Yesterday, I wanted to get food from Wendy’s (and the dog was in the car with me- she doesn’t like my car, so I try to positively reinforce the experience by getting food when she’s in it). I think the wait ended up being a total of 20 minutes in the drive-thru. Now, it’s one thing when the line is at least moving (albeit slowly), but about half of that time was spent just sitting in one place, not moving. With no explanation. I had already ordered my food, but had not yet paid for it.
Now, in a situation like this, after, say, 15 minutes, is it okay to leave? If I’ve already ordered my food, do I have an obligation to sit in my car and wait all that time for it, even if I had reasonable expectations of a much shorter wait?
After what amount of time is it reasonable to just say “screw it” and leave?
I would have gone inside after ten. The likely cause of this was a combination of not having some product that takes a while to cook (Maybe baked potatoes? I don’t know how Wendy’s does thing), and stupid people, by not pulling customer who ordered the baked potato (or whatever) forward so that they could move the rest of the line.
Many drive-thrus that I have seen make it virtually impossible to leave by putting a concrete barrier on the outside of the lane once you get past the speaker. If you get stuck in one of those you’re SOL.
I have on more than one occasion pulled out of line after ordering and felt no guilt about it. However, I would be less eager to do so if the delay were after I had paid my money at the first window and was waiting to get my food at the second window.
Wendy’s is undoubtedly my favorite fast food, but it’s been my experience that the average drive-thru wait at a Wendy’s is longer than anywhere else. I’ve also noticed, when I go inside, that there are often ten people behind the counter and only two of them working. And this is several different Wendy’s-worth of observation.
When I worked fast food, our manager was fond of saying “for every 5 minute wait, you lose someone from the drive-thru”. I never saw that exact timing loss in real life, but people certainly did leave if it was in the middle of a lunch rush or something and times were running long. It screwed us all up at the window, and not long after I left they put up concrete curbs too tall to jump around the drive-thru line.
The McDonald’s nearest to the house I grew up in back in Miami was the worst McDonald’s EVER, and that takes a lot. Whenever you pulled into the drive-thru, they ALWAYS asked you to pull into the parking lot and wait, because it would be “5 to 15 minutes.” And we weren’t special-ordering or anything either (which you have to be nuts to attempt at McDonald’s anyway). My Dad would always get fuming mad and announce “I will NOT pull over and wait.” Eventually we stopped using the drive-thru, and finally stopped patronizing that particular incompetent McDonald’s.
Back when I was employed by McDonald’s we probably lost someone from the line who had paid for their food but not yet recieved it about once a month. I don’t remember anyone getting disgusted and leaving between ordering and paying- though that doesn’t mean it didn’t occur.
If you pulled out of line immediately after ordering, you definitely should have felt guilt about it.
Ordering and then not paying for your order is a Bad Thing: the food, and the effort spent assembling it, are wasted and the restaurant is not reimbursed. And, if they’re not paying attention, the person behind you may get your order by mistake.
Whether it’s a forgivable sin or the action of a Jackass Customer depends on how long and unreasonable your wait is and how big of a hurry you’re in. I’d do it if I had to—say, to keep from being late for work—but not otherwise.
So I thought. Once or twice a month I have a McDonalds breakfast. One day I saw 10 or 12 cars in line and nobody inside. In I went, I didn’t get anything special and watched as car after car went through the line. There was a huge sign I could see over the inside of the drive thru window about the goal being 90 seconds or less.
I was fuming after 5 minutes. Not that 5 minutes of my time is the most importaint in the world, but the inequity of the system. Why screw one customer over the other.
When I got to work I looked up the phone number and called the owner later that day saying it’s a dumb way to do things.
Every Wendy’s around here is amazingly fast. I’ve never waited more than a minute… and usually, as I’m paying at window 1, the food is being held out of window 2, so they are actually waiting on me.
When I worked at Wendy’s our goal was :30 out the window and :15 to the counter. We usually managed our counter time goal, to the point that customers would ask, “is this mine?”
The window was something else, though. As you may have read in the pit thread, you can’t control the window timer. If somebody pulls up to pay and then drops their change, the timer keeps a-going up. If You need to ask for change for the window, the timer keeps timing. If the doofus on potatoes didn’t put enough in the oven an hour ago, yup, you have to wait for your potato. But they are usually dropped on 20 or 30 minute intervals so the wait should never be too long. Depending on your definition of “too long.”
What bugs me is when I go inside, order before a drive-thru person and watch them get their food first. I know they’re in a hurry but hey, I was here FIRST!
Unless you have an infant and two other kids in the car with you. You can’t leave the car with the kids in it, and it becomes a huge production to drag an infant seat and two little kids out of the car while trying to keep from getting run over by other drivers. I won’t even mention how hard it is trying to keep said kids from ransacking the establishment while you order. Then you have to drag them all out again, only now you have to lug all the food and drinks and whatnot.
I use the drive thru almost every single time I have the option for this reason alone. It might be quicker as far as when you get your food, but I don’t mind waiting a little longer if it means I get to stay seated and the children are strapped down.
I’m another one who prefers to go inside rather than use the drive through. This is mostly because, no matter where I go, more often than not they will forget to include something that I ordered. If I go inside, I have a better chance of watching them bag up the order before handing it to me, and if I have any doubts, I can check the order at the counter before I leave. If I sit there in drive-thru lane and check my order before I leave, people will start honking.
I have gone back and forth on this notion, and I’m sure it depends on the chain and even the specific franchise.
But I did observe “drive through favoritism” on one particular occasion and asked the manager, who explained their policy (which was indeed explicit drive through favoritism) and why they do it. She said the reason is basically because the drive through is intended by the store and expected by the consumer to be quicker.
