This is one of my original 2, later ammended to 6, reasons to not use the drive thru.
My first thought!
Here the nearest McD’s has a walk-through, like a miniature version of a drive-thru. I don’t know why people use it and then sit and eat their food by a main road, but I also don’t understand why they eat there when there are so many decent fish places nearby (it’s a coastal holiday town).
I don’t consider it stupid, that’s what it’s there for.
The thing is, I usually don’t find it faster in the times I’ve been. It’s much easier to just…park, shut the car off, and walk in to as many as three to five people taking orders, as opposed to one.
I used to occasionally eat lunch at a McDonald’s near where I worked at the time. I would make a mental note of the last car in the drive-thru line as I walked in. Unless there were fewer than 3 or 4 cars in line, I could go in, order, get my food, eat it, get back in my car and leave, and the car I had noticed would still be waiting in line. And this during the lunch rush. For the same reason mentioned above. One person serving the drive-thru, 6 serving the counter.
In my car, I get to pick the music and I don’t have to stand around waiting for my drink. That’s worth 10 minutes of time to me. Maybe not to everyone.
I’ve also had bad experiences with Wendy’s deprioritizing inside orders, to the point where three drive-thru customers got their order while I was still waiting for mine. No thanks!
When the drive-through line is full I’ve found it’s usually faster to park and go in. But otherwise, the drive-through is there for a reason.
A couple more reasons I’ll sometimes go inside rather than going through the drive-thru:
I don’t know yet what I want, and I want a minute to look over the menu before I order.
I plan to use a coupon, and I want to be able to present it when I order, and say “I want this.”
And a reason to go through the drive-thru rather than going inside:
In my experience, when you go inside to place an order, they’ll ask “Is this for here or to go?” but 80% of the time they will have forgotten what you answered by the time they give you your food, and put everything on a tray (if you said “to go”) or in a bag (if you said “here”).
This has been my experience, even if there is no line inside, the drive through goes faster.
As someone above mentioned, I would do the “check the last car in line to see when it made it through in comparison to my order” thing, and I always lost. I never drove to this particular drive through, because I lived across the street. 
But I’ve noticed it at other drive throughs as well. On my job, when we’re in the field, we’re usually driving a big truck and trailer (not a semi, but too big and unwieldy to go through the drive-in), and we always have to wait way longer than the last car.
I’ll go through the drive-thru because I think it’s odd to be eating alone- I’ll just park in the parking lot and eat, or even step inside to use the restroom if needed.
Not sure if this is odd or unusual or not.
Eating in the parking lot might be considered by some to be both odd and unusual. But then the Kreetassans think eating should only be done in private.
If I found you eating in the parking lot alone, I’d think it more odd and unusual than if I saw you sitting in the restaurant eating alone, lol (assuming it wasn’t a really nice day). 
To each their own, though.
I used to have that problem. Now I bring a book and it works.
I don’t often use the drive-thru because I do not trust them to make my drink or food correctly, and/or they put way too much ice in my drink. Just the other day, in a rare trip to the drive-thru, I ordered from a place that has those Freestyle machines. I ordered a diet vanilla root beer. Sure enough, I got a diet Dr. Pepper. Arrrgh.
Another reason for not using the drive-thru: You have bicycles, a canoe, or kayaks on top of the car. :eek:
I often go through the drive through and then eat in the parking lot, either because I’m enjoying the radio (or a podcast or audiobook) and don’t want to get out, or because the dining room is closed but I don’t want to wait until I get home to eat my food.
Before Krouget’s post I couldn’t even understand what you were saying here.
So you do eat alone, you just don’t want people to see you eating at a table of your own in a restaurant (where other people are doing the same thing)… so you sit alone in your car in a parking lot, food in your lap?
I used to do that too, back in Texas. Use the drive-up, then sit in the car and eat. I never thought anything about it. Lots of people did the same thing.
There are multiple cars doing the same thing in any given parking lot in the Atlanta area between the hours of 12pm and 2pm.
Yes.
If you are that one individual who:
- Needs to look at the menu
- Is ordering for three or more people
- Can’t find their payment method in a timely fashion
- Is ordering something unusual or off the menu
then you need to take your ass inside and not be directly in front of me in the drive-thru line every damn day! Fucker!