Fast Food Drive Thru Only - Is This the Future?

[Aerides]

^

Plus the demand for gig workers increased dramatically. Would you rather work in mcdonalds for $9 and all the grease on a schedule, or do instacart deliveries and grub hub deliveries?

+ Amazon's expansion has created a lot more work in the intro market with increased warehouses and delivery of its own

There are so many more options now for workers at the low side of the pay scale.

 

[Midpack]

^

Plus the demand for gig workers increased dramatically. Would you rather work in mcdonalds for $9 and all the grease on a schedule, or do instacart deliveries and grub hub deliveries?

+ Amazon's expansion has created a lot more work in the intro market with increased warehouses and delivery of its own

There are so many more options now for workers at the low side of the pay scale.

Good points. When I go grocery shopping, I always see lots of Instacart pickers.

And there are way more options on the low side of the pay scale. Some low paid workers were forced to try other jobs, and decided they preferred the new job…

 

[audreyh1]

Agreed. Restroom availability is key for us during long trips. Certain states are VERY bad at providing rest areas even on interstate let alone State highways (example, Georgia is on my mind...). Luckily, gas stations often have restrooms albeit with varying degrees of cleanliness....
We don't usually do fast food, but will make an exception when traveling and needing a typically clean restroom.

Driving cross country, across many states, there are many nice rest areas along the way with decent picnic areas, especially at state lines. But definitely rare in GA!

 

[athena53]

Some chains have found, even before COVID, that a high percentage of orders came from the mobile app. That greatly accelerated since COVID. Places like Starbucks and chipotle get something like 70-90% of orders on the app. Chipotle has started opening digital-order only locations.

I was in a Subway last week where one of the workers had an earpiece she used to take incoming orders while she was making sandwiches. She'd inform people there were 6 sandwiches ahead of them before she could get to their order. I'd read this elsewhere- they have the same amount of workers they used to pre-COVID (maybe) but now they're serving in-person and also making up orders for people who use the app and delivery drivers. I don't know how they keep up.

I don't like drive-through for the reasons mentioned- waiting, waste of gas and half the time the order isn't right. I also don't get food delivered. The Starbucks I visit frequently has an area for delivery drivers to pick up and the drinks sit there so long they must reach room temperature. Not very appetizing.

 

[Bamaman]

I don't eat fast food that much, my exception being my addiction to Bojangles chicken. And that's about the worst food to eat in a car. Most Bo's have reopened their dining rooms but if they close again that'll be healthier for me.

That reminds me that I need to get out the upholstery shampoo and scrub down my seats.

The eating in the car has seriously stained my seats. I ate Bojangles 2x this week and the breading leaves grease spots. The grandkids in the back seat seem to spill something about every time we have to go thru a drive thru.

I got to eat a Chik fil A chicken sandwich at church last week. It's the first time I've had anything from them in years. I refuse to face their double line of cars in their drive thru. Our Chik fil A had to build a new restaurant after they had cars lining up on a 4 lane highway and had to have an employee blocking off the entrance to their small lot.

 

[jazz4cash]

When fast food started inside dining area was tiny. They expanded as they took share from full service. Drive thru was an add-on ‘innovation’. The trend to drive through only started with places like Sonic and their double drive thru plus car hop service. Their overhead is tiny compared to traditional FF. I think it will be driven largely by real estate and labor cost and availability. Big chains aren’t very good at innovation and prefer standard floorplans but even Target and Wal-mart are figuring out how to fit retail in expensive urban areas.

I hate drive-thru and many times I go inside and get back to my car more quickly than if I sat on my butt wasting gas in the drive thru. It seems like once inside the drive thru has priority over in-store service.

 

[GTFan]

I hate drive-thru with a passion and will not get food from places that don't let you mobile order and pick up inside. Around here Chik-Fil-A and Starbucks are notorious for having drive-thru lines pretty much all the time. The wife will put up with this for her Starbucks fix but I won't.

 

[Turbo29]

It seems like once inside the drive thru has priority over in-store service.

It does have priority. Management is rated on their ability to keep drive thru times below a certain level (which varies from chain to chain).

 

[Teacher Terry]

I hate carry out as the food is cold by the time you get home. I don’t like eating in my car. Some places have now opened the dining room.

 

[Sojourner]

What I’ve read:

• Some parents were forced to stay home to care for their kids during Covid, found ways to reorder their lives, and decided they preferred the new arrangement and exited the workforce.
• Some folks still fear Covid, and aren’t willing to go back to close quarters with co-workers, especially true for low wage jobs (like fast food).
• Some older workers gave up and retired. Older teachers, nurses, daycare, pilots/flight attendants, truck drivers, small business owners ruined by Covid restrictions (I know several personally), etc.
• Some lower wage job holders decided the low pay wasn’t enough to put up with work BS, to go in another direction, newly discovered side hustles became jobs. Social media has made new careers some older generations don’t recognize, influencers, YouTubers, drone photography, etc.

Covid forced many people to change their lives, and a significant number of them decided the new arrangement was acceptable.

I've read about these same "great resignation" employment dynamics, but I still don't fundamentally get how so many people can afford to simply "exit the workforce". I mean, we've all seen those news articles about how the majority of American's don't have enough cash (or credit) on hand to deal with a $500 emergency, such as a car repair or medical bill. Seems to me the vast majority of people who work the register at, say, Burger King can't just quit and replace that income stream with a more comfy, gig-economy job. So what are they doing now? There are only so many Uber and Lyft drivers a given area can support. I really would like to know the details behind all this.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

I never wait. I order from app. You also get discounts. Curbside. Done.

 

[Trailwalker]

I stopped by a Dairy Queen in the town near where I'm camped. Drive-thru only and a line of 12 cars waiting in line. Trash cans were overflowing, and the parking lot needed to be cleaned up. Sign advertising for help $12/hour.


I drove across the street to the grocery store and picked up a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream for less than the price of a blizzard. Self serve cashier, but I was out of there in two minutes.


Prices up, service down. I don't enjoy fast food enough to put up with that.

 

[aja8888]

I hate carry out as the food is cold by the time you get home. I don’t like eating in my car. Some places have now opened the dining room.

Us too. The only thing we get as carryout is Chinese from a local place 5 minutes from the house.

 

[pjm-7]

I just got back from my Midwest road/train trip. I'm not a fast food consumer but a McD's or Starbucks have always been on my list for potential pit stops, especially when traveling through smaller towns. Well, my two places in Indiana are now both drive through only. My new potential pit stop location is Walmart. With Wal-Mart you always know the restrooms are in the front of the store near customer service.

 

[Sue J]

Some chains have found, even before COVID, that a high percentage of orders came from the mobile app. That greatly accelerated since COVID. Places like Starbucks and chipotle get something like 70-90% of orders on the app. Chipotle has started opening digital-order only locations. No dining room. Just a pick up counter. It’s enabling them to open in locations where there isn’t space for a full restaurant.

We have one of these new digital Chipotles. I have not been there but read some reviews on a neighborhood site. Opening weekend had trouble with traffic jams on the very small lot on a busy corner but it cleared up after the big opening weekend.

One of the good things about Chipotle is that when you are inside the normal store you can tell the worker exactly what you want, you can see the portions and customize, "Plenty of lettuce, please, just a little black beans." With the digital concept you can customize your order on the app but you don't know if they did it right until you get it home and open the order.

So the digital only store may make it better for the store staff - no interacting with the customer who takes a minute to think about how they want it, no cleaning up tables and condiment areas, no questions about how to work the self serve drink dispensers, no restroom maintenance. But is it any better for the customer?

On the next block from the digital Chipotle there is a Wendy's. It has a drive through and a dining room. Lately there have been reports of the dining room being closed and only the drive through open. On the neighborhood chat site last week there was a comment "Kudos to the kid running Wendy's all by himself, he's doing a great job." Seems the place was being run by one employee. I hope this was a one time emergency situation. No one should have to do that alone!

 

[Dtail]

I hate drive-thru with a passion and will not get food from places that don't let you mobile order and pick up inside. Around here Chik-Fil-A and Starbucks are notorious for having drive-thru lines pretty much all the time. The wife will put up with this for her Starbucks fix but I won't.

By me also for Chik Fil A and Starbucks. I have no interest in Starbucks and if wanting Chik, then will go inside to order and eat inside which is a fairly efficient process.

 

[pacergal]

Quite a few of FF places here have re-opened their dining rooms, but not all. The few times we chose to eat inside, it was quite empty, with the drive thru packed.

The local Taco Bell has had a hiring sign out for several months, $17/hr, with $2/hr extra for evening hours 9pm to midnight. $19/hr and they still are short staffed, rarely have the dining room opened, but the drive thru line is long, at least when we go by.

 

[disneysteve]

I have a lot to say about the labor shortage but I’m on my phone so too much to type right now.

Let me just share a quick story though. This was posted to one of my eBay seller groups today. This is a perfect example of where a lot of workers have gone.
——————————————
“I just took a look at my numbers for this month and I am just so damn proud of myself. I quit my job in October. I was going to take some time off and then apply for jobs. I started reselling while thinking about what I was going to do next. I had no intentions of this becoming my full time job.

I got serious about reselling in January and I'm now making more than I made at my previous job. I love seeing the continuous growth from month to month and I've never been happier in a job. “
—————————————
COVID forced a lot of people to reevaluate what they wanted to do with their lives and many forged a new path like this person.

Oh, this person used to work at McDonalds. Now she’s already doing over 4K/month in sales and I have no doubt that number will climb because she loves what she’s doing.

 

[kgtest]

Drive thru is not ideal when travelling with a family. Trying to eat in the car for a lot of meals on travel days is terrible. We were really sick of it by the end of our 5 day South Dakota trip to the Black Hills/ Mt Rushmore. When we were in the hotel, we would commandeer the lobby or dining area that no longer was in operation in terms of them preparing food. That seemed to work.

 

[jollystomper]

Itis just not the labor shortage, it is also, at least in some areas, safety. FOr years I have known areas where the fast food places would close the dining area around 8 or 9 pm but keep the drive thru open until 1 AM. There reason was that too many folks were congregating in the dining area, and not buying anything, and they were prone to having disturbances breaking out.

The other reason for the labor shortage - have you see observed how the workers in fast food places are treated by people these days? I will just say that folks these day WAY overreact to their order being slow, or being wrong, or even more expensive than they thought it would be. It is a lot safer being behind a window than behind a counter. One has to keep that in mind, that people have to fear more for their safety working in those places these days.

 

[rk911]

Day care businesses are also having trouble keeping staff.
The daycare the Grands go to have been having staffing problems.

we have 3-Walgreen's pharmacies in our town. i switched our Rx's from one to another because of longer fill times and pickup lines. when I asked I was told it was staffing shortages. maybe that's the new excuse for any sort of service issues...maybe not. are pharmacy techs paid at the lower end of the scale

I've read about these same "great resignation" employment dynamics, but I still don't fundamentally get how so many people can afford to simply "exit the workforce". I mean, we've all seen those news articles about how the majority of American's don't have enough cash (or credit) on hand to deal with a $500 emergency, such as a car repair or medical bill. Seems to me the vast majority of people who work the register at, say, Burger King can't just quit and replace that income stream with a more comfy, gig-economy job. So what are they doing now? There are only so many Uber and Lyft drivers a given area can support. I really would like to know the details behind all this.

i, as well.

a pet peeve is when the unemployment rate is reported none of the outlets report the labor participation rate. politicians of all stripes like to crow about how low the unemployment rate is but neglect to mention that fewer people are actually in the workforce.

 

[jollystomper]

we have 3-Walgreen's pharmacies in our town. i switched our Rx's from one to another because of longer fill times and pickup lines. when I asked I was told it was staffing shortages. maybe that's the new excuse for any sort of service issues...maybe not. are pharmacy techs paid at the lower end of the scale

I believe the average pharmacy tech is paid not much over $30K a year. I am not surprised there would be shortages.

 

[Time2]

Over 5 years ago I had breakfast with 5 to 9 older fellows, twice a week at a Hardees. Even then, they had a fast employee turnover and a problem keeping enough workers. Then one day there was a squabble with the manager, I only arrived for the latter part, but a letter was sent and he was fired. We started going to a McDonalds for several years, but the place kinda wore out, as in seat covers were worn, the grease on the floor made it slippery and then they were having a coin shortage and rather than round up or down, your $4.02 meal was $5.00 and they said the difference will go the Ronald McDonald house. That was the last straw, we moved to Tudors Biscuit World, there is a wonderful manager there and we get great service.
So, recently one of the old fellows dropped in at Hardees and found, the lobby still closed, because of worker shortage.

 

[jollystomper]

COVID forced a lot of people to reevaluate what they wanted to do with their lives and many forged a new path like this person.

Oh, this person used to work at McDonalds. Now she’s already doing over 4K/month in sales and I have no doubt that number will climb because she loves what she’s doing.

I would submit that even if she was making the same (or even slightly less) than what she was making at McDonald's, she would still prefer what she was doing now due to the difference in job satisfaction.

 

[disneysteve]

I would submit that even if she was making the same (or even slightly less) than what she was making at McDonald's, she would still prefer what she was doing now due to the difference in job satisfaction.

Definitely. She’s now her own boss, sets her own hours, and loves what she’s doing. And as she expands her knowledge of what to sell, I have no doubt that her income will greatly surpass what she used to make.