McDonald's — Restaurant in Mount Holly

Sadly, many McDonald's have devolved into dystopian shells of themselves. And this one is no exception.

From the outside, they appear normal. But upon entering, you quickly realize they are nothing like what they used to be.

Gone are the bright, warm, and welcoming interior designs.

Gone are the swarms of diners sitting and enjoying each other and their meals in an expansive seating area.

Gone are the long counters with humans behind registers ready to take your order and your money.

Gone are the overhead menus with prices.

Gone is the literal and figurative brightness and joy that we were taught to associate with fast food restaurant experiences like these since childhood.

Instead, they are cold, dark, factory-like places where you are suddenly put to work because there is no one to take your order. You must use self-serve touch screen kiosks. This is also where you will find the item prices.

If you don't know how to use the kiosk, you must wait for someone to be available to show you how. And that person, essentially a runner, is doing three or four things: communicating with the kitchen; passing bags to the many Uber eats, GrubHub and Doordash drivers who are standing around staring at their phones waiting for their pickups; bringing food to a family that is not able to stand long next to the counter and wait; and passing food through a "dining room" window where a car is awaiting its order.

Service is slow in these "fast food" restaurants, so be prepared to wait.

There are very few seats in a place like this. The message is clear: take your overpriced low-quality "food" and go.

The kitchen is almost completely hidden from view, and from what I can tell enormous; it seems to take up much of the building.

And unlike designs from the last several decades, the clear line of sight to where the swill we grew up on and grew to love is heated and assembled -- since we know no real cooking goes on in these places-- has been obliterated. We hear and see shadows of kitchen workers speaking "McDonald's English" and see shadows of very busy, loud, and scurrying drive-thru servers, but these workers and their food handling are truly hidden in ways they never were in fast food restaurants of yore, which prided themselves on visual transparency.

As long as McDonald's still serves french fries and hot fudge sundaes, I'll be back. But I'll do everything I can to avoid going inside of these local dystopian hollows, as the experience is a joy-killer.

RIP to McDonald's, as we've known her.

-1 star for its convenient location -5 stars for the counter runner who made sure my French fries were piping hot and my sundae was properly prepared and who was kind and friendly and provided excellent customer service I remembered her name....

I waited in line over 40 minutes to order, pay and receive my order. I arrived at 9:30. Waited 15 minutes to order. Ordered a mocha frappe and fries. Waited another 10 minutes before i could get out of the line to go across the road to chik fill a and pickup another order I placed ahead. They closed at 10 pm. I returned to McDonald's for the line to be even longer than the first time. When I pulled up to the pay window the employee that was working the window had walked away 3 minutes before the line moved. I pulled up behind the previous car who bypassed the pay window. I was passed the window when I heard him hollering "SHANTAY! Hey! ARE YOU SHANTAY" I asked him if I sounded like a Shantay? I told him I would have paid him if he wasn't running around the restaurant playing his and seek. Waited another 10 minutes for the 2 card ahead of me to receive their orders. When I approached the window a man from the 1st car stopped me so he could walk up to the window and asked for a missing MAC CHICKEN from his order. He stood there for 4 minutes. When I pulled up the play working the window asked me if I had a sweet tea and other items. I said no. A mocha frappe, fries and 2 pies. The lady pulled tickets from a printer above her head looking around lay as can be. Then turned around to a register and informed me it was $10.79. I paid her cash with he exact change. She put it in the till. Then a young man walked up to her and they began taking about the lady putting in and didn't want the count to to be off and there wasn't a till in the register. Then the shift manager( I'm assuming) came over and began telling the other 2 that this is why we can't do this or you shouldn't have don't that etc. I blurted out "Can I get my food". No one acknowledged me. She kept talking about the register. This went on for 2-3 minutes. I asked a few more times for my food. Made the statement, this isn't time to have class. I was very annoyed. Finally a very friendly young black girl pushed by the shift manager and the guy and said, "I got your order". Waited for the lady in the window to move and finally got my order. I understand they were short staffed. No apologies for the delayed delivery to me. Nothing. They were very dysfunctional and chaotic last night. It was an...

This has had my stomach flipped inside out since it happen. Every time I think food I'm sick. I was at the McDonald's mountain island in Charlotte. I called them and the lady that answered the phone said she was the manager and she had been the one preparing the food all night. I told her that we are African Americans and have no way to put blonde hair in our food. She said well I am too and I been the cook all night. Next she said hold on and had another manager answer. Clearly they did not understand what I was talking about over the phone. They thought I was saying a piece of hair. So I left my house went back. How about she did not want me to show her upfront because of the other customers. I said no your going to see this here because this is not just about me getting a few dollars back. I said as a matter a fact I don't care if you keep the money because I don't want nothing from here period and this here you need to see and I'm going to make sure you see it. She said well I talked to you on the phone. I said I don't care if you did I'm going to show you. I did not go off because that is what they expect people to do. I try to keep it professional in public and this was a hard one. I did not order myself food that night only my child. Anyways it was a group of folks on a bus standing there and they all heard it. OH WELL. Anyways she told me to call 3/1 and I called the entire day multiple times no one will take my call. I tried to call corporate and the phone was never answered. So guess where it's going...