What the buttons on your McDonald’s lid really mean: Workers reveal how to use them to tell if your drink is diet or regular (but it’s not as simple as you think!)
- Buttons are designed to show diners difference between Diet and Zero Coke
- One button pushed in is the diet and either two or four is a zero sugar version
- Confused customer took to Reddit to try and get to the bottom of conundrum
McDonald’s workers have shared what the ‘buttons’ on its drinks lids really mean after customers were left baffled by the mystery markings.
The buttons are designed to help customers tell the difference between drink such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero at a glance if they’re handed a large tray of drinks.
The revelation came to light on Reddit when a confused customer from the UK asked McDonald’s staff for an explanation, after seeing the buttons numbered 1 and 2, no caff, diet/light on their plastic lid.
Staff replied to explain that even though there’s a dedicated ‘diet’ button, they are often in too much of a hurry and will punch in the ‘number 1’ button for Diet and a few others for Zero.
McDonald’s workers in the UK have shared what the ‘buttons’ on its drinks lids really mean after customers were left baffled by the mystery markings.
Staff at the chain restaurant explained that it was quicker when giving out hundreds of orders to just push any one of the buttons down to indicate it is the diet version of the drink rather than look for the ‘diet’ button.
Trying to get to the bottom of the button conundrum, te Reddit user asked: ‘My question is about the Mcdonalds drink lids which have the “buttons” on them.
‘Just ordered two drinks, one Diet Coke and one Coke classic and on one of them had the number “1” button pressed.
‘The buttons are the numbers 1 and 2, no caff, diet/light.
Staff replied to explain that they usually push in the number 1 button for Diet drinks and several other buttons at random to indicate a Zero drink
‘The only one pressed was the number 1. Which one is diet? Should they have just pushed the diet one in?’
One UK-based McDonald’s worker replied saying: ‘I think most stores is 1 for diet and 2 for zero.’
Another added: ‘Yeah, seems to be different for every store but we usually just push 1 random button for Diet Coke and then either 2 random or all 4 buttons for Coke Zero.
‘It’s just faster to push random buttons than spend the time to actually find the diet button on every lid I guess.’
A third agreed: ‘We press 1 for Diet and either two or four for Zero.’
It comes as another McDonald’s worker opened up about how the service works on TikTok.
When customers are ordering their meals in drive-thru a camera takes a photo of their car – so the staff member at the cashier window knows who orders belong to.
The young woman, who posts under the username Katieeclarkee, films her register in the video which clearly shows the order and the car.
The young woman, who posts under the username Katieeclarkee, films her register in the video which clearly shows the order and the car
‘There is a camera and it takes a picture of you and your car,’ she said.
‘So maybe don’t pick your nose when you order – because we see it and we judge you,’ she said.
The system was implemented after most drive-thru’s became multi-lane, according to workers in the comments.
The system makes it easier for staff to serve food in the correct order, even if the orders of the cars change at some point before the cashier window.
One worker said she has seen people scream and hit the car’s steering wheel in a fit of rage when products are unavailable, because of the little-known camera.