Surprise! Fast Food Drive Thru Service is Not So Fast, or Accurate
Call me Captain Obvious here, but a new study shows that fast food drive-thrus are not so fast after all, and they really do F@#k you in the drive-thru!
Gone are the days of getting the correct order from your favorite fast food drive-thru in a timely manner. First of all, it just seems like everybody is hitting the drive-thru at the same time, so of course the wait time is going to be a bit longer than usual.
I've almost completely sworn off any coffee shop drive-thru, as I know it'll take 20-40 minutes. I've always considered myself a pretty patient person, but nothing, I mean NOTHING, drives me crazier that sitting in line waiting on a coffee or a bag of food at the drive-thru.
Now that I've got that off my chest, there is actual proof of the drive-thru slow down. KCEN recently shared SeeLevel HX's 2021 annual drive-thru study, which looks at drive-thru times from all the major fast food restaurants. Wait times actually did slow down by 25.59 seconds from 2020 to 2021.
I know that 25.59 seconds isn't that big a deal, but that amount of time can add up from customer to customer and feels longer when you're in a hurry and hungry. To add salt to the wound, the report also says that not only are wait times longer, but messing up your order in the drive-thru also went up by two percent from 2020. Drive-thrus are now screwing up your order 15 percent of the time.
When you think about how many places had to close their dining room areas due to the pandemic, and how many workers were laid off or quit, maybe the numbers aren't that surprising. A lot of places are trying to get people hired on as quickly as possible, so maybe things will change.
The study didn't mention which fast food drive-thru was the quickest, but it did list the most accurate drive-thrus. Chick-fil-A landing took the top spot, followed by Taco Bell at second. Third place was a three-way tie with Arby's, Burger King, and Carl's Jr.
Remember when the drive-thru was a quick, hassle free way to grab a bite? Yea, that was a long time ago.
Maybe hit a food truck instead!