Why McDonald's Stopped Using The Premade Burger Bin System

Before McDonald's arrived in 1948, the idea of walking up to a window, placing an order, and almost immediately being handed a bag with your food was fast-food fantasy. The small stand turned this fantasy into reality in part by pre-making its signature hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and dropping them down a chute where the cashier who took the order could grab your food and hand it right to you. As the menu grew, the chute received dividers to create the bin system that remained in place up to 1998. By that point, fast was no longer enough and customers began to expect personalized, fresh fast food, forcing McDonald's to abandon the bin system and replace it with what it called the Made for You system.

The menu of the original McDonald's (which is now a museum) consisted of only cheeseburger, hamburgers, fries, pie, shakes, and drinks. Places like In-N-Out figured out how to keep the menu simple and still offer customization through not-so-secret menus. McDonald's and other big chains, however, chose to expand menus to get new customers (do you remember the McDonald's McDLT?). Diversification is a popular move in the industry, but even now it's the original burgers that rank highly for McDonald's. 

The old chutes became slanted warming bins or shelves with slots for the various burger types to fall into, plus one aptly named "special" slot for burgers with requests like no ketchup or extra pickles. As the special orders grew, pre-made burgers sat longer and customers became unhappy. Some were upset their special request meant waiting longer and others were convinced customers with special requests got fresher meals. People even made small special requests to bypass the bins: "This is where the 'ask for a modification to get a fresh one' trick came from," wrote one user on Reddit. 

The McDonald's bin system helped catapult the company from a small burger stand to a billion dollar corporation by 1972. Competition grew and soon Burger King made up ground by turning the core strength of McDonald's against it through the Have It Your Way marketing campaign. The King's catchy jingle exclaiming, "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us" (via YouTube), targeted the pre-made burger system of McDonald's. While BK had used the Have It Your Way slogan since the '70s, it was in the '90s when there was a reported increase in sales due to the ads. The campaign worked so well that by the late '90s, heat lamps and burger bins had a negative perception too difficult for McDonald's to overlook.

In 1998, McDonald's announced the Made For You kitchen, where the ingredients were prepared ahead of time and kept separate, with patties kept in warming trays but everything else kept cool until an order was placed. The new method reduced some waste, as no more burgers were tossed out for sitting out too long. The change gave the perception of freshness without really changing much about the ingredients themselves. Meanwhile, some who remember the bin system still clamor for it, proclaiming the food stayed hot longer and tasted better as a result. If nothing else, you could at least count on melted cheese.