'Steady but constant' queues as north Northamptonshire McDonald's re-open

Scores of burger fans have been queuing up today (Wednesday) as McDonald's re-opened drive-thrus across the north of the county.

Queues have been described as "steady but constant" as the chain opened their drive-thrus in Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Raunds and on the A14 at Rothwell for the first time since they close because of the Covid crisis.

At the Phoenix Parkway store in Corby 107 cars visited in the first hour after they opened at 11am, with people queuing for between 15 and 20 minutes in the drizzly rain for their fast-food fix. It's expected to be busy tonight.

Area manager for Corby Karl Pfadenhauer said: "It's been steady but constant since we opened and the number of customers hasn't been too overwhelming.

"Our biggest concern was we did not want to cause any problems with traffic and we did a lot of planning about how we were going to manage being drive-thru only.

"At the minute it's taking people between 15 and 20 minutes, and in some of the stores in Peterborough for example it was about an hour-and-a-half when they opened."

The Phoenix Parkway store has space for 100 cars to queue and is using part of the Asda car park.

The store has about 60 per cent of its usual number of staff in the kitchen with 70 per cent working on the drive-thru to help maintain social distancing.

There are people in masks and hi-vis directing traffic with those at the counters wearing masks and gloves.

Drive-thrus in Kettering were slightly less busy when the Northants Telegraph visited at lunchtime, with queues of between 15 and 20 cars waiting to be served.