While fast food chains are modernizing the drive-thru, fast casuals are adding pickup windows to better streamline mobile ordering and delivery.
That’s because customer expectations regarding speed of service are as high as they have ever been, T3 President Ben Gaddis said. Customers are comparing interactions with retailers and restaurants to whether or not they are better than Amazon, Uber Eats or other online-based companies, he said, adding pressure to get orders out faster.
“Drive-thru will look very different and be less oriented toward customers, and more for delivery drivers,” Gaddis said.
Restaurants have started to decrease in size and reorient themselves to focus more on off-premise operations as a result, he said.
For fast casuals like Chipotle, Cava and Blaze Pizza, that means testing drive-thru pickup windows. Many other chains have been expanding into drive-thru as well, including Starbucks, The Habit Burger, Panera and Panda Express.
Adding drive-thrus can be quite lucrative. Starbucks, which added drive-thrus to 80% of its new U.S. cafes in fiscal year 2018, said that drive-thrus have outperformed stores without them and drive-thru and mobile orders now made up over half of all of its orders during the last fiscal year.
Chipotle continues roll out new Chipotlanes to a few dozen locations and plans to ramp up the pilot program later in the year. These lanes allow customers to order and pre-pay online and pickup at a designated time while providing another way for the company to maximize efficiencies of its second make lines, which have been rolling out across its system, to process digital orders without disrupting in-store traffic.
“These restaurants are a great extension of our digital system as they help increase convenience and access to Chipotle for customers looking to pick up digital orders without getting out of their cars,” Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said during an April earnings call with investors.
Cava plans to open five pick-up by car locations this year, according to Forbes. It most recently opened on such location in Maryland, where guests can use the Pick-Up By Car option on the restaurant’s app or website.
Blaze is set to open five “Blaze-Thrus” this year, Blaze Pizza SVP of Development Robert Kluger told Restaurant Dive. Much like Chipotle and Cava, Blaze customers will be able to order ahead online and pick up their orders at a designated time without getting out of their cars, Kluger said.
“Pickup windows will become a huge part of what we do,” he said.
Its first of these “Blaze-Thrus” opened in Michigan in May. Blaze Pizza Michigan Franchise Group is operating the drive-thru late into the night too, which gives the owner an edge over other late night options, franchisee representative Darla Bowen told the Morning Sun.
