Just behind a gated fence, painfully out of reach of customers, is one of the world's most unique McDonald's restaurants. It doesn't have exclusive menu items - or any menu items at all. This City of Industry McDonald's restaurant is reserved specifically for filming commercials and movies, meaning there are no cooks behind the fryers and no Big Macs for lunch.
The official production center was built in 1978, chosen for its close proximity to downtown Los Angeles, roughly a 30-minute drive away. The Los Angeles Times reports that the ceilings at this location are higher than a typical McDonald's, so lighting can be installed or changed. There are other aspects that tailor the space for filming, like dressing rooms downstairs and a menu without prices. Outside, the trees are stuffed in special planters so they can be easily rolled around - the sign can even be rotated to face any direction needed.
As of 1988, over 1,000 commercials were filmed at this location - and it continues to be used today. According to Sega Bits, both the 1993 and 2022 Sonic the Hedgehog McDonald's commercials were filmed at the same location. Fast-food adjacent scenes were shot here, like the dance sequence from 1988's sci-fi film Mac and Me. The McDonald's City of Industry location is kept behind a gate, so customers will not assume it's operational. The 1988 film Mac and Me is about an extraterrestrial stranded on Earth who finds friendship with a boy in a wheelchair.
Confused McDonald's customers drive by the location every day - some shared their thoughts on the gated storefront. 'I've seen the place before and thought why is it fenced off,' wrote one Reddit user. 'Not a chain link fence but a nice black iron fence. Now I know why.' 'I waited in the drive thru for hours, they never took my order,' one Facebook user said, while another piled on with another joke, saying, 'I bet the ice cream machine is always broken.'
The location is also a five-minute drive from Puente Hills Mall, also known as Twin Pines Mall, where Doc Brown was shot in Back to the Future. At the time, rival chain Burger King said it has no plans to build its own production studio. That remains true today, with the fast food chain shutting down different locations depending on their filming needs. 'We want variety in our ads,' Burger King said. 'We wouldn't want to go back to the same place over and over.'
But McDonald's wouldn't be the only chain with a 'fake' store. A non-functioning Best Buy, known as a 'full store lab,' is located in the basement of the company's Richfield, Minnesota, headquarters for product testing and filming. Meanwhile the oldest operating McDonald's is in Downey, California, which opened in August 1953. The oldest McDonald's location, originally opened in 1953, is also located in California. It's still a fully functional restaurant decades later, although it's more of a walk-up and drive-thru location rather than a sit-down restaurant.
Now, McDonald's remains one of the world's largest franchises, recently dethroned by Chinese cafe chain Mixue Ice Cream & Tea in terms of store count. They recently added their biggest ever burger, the Big Arch, to US locations, announcing their updates to the 'value' menu months later. Morning options include the $1.50 Sausage McMuffin. For lunch and dinner, the Under $3 Menu offers a McChicken, McDouble, 4-piece Chicken McNuggets, small fries and a small drink. The chain is also debuting a $4 Breakfast Meal Deal, which includes either a Sausage McMuffin or Sausage Biscuit, hash browns and coffee.
