First coronaproof McDonald’s in Arnhem

According to a report by the Dutch news portal RTL Nieuws, the school example of the reopening of horeca units could be the Dutch restaurant GelreDome McDonald’s. During the rebuilding in accordance with the virus regulations, great care was taken to maintain a mandatory social distance of 1.5 meters between both vendors and guests. As there is less room to sit at the tables, a row may form outside the entrance.

Nothing was left to chance

Large yellow circles help those waiting outside the entrance to keep a safe social distance. The poster at the entrance describes the new purchase order. Upon entering, we can perform the mandatory 20 second hand wash immediately at a sink.

The next station is a hostess counter from which we can take the order number and the table sign warning of a distance of 1.5 meters. Here, a hostess also explains how to order and how to act in the new circumstances.

Sterilized Meki experience

Guests have two options: Take Out Plus and Dine In. For both concepts, orders can be placed on giant touch screens.

If we take the order ourselves at the counter, when our number appears, we will wait for the waiter to put our tray on the counter and then take a step back. Only then can we go there and take our tray or package. In this case, we can dine at the standing tables or take the order. If we are sitting at a table, we will indicate this when placing the order on the screen, we take a seet and place our order number on the table and wait for the waiter to deliver our order with a trolley. Upon arrival, the server takes a step back, at which point we can reach there ourselves and take our tray.

Between antiviral plexiglass walls

Plexiglass dividers have been installed in both the guest room and the kitchen area to create an even safer environment for those working in each work process and for the dining guests.

Onpremise consumption is not yet allowed in the Netherlands, so far only takeaway orders allowed in the Arnhem prototype restaurant of McDonald’s. However, the infrastructure is ready to start, as soon as constraints are eased, the test operation will begin. Based on experience, they can still finetune some elements of the concept, but they would like to extend the roll-out to all Dutch McDonald’s units.

* POPAI, from 2015 named Shop! is an international organization of the Marketing and Retail industry which headquarters placed in Chicago and Hollywood Florida, representing nearly 2000 local offices. Hungary joined with the POPAI Hungary Association in 2003, which has since then been a nonprofit professional, educational, research and knowledge transfer organisation active mainly in the FMCG sector. Read more: popai.hu

Ildikó Kátai