No, McDonald’s Hasn’t Solved the Problem of Soggy Delivery Fries

Much to the chagrin of burger chains across the country, pizza is widely rated the best delivery food. Thanks to the low-tech genius of pizza delivery boxes (and those little plastic doodads), pies stay reliably hot and melty all the way from a restaurant’s oven to a patron’s door. Insulated pizza delivery bags and other innovations help, too.

But millennials, they say, want everything delivered. So burger companies are on the defense, trying to figure out how to keep buns fluffy and fries crispy and everything hot.

That’s why Lucy Brady, McDonald’s senior vice president and global chief strategy officer, told Bloomberg this week that the chain’s partnership with UberEats was going well, and that they recently figured out how to keep fries hot. There’s no innovation here, though. McDonald’s staffers are putting fries in a paper bag — instead of a box — before passing the order off to an UberEats driver for delivery. This is not a special paper bag, it’s not equipped with, say, anti-steam technology, and it does not insulate the fries in any way.

“The first thing everyone was concerned about is: Will the fries be hot and fresh?” Brady told Bloomberg, and added that “patrons are having a great experience...[and] satisfaction rates are high.”

When Eater placed an order for fries from a nearby McDonald’s location, the fries were delivered in under 30 minutes as promised, but were lukewarm and only about half of the fries were crispy.

Eater

The fact remains that a burger and fries is best prepared à la minute and served immediately after it’s made.

As Skift Table points out, “even the most casual french fry connoisseur knows that soggy fries aren’t a heat problem, they’re a bag problem. Fast delivery will help, but hot fries will steam themselves in a bag, every time.”

Perhaps the real truth here is that people don’t expect crispy fries and fluffy burger buns when they order delivery from McDonald’s. They know what they’re going to get and they’re fine with it — and those that aren’t can order pizza instead.

• McDonald’s Says It’s Solved the Industry’s Delivery Problem of Keeping Fries Hot [Bloomberg]