Drive thru vs walk in
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
During the past year most fast food restaurants went to a drive through mode and closed their dining rooms. In my area (Atlanta) some of them are now opening their dining rooms. Yesterday I went to Dunkin Doughnuts around 11AM and there were still a dozen cars in the drive through lane. I parked, went in and bought my 2 doughnuts and went back out to my car. I noticed only 3 customers eating inside. And I noticed that the line had only moved up by one car.
Even before Covid I always preferred to go inside to pick up my take out order. I just find it easier than passing money and food through a car window and faster. Given a choice which do you prefer?
Even before Covid I always preferred to go inside to pick up my take out order. I just find it easier than passing money and food through a car window and faster. Given a choice which do you prefer?
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22 comments
I make coffee at home every morning and I have a cuppa at 7 am every morning then I go for a walk occasionally, I’ll pick up a fresh bagel at a local bakery.
Haven't been to Chick fil a since they went drive through only. I used to stop in periodically, it was usually like you describe. The drive through line around the corner but you could walk in and get food nearly immediately.
I do however see a market niche for a drive through strip club.
In other news, I hate Dunkin Donuts, and prefer mom n pop shops or Krispy Kreme. If you bring me DD, I won't even allow them in my private office, put em in the lunch room. Most reps know this now.
All restaurants I have encountered have opened up their dining rooms EXCEPT Chik Fil Et and a few local pizza places that never wanted to provide dine-in to begin with, but felt obligated to throw a few tables and chairs in their customer area.
I’ve dined in a restaurant only twice since the pandemic began. It’s not that I’m afraid now, it’s just I’ve altered my routines and happy with the way they are. Still get take out a lot and take it home. God, it’s so much cheaper than dining in and I can pick my own alcohol drinks that many restaurants don’t offer.
As a traveling sales person, I often use Fast Food dining rooms as my mobile office. Cheap coffee and good wifi. I hate to see that disappear.
As others have said – most people are just f’ing lazy and prefer to make a line of 5 cars or more rather than just step inside – at places like Chick-Fil-A the lines can be 2-dozen+ cars and people clog up the parking lot trying to get in the drive-thru rather than get their ass off of the car-seat.
Some drive-thrus have more than one way to enter and it becomes an issue when there are multiple cars coming from two different directions trying to get into the drive-thru and arguments can break-out w.r.t. who got there first – I recall one night at a Taco-Bell two cars were blocking the drive-thru entrance and neither would move b/c they were arguing over who was in line first since they came in from different directions (they couldn't get past each other and neither would back up and let the other one in).
As others have mentioned, one can order online then walk up to the door and they bring it out to you – you can also walk up to the door and there is usually someone outside whom you can place your order with and they bring it out to you when it's ready (which is what I’ve been doing).