“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
— Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)
Drive-Thru Disruptors The Fast-Food Lane Gets a Makeover
Fast-food drive-thru lanes aren’t usually seen as a hotbed of innovation. But a flurry of fresh thinking among leading chains in the $140 billion drive-thru market suggests that pattern is about to change. From a space-themed drive-thru at McDonald’s to drive-thru- only stores at Chick-fil-A, leading franchisors are tossing out old assumptions about what a drive-thru should be. McDonald’s has gotten buzzy media coverage on its tests of a new space-themed drive-thru concept called CosMc’s. The beverage- driven format aims “to boost your mood into the stratosphere” with 10 new “otherworldly beverage creations,” from Sprite Moonsplash to Popping Pear Slush. The concept relies partly on an eye- catching store design, including an outdoor patio and a futuristically tilted version of the Golden Arches. Another ground-breaking drive-thru design comes from Chick-fil-A. Its new drive-thru-only stores have no dining room, and they are streamlined to serve roughly 700 cars an hour. In a retro twist, these units make use of Industrial Age dumbwaiters to drop orders from a second-floor kitchen to be served to customers in cars below.
thru lanes with delivery windows for mobile-only orders. Now operating at about 1,000 stores, Chipotlanes customers will find no speaker box or order-takers here — only a pickup window to serve and send them on their way in 30 seconds or less. Other longstanding holdouts, including Pizza Hut and Shake Shack, are also entering the drive-thru fray. At a Pizza Hut in Plano, Texas, a new Hut N’ Go menu offers ready-made items at a drive-thru window — the first in the chain’s 67-year history. Shake Shack also has opened drive-thru lanes at about three dozen locations. And at Taco Bell, the days of human order-takers in the drive-thru may soon be a distant memory. Parent company Yum! Brands is rolling out AI-powered voice technology at Taco Bell units throughout its system. The fast-food landscape hasn’t changed this rapidly since 1948, when a California burger chain, aptly named In-N-Out Burger, opened the first drive-thru-only restaurant in the nation. Amid slowing industry growth, this latest round of innovations is igniting hopes of a brighter future.
Visit our blog for helpful franchise law insights and industry trends: westcoastfranchiselaw.com/insights
Another industry leader, Chipotle, is breaking its longstanding no- drive-thru policy by expanding its Chipotlanes facilities — drive-
3
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator