McDonald’s Advises Franchisees of Bag Supply Shortage, Encourages Use of Trays

alright so this is one of those stories that sounds fake but is absolutely real – McDonalds is running low on paper bags. the golden arches. one of the largest restaurant chains on the planet. cannot get enough paper bags to put your big mac in. we are truly living in the strangest timeline possible

according to an internal memo that got leaked, McDonalds corporate sent out a message to franchisees telling them to dial back their bag orders because theres not enough to go around. The Takeout got their hands on the details and its exactly as weird as it sounds – the company is literally telling its restaurants to serve dine-in customers on trays instead of putting everything in bags

the thing is this makes sense if you think about it. for over a year during the pandemic, basically every order at every fast food restaurant was to-go. drive thru only. every single customer interaction required packaging. now dining rooms are open again but people still ask for bags. the supply chains just cannot keep up

theres also this funny detail about how a lot of new mcdonalds employees have literally never served food on trays before. they started working during the pandemic when everything was to-go. Entrepreneur covered how McDonalds leadership acknowledged the training challenge.

the memo said the “transition to using trays has been slower, more difficult because we havent done it in so long.” which is hilarious and kind of sad. an entire generation of fast food workers who only know pandemic service.

McDonalds says the impact should be “minimal” but here we are writing about it. the ongoing supply chain crisis keeps finding new and creative ways to mess with everyday life

what gets me about this story is how it illustrates just how fragile these systems are. mcdonalds has the supply chain thing figured out better than almost anyone. and yet one global disruption later and theyre rationing bags. welcome to 2021