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Effects of COVID on fast food

LogGrad98

LogGrad98

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More and more fast food places are going to start dropping their dining rooms, citing changes in consumer trends due to COVID-19, e.g. more delivery services, drive-through usage, ordering on the app, etc. Personally I'm not liking the new trend. I'm typing this from a minimalist McDonald's where there are more kiosks for ordering than cashier stations (5 to 1, as in exactly 1 cashier), no drink machine at all, and nowhere to get condiments or napkins or anything. I wanted extra napkins and had to wait for someone to come from the back with another order to ask for a few, let alone ketchup and salt. Very irritating. The space feels very sterile and uninviting. And of course true to trend there were maybe 14 cars in the double lane drive through. What do you think, anyone else mildly lamenting the possible end to dining rooms in such places, and the other changes associated with the new trends?

www.google.com

McDonald's is getting rid of its self-serve soda machines

For decades, McDonald's let customers fill (and refill) their own drinks at its dining rooms.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Since I'm one of the people in the drive thru, not so much.

The places around here have struggled to get workers. Covid showed people they could get better jobs, or not work at all.
 
I know the Wendy’s we occasionally patronized never reopened their dining room. Drive-thru only. Too far for takeout home, and not always in the mood for eating in the car.
 
Red said:
I know the Wendy’s we occasionally patronized never reopened their dining room. Drive-thru only. Too far for takeout home, and not always in the mood for eating in the car.
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Same. I'm a fan of the dining room for this reason. Fries get stale on the drive home, food gets cold, then I have to clean up the mess. Easier to eat there and chuck it all in their trash. My wife is a huge drive through fan though. Serious point of contention in our marriage. Might have to leave her over this. If I find one more ****ing stray fry in my car, so help me Buddha, she's going down!



To clean it up, you know, throw the fry away.
 
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The double lane drive thru at McDonald’s is a ******** scam to make you feel like it goes faster. They converge into one so it doesn’t really streamline anything. The only thing it does is piss you off when you chose the wrong line, or get mad when the ******* in front of you has enough room and won’t pull up, causing you to lose out your spot to the next ******* in the other lane. Then completing your order first and someone pulling in front of you who didn’t, or having a build up of cars from the other lane preventing your lane from being able to order because the asshat who took forever to order is now stuck at the box with nowhere to go and three cars in the other lane done with their order and in the queue in front of them.

Yeah, I’m bitter.
 
And don’t fry me started on them screwing up which order’s which, or when they ask if I want a receipt. Of course I want a receipt, because when the order is wrong up at the next window they aren’t believing me without a receipt. And also, “hey pull forward for the rest of your food,” only so they can bring it out and bail, leaving you there to discover they forgot something and then you have to park and go in while everyone stands around in the back not acknowledging you at the counter because nobody comes to the counter.
 
It makes a lot of sense, there are industrial kitchens here turning out food as multiple restaurants on uber eats or whatever. It speaks to a particular problem with our economy, ridiculous rents and property prices and high wages, all these joints are set up in industrial estates and churn out food 7 days a week at inflated prices.
 
It was slightly inconvenient at first, especially wanting to eat inside with young kids. I've gotten used to it now though, so I don't even think about going inside even though the dining rooms near me have all been opened.
 
More important is how covid effected all bars and restaurants around the world. Pretty much every place closes so much earlier than before and they don't want to go back to regular times. All these places closing at 9/10pm are killing me. 9pm is when you should start to be going out.
 
infection said:
The double lane drive thru at McDonald’s is a ******** scam to make you feel like it goes faster. They converge into one so it doesn’t really streamline anything. The only thing it does is piss you off when you chose the wrong line, or get mad when the ******* in front of you has enough room and won’t pull up, causing you to lose out your spot to the next ******* in the other lane. Then completing your order first and someone pulling in front of you who didn’t, or having a build up of cars from the other lane preventing your lane from being able to order because the asshat who took forever to order is now stuck at the box with nowhere to go and three cars in the other lane done with their order and in the queue in front of them.

Yeah, I’m bitter.
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This is why you should eat at Chick Fil A. Hands down the best drive thru and service.
 
JazzGal said:
This is why you should eat at Chick Fil A. Hands down the best drive thru and service.
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Great service can't make up for mediocre food. Not a fan.
 
I think its more than Covid. FF will eliminate people wherever they can for a few reasons. One of the biggest is min wage. It is at $15 an hour in CA has made those jobs jump to $18-20+. This is supposed to be the national min wage by 2025. Those jobs being more expensive means automation gets less cost prohibitive. Eliminate some of the staff on the in store counter or clean up and you save some $$$

Plus all the other reasons... people come in use up your electricity, bathroom, supplies... then you gotta clean up for em.

I hardly ever go in to FF restaurants... if I was getting out of my car I'd be going somewhere better. Will occasionally see the line and go in to save time. If we are with the kids the trash being somewhere else is nice but that doesn't happen often.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
I think its more than Covid. FF will eliminate people wherever they can for a few reasons. One of the biggest is min wage. It is at $15 an hour in CA has made those jobs jump to $18-20+. This is supposed to be the national min wage by 2025. Those jobs being more expensive means automation gets less cost prohibitive. Eliminate some of the staff on the in store counter or clean up and you save some $$$

Plus all the other reasons... people come in use up your electricity, bathroom, supplies... then you gotta clean up for em.

I hardly ever go in to FF restaurants... if I was getting out of my car I'd be going somewhere better. Will occasionally see the line and go in to save time. If we are with the kids the trash being somewhere else is nice but that doesn't happen often.
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Agreed on the cost savings. I think the COVID connection was that it kind of forced everyone to shift their behavior en masse, which forced companies to adapt rapidly so they had a much better picture of the impact of these costs vs true demand for the dining room environment, which proved to be a lot less as we came out of COVID. Not often you get a forced change that allows you to test things like this in a business setting, so that was paradigm changing for these companies.
 
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