Ideas into reality at Owasso's McDonalds

If you've seen one McDonald's, you've see them all, right? Well you haven't seen Tim Rich's McDonald's. <br><br>Tim Rich, you see, has a rich imagination. News on Six business

Monday, May 13th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

If you've seen one McDonald's, you've see them all, right? Well you haven't seen Tim Rich's McDonald's.

Tim Rich, you see, has a rich imagination. News on Six business reporter Steve Berg visited Rich's Owasso McDonalds and says Tim Rich is a trailblazer in the truest sense of the word.

He's building a second drive-thru lane to get customers through faster. You'll soon be seeing double at Tim Rich's Owasso McDonald's, and we're not talking cheesburgers. Rich is constantly thinking of ways to improve his customer's experience. And it occurred to him that there was an obvious way to speed up service. "And the two lanes, we'll be able to take two orders at a time."
Obvious, but not simple. Customers will enter the drive-thru in one lane, split into two to order food, and then merge back into one to pick up. Rich invested in a new computer system to keep the orders in the "right" order. Now he's curious to see if his effort to "serve" more customers is going to "attract" more customers. "But I'm confident that it is, I wouldn't be putting my money into it, if I wasn't confident that this would work."

It's not the first time Rich has cooked up a new idea. His McDonald's are the only ones in the country that offer the regular lunch menu for breakfast, when many workers at the nearby industrial park are getting off work. "'cause they've worked all night, graveyard, and it was easy for them to ask for lunch, it was their time to eat lunch or dinner, so." Whether it's interactive computers in the play area. Or flavored coffees for the adults.

He wants this to be the McDonald mecca. Case in point, to keep traffic moving faster, Rich hires a couple of officers to help direct traffic during the busy lunch hour. Rich says the home office has been very supportive and will be watching the lane changes with great interest. "The success of this will determine how many more are built in this area."

Rich is doing the same thing with his Claremore restaurant. He hopes to have both of them done early next month.