Drive Thru Near Me
Sometimes you want to score some food without stepping foot outside of your car. Since their inception, drive thrus have proved one of the most popular conveniences for fast food lovers all across the globe. Whether you’re getting your morning coffee or grabbing a burger on the run, drive thrus make the process painless and totally stress free.
Are you interested in finding a drive-thru near you? Simply browse drive thru near me on the map below and find a list of drive thrus located near you. Looking for more information on drive thrus? Read on for awesome trivia, weird facts, and tips on saving money on your next McDonald’s run!
Drive Thru Near Me – Find it on the Map
Drive Thru Near Me – Drive Thru Trivia
True or false: Drive thrus are getting slower.
In previous decades, many fast food drive thrus used to make a commitment to get customers their orders in a certain time frame or the food was on the house. Nowadays, that wouldn’t exactly fly, as drive thrus are actually getting slower rather than faster. Consider this as you search drive thru near me. According to an annual study on quick serve restaurants, drive thru wait times are on the rise. Despite better technology and a more skilled work force, you might just spend more time waiting for your Wendy’s burger now than you did in 2002. The study indicated that the average drive thru wait time hit 181 seconds in 2017. That’s up steadily from 173 seconds the year prior. Some restaurants even reported wait times of around 203 seconds. Despite the fact that many restaurants (McDonald’s included) once boasted a one minute drive-thru guarantee, most fast food restaurants simply aren’t able to keep up with demand and wait times are on the rise. Getting your food in under a minute is pretty much unheard of these days, but who knows what the future actually holds!
Drive thrus make life easier and cut down on wait times.
When is the quickest time to visit a drive thru?
If you’re not a morning person, this likely isn’t exactly the news you want to hear. According to statistics, drive thrus operate the fastest during the morning hours. The wait at a drive thru for breakfast tends to be very brief, with the average wait time being just 175 seconds. This is pretty predictable given that breakfast orders tend to be rather small, simple, and are typically just for one person who is ordering a coffee and a sandwich on the way to work. Once the lunch and dinner hours hit, the menu not only expands, but orders are typically being placed for more than one person in a vehicle at a time. This can definitely complicate the process and lead to a higher wait time. Despite the longer wait time you’ll enjoy at lunch and dinner, fast food service is often rated as being the “friendliest” during peak hours. As you search drive thru near me, consider how timing really is everything in the fast food business!
Drive Thru Near Me – Drive Thru Facts
The Very First Drive Thru
In the grand scheme of things, drive thrus aren’t as old as the fast food restaurant itself but it didn’t take long for drive thrus to accompany the quick service of a local burger joint. By the time the World War II era rolled around, car hop service and drive in restaurants serving burgers and other fast food staples were pretty common. Anyone could drive up to a stall and be greeted by a roller skate wearing waiter or waitress who would promptly take your order and then roll away to the kitchen to have it made. But when did the drive thru emerge and start to replace many drive ins? According to historians, the first drive thru opened in 1947 at Red’s Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield Missouri. Unfortunately, Red’s shut its doors in 1984, so the actual award for the longest running burger drive thru goes to In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out first opened its drive thru lane in 1948 in the Los Angeles area. At the time the concept seemed pretty foreign but caught on quickly through a state of the art two way speaker box. Consider the very first drive thru as you search drive thru near me.
McDonalds Wasn’t The First
McDonalds might be a fast food pioneer in many ways but it wasn’t exactly on the cutting edge when it came to drive thru service. Though McDonalds is definitely the fast food chain that is most closely associated with the drive thru and fast food in general, it didn’t exactly have a drive thru until 1975. This is when the company launched its very first drive thru lane in Sierra Vista, Arizona. By this point in time, McDonalds already had 3,000 restaurants worldwide, yet the concept of the drive thru never appealed until the mid-1970s. Nowadays, you’ll never find a McDonalds drive thru without one, two, or even three viable drive thru lanes. As you search drive thru near me, think about how the world’s leader in fast food was slow to adopt what is now the preferred way to get your fast food. Why do you think it took the brand so long to take to the drive thru? Sound off below and let your voice be heard!
