·McDonald’s is closing three CosMc’s restaurants, but plans to open two new locations. The Starbucks competitor has done well, but the company says smaller stores do better than bigger ones.
McDonald’s is closing nearly half of its CosMc’s spin-off restaurants less than a year after they began serving customers, but the chain says it remains committed to the concept.
The company is closing three locations, the largest CosMc’s it has opened, but says it plans to open two smaller stores in Texas this year.
“Since opening CosMc’s, we have had the benefit of testing out different location sizes and setups – from revamping larger restaurant spaces to building smaller prototype locations that focus more on the drive-thru and digital experience,” McDonald’s said in a statement. “We learned that the smaller format stores allow us to test new, unique circumstances that are reflective of our customer base.”
The stores being closed were reformatted McDonald’s locations, the company says. And smaller, in this case, is better.
That makes sense, seeing as CosMc’s is designed to compete with Starbucks, with a beverage-heavy menu. To date, the most popular offerings have been the Sour Cherry Energy Burst, the Churro Cold Brew Frappe and the Island Pick Me Up Punch. Hashbrown bites have proven to be the most popular non-drink menu option.
While McDonald’s is shutting down three locations, CosMc’s has been popular with customers. Data from Placer.ai last year showed the first location of the new concept received more than twice as many visits as a typical McDonalds over the same time period.
CosMc’s revolves around a character introduced in 1987—a robot, of sorts, with a green head, a fishbowl-like body and arms and legs. In his commercial, he tells Ronald McDonald and Grimace he “popped in from outer space on a trade mission,” but proceeds to swap less-than-desirable objects for a burger and fries. He’s ultimately stopped via a giant magnet, but joins the gang for a picnic.
(It was the mid- to late-80s… It wasn’t the weirdest thing going on, but it was still pretty weird.)
