McDonald’s eatery at Maidstone, located next to the main entrance of the amenity building, next to WHSmith. It lacks any customer seating of its own and accessing McDonald’s involves a long walk around the entire interior from the entrance. Roadchef have done this as they know McD is a profitable brand, so they want customers to pass all the additional facilities the sight offers to give them an opportunity of trade. McDonald’s being so close to the front of the amenity building is the reason Roadchef were able to install drive thru windows to the side. Ever since this drive thru opened, less customers have come inside the amenity building for McDonald’s. McDonald’s opened at Maidstone in roughly 2013, having replaced Roadchef’s own-brand fast food burger joint “The Burger Company”. Burger Company replaced Wimpy, which was original to when Maidstone opened. These are common changes for Roadchef sites, and this McDonalds remains open 24 hours. McDonald’s is a popular fast food joint as it provides consistency and low pricing structures. When Roadchef promote McDonalds, they are fast to point out that they keep their motorway prices as low as any other franchise of McDonalds, opposing from Moto and Welcome Break, which both have a strong involvement in the inflation giant Burger King. It’s quite a small McDonalds for a Roadchef as they mostly seem to be larger than this, but Maidstone’s relative low footfall means it doesn’t require large units in general. McDonald’s was fairly quiet during my visit, but this was due to the late time of my visit in the day (9pm). McDonald’s is signposted from both directions of the M20, however, it’s signposted as a drive thru.

Photo taken on 09/04/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Maidstone, McDonald's, M20, Roadchef