McDonald's Spinoff CosMc's Reports Enormous Traffic In First Month

There's a new McDonald's (of sorts) in town, and so far, it looks like a potentially major success story for the company. In December, the fast food giant debuted a new venture called CosMc's (named after a long-retired McDonald's mascot), with a focus on drinks, from fruity iced teas to frappés and slushies. The first location (a drive-thru-only restaurant) opened in late 2023 in Bolingbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. According to data gathered by analytics company Placer.ai, CosMc's first month in that location drew about double the number of customers that an average McDonald's would receive monthly. If the data is adjusted to take into account the size of the restaurant, the new CosMc's received about three times the volume of customers of a regular McDonald's on a per-square-foot basis (although the small size of CosMc's, at around two-thirds the square-footage of a typical McDonald's, likely helps this number).

There's also evidence that CosMc's could have served even more customers if it had the capacity: Placer.ai staff visited the location and found a line of 80-plus cars for the drive-thru, so many that the company opened an overflow parking lot nearby. This suggests particularly high demand, with some people likely staying away for now due to the restaurant being ultra-busy. 

On the flip side, CosMc's could be benefiting from its newness. Most of its menu, including items like "Berry Hibiscus Sour-ade," is brand new and can't be purchased at McDonald's locations. That novelty value could wear off in the future.

Although there's only one CosMc's location open as of January 2024, McDonald's is planning to turn it into a full-fledged chain. The company aims to have 10 locations (which the company considers "pilot" restaurants) open by the end of 2024 and is looking at Texas for the next batch of openings, according to Quartz. Specifically, there should be CosMc's opening in the San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth areas, although there aren't any dates set yet.

The aim of CosMc's is to lure a younger crowd of twenty-something customers. The company has had some difficulty drawing younger diners in recent years — in the 2010s, there were various reports that millennials were shunning McDonald's, although there's also evidence that Gen Z likes fast food more than older generations. To that end, CosMc's seems to be leaning into a trendier menu. Items like its turmeric-spiced iced latte and s'mores cold brew seem like they'd fit right in at Starbucks, and would fit with Gen Z's preference for iced drinks. CosMc's focus is drinks, though it does have a food menu, that mixes McDonald's items like Egg McMuffins (no burgers, though) with new creations like an avocado-tomatillo sandwich, which also appears to be aimed at younger crowds (who have been noted for their love of avocados). 

But only time — and the drive-thru lines at a few more pilot locations — will tell if McDonald's can actually capture the younger generations with CosMc's new aesthetic and drinks-forward business strategy.