A Boston McDonald’s is making a lot of high-tech changes to how it does business.
The restaurant on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing celebrated its highly anticipated grand re-opening on Tuesday morning, complete with a Chinese Lion Dance performance as well as a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring Mayor Marty Walsh. The space has been completely revamped to meet the needs of customers in today’s digital age.
The new and improved McDonald’s features self-order kiosks, where guests can browse the menu, place orders and even pay using cards or services like Apple and Android Pay. The new technology was recently introduced at a location in Everett last year, and is being used in thousands of McDonald’s across the country, including more than 100 right here in New England.
In addition to the kiosks, the Downtown Crossing restaurant will also now feature table service, so guests can relax as their food is being prepared, which will be brought to them via a McDonald’s crew member.
“We’re thrilled to open the doors to our newly renovated restaurant to the Downtown Crossing community,” owner and operator Carol Chin said at the event. “This is part of McDonald’s commitment to modernization and evolving our customers’ experience.”
Mayor Walsh praised Carol and her husband Vern for their donations to the Josiah Quincy Upper School and Elementary School during the ceremony, as well as for the part they play in revitalizing the Downtown Crossing area. The mayor also noted how their business is indicative of the important contributions women and immigrants make to the city.
“This business here is an immigrant-owned business. This business here is a women-owned business,” Mayor Walsh said. “This business here shows you that it’s important, as Boston as an international city, to be able to have all of the different pieces to move our city forward.”
Following Tuesday’s announcement that McDonald’s as a whole plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, the mayor thanked the company for its efforts to combat climate change.
“McDonald’s now is a partner with the United States in making sure that we have a clean environment and that we fight climate change,” Mayor Walsh said. “We see the effects of climate change in our city. We’ve seen it in the last several months with the rising sea tide with the storm surges, with the first day of spring today and we’re expecting anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of snow tomorrow.”
“Boston is a climate leader. We’re committed to reducing the carbon footprint,” he added. “Having a corporation like McDonald’s involved in that conversation is so important to the future of our country and what we’re doing in this area.”
