Mon Valley fast food franchisee refurbishes Brownsville location with technology upgrades
Deborah Taylor of Brownsville uses a digital self-order kiosk at the newly renovated Brownsville McDonald's. Customers can order and pay at their own pace at the restaurant using new self-service options.
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
The Brownsville McDonald’s features new, digital self-order kiosks and digital menu boards with calorie counts as part of recent technology enhancements to streamline the customer experience.
Brownsville McDonald's owner-operator Joe Carone operates a cash register while crew person Lisa Weld looks on. Carone's franchise recently unveiled extensive renovations that were made to improve customer experience.
The McDonald's restaurant located in Brownsville Plaza on Roberts Road in Grindstone features a modern facade after receiving extensive renovations to both its interior and exterior.
A streamlined, customer-friendly experience awaits patrons of the Brownsville McDonald’s after the restaurant recently reopened after extensive renovations and the installation of new self-service options.
The renovated restaurant, located in Brownsville Plaza on Roberts Road in Grindstone, features digital self-order kiosks, mobile order and payment options, digital menu boards with calorie counts, table service and a double-lane drive-thru.
“We’re grateful for the strong support McDonald’s has received from this community for many years,” said Joe Carone, who owns and operates the franchise with his wife, Joni. “That’s why we’re making sure the new building is even more comfortable and convenient for our customers.”
The in-store technology upgrades have been coined by McDonald’s as the “Experience of the Future,” part of the fast-food chain’s Bigger Bolder Vision 2020 to bring all franchises into a new, modern age within the next three years, said Carone.
The 1,500-square-foot restaurant closed for nearly three weeks in November as construction crews performed interior and exterior work — including expanding the store by 40 percent to add dining and kitchen space — to ready the building for a Black Friday reveal.
“From the onset we have gotten very favorable remarks,” Carone said.
The Brownsville location is just the fourth of 455 McDonald’s restaurants in western Pennsylvania to receive the overhaul, said Carone, who also owns McDonald’s franchises in Belle Vernon, Bentleyville, Charleroi and Monongahela.
The new model has been rolled out in more than 1,000 McDonald’s restaurants nationally and 2,600 globally.
With the “Experience of the Future,” McDonald’s restaurants are placing a greater emphasis on hospitality and customer convenience, said McDonald’s spokeswoman Kerry Ford.
“McDonald’s is all about customer convenience and customer preference,” said Ford. “Customers tell us they want a friendly and convenient environment and we listened. We’re trying to make it as fast and as convenient as possible.”
Carone said after he and his wife purchased the Brownsville restaurant a year ago, its outdated amenities and appearance moved it to the top of his list of restaurants for refurbishment.
Its features are now cutting edge, he said.
“We have several points of order now,” said Carone, referring to three kiosks, two cash registers, two drive-thru lanes and a mobile ordering app.
“Technology is where we’re at today. We as a society rely on phones. You can now use your phone as a point-of-sale at your own leisure,” he added.
Despite a move towards streamlined automation, the restaurant is adding employees to its work crew.
Employing 55 workers before the renovation, the restaurant has added five jobs and looks to add five more.
“We’re expecting more sales,” Carone said. “With the ease of ordering, if we get additional sales, we’ll need more people — it’s as simple as that.”
Expanded kitchen and refrigeration areas allow crew members to work more efficiently, he said. “To have happy customers, you need happy employees. You can’t have one without the other.”