I just noticed a gym at the one I live near. For sure preferred over the Power Spot it was getting from time to time.
Edit: Yes, I know that generic chain businesses like McDonald’s still do not meet Wayspot criteria, but do want to let others know if they have any questions, or start seeing more McD’s in review. Like when Walmarts in the US got stops and gyms, it’s to inform of the sponsorship.
So far, I’ve seen several reports of rather grossly misplaced McDonald’s Wayspots PokéStops. The one nearby me is in the parking lot (not the worst location) and another one across town I’ve seen evidence of was closed over a year ago.
Ugh, not fun. Just checked the pin on Google Maps via Campfire for the one near me, and it’s in some of the landscaping on the south side near the entrance, so not too bad. Location edits can be done, but you have to click on the “Learn More” before getting the 3 dots.
Mandatory post to point out that just McDonald’s in the USA has a sponsorship deal, this does not mean that McDonalds generally can be submitted as wayspots. There would need to be a good case made to avoid the normal rejection of Generic Business.
@NianticTintino@NianticThibs@NianticAtlas@NianticAaron
There’s a systematic bug with these McDonald’s imports…
Ive collected several examples and have determined a truncation in the decimals that have resulted most of these to be misplaced, some by around 100 meters. Contact me if you need proof.
McDonald’s is not acceptable as it is a “generic” business. But it is acceptable if it pays around $20 per month. But don’t worry if the deal is not renewed and the spot disappears. The playground is acceptable anyway, generic or not.
McDonald’s can be considered as permanent and distinct. Lots of people agree to meet up there. Either actually inside or just at the car park or on the street outside. It is generally a well known location and easy to find. It cannot be accepted as a wayspot though. It is classed as a generic business. Unless, of course they pay.
Of course, post offices. Definitely not generic. Churches are definitely not generic.
Public Gyms / Fitness businesses. They are definitely a place to exercise and so acceptable. Unless, of course, they get popular and open at an additional location. Success makes them generic and not acceptable.
Signs and swimming pools. Well it just depends where you live. Seems swimming pools are more easily accepted in the cooler places where there are fewer of them.
Niantic has said in the past they’re fine with chain gyms. Denying them is usually just the community reviewers trying to force the “exploration” criteria as being required when “exercise” is already fulfilled.
I’m not sure what your dissatisfaction is, specifically? Yes, of course, the owner of this database can open into sponsorships and it doesn’t matter if that meets criteria or not. Heck, it isn’t even Wayfarer/Lightship/Spacial Platform that decided to include these in the map - just the specific PoGO game.
I had a 5 or 6 year old birthday party at a McDonald’s. When you live in Michigan and hava a January birthday, your locations are limited. This McD happened to, unironically, be a great place to socialize because it had a game room and indoor playplace.
Convince me that any other location without such amenities is a GREAT place to socialize (because it sure isn’t great for exercise or exploration) and maybe then there’s an exception to it otherwise being generic. But simply a place you stop by to eat an order of fries does not a social venue create.
Seems like they aren’t the best imports, with the reports we’re seeing.
The Walmart stops/gyms here in the US are placed pretty well, as both stops and the gym are within the store, as least for the Walmarts in my area, and those are the most recent sponsored stops/gym we can compare to the McD’s ones that were just added.
Hello Explorers,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’ll look into these locations and get back to you all once we know more about the matter. In the meantime, if you find a location that is out dated or at the wrong location feel free to share that here and we’ll address those first once we have a fix.
Niantic has dropped a digit on GPS addresses before. It’s one of their talents. Or a default setting on their system, to not hold that many digits?
A year(?) ago they dropped a digit on all latitudes (or was it longitudes), so moved half the portals in the world, which messed up many that were fielded.
You can report sponsored Wayspots if they no longer are Starbucks. Sponsored Wayspots can have location edits, removal requests, and content issues submitted. Here’s what the menu looks like in PoGo:
Also, staff is aware of the issue with the McD’s stops/gyms, and while they are working on a fix, we are welcome to post any mismatched locations for McD’s here.
This is the only sponsor we had in Brazil in years. They became safari stops for the last few months, I wonder if they will go back to being macdonald’s.
It’s not unheard of for sponsored Wayspot edit or removal requests to take this long. Staff has told us that there are extra steps involved.
Some users have noted containing the company via customer service email helped with their request, but haven’t shared which company they contacted. Most customer service departments wouldn’t be able to handle something like this; it may have to be handled by marketing or another department that tends to be harder to contact.
This matter could be different, and staff is having it looked at.
Back in the day, McDonald’s was a sponsor for a while in Japan when Pokémon GO launched.
But now they have pulled out.
Probably because the trainers stayed in the store endlessly with $1 coffees and continued to do raid battles, which didn’t generate enough revenue to cover the sponsorship fee.
But after withdrawing as a sponsor, McDonald’s became a free PokeStop/Portal one after another.
And other sponsors also withdrew soon after, but for some reason, they became free PokeStop/Portal one after another after that.
It is very strange.
