Drive -thru waiting time grrr
 

Is it just me or we seem to wait long period of time to get coffee or food at all the fast food restaurants.when i see 4 too 5 cars in line i know i will be there at least 15 min.i used to go get my coffee in the morning but not anymore .i get to work late.shortage of staff i guess.

I haven't noticed any particular problems in my area. If anything, I think they've actually improved on their service speed - they've had a lot of practice at it over the last 18 months.

It seems to vary allot by the individual location. The McDonalds closest to my house is incredibly fast, day or night. It has the split lane, dual ordering boards that funnel to a single line along the building. The first window you pay at, the second shovels the food in your window. I can pull in line with 20 cars ahead of me, 10 in each line, and have my food and be gone in 5-7 minutes. I barely have time to get my wallet out. They really have it down. Was at a different McDonalds last week in a crappy area of town. 1 car in front of me and never got served. Waited about 10 minutes, car never moved. I just left.

One of those K-Cup coffee makers can put out a fresh cup quicker than you can brush your teeth. Might be worth a try

What I am seeing lately is an unbelievable amount of people out in our fairly small town pretty late at night. We were coming back through town and thought we'd swing through the Dairy Queen for a treat. Well we didn't get our Blizzards because we would have been about the 35th car in line weaving through the shopping center parking lot. Another time thought we'd get a bite to eat at one of the fast food places, 20 cars for McDonalds, 15 for Del Taco, about the same for Burger King, and so on through town. My daughter-n-law made the comment that they find it cheaper to eat fast food instead of paying the ridiculous prices at the grocery store, and apparently a lot of people agree with her.

I very rarely if ever go through a drive thru, I do not like to eat in my car. What I have seen is almost all fast food places no longer are having their dining rooms open, forcing you to a drive thru, so I choose not to go there. Arby's is one of the few places that are still using dine in, so that is where I go if I want fast food. I absolutely hate McDonalds and have never been to a Starbucks, and those places are always having extremely long lines. Not the way I want to spend my time. If I want a drink, I will run into a QT or Casey's and be out in about 2 minutes.

We prefer to eat in the restaurant. If we're in a situation where we do want to get it for the road, we simply walk in to the fast food restaurant to order and then walk back out to the car and go.

Why wait in line to order from the squawk box when you get faster service inside without wasting gas and money to use a drive through?

A week ago, at a Culver's in Rochester, MN, we drove up, parked our car, walked in and without having to wait 1 second ordered our food and had it delivered to our table. Meanwhile, the drive through idiots were lined up 2 wide all the way around the restaurant just for the privilege of not having to get our of their car.

Don't even get me started on the idiocy of waiting in line with your engine running for a cup of coffee...

In my travels, I've seen Panera locations in GA, OH and elsewhere cut their hours to 10:30AM to 5PM, and spoken to clerks at the counter who are decades past retirement age. Waited over an hour to be seated at more than one Cracker Barrel, because they only had one or two servers and limited kitchen staff.

Some of the clients I serve are in the truck tire retread business, can't get enough people to work.

Theres a McDonalds in the small town where my zip code ties to. And.... there's a small trailer (the Coffee Hub) in a parking lot about 600ft away that serves all kinds of coffee and some breakfast sammiches. I support the local little trailer folk 10-1 vs the McDonalds.

I have been known, however, to play the "is it faster going inside than waiting in the drive thru" game at McDonalds, where I look at the last car in line, go inside get my stuff, and see whether or not that car got their food before I was able to get it from the lobby. My success rate is higher than you'd think.

A lot of fast food places that have their dining room open (on policy) have to lock the doors on random days because they can't get enough workers.

There's a place by us....with a name that rhymes with Arby's....that is so unreliable on getting the order correct at the drive-thru; that I prefer to go in to the counter so I can inspect the order before I leave.

Eric

I won’t do drive thru, waiting in a running car. Drive thru originally was supposed to be faster, now it’s the opposite.

George

Only impressive drive-thru in fast food world is Chik-Fil-A. Numbers prove it, typical McDonalds does about $1.8m/year revenue, Chik-Fil-A close to $5m. Many have been renovated for 2-lane drive-thru. Nobody blinks at 10-15 cars per lane, because they know it won't be more than a couple minutes.

Wife's account includes her car make and color and her favorite order. Always fast no matter where we are.

Here in the Chicago area there is a well-known beef/dog/burger/rib etc. place named Portillo's, now with locations in SoCal, Phoenix, etc. Two drive up lanes filled with cars anytime day or nite. They know how to move people and food. Legendary.

George

I have a coffee maker and a fridge full of food at home. Cheaper too.

I guess that depends on how healthy you want to eat. There is a very limited selection of items that fit that criteria in fast food....some, but few.

As a personal trainer, I agree. I advise people to limit fast food to once a week. The fat content is usually pretty high. It also is very hard to make a quality beef burger and sell at fast food price, for example.

Having said that, I have not had a BigMac in a year, and am craving one. I know it is one of the worst offenders of what I said above. I have one typically twice a year, with a large fries, and it is like my illegal decadence.

I was just commenting to my son yesterday how if I eat at my favorite restaurant, I can literally go the rest of the day without food, and I’m talking about just eating a normal meal, not overstuffing myself. If I eat fast food, or gas station food, I’m always hungry a few hours later.

Talk about first world problems. lol

I usually avoid drive thrus, as I have to shut my vehicles off to order. I guess that's the cost of putting long tubes and no cats on everything.

:/

Wait times at the joints I frequent have increased significantly...mostly due to lack of help. One place I went to only had 3 employees working during prime time...had to leave.

My doc says, “drive by, not drive thru”.