McDonald's new venture proves to be a hit

The highly-anticipated new restaurant chain from McDonald's, called CosMc's, has only been open for a little over a month, but it's already attracting a large number of customers. The fast-food giant's first CosMc's location in Bolingbrook, Ill., opened in December 2023 and has been met with great enthusiasm.

What is CosMc's all about?

While CosMc's offers a limited selection of food items like pretzel bites, hash browns, egg sandwiches, and ice cream sundaes, the main focus at the chain is drinks. The menu is filled with a variety of lemonades, flavored cold brews, slushes, frappés, and iced teas, many of which can be customized with popping boba, flavor syrups, energy shots, or Vitamin C shots. Some have even compared CosMc's to Starbucks because of its beverage-heavy menu.

Lines and wait times

Local media outlets reported that the Bolingbrook CosMc's drive-thru-only restaurant experienced hours-long lines soon after opening. Our own visit to the location a couple of weeks after it opened resulted in a nearly two-hour wait in a massive queue. Despite the long wait, we found the food to be better than most of the drinks, which were overly sweet.

Impressive foot traffic numbers

Data from Placer.ai, a foot traffic platform, reveals that CosMc's had more than double the number of guest visits compared to a typical McDonald's restaurant in 2023. Additionally, the smaller CosMc's location saw more than triple the number of visits per square foot. However, the report notes that the visitation numbers could have been even higher if the restaurant had the capacity to meet the overwhelming demand.

Is CosMc's a true success?

It's too early to determine if CosMc's is a true success, but the initial data shows that customers are flocking to the restaurant. McDonald's plans to open nine more pilot locations in Texas' Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio metro areas by the end of 2024, which will likely influence the chain's future expansion.