• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

Fast food restaurants going to drive-through only

michaelskis

michaelskis

Cyburbian
Messages
25,530
Points
74
I have seen more and more fast food restaurants completely do away with indoor seating and focus only on a drive-through operation.

As example, this has been circulating the rounds in the traffic engineering world:
1757428933937.jpeg


Has your community had any of these convert over? Is anyone putting anything into regulation to address this situation?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mendelman said:
More likely they can't hire enough staff to man the indoor dining room.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking too. Interestingly, the one fast food place near me that I know of that has gone to drive thru or mobile order pick-up only is also a Taco Bell. It's in a pretty safe, upscale neighborhood so I don't think it's a crime thing. Before COVID they were always understaffed and and slow inside and would go to drive thru only after like 7:00 PM every evening. Once COVID hit they went to that format for quite a few years. Now I think they're open inside for lunch but the rest of the day it's drive or mobile pick-up only.

I imagine this is an effective way for a fast food place to cut back on a staff person or three and depending on the location they may have realized there isn't much financial incentive in keeping the dining room open.

FWIW, it's like going into a Subway or Jimmy Johns or some sandwich shop at like noon and then again at 6:30 PM. Those sandwich places are packed at lunchtime with people both eating in the dining area and also takeout orders. Go back at like 6:30 and they may be doing a brisk takeout business but, IME, almost nobody is eating there.

On a planning note... I wonder if switching to a drive-thru only format would be considered a change of use?
 
When 85% of sales go out the window on a regular basis, is there really that much fundamental difference going to 100% out the window?
 
We've had a couple of that have switched over when they can't staff them. A few of our restaurants only operate their lobbies during lunch now with breakfast and dinner being drive-thru only. I know Chick-fil-A has been increasing the number of drive-thru only restaurants fairly significantly. We've also seen an increase in the number of whole franchises that do not have a lobby.
 
Back
Top