McMuffin Bacon & Egg.

Whatever they're doing also isn't working for me.

> they also removed the best deals from the app

They've captured the user base with the money that corporate was pumping into the app deals, and are in the process of enshittifying it by transferring the value to themselves instead of the users.

This can work in a lot of industries - I am skeptical fast food is one of them. Switching costs are low, alternates are plentiful, and collecting information (reviewing deals/prices across companies) is relatively easy.

If McDonald's enshittifies its deals while continuing to raise prices, it's way too easy for loyal customers to go elsewhere. I'm saying this as a huge fan and extremely loyal customer of McDonald's for decades... they are at serious risk of losing people like me. As I stated, I've gone from 15-20 visits to 1 since last June/July, whenever they made the big change.

We've got similar opinions here. I'm just pointing out that the overall experience here feels familiar, and it wasn't until reading this thread that I really put it together.

I agree with you that I'd be surprised if Enshittification works as well here as it does in tech, but maybe since there's an app involved, they just think they can get away with it. Who knows.

Whenever this happens to me I keep wondering how much I am of the A/B data test where I'm in the "less important group". Is it possible that their changes engaged (or profited from) the more active (daily/weekly customers) by making your situation worse?

Perhaps. Let's assume that the value meals is a massive hit and they are collecting far more revenue from customers who like it, than they are losing from people like me.

That's the whole point of data analytics and personalized marketing - even if the value meal works for most people they can still go back to sending me the offers and promotions I responded to previously, in an attempt to reverse my recent decline in spend/visitation. The app makes it possible to send individualized offers. There shouldn't be an entire "B" group where they just say, oh well.

> Three large fries ordered at the counter costs over ten dollars.

Ask for a “bundle box” next time you’re there. They’re usually named after a local sports team.

Two Big Macs, two cheeseburgers, two fries, and a 10-piece nuggets for $12-15 depending on the market.

I think retail for just the Big Macs is that much these days.

No app required.

That is an incredible amount of cooked calories for that price. No idea this was a thing. I do remember being in college and local mcd’s doing the typical “if team wins chicken nuggets are $5 for 20” but never heard of this sports box concept

> Three large fries ordered at the counter costs over ten dollars.

This is kind of hilarious and depressing but I live in a high enough cost of living city in the states and I order mcd’s rarely enough that I cannot tell contextually whether your statement indicates this is overpriced or underpriced.

It depends on how recently they came out of the fryer, how fresh the oil is, and the grease-to-salt ratio.

I will sadly admit that the high price of fries only angers me when they're not fresh.

Much more - most McD's in USA charge over $4 for a large french fries.

It depends on order size. I think orders for one or two people over time you'd save close to 50% between deals and using points. For larger orders 20% off once a day is about the best you can do. (I'm my area/experience.)

"Normally would" is more likely, prices from the mid-2010's. The order I used to pay about $12 and change for in 2015 (I know this because I ate there at least once a week), is now about $13, by using the app deals.

However since the rollout of "value meals" last summer, they took away some of the better deals and now McDonald's is simply expensive (for McDonald's) even with the app.

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