The future of McDonald's: £25 limit per car, plastic screens at counters and staff getting daily temperature checks - as fast food giant announces 975 branches and ALL drive-thrus will reopen next week
by Luke May For Mailonline- McDonald's will announce hundreds of restaurant reopenings daily between next Tuesday and Thursday
- Drive-thrus and deliveries will reopen with reduced staff and a host of new protestive measures in place
- Customers will have a £25 cap on their orders to cut waiting times, while a smaller menu remains in place
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
McDonald's has announced nearly 1,000 more restaurants will reopen for drive-thrus or deliveries from next week, under a new lockdown friendly measures with a £25 cap on orders.
Each franchise has been asked to make sure its staff are fit and able to work, following nearly two months of lockdown measures.
From next Tuesday McDonald's will begin announcing the restaurants that have reopened. By Thursday, 975 franchises will have reopened.
Footage shows how restaurants are reopening with protective screens between staff and customers. Workers are also expected to wash their hands every 30 minutes.
Protective screens have been put in place inside the kitchens and at drive-thrus to lower the risk of contamination.
For customers, the major changes are a reduced menu and a £25 spending cap, which has been introduced as staff get used to working in smaller teams and to reduce waiting times at drive-thru lanes. Diners are also being asked to pay via contactless cards.
A McDonald's spokesman said: 'We can today announce that by 4th June, 1019 of our restaurants will have reopened, either for Drive Thru or McDelivery.
'This means every Drive Thru in the UK and Ireland will reopen between Tuesday and Thursday next week and we will start to expand the availability of McDelivery too.
'This is only possible following the hard work of the teams in our 44 pilot restaurants.
'Over the last fortnight, our employees, franchisees and suppliers have worked tirelessly to implement new procedures to enable safe working so that we can now help all parts of the UK and Ireland to enjoy the return of the Big Mac.
'With fewer employees working in our kitchens and service areas, our teams will still need your patience and support as they continue to adjust to the new ways of working.
'Face coverings, gloves, Perspex screens and new safety and hygiene processes mean it will look different, it will take a little longer and as we have seen in the pilot restaurants, we expect demand will be high.
'Please bear with us, we will continue to put our people first – their safety is our priority.'
Drive-thrus reopening as lockdown measures ease has caused long queues as fast-food fans look to get their first fix of McDonald's since restaurants were shut.
In some cases McDonald's has had to shut drive-thru lanes, while there have also been complaints of delivery driver safety after they were seen queuing out the door in London to pick up orders.
With more than 900 more drive-thru lanes reopening by next Thursday, the fast food giant says it is working to keep customers levels down.
What will be included in McDonalds' limited menu?
Main Menu:
Cheeseburger
Hamburger
Double Cheeseburger
Big Mac
Quarter Pounder with Cheese
McChicken Sandwich
Filet-O-Fish
Chicken McNuggets
Chicken Selects
Sides & Desserts:
Fries
Mozzarella Dippers
McFlurry (Oreo, Maltesers, Smarties)
Fruit Bag
With more than 900 more drive-thru lanes reopening by next Thursday, the fast food giant says it is working to keep customers levels down.
It is only announcing which stores have reopened on the day it happens.
A McDonald's spokesman said: 'In the last week, on occasion, we have taken the decision to close Drive Thru lanes where demand has impacted local communities or the safety of our people or customers.
'We will continue to work with local authorities and the police as we extend our reopening plans.
'With smaller teams, we will still be offering a limited menu over reduced hours, and we ask that you make contactless payments and limit your spend to £25.
'We are continuing to review these measures as we reopen, but for now, these restrictions remain in place to help our employees, customers and delivery partner couriers to remain safe.
'To manage the anticipated demand, we will release the locations of the reopening restaurants on the morning of each day.'
Staggering footage showed vehicles snaking up and down roads waiting to access the restaurants, with many people having to wait over two hours to get their food.
Videos soon emerged on social media, after members of the public filmed the queues in utter disbelief, including one showing a seemingly endless stretch of traffic waiting to access the McDonalds A41 Watford restaurant.
Aghast, the individual filming the video could be hear saying: 'How badly do they want a big mac. That's a two hour wait for some nuggets.'
News of McDonald's return comes as Halfords announced it will fully reopen 53 UK stores by Friday with customers allowed back inside to browse shelves.
The car parts retailer will deploy marshals to guide people throughout the shops and use 'sneeze screens' to keep people safe.
Bosses expect a surge in customers wanting to get behind the wheel of cars that have been unused for several weeks.
- Burger King will reopen 40 drive-thrus this week, as it hopes to reopen 350 restaurants by the end of June
- At least 150 Starbucks coffee shops have reopened for takeaway customers in recent weeks.
- Last week KFC has announced more than 500 of its restaurants were reopening after lockdown closures.
- Greggs has started opening doors to its bakeries once again, with hopes 800 will reopen in June
McDonald's spending cap: What can you get for £25
To keep waiting times down, McDonald's has implemented a £25 spending limit for drive-thru and delivery customers.
Say a family of four wanted to order two large meals and two Happy Meals, here is how the prices would stack up:
Large Big Mac Meal: £5.09
Large McChicken Sandwich meal £5.09
Two Happy Meals (£2.79 each) £5.58
Chicken McNuggets 20 piece sharebox: £4.99
Total: £20.75
Families can still walk away with change, although they can only pay by card, even if they were order two large meals, two kids' meals and an extra box of nuggets to share.
Source: fastfoodprice.co.uk.
Halfords will fully reopen 53 UK stores by Friday with customers allowed back inside to browse shelves while being guided by marshals and protected by new 'sneeze screens'
- Halfords expect sales surge from customers waiting to get back behind wheel
- Comes as John Lewis has also announced that it will be reopening stores
- Thousands of shops, department stores and malls can open from June 15
Halfords will fully reopen 53 UK stores by Friday with customers allowed back inside to browse shelves.
The car parts retailer will deploy marshals to guide people throughout the shops and use 'sneeze screens' to keep people safe.
Bosses expect a surge in customers wanting to get behind the wheel of cars that have been unused for several weeks.
The company has been allowed to remain open throughout lockdown but instead shut stores and operated online and from store car parks instead.
A date has not been set but screens and markings will be in place along with other safeguarding measures, Halfords said.
Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords, said: 'We are pleased to be in a position to start letting our customers back into our stores. 'However, we are going to be reopening them to our customers gradually and cautiously in order to be absolutely certain that our colleagues and customers have a safe environment in which to work and shop.
'There has been a big surge in demand for our bike products and services as people have taken to cycling during the lockdown, both for commuting and for fun.
'We are also anticipating a similar level of demand for our motoring products and services in the coming days, as people begin to use vehicles again that in some cases will have been off the road for many weeks.
'The launch of our new Retail Lite model will assist us in meeting this increased demand, which in turn will allow us to continue helping to keep the UK moving.'
Thousands of shops, department stores and shopping centres can open from June 15, while outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from next Monday as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased.
But things will look very different in the revamped stores, with checkouts behind screens, toilets and changing rooms closed, a limit on the number of customers allowed inside the store at any time and no seating available.
Stores will also feature markings outside to assist with socially-distanced queuing and encourage customers to shop alone where possible, according to union-backed guidance issued by the British Retail Consortium.
John Lewis yesterday announced plans to reopen some of its department stores next month, but would not confirm an exact date for when all stores would open across the UK. Bosses said social distancing measures used in its Waitrose stores have 'informed' its preparations for the department stores.
Similarly, Marks & Spencer bosses have been guided by the safety measures employed in their own cafés when reopening stores. Dozens of the retailer's food outlets reopened for takeaway only on May 15.
Retailers are gearing up for what has been dubbed the 'sale of the century' with about £15billion worth of stock available after clothing stores shut their doors just days after filling their rails with spring and summer fashion.
Next and M&S are among the retailers expected to promote huge discounts, with warehouse storage space 90 per cent full for some outlets who have resorted to putting products in containers on railway sidings.
Where are Halfords reopening?
Aintree
Ashford
Aylesbury
Basingstoke
Bedford
Braintree
Cambridge
Chatham
Chelmsford
Chester
Colchester
Cribbs Causeway
Doncaster
Dundee
Eastbourne
Edinburgh - Straiton
Exeter
Fareham
Frome
Gloucester
Hamilton
Harlow
Hemel Hempstead
Hereford
High Wycombe
Huddersfield
Inverness
Ipswich Euro
Leamington Spa
Leicester, St Margarets
Lincoln, Tritton
Liverpool, Edge Lane
Maidstone
Milton Keynes
New Malden
Newport
North Shields
Norwich
Peterborough
Poole
Preston
Plymouth
Sheffield, Queens
Stevenage
Stirling
Stockport
Swindon
Taunton
Telford
Thanet
Wakefield
Yeovil
York