A very long drive… thru: McDonald’s fans travel 250 miles for a Big Mac from one of the few reopened stores
- Ryan Hall and Paisley Hamilton drove from Hull to a Peterborough for a McD’s
- Ryan said the journey took seven hours and they only spent 15 minutes eating
- The fast-food giant said it would be reopening 33 drive-thrus earlier this month
- Yesterday, McDonald’s announced it planned to have almost 1000 more restaurants open by Thursday next week
Friends Paisley, left, and Ryan travelled 250 miles for a McDonald’s
Two friends took a 250-mile round trip to their nearest McDonald’s drive-thru after the fast-food chain reopened a handful of stores last week.
Ryan Hall and Paisley Hamilton, both 23, drove from Hull to a Peterborough McDonald’s on a journey they said took them seven hours.
Ryan, who paid £27 to fill up his Fiat 500 for the journey, said they hadn’t really thought about how much the trip would cost or how long it would take.
‘It was definitely a ‘F*** it’ moment which actually ended up costing me a lot of money. But I’d do it all again. It was so worth it,’ he told the Sun.
On 20 May, McDonald’s announced it would reopen 33 stores around the country for pick-up meals, with a further six providing a delivery service.
Unfortunately for the friends, their nearest franchise was over 100 miles away in Peterborough.
Ryan said that after the long journey, they ate their lunch in the car park, polishing off a large Big Mac meal, a large Chicken McNugget meal, two double cheeseburgers, a McChicken sandwich, a regular cheeseburger and a Filet-O-Fish.
McDonald’s announced yesterday nearly 1,000 more restaurants will reopen for drive-thru or deliveries from next week, under 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.
From Hull and back: The 250-mile route Paisley and Ryan took to buy their McDonald’s meals
In Peterborough vehicles remained stationary in the car park as the McDonald’s employees battled to deal with the high demand of drive-thru customers
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 have 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.