Ever wished that a Big Mac with fries and Coke would magically appear at your doorstep? Dream no more.
Canadians can now order McDonald’s menu items from 187 restaurants in Montreal, Ottawa, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Edmonton, the fast food giant and Uber announced today.
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And the two companies have plans to add more home-delivery spots in the coming months, for a total of 250 restaurants by the end of summer 2017, including in Calgary. Here’s the roll-out plan:
- Montreal (31 restaurants)
- Ottawa (18 restaurants)
- Toronto and Greater Toronto Area (145 restaurants)
- Edmonton (43 restaurants)
- Calgary (20 restaurants)
“We know that Canadians frequently search for McDonald’s in the UberEATS app, so we’re excited to expand our reach and deliver what they’ve been craving,” Ian Black, regional general manager of UberEATS said in a statement.
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But the partnership between McDonald’s and Uber extends well beyond Canada. The so-called McDelivery service via UberEATS is also available in over 1,000 locations in the U.S., as well as in several U.K. cities and towns, including London and Manchester.
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But is it worth it?
The McDonald’s-Uber combo has its fans:
https://twitter.com/jeffreydacunha/status/882219371015401472
https://twitter.com/am_vandervalk/status/882241130783440896
The economics of ordering your fast food favourites for delivery, though, seems questionable.
UberEATS has never been cheap, but its flat $4.99 booking fee isn’t so bad if you’re ordering, say, a $30 meal. But McDonald’s?
Adding Uber’s cut to many menu items means paying nearly 100 per cent more. A $5.39 Egg McMuffin Meal, for example, will now cost you $11.08, according to UberEATS Toronto. You might also need to pay an additional fee if you happen to order when UberEATS is busy in your area, similar to the surge pricing Uber uses to get more drivers on the road during peak demand times.
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And then there’s the wait. The average order takes 35 minutes from start to finish in Toronto.
A boon for night owls
Still, the service will likely prove popular with the younger crowd that often turns to burgers and fries to help quench hunger pangs after a night out drinking:
Inebriated night owls have become an important target market for McDonald’s and the fast-food industry in general in recent years.
The company’s CEO, Steve Easterbrook, has said 60 per cent of the company’s delivery orders are made in the evening, with 30 per cent coming in after 11 p.m.
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