This is probably during COVID when the inside was off limits.
Plenty of people still use the drive through, but the complete lack of anyone in the carpark is sus.
I work fast food. When shorthanded, which is all the time, if the line is wrapped around the building but the customers are at least not coming inside, service can be at least normal slow instead of slower than fuck. More customers can be served per hour via drive through than front counter with any level of staffing. When people start coming inside, suddenly drive through employees are getting stuck standing in front of registers and overall service speeds go from just slow to slower than fuck.
Nearly every fast food place in the UK has gone to self serve machines because of that, and taken away the ability to even take orders at the registers.
Although in practice it now means a bunch of staff helping old people use the self serve, rather than just taking the orders.
I very rarely even go there. The food isn’t even fast. It seems mostly cooked to order because it’s cheaper to waste my time than it is to give away a handful of old burgers at the end of the day.
I’m in New Jersey, and mobile orders are big now. On the rare occasion we hit Wendy’s (I can smell it from my front door, it’s hard), we do the mobile order. I order, get in the car, park, walk in, grab it, walk out. I couldn’t imagine ordering upon arrival at this point.
Former “partner”(ugh) circa 2015 here
Back when I walked for the bux, 5 years before covid, this was my daily drive thru experience. My store averaged about 6 grand (thats about 700 customers) on DT alone during our morning rush, 6 hours straight of underfilled cars starting their day with caffeine dessert.
This specific store could be a covid thing, but empty lobbies with cars wrapped around the building has kinda been starbie’s MO for the last decade or so that they’ve been transitioning away from “third place” mindset to “oh fuck we’re competing with McDicks mindset”
I see this kind of thing regularly at my local Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant when it hits dinner time. The cars wrap around the building and block other traffic.
Same for the DQ where I live.
This would be a believable theory if I didn’t see huge lines of cars outside fast food restaurants every day before and after COVID.
“We” probably have a too European view on this. Though walking/biking also makes the parking lots emptier
Everyone behind the silver car at the parking lot entrance is illegally blocking the road. Regardless of the car culture problem or OP’s disingenuous use of a CoViD era image out of context, those people needed to go away. If you can’t get your coffee without parking in the street, you don’t get coffee at that location at that time. Safety is more important than someone getting their sugar/caffeine fix.
The legality really depends on the jurisdiction. Where I live, it is 100% the business responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen, and if it does, there are big fines for the business, the customer is not at fault.
Plenty of things the business could do to reduce this, such as making people park up after ordering (a very popular option where I live), increasing prices to reduce their demand, having a digital queue system, removing the drive-through altogether, etc.
Business passes small bribe to local politician
“No longer our problem”
Wishful thinking, but the fines are far greater than any business would be willing to pay as a bribe
Well. Some places don’t offer counter service and their doors are locked. You have to use the drive thru. Otherwise I agree with you except I don’t get to even talk to a human, I am directed to a kiosk. And they flash a tip option. A tip for what?
Hardworking appliances depend on tips to provide electrons to their families. If you don’t tip the kiosk that kiosk might go home and have to explain to it’s toaster that they can only afford to use the low power settings.
Otherwise I agree with you except I don’t get to even talk to a human, I am directed to a kiosk.
Honestly I’m a big fan of this. If I’m eating at a fast food restaurant, I’m having a bad day. And if you are working at a fast food restaurant, I feel odds are that you are having a bad day, too. Why should we inflict our bad days on each other?
And they flash a tip option. A tip for what?
I’m confused as to why people are consistently so upset by this. What happens is obvious. A restaurant buys some POS software to plug into their checkout system. Since the software is used in many different restaurants with many different needs, it has an option for tipping. The person installing the software sees the option and says “hey, if someone wants to give us more money, why not give them the option?”, checks a box on a config screen they will never open again, and then goes to lunch. Just select “No Tip” and move on with your life.
Looks like covid lockdown time.
Because that’s when the picture was taken.
Which means OP is spreading misinformation by saying they should just park and go inside.
They literally weren’t allowed to because of covid.
There is a Starbucks just like this to this day in a suburb where I worked until just recently. Every morning at 8 AM they have a drive-thru line backed up out into the surrounding streets.
Misinformation? In this community? How unexpexted.
Though it’s true that this particular picture was taken during covid time, it does not mean its any less true in conveying what North American car culture has actually done to our cities and infrastructure planning/implementation.
Here is a video of how school drop off’s work in North America for example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLpCMdVcqTI
Looking at this particular plot of land in the image OP has posted. Land use is very poorly utilized. You have one business surrounded by a parking lot. This same space could have easily in a European city fit 5 or more businesses with plenty of residential units above and still be left with place for green space or a park.
30 people getting coffee vs 30 people getting coffee.
And a comparable parcel of land roughly the same size. Its night and day in terms of utilization of land alone.
I was ready to go in here and say I won’t get out of my car until I see the others in my group show up to whatever place we’re eating. I’ve got some social anxiety issues though.
This though…this is fucking stupid. I see this shit at coffee stands like Dutch Bros all the time. They have a walk up window. It’s like 5x faster to get the fuck out of your car, order at the window, and walk away with your sugar bomb.
The same with fast food. My wife worked at BK on an AFB for a long time. Airmen would line up in the drive through. Inside was near empty. Same deal. It’d be much faster to get out of my truck, go in, order my shit, and leave. Then they’d have the audacity to complain that the place was “wasting their lunch break.” Bitch, there’s a commissary with fresh sushi in it, always stocked, a made to order deli sub place in the back, and lots of other healthy things. You could also bring your own food from home. You could also get out of the fucking car and get it.
I’m not fully anti car as everyone on here, though I do get it and wish there was better mass transit and walkable areas. I do think vehicles have their uses, and that MT isn’t an option for everyone. That said, this type of shit is stupid af. Stop clogging up the roads. Stop wasting gas. Stop polluting with your idling bullshit (I’m seeing at least 3 gas guzzlers in the pic in the comments.)
This is also incredibly dangerous. Blocking a lane causes backups further down. It causes people to have to merge into other lanes. Often times people don’t pay attention and dodge at the last minute, or they get frustrated/angry and make stupid decisions.
Most people here are not totally against cars. We’re mainly against car-centric design. Of course cars have uses, specially for the disabled.
Dutch bros isn’t coffee lol it’s sugar water with flavoring
I always tell my wife she can save money and just eat out of the bag of sugar we have at home.
They call it the Chair Force for a reason. Getting up and walking would go against their ethos.
Was chair force, I can confirm. There were a lot of lazy ass people.
Was this taken during covid lockdowns when the indoor section was closed and there was no other option?
This shit happens daily at the in-n-out near me. My wife swears th wait is worth it. Drives me nuts.
Yes, definitely. I remember this exact picture.
Without cars, plenty of those businesses wouldn’t be able to have customers and would have gone bankrupt because of it.
This is a misinformation post made to circlejerk about shitting on cars.
There are plenty of reasons to shit on them, this one isn’t it.
Okay but that’s assuming the drive thru system is the only way to handle distanced transactions. They could have a counter with a wall they push your food through so that people could stand in line without having this ridiculous line blocking traffic. Back during covid my family got a lot less fast food because I don’t drive so they literally couldn’t serve me, and also my mom just loathes the drive thru experience with a burning passion.
i think so. found this article
edit: and this
Lotta places are just like this anyway.
Just yesterday I wanted to go out to see my “local” town. I ended up going out for about 3 hours, 2 or which were “sitting” in the car commuting from a “livley” area to another “lively” area.
Business like the one shown in this photo posted by OP have become to far apart from one another, separate by seas of parking and 8 lanes of pavement.
Its astonishing that this is considered “normal” in North America. Just going to the local Walmart to get some milk can take about a hour or two of your day.
Walking is almost out of the question, just imaging leaving the Walmart that is probably located on the other side to arrive at the front door of this coffee chain.
I remember this picture. It was from the opening of some mediocre but popular burger chain. They had the doors closed and it was drive through only that day if I’m recalling it correctly.
Um…you can literally see the Starbucks logo on the side of the building.
There is a very similar picture to this of some burger joint opening up but fine now that I wasted my time looking its a starbucks.
As others have pointed out, this is a Starbucks, but take a look at this photo I took a couple months ago. It was a line for an In-N-Out burger that was not even new, but it was the longest drive-through line I’ve ever seen. It was like ~500 feet long and split off into four separate lanes that all filtered into two main lanes that they actually took your order at. I was across the street getting Chipotle and I spent about 15 minutes inside watching this line and all of these cars only move forward by about one car length. I guesstimate that these people are gonna be waiting in line for two plus hours and that fucking blows my mind.
And the fuckers were spilling into the main road blocking traffic.
“America is worth fighting for!”
America:
No that isn’t the picture I’m talking about. What I really love about this is I don’t care enough to go find the drone shot I was talking about and the rage I’m seeing about this is childish.
Chill bro, I was just talking to you and giving you a personal example of my own.
Until you realize that they purposefully understaff and now your front counter guy has to prioritize drive thru times over your order because that’s the only metric corporate measures.
Reminds me of how my (able bodied) mom would drive around looking for a closer parking spot for far longer than it would have taken to just walk from the first available one.
Literally! Anytime I go to Costco i intentionally go to the furthest spots because they’re likely to be open and I’m fully capable of and enjoy walking.
You also can’t ride the cart through the parking lot if you park too close. Then you just look silly kicking it up to speed for just a short ride.
(I’m almost 40 and still do this every time I have to go shopping, like a reward for completing the draining task)
Tough with the full cart (choo choo) but esp. rewarding when returning the empty: yee-haw!
I’m the one who parks in the spot right beside you, just to mess with you.
I’m the one who uses a series of car dollies to move your parked car one parking lane over, just to mess with you.
I hate how much time people waste doing this. Depending on the store, I either park a couple spots from the cart return stations, or enter the back of the lot and park first available. Whatever your goal, wasting time trying to find a spot that meets specific constraints just…. Wastes your time
At my Costco especially
- people fight for garage space but there’s a really long ramp for your cart so it’s effectively much farther
- people fight for the lot by the door, but it small and crowded and choked with both pedestrian and car traffic. I can be parked and in the store before you make one lap
- main parking is long and skinny, but people only go straight up the main aisles. I just go one aisle over and there are more spots closer in and right by cart return
I literally cannot stand this when carbrains do it lol
A former friend I met up with at a pub parked in a handicapped spot because they couldn’t find a spot in less than two blocks. They didn’t have a handicap or a disability vehicle tag. I had biked and walked four blocks just because I liked walking. Stopped being friends with them after that for being so ableist and a general asshole. Really tells you a lot about a person.
I purposefully park in the back. I don’t get enough walking casually throughout the day. Plus I don’t want people to ding my car.
Man even when I park in the back with tons of empty spots some fucking loser will without fail park next to me.
My mother used to do that, too. I asked her about it, and she said, “You don’t know how scary it is for a woman to walk a long distance in a parking lot.”
Yeah, I’ll park a while away if it’s daytime, but I do get the creeps when I walk through an empty parking lot at night. I used to live in the US and drive regularly, and now I live in Germany and don’t, but I can therefore completely avoid parking lots even though I’m walking further, which honestly makes me feel a lot less targetable. I suspect the difference in general violence levels between the two countries has more to do with the difference in my perceived safety though.
That could be true in some cases. Not so much when it’s the middle of the day, in rich suburbia, with your family, and there’s a lot of other people around.
I had an ex who would do this shit and I’d always be like “well let me out and I’m gonna walk from here, you can go through your ritual and have fun”
People like wasting tons of time at church too 🤷♂️
Funny thing, my dad would get mad at his kids when they said that. Everybody had to suffer through it with him!
My dad’s like that. One time he came to visit he didn’t like that the closest spot was 2 blocks away, so he drove around until he found a spot 5 or 6 blocks away
My favorite is people who slam on the brakes and make everyone behind them wait for them while they park at the first spot they find at a parking garage (whether the current occupant has left or not).
Like, there are stairs and/or an elevator. It would take you less time and effort to park next to those and everyone behind you can park at the same time.
parking garage
There’s one in a shopping center I go to. The first row is always packed, the second row always has empty spaces. I always go straight for the second row, but I’m always the only person to do so. Thius enables me to park very close to the elevators with no searching, no hassle, no speed bumps. But all other cars kindly go around the whole carousel, no doubt hoping they will find a spot in first row. Which is often further from the elvators than my hassle-free second row spot. People are weird.
And because that took so long to explain and I just realized it might not be so easy to visualise, here’s a little illustration. The white line is me, the red line is everybody else.
I park far away cause I hate people
[Meme] You park far away because you hate people
I park far away because I hate people
Oh shit, we are the same! [/Meme]
What tunnel vision does to a mf
Is nobody mentioning the fact that there are 4 lane roads surrounding the entire coffee shop? Like thats absolutely the least or one of the least efficient ways you could do urban planning. In areas similar to this where I live, the block sizes are at least like 5x wider and longer than whatever this is.
They needed to spend millions to add an extra lane so it could handle the queue to the coffee shop. Unfortunately there was nothing left in the budget for bike lanes, it just wasn’t a priority.
Great point, what sort of a hellscape is that!?
People were getting annoyed at the queue, so they kept adding one more lane?
Nah, they probably added more all around to make it “more convenient” for drivers to keep going straight and still get to the many different destinations possible, but they could just have one road and the drivers could head around a roundabout or something.
If there’s a line like this in the drive through I just move on. The inside is gonna be even slower than just waiting for drive through.
I commonly see these drive thru lines and walk inside. No line.
Idk every time I’ve gone inside when a line is like this there won’t be many people inside but the order will still take forever for some reason.
That’s because there are 3 or 4 cars in the line between the order kiosk and the window who have already ordered before you walked in the door. When you walk in, you jump the line of cars before the order kiosk. But there aren’t separate queues for counter and drive thru in the kitchen. They just see a list of orders in the order in which they were received, and process orders more or less FIFO.
If there are cars behind the order kiosk, you are almost certainly getting your order faster than if you had joined at the end of the line.
Yeah that makes sense. Like I said if they’re that busy I’ll just go somewhere else.
And their order priority:
- uber eats orders that pile up for hours
- drive through customers
- attending to some other random task
- i dont know but it sure feels like there should be more items here
- you a customer who ordered in person
I can almost guarantee that they make orders in the order they are received, more or less. So door dash gets their orders first, because they ordered online before they showed up. Then the drive thru orders get made before yours because there are 4 cars in line between the order kiosk and the window - they already ordered, and are waiting for their order to be filled before you walked in the door. For some reason, there is always someone in the drive thru line who is ordering for their whole office or a Mormon family or something.
The drive thru has 2 bottlenecks. Ordering and payment/delivery. Thus, the drive thru will have a much more consistent pace - there is always someone waiting to order, and always someone waiting to have their food handed to them. Since this is the case, there is always someone assigned specifically to this task, sitting in the drive thru window with a mic on. The cash registers, on the other hand, are far more efficient. Ordering and payment happen in the same step, and food is delivered simply by putting it on the counter. Multiple registers mean multiple orders can be taken at once. This means the line inside can be cleared quickly, which means it is less consistent, which means the staff often forgets to check it - especially since staff taking orders will quickly reallocate to making orders once the line is cleared. Add to this, taking orders inside is when a staff member must interact face-to-face with a customer - well known as the least enticing part of any customer service job. So it is easy for a staff member to see customers at the till and procrastinate on taking their orders, since there is more enjoyable work to be done.
There isn’t some kind of conspiracy to make walk-in customers’ experience as bad as possible. Fast food restaurants are evil capitalist money making machines, and their incentive is to make you as happy as possible per net dollar earned. If you really want to get your order fast, just order online before you show up. Then walk in the door and grab your order off the counter like a door dasher. If you insist on getting your order from the counter, realize that you are still getting your order faster than you would in the drive thru - you are just suffering from the illusion that they are prioritizing the drive thru since you aren’t counting the cars in line that ordered before you.
I know there’s a simple explanation for it. But there’s another simple solution: if you are in person, you get service first. You took the time to enter the restaurant and can see the service being performed - so you should get priority.
if you are in person, you get service first. You took the time to enter the restaurant and can see the service being performed - so you should get priority.
Again, fast food restaurants are the physical manifestation of platonic capitalist greed. Please explain your theory on how this change would improve profitability, and why such a change would be worth the risk it imposses when the existing system has been working for decades.
Thanks, MBA textbook answer. The reality is people dont like being treated badly. If you treat them badly, especially in person, they tend to avoid your service. It’s hard to quantify so bad MBAs don’t bother to think about that when they get in charge of big businesses and then they proceed to shit all over everyone.
Right, but walk in customers aren’t being treated badly. They are being treated quite fairly. They walk in, place their order, and get their spot in the food preparation queue. When they walk out, they saved time relative to how quickly they would have gotten their food if they waited in the drive thru line. Like, if McD’s closed their drive thru and had everyone go inside, you would have to wait longer for your food, because you wouldn’t be able to cut in front of the tail end of the drive thru.
Like, we’re on fuckcars, so “cars bad”. And as a subscriber here, I approve that message. I’m not a huge fan of McDonalds, either. But as I see it, your complaint seems to be that McDonalds isnt serving you well because you have to wait in line, even though you can’t see the physical line in front of you. Like, yeah, there aren’t other people physically standing in front of you in line in the restaurant, but they placed their orders ahead of you, so they will probably get their orders before you. I feel like this is pretty straightforward.
I’ve been places where it seems people who order their stuff in the store but to-go still consistently get their food in half the time as people who ordered earlier but ordered it dine-in.
I love me a drive thru when I’m so exhausted I don’t want to get out of the car. Car has comfy seats and HVAC. Normally I do prefer going in to get the order faster though.
You point of order does not affect the maximum throughput, I guess.
But it’ll be earlier in the pipeline
