Why All Fast Food Chains Look The Same Today - Cheddar Explains

Have you ever wondered why new McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger Kings and more are starting to look the same? Over the years consumer preferences have evolved and recently a new type of restaurant has entered the game to cater to those very preferences. For traditional fast food, it's either evolve or go extinct.

Further reading:

1. Restaurant-ing through History
2. Ethics, Design and Planning of the Built Environment: by Claudia Basta and Stefano Moroni
3. Historic Projects
4. Washington Post
5. Business Insider
6. ArchDaily
7. Curbed
8. Australian Design Review
9. QSR Magazine
10. The Laurinburg Exchange


Connect with Cheddar!

[diomedes]

"How can we make it look healthier but not actually make it healthier?" That's basically the gist.

[vaibanez]

I have never looked at McDonalds and said "Man, that restaurant looks really nice, fresh, and hip."

[mlk-]

It's that "modern" style from all the home design games

[xuto]

"How do we make people feel our food is better?"

"Put a new wrapper on it. People are dumb."

Eureka.

[futurehofer]

McDonalds went from a happy child to a depressive adult lol

[benx]

I have to agree with the architect. They all look the same. I can remember when you didn't even need a sign to tell a Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, BK, Wendy's McDonalds, etc apart . You could do it just by looking at the building.

[Samuel_Freakin_Adams]

"People wanted better quality food and we heard them!
That is why we made the building more colorless and depressing to look at."

[marco]

Translation: "It's still the same pig, we just put a little lipstick on it"

[TheTrainmobile]

Me before the video: Oh cool! I'm going to watch a video on current architecture trends.
Me after the video: Progress is an illusion. We are all pawns of large corporations looking to maximize their profits.

[chaff]

That CDO of Wendy's talking about taking a leadership role was such BS. They essentially told their franchisees "we're changing our look. Get in line."

[ruok]

McDonalds store design went from look a whimsical child designed that to look a depressed architect major made that

[BoundyMan]

I miss the days when you knew a restaurant by its building design and didn't have to read the sign.

[leonarddurecki]

I can remember when every Taco Bell looked like The Alamo, I miss the old designs.

[kxmode]

Let's get one thing straight: McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and others like them still serve fast food. All they did was change the look of their buildings and the interior. If I go into a McDonald's and order a quarter-pounder with cheese, the staff will serve the burger in about a minute. It will be lukewarm with unmelted cheese and fall apart when I take a bite because it looks like it was assembled by a 7-year old. I would NEVER go to McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King for "fast-casual." I go to them because I know they have fast food. That's what they serve. Also, nobody goes to McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King for "new and fresh." They go there for fast food. So sick of these companies trying to rebrand themselves when they still serve the same low-quality food. It's like a music band rebranding their image, but their music still sucks!

In contrast, let's look at In-N-Out Burger. The company purposely designs its restaurants to look like the 1950s (in other words, they don't want modern). All their burgers are still under $4 (that's early 2000 prices)! Their menu hasn't changed in 73 years! Yet, when I go to an In-N-Out, their drive-thru line takes up the entire lane extends out to the parking lot and specific times to the street. The In-N-Out by my house has the line forming at the left turn lane from the road! In-N-Out Burger is considered fast food, but unlike today's fast food, they cook their burgers over an open grill like 1950s fast-food restaurants, so you're not going to get it in 2 minutes. If they're not busy, it takes 10-20 minutes. The difference shows that people are less about speedy services and more about quality regarding food, which is why Chipotle and Panera have done well. McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and other fast-food restaurants haven't changed HOW they make their food. That's the problem. Until they address that, they will keep burning billions on modernizing their look when they need to improve their food quality. Put it this way, if Mcdonald's started making their burgers the way In-N-Out does, without a doubt, they would have long lines!

[MrShabindigo]

I personally, preferred the old design to these new "art gallery" looks.

[claytech]

The inside of the "new" McDonald's looks like a hospital cafeteria.
Change my mind.

[neeneko]

Huh.

I am actually kinda surprised this is actually helping them. In my region, when a fast food place remodels like this, I start forgetting they are there. They look really generic, they don't really pop out and remind you of their existence... very easy to miss when driving along. This gets even worse when I am in an area that I am not familiar with, they just blend in.

[adoringfan]

"lets's emulate fast casual to bring more people in. But change noting about our product or service."

[samuraijack]

Although the emergence of fast casual is definitely a huge factor in this new look, one of the reasons McDonald's specifically started the rollout of a new restaurant design was the emerging success of Starbucks. McDonald's aimed to compete and started McCafe and with it, brought a redesign to many stores. You can see the similarities between the darker tones and wood usage of Starbucks.

[vizthex]

also the fact they're calling it "quick service" instead of "fast food" due to the connotations between both.