McDonald’s Wanted to Win Over Afternoon Coffee Lovers With Drink Spinoff, CosMc’s. Two Years Later, It’s Closing Them All

Although its inspiration was out of this world, literally, CosMc’s didn’t have the same luck. The McDonald’s spinoff coffee shops will close after just two years on the market, though the company says some of its drinks will stick around.

Goodbye, CosMc’s. McDonald’s has announced the end of CosMc’s, its standalone coffee chain that aimed to win over customers that look for a little pick-me-up in the afternoon. The coffee shop offered an extensive drink selection, as well as sandwiches and treats.

The company decided to open a spinoff dedicated to drinks to avoid putting too much strain on McDonald’s employees, CNN reported.

“[CosMc’s] allowed us to test new, bold flavors and different technologies and processes—without impacting the existing McDonald’s experience for customers and crew,” McDonald’s said in a statement.

Launched in December 2023, the original plan was to open 10 CosMc’s pilot locations across the U.S., though the company only opened five in the end.

All five of the locations—four in Texas and one in Illinois—as well as the CosMc’s app will be closed in late June, McDonald’s said.

Who was CosMc? When it announced the spinoff coffee shops, McDonald’s said that CosMc’s was inspired by nostalgia. Its name, in particular, is a reference to CosMc, one of the company’s retro mascots from the late ‘80s.

CosMc is a character that first appeared in a McDonaldland commercial in 1987. The commercial introduces CosMc, an orange alien with six arms that arrives to McDonaldland from space. Besides having six arms, CosMc has a head shaped like a blob, a round, partially metal body, and short legs that wear sneakers.

In the commercial, he tells Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and The Professor that he’s on a “trade mission” and proceeds to trade them weird objects for their things. For instance, CosMc trades Grimace’s headphones for a floatie of a rubber duck.

The alien tries to trade the group’s picnic basket, which includes cheeseburgers, fries, and shakes, for a bouquet of flowers, but is caught by Ronald McDonald’s McMagnet before he runs away. The group then decides to share the picnic basket, and CosMc leaves impressed.

“Deliciously awesome!” CosMc said. “I've got to tell my people about McDonald's cheeseburgers. Later, dudes!”

All in all, CosMc wasn’t a very famous character—not all comparable to legends like Grimace. One of the last times he appeared in public was in a 1992 Nintendo video game, according to Business Insider.

Behind the curtain. In a way, the end of CosMc’s isn’t surprising. As CNN points out, the market has changed a lot since late 2023, which is when McDonald’s launched CosMc’s.

Recently, McDonald’s reported its worst quarter since the covid-19 pandemic forced people to stay at home. In a statement, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said that customers are “grappling with uncertainty,” though he expressed confidence in the company’s ability to navigate “even the toughest of market conditions.”

In a call with analysts, Kempczinski added that “geopolitical tensions added to the economic uncertainty and dampened consumer sentiment more than we expected.”

Moving forward. Just because CosMc’s is going away doesn’t mean that it won’t be leaving behind a legacy. McDonald’s said that it will be launching a series of drinks based on the offerings at CosMc’s at its main restaurants in the future.

Images | McDonald's | Retro Ontario (screenshot)

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