How much would you pay for a free McNugget?

Starbucks became the first fast food chain to launch a mobile app in 2009, letting customers see how many calories their caramel frappucino had from the privacy of their own homes.

Hands holding a smartphone displaying a chicken nugget with a location tag.

Now, every restaurant worth its salt has an app.

Big Macs and big apps

Chick-fil-A has the best app, according to TastingTable, based on its tiered loyalty program (earn enough points to tour the company’s headquarters!) — but gimmicks might be overkill.

For others, according to Eater, it’s all about ease of use. Customers want apps to remember their favorite items — and they don’t want to have to talk to any humans.

  • McDonald’s spent $5m on a 9.9% stake in app company Plexure in 2019, gaining exclusive access to its tech.
  • Wendy’s and Burger King are also spending “hundreds of millions of dollars” on apps.

Would you sell your soul for a doughnut?

In addition to tours of the Chick-fil-A corporate office, these apps offer exclusive items and deep discounts.

But those come with a cost that should be obvious to anyone who has ever used an app: They’re collecting your data.

  • Some apps track your location when not in use or scan your social media profile.
  • It’s all about collecting customer data to make advertising more effective.
  • That can be invaluable to chains that want to know the demographics at individual franchises.

Eater figures that most consumers are aware of the practice, but don’t care — the benefits of a free large fry outweigh the cost of McDonald’s knowing everything about you.

In the end, a company as big as McDonald’s probably knows everything about you anyway. You might as well see some benefit.

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Topics: Technology Food

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