‘TWO HOURS for some chicken nuggets’: Incredible footage shows queue of cars snaking up road outside McDonald’s after 33 drive-thrus opened across UK
Huge sprawling queues have been seen this week as people rush to get their McDonalds fix, after the fast-food company re-opened a selection of restaurants for drive-thru.
After the Government eased lockdown restrictions McDonald’s opted to re-open 33 stores around the country on Wednesday for pick-up meals, while a further six are providing a delivery service.
Staggering footage showed vehicles snaking up and down roads waiting to access the restaurants, with many people having to wait over two hours to get their food.
Videos soon emerged on social media, after members of the public filmed the queues in utter disbelief, including one showing a seemingly endless stretch of traffic waiting to access the McDonalds A41 Watford restaurant.
Aghast, the individual filming the video could be hear saying: ‘How badly do they want a big mac!? That’s a two-hour wait for some nuggets.’
McDonald’s released a statement claiming that branches would shut if the queues were too long, after expecting a big turn out following the eased re-opening.
A spokesman told the Sun: ‘We expect a high demand across all locations. We are working closely with local authorities and we may determine it is necessary to close our drive-thru lane if queues can cause disruption or put our employees or customers at risk.’
After choosing a selection of the sites to re-open across the country, the majority of restaurants back serving the people are found in the south of England.
The fast-food chain has also reopened six of its restaurants in Dublin as drive-thrus.
Safety measures also had to be put in place at the various re-opened locations, in order to both maintain the practice of social distancing amid the ongoing pandemic and also keep tempers in check during the tiresome queues.
Police were called to the Boongate store in Peterborough after huge numbers of customers rushed to the shop when it re-opened at 11am on Wednesday morning.
McDonalds have made the call regarding safety for their workers, and have put measures in place to minimise the risk of coronavirus spread.
Perspex screens are installed at all drive-through windows and staff will be given protective equipment, the firm have said.
Upon arrival at work, all staff will have their temperatures monitored, while screens will also be present in the kitchen areas.
The fast food giant hopes to reopen all drive-thru operations over the next month, following a complete shutting down period in late March during lockdown.
McDonald’s’s latest round of re-openings comes after 15 of its restaurants in the South East of England were reopened through food couriers Deliveroo, with the fast food outlet offering a limited menu and putting a spending cap at £25 per order.
A statement from McDonald’s said: ‘With restaurant teams adjusting to new procedures to enable safe working and social distancing, things may take a little longer – and high demand is anticipated.
‘McDonald’s and its franchisees are working closely with local authorities and the police, and may determine that it is necessary to close Drive Thru lanes if queues cause disruption at busier sites or put employees or customers at risk.’
People from the North of the UK have slammed the chain after it emerged that all the re-opened branches are in southern England.
Twitter users were quick to react to the news with Northerners, in particular, expressing outrage over the locations chosen by the company.
‘So instead of spreading the stores throughout the UK you open only Southern stores with some multiple stores even in the same town? Senseless!’ one user, @KelEll said.
Kyle Thornton said, ‘As usual the north is forgotten about.’ While Kat Slyper questioned, ‘Why are they all down south is there something wrong with the north and Scotland???’
Branches circling London have been among the first to open, as McDonalds trials its reintroduction into daily public life.
Drive thru facilities were particularly congested in Hounslow, Staines, Bobbing, Medway and Watford.
