> you can order ahead and your food is ready when you arrive

That just sounds like a great way to get cold McDonald's...

> I think additional user data is a relatively minor part of it.

You're probably right about that, but I've always undervalued user data because I don't think it's ethical to exploit people like that.

I'm sure that a well-timed push notification suggesting a personalized meal deal right around hungry-o'clock is the real goal of pushing this stupid app on their customers.

>> you can order ahead and your food is ready when you arrive

> That just sounds like a great way to get cold McDonald's...

The idea is to order 3 or 4 minutes in advance, not half an hour before...

> But they already have that if you always use the same debit or credit cards like most people do.

Don't they have only the last 4 digits and the issuer of the card? It is likely enough but there will be some noise.

Not to mention any potential legal trouble if they used the card details without explicit consent. App contracts will get around that.

They have your name too. From what I understand, the tracking is generally done via something like the hash of the card number though. I've never heard of any legal or compliance issues with that, since the card number itself is not stored.

Submitted a Subject Access Request to McDonald's here in the UK. I'll update here on progress.

> your food is ready when you arrive.

The food does NOT start cooking when you order it if you’re picking up at drive thru. It starts cooking when you pull up to drive thru and give the magic code.

In fact if the food is not easy to prepare you get put in a special parking space, where you wait for your order to be prepared. If it includes soft drinks they might serve those before they make you go park.

Disagree on not going to BK/Wendy's. The "deals" game becomes a habit, switching costs are basically zero, people start to comparison shop each app for the best deal (like shopping for air travel). It's a bit of work because there is no single consolidator but it only takes a few seconds to scan each apps offers.

At this point, being a fast food chain that doesnt have an app with deals is probably not viable - but I am very skeptical it generates any loyalty.

I treat food delivery apps the same way. There’s no stickiness for me, I just check all of them and pick the one with the best coupons for my restaurant. A sign that this kind of stuff is very much a commodity. I usually end up on DoorDash, but that’s mainly because the current credit card I use affords discounts for it and as a result wins in the bidding war for my business