around here 70 percent of most drive-thrus here are uber eats grub hub or door dash
the lines are so clogged that my last uber eats driver went inside and got the food and was here in 15 minutes of me ordering
There’s a KFC/Taco Bell in Leonardtown that has always been notoriously slow, both inside and drive-thru. I don’t know that it’s gotten any worse in the last year or so, but I know I avoid the place. Come to think of it, the McD’s in Leonardtown is pretty slow also. Maybe it’s the town?
If we get a hankerin’ for fast food, it seems to be pretty fast if we go to the Charlotte Hall locations… except for Popeye’s - they’ve always been slow. We even pulled out of line at the drive-thru after giving our order and waiting 10 minutes without moving. We get faster service ordering delivery from the Chinese place - they’ll text that our food will be delivered in an hour, and it shows up in half that time!
In my area (South Texas) I’ve noticed that fast food has tended to be the least effected by the nahployment issue. Places like McDonalds, KFC, Popeyes, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Panda Express, etc*. have come through in about the the same shape as they were before the pandemic.
The local sit down restaurants are where the real struggle seems to be happening. Fast food customers have lower expectations than someone at a sit down restaurant. Ironically, fast food places also seem to be paying better than locally owned sit down restaurants. Why work as a a waiter for less than minimum wage and crap tips, unpredictable hours, a boss that may not know what they are doing, a larger percentage of asshole customers, etc, when the alternative is McDonalds and a starting pay of $11 per hour with good prospects of that amount going up, dealing with fewer asshole customers, and having a streamlined process / more predictable hours?
- The one exception seems to be Burger King. At least locally, that’s the one fast food place that seems to have really taken a hit.
This is the same as my area. The line moves really quickly, however, and the person organizing it seems to know what they’re doing. When the COVID-19 vaccine clinics in my area that were run by the city were first getting started, the city decided to hire some of those managers from Chik-Fil-A to help them improve their process in getting people in and out more quickly. Believe it or not, they succeeded in improving the process. I don’t know their secret, but they get results, and the long line there moves quickly.
Even more to it, when I see the line wrapped around McD’s or Dunkin Donuts in the morning, I wonder “Who has 40 minutes flex time in their commute to get that coffee?”. I’m sure some people are going home from something or have an open schedule but at least some of those thirty drivers must have somewhere to be by a specific time.
Yeah, whatever else you may think of them Chik-fil-a is a well-oiled machine. They knocked down the one near me a few years ago just to rebuild it so that the drive-throughs would be better configured. The lines still spill out onto the road at lunch time, but they move quickly.
Very slow lines at fast food places locally. My teen old son works at one such place and confirms that the reason the lines are long (and his 16 yr old peers working at their respective fast food joints across the board concur) is they just don’t have enough people to adequately staff operations like they did pre-pandemic. This even after increasing offers of starting wages over 30%.
SE Mass here, and no longer lines than usual at the local Dunkin’ or Wendy’s. I mean, their lines do reach the street sometimes, but it’s been that way for a long time.
NE MN - The fast-food restaurants closest to me are crazy busy.
Culver’s rules change quite often. Sometimes you can order and eat inside, sometimes you can only order and go, other times it’s drive-thru only. When they have inside eating they will all of a sudden have to put a sign on the door stating the lobby is closed while they still have customers eating in. They lock the doors and let the customers out when they finish eating. They reach a certain capacity and their staff can’t handle it anymore.
McDonald’s is drive-thru, order in and go or order online and pickup.
Wendy’s is drive-thru only.
BK is eat in or drive-thru.
All due to staff shortages.
Yes, I do this too.
Inside, there are usually 4 or 5 registers to place your order, while there is only one for the drive-thru. So you almost always get your order taken faster. Then take it out to your car & drive away. I often look as I walk in at what cars are in line, and when I exit, look to see how far they have moved up in line – if any!
More places now have signs giving the phone number or webpage where you can place an order while parked in the parking lot, and then go inside to pick it up, or even have it delivered to your car (but that takes longer).
Since Covid, nearly every restaurant offers phone/online ordering for pickup. And Fast-food isn’t that cheap anymore! I can order from a local restaurant and get better-quality food for only a dollar or two more. It’s fast enough, my order will be ready when I arrive, and they are more friendly and appreciative of the business than the overworked fast-food drones.
What baffles me is how many people order fast food from doordash/ubereats/grubhub. I eat a lot of fast food, so I’m not knocking it - when it’s quick, it’s convenient and cheap. But if you’re ordering from a delivery service, you’re already paying like an extra $10 in fees. At that point, why not just order takeout food that’s equally convenient (after all, it’s being delivered to you just the same) and only a couple of bucks more, but is way better and travels better than fast food? I am utterly baffled by people who spend a premium to get fast food delivered. But it’s a lot of them.
I was on a drive-through line of 5 cars early yesterday afternoon at Captain D’s (I had a craving for fried okra, sue me). After 7 minutes the line had not moved. I left.
Whatever the reason these days for restaurant slow-downs, inferior product, bad service, whatever the excuses (low pay, worker shortages, “supply chain problems”), keep your customers informed while you fix things - don’t screw up and expect them to be tolerant indefinitely.
*this includes you, Jason’s Deli, which “always love(s) hearing from our customers” but doesn’t bother responding.
And they are so relentlessly cheerful friendly! It’s like a Ned Flanders church youth group shiny happy people cult (not that there’s anything wrong with that…).
Somewhat O/T speculation: I wonder if we’re going to see any dip in obesity levels as a consequence of the fact that for many people fast food is now much harder to get at. Is there a significant number of people just consuming fewer excess calories as a result of the logistical difficulties?
Yes I’ve noticed the cheery attitudes, it’s nice to hear. I use an app to avoid long lines.
30% more is still shit. It also doesn’t fix shitty management, shitty customers and shitty working conditions.
About a year ago, a local Wendy’s had a deal for 2 spicy chickens for $5, so I went there a few times while they had that going.
Other than that, I haven’t gone to fast food since the pandemic.
But the lines around here are looong. I have employees go on their lunch break, and text to say that they are going to be be later getting back. I hear stories of 30+ minute wait times, which IMHO, is ridiculous that you would wait that long in the first place.
They also often get the order wrong, and/or the quality is quite low.
The one thing I will occasionally do is a local pizza place, if that counts for fast food. I’m not sure why, maybe they pay better or have better work conditions, but they haven’t seemed to have had any staffing issues, and they, even if there is a significant line, move people through rapidly and efficiently, and I haven’t noticed any mistakes in my order.
Most of the time, I just make dinner at night with the plan of leaving leftovers for lunch the next day.
I went through the Wendy’s drive-thru yesterday after picking my grandson up from school. He wanted a frosty and some fries. I swear there was only one person working the entire drive-thru. There was one car at the window and a line of cars at the speaker. The car at the speaker would have to wait until the car at the window pulled away before the guy inside took their order. Then that car would pull up to the window, and the next car at the speaker would have to wait until the car at the window was served before they could order. There were three cars in front of me when I pulled in and it took 15 minutes to get through the drive-thru. I had to tell my grandson that was the last Wendy’s he was going to get for a while, 'cuz I ain’t going back.
Only flash food in this town is Culver’s. The lobby operates fro 10 to 2 then 4 to 6. Drive through available all day to 10 with lines around the corner on the weekend.
There’s an In-and-Out down a small side street near here. I saw the extended drive-through line full (maybe 12 cars), the parking lot to the street full (another 6-7 cars), and then - traffic was backed up on the street you turn on to go to the In-and-Out, another 12 cars. In total, there were about 30+ cars waiting for the drive through and the only reason there weren’t more is that they literally filled side street all the way to the main street, so that no one else could enter the line if they could - the street was completely blocked/full.
As fast food goes, that’s among the best. And they are typically well staffed. But we’re still talking about over an hour wait, at least, possibly a lot more. Who in the fuck sees a place so backed up that you literally can’t even turn on the street leading up to the restaurant and thinks “aw yeah I’m gonna try to squeeze in there”?