Huge queues as McDonald's reopens 39 drive-thru restaurants in UK and Ireland

Imogen Braddick20 May 2020

Huge queues have been spotted at McDonald's drive-thru restaurants after the fast food chain reopened 39 of its sites.

Ahead of a planned reopening of all drive-thrus in early June, McDonald's is now serving from a number of "pilot restaurants" with a limited menu in UK and Ireland.

Video footage on social media shows hundreds of people queueing in their cars to get their fast-food fix from the sites which reopened at 11am on Wednesday.

There were huge tailbacks in Sutton and Staines as excited customers waited in line to order Big Macs and McFlurrys.

McDonald's re-open as drive-thru's during lockdown

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Due to expected high demand, McDonald's said it is working closely with local authorities, warning that it may close drive-thru lanes if queues cause disruption or put employees or customers at risk.

The restaurants which have reopened, primarily in south east England, are offering a limited menu with orders capped at £25 per car, the fast food chain said.

Contactless payment is also being encouraged.

Peterborough tops the list with six open for drive-thru business, Ipswich has four and Luton has three.

To reassure customers, the fast food chain has introduced a number of new safety measures, operating with a reduced number of staff in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines and issuing personal protective equipment to be worn by staff.

The group says it has increased training on cleaning practices and added perspex screens to key areas of the restaurants. ​

McDonald’s called for customers to be “patient and supportive” of staff as sites reopen, warning that service “will not be as quick as you might be used to” as workers adjust to the changes.

“When your local drive thru does reopen, it will be different,” UK and Ireland CEO Paul Pomroy said.

“Our service will not be as quick as you might be used to, as we adjust to smaller teams and social distancing in our kitchens.”

Mr Pomroy also confirmed that more restaurants would be opening soon.

“Moving in step with government guidelines, we plan to reopen all our drive thrus by early June," he said.

"We will keep the restaurant locator on our website updated as our drive thrus reopen over the coming weeks."

It comes after rival Subway reopened all 600 stores in the UK for delivery and takeaway last week, along with openings from Burger King, Pret A Manger and Wagamama, among others.

On Tuesday, Wagamama revealed plans to reopen 67 restaurants for deliveries by the end of next month.

The restaurant chain launched a trial at five delivery kitchens earlier this month after being forced to shut its doors to customers due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It said it will rapidly expand its delivery service after “successful” trials in London and Leeds.

Pizza Express also said it plans for 13 sites across London to offer delivery services from next week.

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