I’m all for making things easy. When you are a busy mum it’s great to be able to use things that make life easier, but they have to be simple to use too. Often I’m put off a potentially labour-saving idea because of the upfront time and effort involved with setting it up or getting used to it. So when McDonald’s invited me along to visit one of their restaurants and try out their Click and Collect App, I was interested to see if it would live up to my expectations. I went along to the Cape Hill restaurant in Smethwick and met up with McDonald’s franchisee Afia Sirkhot and some of her team both to find out about the app and how she runs her business.
Afia employs over 600 staff across her 6 McDonald’s restaurants. So there are quite a few opportunities for staff to progress as they develop their skills and experience. We met a handful of staff, many have worked with Afia for years, and there is clearly a family feel to the working atmosphere. Many of the staff members have relatives working within the set up and staff join the McDonald’s team at a range of ages. One member of staff said that working at McDonald’s had helped develop his soft skills and helped give him the confidence to train as a a software engineer, but he was still going to do a few shifts at McDonald’s in the future. Flexibility about hours works well for staff members, so that they can accommodate family commitments or student team members can work for their exams.
I downloaded the app from the app store before I went. It was easy to find and quick to download. It’s called McDonald’s UK: Click & Collect, but a search for ‘McDonald’s App’ brought it up for me. It’s good to allow the app to access your location because it can easily figure out which restaurant you are closest to. You don’t have to order from your closest one though if another is more convenient, say for instance you want to go to the one closest to your home or one at a handy stopping point on your journey.
Often when I am at the McDonald’s counter I find myself ordering the same thing as last time. Now this is partly because yes, I do enjoy a Big Mac, but it’s also because sometimes I feel under a bit of pressure because there is someone in the queue behind me. One of the nice things about the app is that you can choose from whatever is on the menu and you won’t be holding anyone up, plus you can also customise your meal, so you can change (within limits) what is on your burger say. With the chance to browse I decided to be a bit more adventurous and tried a burger from the Signature Collection. There’s a lot of information available on the app (if you want it) and I think it would be great if you have special dietary requirements or want to know nutritional information about your meal.
Once you have decided on your order and your restaurant, you can check out and pay. All you need to do then is arrive at the restaurant and use your phone to scan the code to say you have arrived. The crew will start to prepare your order (they don’t start till then to keep it nice and fresh), plus your payment will then be taken from your card. There’s a collection point by the counter with a screen giving the order numbers – you can get this from your phone – and the status of that order. Before long your order will be ready for you to eat and you’ll have already paid, so you can tuck in straight away.
Disclosure: This post is in association with McDonald’s.
NFL Flag is a non-contact version of American Football and it is aimed at children aged 8 to 14. It’s the fastest growing sport in the UK and Ireland and it’s easy to see why because it’s fast-paced, fun to take part and allows children to use a range of skills, so it’s very inclusive. Each team fields an offensive and a defensive team with only one playing at the same time. The offensive team need to be good at throwing and catching, plus speed comes in useful. The defensive team doesn’t need to throw or catch (so it’s great for kids like H who aren’t that great at those skills), but they do need to try to pull off the offensive team’s flags – these are on the belts they wear around their waists, there’s one on each side and they are easy to pull off with a bit of a tug. Basically at each time a team is either playing offensively or defensively and puts out the right team for the job. The opposing teams take it in turns to attack and they try to score a touchdown by getting the ball to the end of the pitch. The offensive team has 3 chances (known as downs) to advance the ball and try to score, then the teams swap roles.
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Alongside learning to play, curriculum materials are provided to focus on the NFL core values of respect, integrity and responsibility. The school materials also encourage healthy eating and getting active as well as helping the children learn how to play NFL Flag. There’s quite a lot to think about in terms of tactics for the game and the NFL Ambassadors help the children master the basics of planning an attack.
I was really impressed with how keen the children were and how much they had got into playing NFL Flag. There was a lot of enthusiasm which was really great to see and some teams had even brought along supporters to cheer them on. As you can see from the pictures the teams are mixed, which I think is really positive. I really got into the tournament and decided to support George Betts Primary Academy, as a friend of mine has worked there for many years, plus it’s fairly local to me. Their team had clearly worked hard on their skills because they won their first couple of games with ease. As they progressed through the tournament, it got tougher, but in the end I’d backed the winning team because George Betts were the Birmingham winners. They will be going to London to take part in the NFL Summer Bowl, taking place on 18th July at King’s House Sports Ground in London. The NFL Summer Bowl is the season finale flag football tournament for UK schools. Well done to George Betts and to all the school teams for playing so well.
After H had finished learning some driving skills, we headed off to the shops. H had plans to go to Smiggle and GAME for a mooch round and he was very pleased to pick up a legendary Pokemon code for one of his DS games in GAME. As we were finishing up we heard the tones of a 7 piece brass band playing in the shopping centre and went to see what was going on.