The McDonalds drive-thrus in Knaresborough and Ripon re-opened today to queues of customers.
During the pandemic, the restaurant chain had to close its doors but with safety measures in place it believes they can now safely operate the drive-thru’s.
There will be fewer staff on each shift to allow for social distancing. A limited menu and a capped spend of £25 have also been implemented.
In Knaresborough the customers queues saw up to 25 cars waiting to collect the food they had been missing for almost three months. Each car was stopped by a member of staff at the entrance and showed a leaflet of safety instructions.
Cars queued from the roundabout on St James retail park to be some of the first to eat at the restaurant since lockdown.
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At the Ripon restaurant, the first in the queue were Matthew Jones and Georgia Coates, who live in Ripon and are regulars at the restaurant.
Matthew told The Stray Ferret:
“We were gutted when it closed, but it’s all good now.”
Throughout the day, a steady flow of cars came in from the Ripon bypass roundabout, marshalled into the drive through queue by two McDonald’s staff.
Franchisee Matthew Midwood said:
“We have been liaising for some time with North Yorkshire Police and they have been marvellous, helping us to put a traffic management plan in place. We anticipate being busy and want to avoid vehicles backing up to the roundabout. The takeaway side of our operation could have stayed open, but we took the decision as a business to close on 23rd March, for the safety and wellbeing of staff.”
Staff who have been furloughed during the temporary closure, will gradually return, as the government lockdown restrictions ease further and when restaurants are able to open their doors to eat in customers once more.