If you think drive-thrus are getting slower at your favorite fast food restaurant, you’re not alone and it turns out, you’re not wrong.
Have you ever sat in line at your favorite fast food restaurant and thought it was taking longer than usual? If the answer is yes, then you are not alone. And it turns out you’re also correct, as drive-thrus are actually getting slower every year.
According to Food & Wine, an annual report on the speeds of different drive-thrus has determined that in 2019, most fast food restaurants really are taking longer than they were just one year earlier. While much of our lives revolves around making things quicker and easier, when it comes to grabbing a quick bite at places like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, and more, we are actually waiting up to 20 seconds longer than we did in 2018.
A look at ten popular fast food chains revealed just how long we typically have to wait for our meals when going through the drive-thru rather than walking into the store. Of the ten restaurants involved in the survey, only one improved their time from 2018 and that was Carl’s Jr., which went down from 252.91 seconds to 240.51 seconds.
And perhaps unsurprisingly, Chick-fil-A was actually in dead last after dropping from second to last in 2018. The chain sees wait times of up to 322.98 seconds, which means customers are waiting just over five minutes to get their hands on their meals.
While some might say that Chick-fil-A is simply a victim of their own success, the reality is that all of the fast food chains involved in the survey are suffering from a lack of speed when it comes to their drive-thrus. That being said, Dunkin’ which had the best time of the bunch at 216.75 seconds, is doing everything in their power to make sure that customers are getting through their lines as quickly as possible.
With average wait times around four minutes for all of the drive-thrus surveyed, it is safe to say that fast food restaurants are not as fast as they once were. And it’s not just speed that is suffering, as for the first time since 2016, accuracy has been impacted as well.
Basically drive-thrus are simply not as fast or convenient as we might hope they would be. And the next time you head to McDonald’s or Burger King, just remember that if you only have a few minutes to spare, the drive-thru might not be your best option.
Are you surprised by the wait times in the drive-thru being near four minutes or longer? Have you complained about it taking longer at fast food restaurants than in years past? Tell us what you think of these higher than usual wait times in the comment.