written for The Hartford Courant
One Monday at 12:55 p.m., I parked my car and walked inside a McDonald’s on a busy stretch of Route 1 in Groton. Exactly five minutes later, I returned with a Big Mac and small Coke.
At 1:02 p.m., I began timing a blue Toyota Corolla that had just pulled behind eight cars in the drive-through line. After creeping forward, the driver placed her order at 1:04. Around 1:08, she was third in line when another woman walked in front of the line to retrieve a forgotten drink at the pick-up window. At 1:10, the Corolla driver pulled up to the window, and at 1:11, exactly nine minutes after she got into line, she drove away.
When I first arrived, I dodged the overflowing drive-through line to walk inside, where I joined two other people. I got my lunch in five minutes, while the woman in the Toyota got hers in nine minutes, via the more “convenient” route. I make no claim that my experiment was scientific. But the fact that she didn’t beat me – far from it – struck me.
If drive-throughs aren’t faster, what’s the point?
Between half and 70 percent of purchases at fast-food chains are conducted at drive-through windows, according to the National Restaurant Association. The drive-through phenomenon shows that customers want convenience, said Katharine Kim, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based association.
“They use that as an opportunity to free up more time to spend with their friends and family and other activities,” she said.
Picking up food isn’t the only errand you can do from the car. Connecticut is home to a growing number of drive-through windows at drug stores. And we take for granted the drive-through lanes at banks. What I will say here applies to these, too.
I concede that when customers have small children or a physical handicap, ordering from the car can help.
For everyone else, drive-throughs deliver negatives. First, they require customers to idle their cars, which wastes fuel and pollutes the air. Get enough cars in line and it’s hard to park at some fast-food eateries, never mind walk to them.
Also, drive-throughs provide another excuse for people to be sedentary. This is the country with the obesity crisis. Considering what most customers buy at fast-food restaurants, that little walk from the car is a plus.
This article was published by The Hartford Courant newspaper on May 9, 2004 and used to appear in its entirety on their website.
About This Article
This article was published by The Hartford Courant newspaper on May 9, 2004 and used to appear in its entirety on their website.
