It’s insane, where I live, how literally dozens of drivers, more than half of them in huge trucks, will idle in a Chick-fil-A drive thru for 25 minutes just to avoid walking 20 feet. No wonder Americans are obese.
One of the things that legit blew my mind moving from Northern California to Texas is how many freaking drive thrus there are here. It’s wild. They are just attached to everything. I guess it’s a byproduct of land being at less of a premium.
I think it’s cultural, too. You might also notice that people drive up and down the parking lot at Walmart looking for a space just ten feet closer to the entrance. Getting out of the car and walking somewhere is anathema in places like Tx.
Yup. Although to be fair, the urban/suburban sprawl here is pretty wild. I’m in DFW suburbs and there is nothing walkable around me. Closest grocery store is a 6mile round trip with missing sidewalks and I’d probably consider anything within like 20-25 mins by car to be “close.” When you have to rely on your car so heavily, it’s no wonder that it doesn’t even occur to people there’s any other way.
Unfortunately this is an absolute necessity if you’re offering drive through. The whole setup only works if you keep the line moving as fast as possible. This further incentivises people to not go in and use the drive through. A vicious cycle is born. If the folks in cars need to wait you’re essentially just doing a very inefficient version of curbside pickup.
The whole problem starts with putting a single oversized location somewhere out in bumfuck nowhere where everyone needs to drive to instead of multiple smaller locations in places where people already are because they live or work there.
It’s insane, where I live, how literally dozens of drivers, more than half of them in huge trucks, will idle in a Chick-fil-A drive thru for 25 minutes just to avoid walking 20 feet. No wonder Americans are obese.
One of the things that legit blew my mind moving from Northern California to Texas is how many freaking drive thrus there are here. It’s wild. They are just attached to everything. I guess it’s a byproduct of land being at less of a premium.
I think it’s cultural, too. You might also notice that people drive up and down the parking lot at Walmart looking for a space just ten feet closer to the entrance. Getting out of the car and walking somewhere is anathema in places like Tx.
Yup. Although to be fair, the urban/suburban sprawl here is pretty wild. I’m in DFW suburbs and there is nothing walkable around me. Closest grocery store is a 6mile round trip with missing sidewalks and I’d probably consider anything within like 20-25 mins by car to be “close.” When you have to rely on your car so heavily, it’s no wonder that it doesn’t even occur to people there’s any other way.
Last time I went for fast food, I was at the counter while the guy took 3 drive through orders before taking mine.
I’ve had the same experience.
Unfortunately this is an absolute necessity if you’re offering drive through. The whole setup only works if you keep the line moving as fast as possible. This further incentivises people to not go in and use the drive through. A vicious cycle is born. If the folks in cars need to wait you’re essentially just doing a very inefficient version of curbside pickup.
The whole problem starts with putting a single oversized location somewhere out in bumfuck nowhere where everyone needs to drive to instead of multiple smaller locations in places where people already are because they live or work there.