General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: McDonald's losing business to home cooking. Is this a bad thing? [View all]NanaCat
(1,530 posts)You have to remember how many people swing through there on their way home from work.
Mid-morning and mid-afternoon seem to be universal slow times there. If they're open late/24 hrs then they'll be busy from 12-3am, but slow from 9-12 and then 3-7. The exceptions to that will be if they're near cinemas, which our nearest McD's is. Then they'll have a pretty steady run in the evenings between the working families and until at least 11 as the various films let out.
That's been the pattern at nearly all of them I've driven past over the years, and at various hours, something I had to know because either I, my husband, or both of us until recently had jobs with 24/7/365 hours. I especially know the pattern of our local franchise, only a mile or so away. Back when I had to drive the husband to work across town, we went past it often enough at varied hours to know when it would be an aggro to get past it.