They were lovin’ it! Fast-food enthusiasts lined up outside a Boston McDonald’s on Tuesday, January 31, where free Big Macs were dispensed from a special burger ATM.
The ATM was set up at the Mickey D’s in Beantown’s Kenmore Square during the downtown district’s busy lunch hour. The machine offered not only the traditional Big Mac, but its two new sister sandwiches: the Mac Jr., a smaller version, and the Grand Mac, an even larger variant of the restaurant’s most famous menu item.
According to Boston Magazine, customers began lining up just before 11 a.m. behind a velvet rope and a sign that read, “Free Mac. This way.” The publication took to their official Instagram account to share a short video clip of a customer retrieving a regular Big Mac from the touch-screen apparatus. Customers simply typed in their Twitter handle and then clicked on the type of Big Mac they wanted.
On Friday, January 27, McDonald’s clarified that the sandwiches inside the ATM would be first assembled by a McDonald’s employee. “To be clear, the ATM does not put the Big Mac burger ingredients together, as they are already prepared and entered into the ATM by a team member,” the company said in a statement (via Boston Magazine).
Local McDonald’s owner and operator Vincent Spadea told Boston Magazine that the ATM’s Big Macs — which require zero human interaction to order — are just as good as the ones you pick up at the counter.
“The burgers are cooked on-site at the Kenmore McDonald’s and then immediately loaded into the heated machine, which is refilled on an ongoing basis to ensure fresh quality,” he said, adding that “McDonald’s does not have any further plans with the technology.”
