McDonald’s plans to close three of its larger-format CosMc’s locations just months after opening them but will still open two smaller-format units of the drive-thru beverage concept this year, the company said on Friday.
The Chicago-based fast-food giant provided its first update on the concept since April of last year, outside of announcements of openings in Texas, where all but one of the seven CosMc's restaurants are located. The company said it made the decision to close the locations after deciding that its smaller units better enable it to “test new, unique circumstances that are reflective of our customer base.”
Still, it represents a quick pullback for half of the CosMc’s opened in Texas over the past year, and one-third of the locations initially planned for the market.
McDonald’s debuted CosMc’s in late 2023 with its first location in a remodeled Boston Market in Bolingbrook, Illinois. The concept initially drew long lines of curious customers, some from as far away as the U.K. or France.
CosMc's generated long lines after it first opened in December 2023. | Photo courtesy of Linda Rasmussen.
The concept is designed to take advantage of consumers’ apparent affinity for digital-focused, drive-thru beverage brands, one of the hottest growth sectors in the restaurant space right now thanks to brands such as Dutch Bros, Scooter’s and 7 Brew.
Yet McDonald’s has indicated from the get-go that this was a test-and-learn concept and many of its new locations were created with different formats to see what works. The company has provided relatively few details on the concept.
The company’s pullback suggests its larger-format stores aren’t quite generating the sales it hopes to get, at least to justify the locations’ size. It also suggests that McDonald’s is not afraid to quickly pull the plug on ideas that don’t work.
McDonald’s did provide other details about what products have sold the best. Some of CosMc’s best-selling beverages include the energy drink Island Pick-Me-Up Punch and the Sour Energy Burst. The Churro Cold Brew Frappe also sells well. Its most popular customization is Fruity Popping Boba.
CosMc’s Savory Hashbrown Bites is the top-selling food item, though the company also said it has sold “hundreds of thousands” of its McPops.
McDonald’s did note that it will continue to test the concept. “We have just scratched the surface about what we can learn about this growing category,” the company said.
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