For many of us dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, our local drive-thrus have been a convenient way of getting the food we love from restaurants we want to support. But for quick service and fast-casual chains across the country and around the world, the drive-thru has been a saving grace pulling them back from the edge
So far, 2020 has certainly been a year. How you define it from there really depends on if you’re a glass half-empty or half-full kind of person. For the restaurant industry, one word comes to mind: resilient. Not to describe the year, but all the courageous hard work of essential team members and restaurant operators
These are fast-changing times in the restaurant industry. For the first half of this year, drive-thrus were one of the few ways for consumers to order food from their favorite QSRs. Consequently, more restaurant operators are focusing on collecting drive-thru data to improve speed of service and other metrics. Below, you’ll find two key ways
Even before the pandemic shifted consumer habits to favor contactless ordering, brands were already rethinking their drive-thrus. Drive-thru wait times had been increasing since the last decade, while restaurants were seeing an uptick in digital orders from consumers who just wanted to stay home and order from their couch. During the pandemic, drive-thrus took on
For decades, the drive-thru lane has been the gold standard for speed in foodservice. In a matter of minutes, your local fast-food burger joint can take your order, prepare it, and have a piping hot bag of food in your hands. With the coronavirus only just starting to loosen its grip on the United States,
Drive-thrus are changing with society, with QSRs increasingly focusing on technology to improve their efficiency in a world of complex menu items and changing customer expectations. As shown in Figure 1 below, more QSRs are taking over 200 seconds to complete a drive-thru order, with wait times representing a huge hurdle for QSRs as they
One of your repeat drive-thru customers just ordered 20 chicken nuggets and as they’re slowly pulling up to the pay window, a Silverado with monster wheels and flashy LEDs speeds ahead of them from the next order lane. Another health-conscious customer just got so sick of saying “no” to the double bacon cheeseburger they hear