The kids who played the board game Mousetrap have grown up to be the adults who are continually striving to find ways to get us in and out of the drive-thru faster. The latest plan is a test run of online reservation systems that let you reserve your window.
From May 31 to June 5, before Chick-Fil-A introduces a spicy chicken sandwich on June 7 (sorry Wendy's, I will be cheating on you), the chicken chain is giving out free sandwiches to customers who've made a reservation to use the drive-thru.
While reservations are a novel approach, they don't quite fit the previously established model of the drive-thru. Most of my stops at fast food chains are inspired by impulse or a lack of time. There's little forethought involved because I'm not a habitual fast-food eater. (It's the same problem I have with Netflix -- I can reserve a movie, but I find I don't always want that movie by the time it comes in the mail.)
If I could Tweet my standard order to the local Taco Bell and then get into a priority or call-ahead line, then the reservations might make more sense. Call it the Fast Line and bill me via a transponder attached to my front windshield. Why not just design a catapault that slings the food into my open window, so I don't even have to come to a full stop?
At some point, I think we have to accept that we have reached the peak of efficiency for the drive-thru. It's not going to get any faster. Some customers still won't be able to make up their minds, and food still needs to be made. And mayo will still find its way onto burgers that were meant to be mayo-free.
It will take about three minutes from the time we order to the time we get our food; about the same amount of time it should take you to figure out a new reservation system online.
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