McDonald’s Location at the Bijlmerplein - Business Research Observation

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Patterns observed

Bijlmer

At this location we observed some peculiar customer behavior. The peculiarity stems from the fact that 30% of the subjects that entered the building left without ordering anything. They either went upstairs to make use of the washroom or came in to pick up the free newspaper.

Another eye-catching behavior observed was that 73% of the people who ordered something at this location used the self-service machines; most of these customers were young adults and adults. While the other 27% whom made use of the cash registers were middle-aged or elderly. However, some of the customers were forced to use the cash registers because the self-service machine did not work. This happened in the McDonald’s in Amstelveen as well.

Another pattern was that from 11:18 to 11:37 the influx of buying customers rose and after 11:37 these customers would be done and would have left: leaving the location as quiet as it was before 11:18.

Amstelveen

Unlike the Bijlmer location, everyone observed at the Amstelveen location ended up ordering something. Most of the people who came to this location were adults and visited the shop by themselves. 50% of these consumers used the self-service machines and the other 50% used the cash register. As previously mentioned, the self-service machines in Amstelveen had a similar problem as the ones at the Bijlmer location, as people stopped using them and ended up opting for the cash register.

A difference between the Amstelveen location and Bijlmer location we observed was that the composition of customers was different, at the Amstelveen location most of the customers that came in were by themselves, whereas there were mostly groups coming into the Bijlmer location.

A result that really stood out from the observation at this location was that even though it was around “dinner time,” there were fewer customers that entered here than at the Bijlmer location; a result which had us stumped.

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Appendices

Monday 19th September 2016

Time: 12:54

Location 1: McDonald’s

Bijlmerplein 368, 1102 DK Amsterdam

Ground floor

Space:

- 2 halves for customers

- 1 half elevated, has more seats and tables

- Other half reserved for pickup and orders with few tables and seats

- Elevated half surrounded by windows more than walls, only parts not as windows are structural reinforcement

- Other half has large wall with print of someone enjoying food (hamburger)

- In elevated half stairs leading up

- Wall separating 2 halves has print with floral/dot pattern

- Wall of stairs has the dot pattern with black background

- Walls with burger print and Dutch words relevant to food

- Display happy meals gifts

- Big posters with McDonald’s food

Objects:

- 4 interactive self-service machines

- 2 cash registers

- 2 take out areas

- At door:

- Balloons

- 2 baby seats

- 2 trash bins

- Small half

- 1 bar style table with 6 seats

- 4 small tables, 4 chairs, 1 sofa against the wall

- Other half

- 2 bar style tables with 5 seats each

- 2 trash bins

- 8 small tables, 5 large tables, 10 chairs, 12 sofas, 2 large sofas

- Water hose

1st floor

Space:

- 1 playroom for kids

- 1 room for children’s birthday parties

- 2 private rooms

- 2 lavatories (male and female)

- The walls were the same as on the 1st floor

Objects:

- 2 trash bins

- 2 baby seats

- 10 small sofas, 4 large sofas, 2 round tables, 16 small tables, 4 leather chairs, 18 chairs

- 1 water hose

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Observation 1

Tuesday 20th of September 2016

Time: 10:58 – 11:37

Location: McDonald’s

Bijlmerplein 368, 1102 DK Amsterdam

Gender

Age range

Self-service machine or cash register

Alone, duo, group, family

Take away or stay-in

Male

adult

did not order just went upstairs and left after a couple of minutes

Alone

(used the washroom)

-

2 Female

Young adult

Came in and then left without ordering something

Duo