McDonald’s is about to do what every big franchise does at some point in its lifetime—get a spinoff. According to a report coming from CNBC, the fast food behemoth has announced a trial run for a chain of spinoff locations, which they’re naming CosMc’s. If the name CosMc sounds familiar to you, there’s a good chance you grew up in the early ’90s, when McDonald’s introduced a character mascot called CosMc into their ads. CosMc was an alien whose favorite thing on planet Earth was McDonald’s food. Right now, the plan is to open 10 CosMc’s locations, including nine restaurants in Texas, by the end of 2024.
So what will set a CosMc’s location apart from your regular old McDonald’s? The new locations are specifically intended to sell customizable drinks and coffee, notably to the afternoon “just getting off of work” crowd. So, kind of like a Starbucks. However, no one at the McDonald’s corporation is mentioning that chain specifically. Doesn’t sound like there will be Big Macs or any kind of chicken sandwiches at CosMC’s, with a focus instead on a menu with Egg McMuffins and M&M McFlurries, plus new items such as Churro Frappes and pretzel bites. And coffee drinks, of course. The first CosMc’s restaurant will open this week in Bolingbrook, Illinois.
The new CosMc’s locations will have a smaller real-estate footprint than a regular McDonald’s restaurant. But the company is still figuring things out, and some may have different layouts. One of the plans involves having multiple drive-thru lanes. And customers using credit cards will also be able to pay at the drive-thru speaker. All as a way to speed up service times. If the 10 new locations take off in their trial run, then McDonald’s will decide if they will expand. We just hope that since they are naming the chain after CosMc, he will get his own comeback. If McDonald’s brought back Grimace, they could bring back the little alien guy.