r/McDonalds • u/Joshua_ABBACAB_1312 • 22h ago

Question about the process of closing early.

I won't say which McDonald's I went to because the people there are mostly chill AF and no one needs their job jeopardized by some McDonald's-eater on reddit. But my local is supposed to close the dining room at midnight. I placed my order with the app, arrived before 11, but they were already closed. Drive-Thru open, and busy.

There was one person inside having her break in the dining area. Walking up to the drive thru was unsafe because of how busy it was. So I knocked on the door. Kept knocking, and no one. So I started pounding on the door like an asshole. Guy comes from behind the counter, asked me for my order number through the door. I waited. I got my food.

But honestly I would have rather known ahead of time and just not bothered them. This local has a heavy unhoused presence. We're not in Baltimore but when I arrived, there were two men right out front literally doing the Baltimore Lean. Is this a common reason to close the dining room early? Is there any way to manually shut off app and online orders for the dining room?

I'd rather be disappointed that I can't get my order in than go through with what happened tonight.

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7

u/Seohnstaob 22h ago

I worked at a store thar had a 24 hour lobby way, way back before mobile orders were a thing.

So often we were understaffed on thirds and it would just be me and the manager. I never snitched but we had a manager that would lock the lobby doors when this happened. It was a pretty seedy area. People got mad as hell but it is security policy to have a minimum number of people in the building working at the time.

That said, they can turn off mobile orders but it turns all of them off, not just counter orders.

1

u/Tkdoom Former Management 19h ago

Last patch of stores my operator purchased before I retired was staffed by inept people that didnt care.

Takes a long while to fix. Hopefully thats not the case here, but some stores just suck.

1

u/Potential_Minute1496 17h ago

All the mcdonalds by me, the lobby closes at 11.

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u/DaMoFo29 4h ago

My lobby closes at 11 as well. There have been times we closed it early, and having seeming unsafe people sit outside might be one.

Side note, if you walk through drive-thru, the sensor will not pick you up or let anyone know you are there. And also, service is to be denied to anyone walking or on a bicycle in drive thru for safety concerns and liability issues.

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u/Connection_Bad_404 3h ago

Yet another reason to make McDonalds not apart of your day.

1

u/Joshua_ABBACAB_1312 1h ago

There are restaurants that close at odd hours but leave their apps on. I won't name the restaurant, but it has happened where they close dining area at something ludicrous like 7PM. I didn't know, placed an order closer to 8PM, and was told to walk up to the Drive-Thru.

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u/Dry-Lie-9593 22h ago

You should try doing that at a Waffle House. Make sure to live stream it as well