McDonald’s is building smaller, off-premise focused restaurants with limited or no dine-in seating in an effort to make more room for its drive-thru enhancements. There’s a reason the chain is laser-focused on its drive-thru channel — McDonald’s generated about 90% of sales at the drive-thru window during Q2 2020.
McDonald’s ubiquitous drive-thru presence helped drive some of its strongest quarters in roughly a decade despite the crisis. Its Q3 2020 same-store sales were up 4.6%, for example, while Q4 2020 was up 5.5%.