McDonald’s

I once asked the employee at the window who had handed me my order if she knew if my burger had no pickles and whatever else I ordered: just to double check, because I always seem drive off and expect to have what I ordered. But they never get it right. So this employee’s response to my question was «I dunno what’s in there.» I was just appalled. This place is a grade f. A sad excuse for a «restaurant», a complete disgrace. It seems like standards here do not exist. Employees are aware this place is an embarrassment, they are a reflection of it.
How do they seem to only hire people with missing or disco mores teeth? A persons teeth reflects their overall health and it makes me cringe to think what diseases they may have, handling food. (Probably not wearing gloves and other must have food safety protocols). Although there is one employee who really is super awesome and I hope he has good karma forever because he is always smiling and making sure he is actually paying attention to the customer, I will get his name… And edit this review.
So they more recently «OPENED 24 HOURS» at this location and tonight I went there at 2am and they were closed. They changed their hours back to 8 – 11. Ok. What does that tell you? Maybe they should just close it down and not give kids a hangout to get into trouble. The location is basically IN a park which is like «section 8» only and it’s pretty sad. This whole area of town just makes me want to runaway as fast as possible and get back to east Gloucester.
Do us all a favor McDonald’s chain owner… Close it down. Cutting hours is basically one step away from cutting them all together: get a grip.

Ugh. McDonald’s isn’t exactly known for its high quality to begin with but I have a working theory that this is the black hole of the franchise. The further away I get from this particular McDonald’s… the better experience I have and honestly better quality of food.
First and foremost, they do not have a complete menu compared to other McDonald’s. Let me repeat that, they do not have a complete menu. You cannot order a great deal of items in this location. Specialty quarter pounders? Nope. Bacon Clubhouse? Nope. Chicken sandwiches in general? Like maybe one or two. Expect a barebones experience. The spin they put in on this is «We’re trying a new limited menu.» No other McDonald’s is doing this… it’s more like «We don’t want to have high food order bills for a tourist trap.»
Second, service is terrible. I can’t tell you how many times I have almost missed a train or bus because I’m standing there for over 5 minutes without someone wanting to take my order. It seems like the priority for the cashier is to take an order, walk around like a chicken with their head cut off for a few minutes and wander back to the register. Seriously… take care of your customers. Ring them all in, then expedite their orders. It’s not that hard of a strategy to do. Especially since it seems there is always 5 or 6 people who are managing the expediting and ringing of customers in drive thru and in house.
Finally, despite tearing down the old building and putting up a new one… it always seems grimy in there. Not as though they’re not cleaning the place… just seems grimy. Plus it also doesn’t help that the place always seems to either attract angry old people in the morning and angry kids at night. Drive thru is the best bet, just hope they don’t mess up your order. Even by McDonald’s standards, only go here if you need something fast.

Normally I wouldn’t write a review for McDonald’s but my experience has been so awful here I just had to say something.
McDonald’s is the ONLY fast food option here in Gloucester, there isn’t anything else even close, you would have to drive to Beverly to find something else. I’ve had too many bad experiences to count and the worst part is they don’t even compensate you for your troubles when you have to bring the food back. I mean you can’t even offer me fresh fries or a soda or something after the 50^th time I’ve returned with my food?
Most of the employees don’t speak English and this goes for the drive-​thru as well. Not only that but what’s the point of having two lanes for ordering when you don’t even listen out for the second lane? There have been many times I have been stuck in the second lane and watched 4 or 5 cars in the first lane drive through and I had to backup to go through the first lane. I’ve told them over and over again about this and they don’t seem to care.
The food is very hit and miss, but mostly miss. My fries are rarely ever fresh and the one thing I love about McDonald’s is the fries. They have been so stale and old it isn’t even funny. I usually order the Grilled Chicken Sandwich meal but the chicken is slimy, old, and tastes rubbery. You can tell it’s been sitting in a drawer for hours. I can’t ever remember getting fresh chicken. I’ve had to return so many times that I now just pull into the parking lot to check my food because I KNOW I’m going to have to walk back in and get a new sandwich. The worst part is the managers don’t care and barely even offer up an apology about it.
The prices are pretty outrageous. If I had a Chipolete closer I would go there because I can get a gourmet burrito for less than a greasy meal at McDonald’s. A lot of McDonald’s have specials but not this one. They usually don’t have any promotions so you are paying top dollar for garbage food.
They tend to close early. I know they close at 10pm on the weekdays but I’ve driven by well before 10pm and the lights are off and they are shutdown. Also, a few months ago we had a minor snowstorm and this McDonald’s didn’t even open! I mean this is New England and we had a few inches of snow and at 7:30am they still weren’t open lol.
I’m giving these guys 2 stars because SOMETIMES the food is OK and the restaurant itself is clean and modern. If there was any other fast food option in Gloucester I wouldn’t even attempt to eat at this place. I think they don’t care because they know there isn’t any other options close by.