“I worked at McDonald’s, a little-known tip gets you free hash browns and cheap burgers”

A former McDonald’s employee has revealed several secrets from her time at the fast-food chain, including why the drive-thru is so fast and how to chop your double cheeseburger

McDonald’s is so popular with so many people around the world, but there still seems to be so much we don’t know.

However, every day is an opportunity to learn and we are constantly discovering new things – like when we recently peeked into the company’s London headquarters and saw how they develop new products.

And now we’ve unearthed more secrets thanks to a former employee who previously worked at two different McDonald’s branches – one in Salford and one in Grimsby.

Writing for Hull Live, Emily Johnson shared what she learned during her time at McDonald’s – she claimed that working at the drive-thru could be like an “extreme sport” and shared a genius hack to get free hash browns and cheaper burgers to get.

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Emily answered some of the most common questions she’s been asked about McDonald’s and explained that there are some big misconceptions about working for the chain.

She said: “I think there are a lot of common misconceptions about what goes on behind the scenes at the world famous burger chain and people have come to me with questions about working there.

“McDonald’s in the UK is usually split into franchises, each with different rules and objectives. I’ve worked at two different franchises so this information is likely to be the same for most, but may not apply to all.”

One question she’s often asked concerns the speed of the drive-thru – and why it’s so much faster than being served indoors.

Emily claims it’s because the drive-thru has a timer that measures the time when a car pulls up in front of the intercom until you drive away with the food.

“We had an internal ranking of the fastest times compared to the rest of the McDonald’s restaurants in the UK,” she admits.

“We would make this an extreme sport to try and get first place. There is no ranking in the stores, so people are more interested in the drive-thru destinations.”

Another tip she shared was for double cheeseburgers and how to “chop” them to get that Big Mac flavor for less.

Emily explained, “Customers are asking for a double cheeseburger disguised as a Big Mac. All the salad and Big Mac sauce freebies, you get the same amount of meat, and it’s half the price too.”

Along with cheaper burgers, she also claimed some McDonald’s restaurants could give out free breakfast items like hash browns at 11 a.m. to save on trash from the bin.

When asked what happens to the breakfast meal after 11am, Emily added: “It unfortunately goes in the bin but we would try to cook as accurately as possible if we were cooking what we thought we would need.

“If you show up in Grimsby between 11am and 11:05am, they’ll often offer you the leftover hash browns and McMuffins for free if there’s any leftovers.”

The Mirror has reached out to McDonald’s for comment.

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