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The Drive-Thru Renaissance

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Gone are the days when drive-thru restaurants used to be just a thing of the past you would only come across in old Hollywood movies. When COVID-19 hit, and restaurants all over the world were forced to shut down, drive-thrus quickly became the restaurant industry’s saving grace. 

Many restaurants, from fast-food chains to fine dining establishments, quickly implemented full blown drive-thru and curbside pickup set-ups that still adhered to the protocols of local and national lockdowns. 

Other restaurants, including the neighborhood farm-to-table, have successfully implemented some of those adjustments on a lesser scale, such as designated parking areas for pick-up orders. 

Meanwhile, some restaurants are more ambitious, such as a drive-thru lane designated just for pick-up orders that transports your food to you via robots. Even a concept store with just a kitchen surrounded by drive-thrus and pick-up parking is doing all they can to become a part of the drive-thru revolution.

drive-thru

Regardless of whether COVID-19 saved drive-thrus, or the fact that drive-thrus managed to pull restaurants through the pandemic, the future is clear – drive-thrus have made a definite comeback and every restaurant, from QSR establishments to fine-dining restaurants, are rushing to gain a market share over the drive-thru renaissance. 

The History of Drive-Thrus 

The Pig Stand restaurant chain is credited with establishing the first drive-in restaurant in Texas in 1921, giving rise to the drive-thru. This was also around the same time that the first-ever mass-produced automobile hit the market near the end of World War 1. 

After customers parked, a carhop would deliver burgers and fries right to their vehicles. Beginning in 1931, a Pig Stand restaurant in Los Angeles allowed customers to bag up their food for takeout, laying the groundwork for the development of the drive-thru.

The first-drive thru was followed by major brands opening their own versions of drive-thru-only restaurants some 30 years later, with Jack in the Box’s Robert Peterson leading the way. During this time, the American car culture was becoming more and more popular.

Restaurants started remodeling operations to be more accessible to customers using the drive-thru on their route to and from work by taking into account popular commute patterns. The drive-thru itself became popular in a time when consumers were busier than ever. 

Once McDonald’s entered the game, it completely crushed its competitors and the name became synonymous with drive-thrus. For instance, McDonald’s relied on their drive-thru window for 70% of its pre-pandemic revenues.

The new found drive-thru’s success has had a significant impact on the food industry and not simply on the layout of their parking lots. Because of drive-thrus, many restaurants started concentrating on simple-to-eat meals like burgers, fries and boneless chicken pieces as a way to appeal to the car crowd. 

As much influence as the car culture had on drive-thrus, it worked the other way around as well. By the end of the 1980s, cup holders and separate compartments that were capable of securely holding things like food items became a must-have feature in every car. 

How Technology Revolutionized Drive-Thrus 

From nearly dying out –apart from the likes of a few major players like McDonald’s –drive-thrus have made the most tremendous comeback in a post-pandemic world. Restaurants are constantly reinventing themselves to stay one step ahead of the game and beat out competition. 

In 2022, technology is once again revolutionizing the dining experience. From mobile ordering, curbside pick-ups, and cloud kitchens, restaurants as we know them are constantly evolving everyday, and this has given rise to a whole new facet of the drive-thru that we have never seen before. 

drive-thru

The original drive-thru is a fantastic system under ideal circumstances, but it only had the capacity to serve one customer at a time. Large orders and indecisive customers can cause bottlenecks, greatly slowing down the queue and decreasing customer satisfaction.

This is really where technology stepped in to rescue restaurants and moderate the flow of business to become highly efficient. 

Typically, drive-through establishments require very sizable footprints with space for a line of automobiles to wait, away from the flow of general traffic. This feature can be quite restricting for businesses trying to grow, as it may be challenging to find sufficient spaces in desirable locations. The space requirements of a standard drive-thru are further reduced by transferring the initial stages of placing orders online. 

The area needed for parking cars while waiting for curbside delivery is still needed, although it is much less with the mobile drive-thru. The mobile click-and-collect technology might be used for consumers traveling by foot or bicycle just as easily in urban areas.

Customers have shown time and again that they value convenience, speed, and simplicity on the same level as ingredient quality and the in-store dining experience. For restaurants looking to scale their business to new heights, making transactions as quick, simple, and accessible as possible might be the only thing standing their way to attain peak success.

Some quick-serve restaurants have already installed mobile-order drive-thrus which drastically reduces customer wait times by allowing them to place orders in advance using their own devices and just pick up their order from the mobile-order lane.

The upgrading of the drive-thru will significantly rely on automation and artificial intelligence. Think AI and ML identifying number plates to suggest menu items to customers.  Some restaurants are using AI voice systems to communicate with customers and take their orders, sort of like using Alexa or Siri.

Restaurants can even use RFID tags that recognize vehicles and initiate a pre-programmed action when the consumer pulls into the drive-thru lane. The programme can retrieve a customer’s order history and modify signage in order to propose menu items or provide members-only offers and discounts.

The Rise of Drive-Thru Restaurants

The response from restaurants has been phenomenal. 

We are at the very beginning of a golden era for drive-thru technology after a few decades. As exciting as this is for restaurant owners, customers can also be quite happy about it because they can anticipate shorter wait times, more accurate orders, and an experience that is more productive overall. A true win-win situation for everyone involved. 

It would be interesting to see how the newly found demand for drive-thrus will alter prices,  encouraging the development of new, intriguing versions of what was formerly a humble menu board with a speaker and a window.


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