Why Drive-Through failed miserably in China

McDonald’s burgers are loved all around the world. Selling more than 75 burgers each second, it is by far the largest restaurant chain in the world. To put this in perspective it is estimated that more people can relate the Golden Arch logo to McDonald’s than the cross to Jesus Christ. Every market it touches sees significant growth, except one: Drive-Through restaurants in China.

McDonald’s first introduced Drive-Through restaurants in China in 2005. As part of its expansion plan, it was opening one restaurant per day. However, Chinese people where extremely unfamiliar with the concept and this had a funny result. Even after years, the most common think to do for the Chinese was to get their food while in the car, park their car and then get in the restaurant and eat it. Although this seems just time consuming, it was considered a successful move by the company since results show that in order to be sufficient, they will have to have 13.000 restaurants in the country.