Written by If you have ever bought a McDonald’s drink at your local McDonald’s restaurant (especially at a drive-thru), you might’ve already inspected and noticed the buttons on the plastic lid of the drink you just bought.
These are the circular buttons labeled “Cola,” “Diet,” “Tea,” “RB,” or “Other,” and the rectangular buttons found underneath them.
You may have even played with it by removing the lid and popping the buttons back up to push them down again.
If you’re one of those eagle-eyed McDonald’s fans baffled by these fun-to-pop buttons, you might be wondering about their real purpose.
If so, then let me share it with you.
First, let’s start with the circular buttons.
These bumpy, circular buttons help the staff tell the difference between the different drinks they serve. For example, the difference between Diet Coke and Coke.
Let’s say a customer ordered a Cola at a McDonald’s drive-thru. The employee would fill the cup and put the lid on with the “Cola” button pushed down on the lid while the others remained unpopped.
Doing so would ensure customers are given the correct drink.
Now, how about the rectangular buttons found under the circular ones?
Essentially, these serve as an undo function, or a way for employees to correct something if they ever pushed down on the wrong circular button. Since these kinds of restaurants require employees to move fast, making mistakes is not that uncommon.
So if the drinks are labeled incorrectly, pushing the rectangular one would correct their mistake. If the rectangular button was pressed, the circular button next to it immediately popped up.
This saves McDonald’s employees and customers from misunderstandings, and not to mention, a big headache when it comes to customer satisfaction!
