McD's creamy innovation

There's something that McDonald's principal competitors need to emulate.

Say you're en route to work or play in the AM. You order the breakfast meal with coffee plus two or three creams from the disembodied speaker in the drive-through lane. BK, JnB, and CJr give you those creams in little foil-covered cups. So, you can either be a worse-than-texting risk to other drivers on the freeway, or pull over and add the cream one mini-cup at a time, after removing the lid from the (careful!) hot paper/styrofoam cup. But, McD adds the cream to the coffee for you (and before snapping on the lid). Even if you prefer the sausage and egg croissant that BK offers, the convenience of McD's creamed-coffee beckons.

But, McD's could benefit from Starbucks' approach. Drive-through Starbucks add cream to your coffee -- or low-fat milk -- or even non-fat milk for their barely-awake guests.

Of course, there's still Sonic: get your coffee as part of a "chiller" -- blended mocha and soft-serve.