McDonald’s is leaning into the new and harkening back to its past to lure in customers—and the chain seems to be having tremendous success in both approaches.
CosMc’s, the fast-food chain’s newest restaurant, opened its first location this weekend and saw customers lined up for hours to taste its new offerings.
The new concept is beverage-focused and meant to target Starbucks as a competitor. Customers at the Bolingbrook, Ill., location began lining up as early as 3:30 a.m. To try menu items such as the s’mores cold brew, turmeric spiced latte, and churro frappe.
At the peak, the wait was up to three hours long, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
Separately, the company is bringing back a version of the customer favorite Snack Wrap, which has been off the menu for seven years.
The new version, which will be called a McCrispy Wrap, will be in all markets by the end of 2025, the company said. It’s part of a bigger push into chicken offerings, as those have been seeing a bigger sales push than burgers in recent years.
Fans have been launching online petitions for the return of the Snack Wrap for years. They initially went away after some franchise owners told corporate that the item took workers too long to make, cutting efficiencies. Some stores defied the menu item’s cancellation, selling them up until 2020, but by that point, they were completely gone.
Some consumers thought McDonald’s was teasing the Snack Wrap’s return last year, when the company’s Twitter account made a joke referring to the long-lost item. McDonald’s quickly shut down speculation at the time, saying there were no plans to bring the food back.
But, just like the McRib, the return seemed inevitable. While the new wrap won’t be exactly the same as its predecessor, it’s close.
As for CosMc’s, McDonald’s plans to open another 10 pilot locations in Texas by the end of next year—and, assuming those do well, it will expand the concept to other states.