GONE IN 30 SECONDS? BURGER'S FREE IF MCDONALD'S SLOW ON FLIP.Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer There's a new watch word for the company that essentially invented fast-food: faster. After getting hit with customer complaints about dragging drive- throughs, McDonald's unveiled a campaign Friday to get Southern California's car-bound customers through the line in under 30 seconds. ``McDonald's has had a lot of negative press in terms of service (networking) Terms Of Service - (TOS) The rules laid down by an on-line service provider such as AOL that members must obey or risk being "TOS-sed" (disconnected). time, which has hurt the stock,'' said Ann Gurkin, first vice president for East Coast analyst firm Davenport & Co. ``They put in the Made For You system, but it seems like you still waited in line forever.'' With up to 150 cars an hour turning into the venerable burger chain, the in-car service lanes turned into virtual parking lots in heavily trafficked areas. Despite a new system introduced last year, the drive-through behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. continued hearing complaints about its speed. Now all Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, restaurants are promising a maximum 30-second wait time from payment to pick-up. If the bag isn't in hand by then, customers receive a coupon for a free Big Mac on their next visit. On the first day of the new operation, Bob Wesel was on a mission and had no time to be waiting around. His grandson, who'd forgotten his lunch, had just phoned in a request from school. Wesel jumped in his Toyota and headed for the Golden Arches The Golden Arches are the famous symbol of McDonald's, a fast-food hamburger chain based in Oak Brook, Illinois, USA. They were introduced in 1953, when Dick and Mac McDonald began franchising their company, as part of the standard building design: a pair of stylized arches, one at Erwin Street and Owensmouth Avenue in Woodland Hills, hoping to get in and out in a hurry. Once there, he found a long line of cars in the drive-through, which should have thrown a hitch hitch to fasten by a knot, usually used to describe tying a horse to a post. into his quest for Verb 1. quest for - go in search of or hunt for; "pursue a hobby" quest after, go after, pursue look for, search, seek - try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the a Big Mac, large fries and Dr. Pepper. ``I've got to get to him in a hurry,'' he said as he pulled into line, drumming his fingers on his shift column. ``He called me because he forgot his lunch.'' Though long lines In communications, circuits that are capable of handling transmissions over long distances. usually tend to cut into lunch hours and aggravate eaters, Wesel and the rest of the drive-through patrons were in luck; things appeared to be running smoothly as cars zipped through the line. ``There's more and more people driving around in their cars on the go,'' said Keith Lopaty, owner-operator of the Woodland Hills restaurant and five others throughout the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . ``Working moms, working dads and people just driving around. Convenience is more and more important to people, now more than ever.'' It certainly was to Wesel, who picked McDonald's specifically for its quick turnaround time (1) In batch processing, the time it takes to receive finished reports after submission of documents or files for processing. In an online environment, turnaround time is the same as response time. . ``I hope that 30-second thing turns out to be true,'' he said, easing the car into drive and pulling forward. The program, first successfully tested in Riverside, was introduced specifically to streamline the drive-through process. For operators like Lopaty, who sees nearly 150 cars come through at lunchtime, that quick turnaround is essential. ``One of the things they've been doing in all their restaurants is improving service, and one of the biggest issues is speed,'' said Tony Howard
Anthony Bourne Howard (b. , a restaurant analyst for Hilliard Lyons. ``I'm surprised that they're doing this in L.A., since it's such a huge market.'' Despite the challenge, the chain seems to be making good on its promise to quicken A popular financial management program for PCs and Macs from Intuit, Inc., Mountain View, CA (www.intuit.com). It is used to write checks, organize investments and produce a variety of reports for personal finance and small business. service time. Even custom orders are still guaranteed to be served in 30 seconds, though one customer complained the fries were undercooked, a phenomenon that caused Howard concern. ``It could backfire in that it speeds up the service to the point where it hurt the quality,'' he said. ``They might be just putting it together too fast.'' Lopaty defended the speed, pointing out that most sandwiches are made in under 20 seconds without a loss of quality. ``We still make it when you order it,'' Lopaty said. ``We don't start making the sandwich until it's keyed into the register. Because we're doing each thing individually, it's just as easy for us to make a Big Mac with no onions or extra sauce as it as a regular.'' As customers sped through the line, their orders literally hanging out the window awaiting them, the convenience was much appreciated. Wesel nabbed his combo and was off in a hurry, and Shannon Santatikul rolled off to enjoy the rest of her break from her member services job at HealthNet. ``I've only got 45 minutes for lunch,'' she said. ``Speed is definitely an issue.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) McDonald's restaurants There are more than 30,000 McDonald's restaurants in 119 countries. Restaurants The first McDonald's was not a restaurant at all, but it was a sit-in stand. The company's early franchises were built to a standard pattern that did not offer seating; this was in part to prevent in Southern California are promising a maximum half-minute wait time from payment to pickup in its drive-throughs. If the bag isn't in hand by then, customers receive a coupon for a free Big Mac on their next visit. At left, cars speed through the line at McDonald's in Woodland Hills on Friday afternoon, the first day of the campaign. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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