Drive-Thru Drink Concept Ends Following 18-Month Trial in Limited Market
The party is over for McDonald’s CosMc’s, the beverage-centric, drive-thru-only spinoff. The fast-food giant disclosed Friday that it was pulling the plug on the five remaining pilot sites, four in Texas and one in a Chicago suburb, after about 18 months. McDonald’s CosMc’s originally opened eight locations, but three had shut down previously. The five still-operating sites as well as the CosMc’s app will be gone by the end of June, the company said.
The CosMc’s name was derived from an extraterrestrial McDonaldland character who appeared in the chain’s advertisements from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. The CosMc alien “craves McDonald’s food.”
McDonald’s had hoped that customizable CosMc’s drinks and snacks would siphon drive-thru business away from rivals such as Starbucks, the Associated Press reported. Several of the nation’s most rapidly growing beverage-focused brands – among them Dutch Bros, 7 Brew, Scooters and Swig – sell exclusively via drive-thru units, according to Restaurant Business. The publication also said Caribou Coffee Co. and some other traditional restaurant model competitors are pivoting to emphasize drive-thru business, too.
Marketplace Snapshots
CNN Business speculated that uncertain economic conditions contributed to the CosMc’s demise. McDonald’s recently reported its second consecutive quarter of sales declines as consumers tightened spending, the CNN Business report said, probably spurring McDonald’s leadership to concentrate on making its core product more enticing and profitable.
CosMc’s apparently couldn’t capitalize on the staying power of coffee drinks in the American marketplace, given that cold brew, lattes and shaken espressos were menu mainstays. As of late 2024, the restaurant software company Toast reported that U.S. coffee chain sales had grown by 8% year-over-year to notch a market size of $49.5 billion, mostly driven by big brands.
McDonald’s CosMc’s History
Announcing the CosMc’s concept with great fanfare in July 2023, McDonald’s hoped to secure a slice of that market. The company pledged that its innovative beverage menu would combine “out-of-this-world tastes into the McDonald’s experience,” The Wall Street Journal recalled in its report on the closures.
Among the CosMc’s food offerings were hash brown and pretzel bites, an egg-on-brioche sandwich, a spicy queso sandwich and a creamy avocado tomatillo sandwich. Soft-serve ice cream also was available, but not McDonald’s signature Quarter Pounder and Big Mac sandwiches.
Edgy drink flavors ran the gamut from Berry Hibiscus Sour-ade and Churro Cold Brew Frappé to matcha iced latte, prickly pear-flavored slush topped with popping candy, sour-cherry frozen energy drink and turmeric-spiced latte. Its menu also had some more traditional options such as lemonade and blackberry-mint green tea, UPI reported. The bright spot for customers who got hooked on those specialty drinks is that CosMc’s-inspired beverages are coming to “hundreds” of U.S. McDonald’s restaurants. McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said those exact same CosMc’s drinks might be too complex for regular McDonald’s restaurant operations.
In a McDonald’s news release about the shutdowns, the company said the primary goal for CosMc’s was “to create a launch pad for learning for the McDonald’s System.” It praised CosMc’s as a proving ground for new flavors, technologies and processes: “The CosMc’s team was able to test and learn in real customer-facing environments, which allowed for greater agility and speed. Quick adds and edits to the menu based on feedback led to more-focused choices for our fans.”
Other Changes at McDonald’s
CosMc’s isn’t the only change brewing at McDonald’s. In March, the company revealed it would create a team tasked with developing new beverages, according to USA Today. Restaurant consultant John Gordon told the newspaper that McDonald’s has tended to be “very quiet” in the beverage space as compared to competing chains. Drinks typically translate to higher profit margins than food items, USA Today observed in its article. (Taco Bell is hunting in that territory, UPI reported, with the Mexican-influenced fast-food brand accelerating its in-restaurant drink initiative, Live Mas Caf3.)
In addition, McDonald’s just last week extended its operating hours until midnight or later at most U.S. restaurants. As a result, the company will add more than 300,000 employees during the summer, Fox Business reported. McDonald’s franchisees determine their own menus and exact hours, with some already open 24 hours a day, UPI stated.
McDonald’s by the Numbers
McDonald’s, which opened the first franchise in Des Plaines, Ill., 70 years ago, reported that first-quarter 2025 U.S. sales decreased 3.6%, UPI noted. That decline did come with an asterisk, however, because 2024 had an extra day because of leap year.
Chicago-based McDonald’s is considered the world’s largest restaurant brand. It has more than 14,000 locations in the United States. The brand operates more than 38,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, according to the McDonald’s website. McDonald’s franchisees operate more than 90% of its restaurants.
Photo: McDonald’s
