I may have something in mind, but want to check what the daily special is. I may want to see if they have added something new to the menu. The only times fast food drive thru ordering has gone over two or three minutes from start to finish, is when the restaurant has goofed and needs me to pull over.
Question for those in the know. Does the seconds of service counter keep going if for whatever reason, they “park you”?
When I go through drive-throughs, it’s usually because I’m in the car with other folks, on a road trip. I don’t eat warm-blooded creatures, so I’m going to be feeding in the corners of the menu already (some places have fish sandwiches, some don’t; some have baked potatoes, some don’t; some have biscuits at all hours, some don’t; etc.) Some places give big discounts on combos, while others give small or no discounts (I’ve even seen one that apparently charged MORE for the combo than if you ordered the items separately–go figure!)
So yeah, it can take me a good thirty seconds to figure out what I want. And if it takes someone else thirty seconds, it’s okay: that vein in my forehead won’t begin a drumroll.
Daniel
Very often – yes.
A specific example from among many – some locations of McDonald’s sell Spicy Chicken sandwiches on the $1 menu. Other locations don’t sell them at all. I consider the Spicy Chicken sandwich better than the burgers, so I always take a few seconds to peruse the $1 menu at a McD drive-thru to see if they’ve got them.
For some people, the McRib sandwich is similar – another item not sold at all locations.
Some more McDonald’s examples – apple pies and hash browns. Some locations sell them at 2/$1.00 all the time. Other locations sell them for 99 cents most of the time, and 2/$1.00 occasionally as a special. I will check the menu on their price, because I’ll usually bite on the 2-for-a-buck deal.
Then, for you, the rule is very simple. Go the hell inside!
No I do not, and no thank you as to your kind offer for me to go inside. If you’d like this change, try petitioning the restaurants to have a time-limit on ordering.
You’ll find that the folks who set up the restaurant are perfectly happy to allow me to take 30 seconds to order, I wager.
No, I have not.
Actually, you come across as a binary-world-seeing fool who thinks a person who takes 30 seconds to read a menu is autistic. Chill the fuck out, dude! Thirty seconds is not a lifetime!
Daniel
30 seconds?!?!? C’mon.
Yes yes, as already said, it is just the name of a gas station store. The one by our house growing up was called “AM/PM” so I have always called all of them that. Just a habit, really.
You are incorrect; that “rule” exists only in your fevered imagination.
For you, on the other hand, there is a very simple rule: wait your fucking turn! Continued useless whinging entirely optional.
Daniel
Because you get Whoppers at Burger King, so there’d be no arches to notice. Your comment would make sense if it read:
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask of the customer to look up and notice the LACK OF FUCKING ARCHES before attempting to order a Big Mac.”
You C’mon. Thirty seconds is an eternity when you have a car full of screaming brats.
And, as an aside to the fast-food worker who screws up my order, I’m not adverse to parking the car and turning those brats loose inside your establishment.
You do realize that your authority over him is just as valid as his over you, right?
I hope so.
As for this—
The both of you want an hour to read the menu but won’t take a minute to read what I wrote?
If you look back, I’m with the OP on the “three minutes is too long” point.
I backed that up when I re-posted his First Commandment.
Nowhere in any of my posts did I even mention 30 seconds nor did I agree with anyone that did.
I demand retractions from both of you.
You have…
thirty seconds.
Random-
read posts 61 and 66.
What Left Hand said.
And if Left Hand is a vegetarian, s/he will have to peruse the average fast food menu board a bit more closely. And I can’t think of a valid reason s/he shouldn’t be afforded the same convenience to do it from the comfort of her car as anyone else would.
I’ll post it again – if you really can’t wait for a line of a half-dozen or more cars, don’t harp that everyone in line needs to hurry up. I suggest that you get out of the car and order inside. You usually will get your food faster than if you had waited in that long drive-thru line. Not posting that to be a dick … just giving a helpful suggestion I’ve implemented myself many times.
Sure, but:
Like I said, the rule for him is a real rule.
Well, nowhere did I disagree that three minutes is too long, so suck it! 
Daniel
It seems that a lot of people here are upset, more than should be reasonable IMO, about reading menus. I’d like to hear each and every one of you complain just as loud about order takers who try to up-sell or push the trendy McItem of the month.
Thanks.
I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you! :wally
Clearly, uncle, any car you’re driving will have a minimum of one screaming brat in it. Are the others screaming to get out?
But I invite you to try breaking the rule I suggest for you; after all, I break your rule whenever I go through a drive-through, and breaking your rule improves my life.
Daniel
Yippee … you still gotta wait :wally
Uncle, I’ve got a two-year-old myself, and I can feel you to an extent. But someone taking their time ordering at a drive-thru is pretty damn trivial in the grand scheme of things.
I agree that this is a valid strategy and I have implemented it many times. The thing that gets my knickers in a twist it the guy that manages to swing in just before I get to the speaker and then proceeds to launch into an extended meandering discourse with the order-taker, repeatedly changing his mind, whipping out the old cellphone to call the old-lady to see what she wants, and arguing with the kids about what to order. If I had a 105mm howitzer on the front of my truck …
Yeah, I know. So is arguing about it on a message board. But you gotta do something at work to make the time go faster. 