The Wall Street Journal reported last week that McDonald's will soon offer free wireless Internet at all of their US restaurants. They had been charging $2.95 for the service but are now doing away with the fee. They say their goal is to make McDonald's into more of a "hang-out" place.
Hmmm.
Several years ago, Ray Oldenburg wrote a book called "The Great Good Place" where he first talked about the idea of the importance of "third places." In other words, our first place is home. Our second place is work. And, as Oldenburg states, we all need third places in our lives. Whether it was on purpose or just lucky coincidence, spots like Starbucks and Panera have become important third places for many, many people.
Will free WiFi turn McDonald's from a place to get cheap food into a place to read a book, meet friends, or work online? I doubt it. Quietly reading Frost while I snack on a quarter pounder is just about as ridiculous as Starbuck's adding the colors orange and red to their design palette.
If McDonald's thinks they can turn their restaurants into third places by merely adding wifi, they're mistaken. Like I mentioned above, think about their design, their colors, their furniture. There's a reason those stores are designed like they are…and it's not for quiet conversation or surfing the net.
Our spaces are very important to us. I heard Marley Porter (designer of the Wizard Academy) say one time that we're not like bugs that live in the walls. We're human and we live between the walls. Our space helps us function. Design is critical. Effective usage of colors and lighting…and even shadows help define the spaces we use. And it's hard to get the shadow affect when you are using florescent lighting.
For the same reason, you should carefully consider your "people" spaces at your camp or conference center. People are not going to gather and hang out in certain places just because you set up some chairs and hang some lights. Do guests at your facility like to hang out around the dining room tables, even when it's not meal time? Probably not if you have one big dining room with overhead florescent lighting.
Guests today are looking for relationships and sharing opportunities in their lives. They want conversation. The days where guests want to simply sit in a big room and listen to a speaker…with no chance to talk about it, discuss, ask questions, etc. are gone. Are you carefully planning spaces at your facility to be the "third places" your guests want and need?
Good article. And to add another point…
Have you ever tried to find an A/C outlet in a McDonald’s? It’s like trying to find that little french fry you dropped between the seats of your car.
They would definitely have to add accessible power outlets to their customers to give this a serious push.
When we took over our restaurant there was a space. It was cold, it was impersonal, it had no soul. Little by little we’ve changed it, in part, by removing the Floro lights over the register area. It was harsh, bright, and detracted from the good things going on there. We’ve added white Christmas lights along the sides of the room that twinkle… We added a 73″ HDTV that covers much of one window, with a homemade TV stand draped in fabric the colors of our restaurant… I also added free Wi-Fi for my brother & sister geeks within a week of taking over, because every retail environment should have a channel for customers to seek information. All in all, we’ve made a space that we were comfortable spending hours upon hours in… and we do… and now, so do others. We have customers who come every day, spend all day here enjoying our space, listening to music, watching tv(s), eating & drinking… it’s more like an extended family to us… which is why just adding free Wi-Fi will never make McDonald’s a ‘third place’ but it will make it a nicer place to take the kids to play on the play place… and it’s one step closer to my belief that Wi-Fi should be free & available in every place you spend time/money.
I agree to the extent of probably not. But that hasn’t prevented McDonalds from recognizing the issues you describe, and they’re making an attempt to solve them. Check out this slideshow and article from Business Week. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/05/mcdonalds/index_01.htm
I’ve noticed a couple of the renovated restaurants as I’ve traveled the past few months, and while I still probably won’t choose McDonalds over Panera anytime soon (for reasons well beyond decor) it’s definitely an improvement.
Excellent post. It’s the same thing that separate Domino’s Pizza from Lucali in Brooklyn (well, one aspect — of course, there are so many more things than the design of a space). This isn’t the magic formula for transforming a franchise business into a third place.