[GTO]

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I love drive-through restaurants because they are faster, safer (I'm avoiding restaurants in these Covid times), convenient and an additional revenue stream for food outlets. Plus, there is no going looking for parking; good luck finding a spot for your car if you just want to pick up a coffee from McDonalds on Linking Road.

I'm a regular visitor of McDonalds on the Bhiwandi Bypass, Panvel & the Expressway. Sadly though, we see drive-throughs only on the outskirts of cities & on highways. Reason? You guessed it = cost of real estate. You need lots of space for a good drive-through setup and it's simply too expensive in metropolitan cities. Even if you had the money, availability of space will be an issue.

Any other fans of drive-throughs on Team-BHP? Or do you prefer walking into a restaurant? I use drive-throughs on all my road-trips. If just beverages, we continue driving with our drinks in the cupholders. If anyone wants to eat, we quickly grab a bite in the parking lot or a safe scenic spot on the highway (I don't let anyone eat in my cars).

In USA - where everything is XL-sized (cars, houses, grocery stores etc.) - drive-throughs are commonplace. And just see how they are getting more intelligent:

A number of restaurants are moving quickly to improve their online order and app abilities, change their physical designs or add two or three drive-through lanes. Some are testing artificial intelligence systems to tailor suggestions for individuals who pull up to the menu board.

Others, like McDonald’s and Burger King, are adding multiple drive-through lanes, which have been a feature at some busy fast-food spots like Chick-fil-A but are becoming more commonplace. Burger King is running three-lane tests in the United States, Brazil and Spain. In the U.S. and Spain, the third lane is “express” for advance orders made through the app. In Brazil, the lane takes delivery drivers to a pickup area with food lockers or shelves.

Source

Burger King is testing a Bluetooth technology that will be able to identify customers in Burger King’s loyalty program and show their previous orders. If a customer ordered a small Sprite and a Whopper with cheese, hold the pickles, the last three visits, Deep Flame will calculate that chances are high that the customer will want the same order again.

Source

[benbsb29]

Totally agree with the convenience of Drive-throughs. I use them quite regularly here in Australia for KFC, Hungry Jacks, McDonalds and Starbucks. Unless I as the driver want a break, or looking to dine in specifically, its usually the drive-through option for me these days.

[rahulananda]

I reckon drive through restaurants are a "must haves" during the pandemic and especially in the highways. Glad to see Starbucks have drive through in India. I am averse to visiting a restaurant in these pandemic times, I would prefer to drive through a resto, pick up the order on the fly and a go to a secluded area to enjoy the meal with family.

Having said that given the infrastructure and crazy number of cars out on the roads, whichever chain brings a drive through should properly plan and invest big time on real estate to avoid congestion at the entrance and exit of a drive through. If planned poorly, then we may have a toll plaza like situation with deadlocks and constant honking and drive through resto road rage

[EightSix]

If there was a poll, I'd vote for "walking into a restaurant".

On our road trips, we start early and drive non-stop for hours. So everyone needs a place to stop, use the restroom, stretch their legs around breakfast time.

With the number of cars on our highways, drive-through restaurants would be congested. If not planned properly, it would be a waste of time, a cause of pollution and wastage of your car's fuel.

You have explained how space constraints and expensive real estate discourages drive-throughs. Here is another reason why drive-throughs are not for us = Indian Food. Most of it is not drive-through friendly. How can you eat your Poha, or idly while driving? Eating Missal Pav or Puri bhaji is totally impossible while driving, or even as a passenger. Only fast food can be served in a drive-through and there is a reason why it is called fast food.

Edit -

Originally Posted by paragsachania

As for me, I have McD's drive-in services, especially the one at Kolhapur on my way to Pune/Mumbai from Bangalore on many occasions. It is a huge time saver compared to parking your car and ordering at the counter.

As Parag pointed out in his incredibly detailed post, Indians still prefer to sit down and dine and get the whole experience. And I like the Kolhapur one too, because is very quick compared to the one at Panvel. The only reason it is fast right now, is that most Indians don’t use it. When our people start using drive throughs more, it’s gonna be the same as a toll booth like rahulananda said. After driving through all the traffic for hours, the last thing I’d want is to voluntarily get stuck in more traffic.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by GTO

Any other fans of drive-throughs on Team-BHP? Or do you prefer walking into a restaurant? I use drive-throughs on all my road-trips. If just beverages, we continue driving with our drinks in the cupholders. If anyone wants to eat, we quickly grab a bite in the parking lot or a safe scenic spot on the highway (I don't let anyone eat in my cars).

You started this thread in 2021. I am referring back to 2013-14 when I along with few friends (also BHPians) had visited Café Coffee Day's manufacturing unit in Chikmagalur where my uncle was managing the entire operations. This was the time when he would receive a hard copy of the excel sheet with new cafés getting established at the rate of 20-25 locations per month, majority of them on the highways. This was also the same era where we saw many CCDs coming up on the highways too! They had other plans too, including drive-in cafes/restaurants that I have mentioned in subsequent sections.

Few years later, CCD started their very first Lounge in Bangalore and started to serve food (Not snacks or beverages) too and wanted to expand this culture across the country.

During 2015-16, this establishment also wanted to get into the "Drive-in" café business in-line with Starbucks who they always wanted to compete with. The plan was to set-up drive in cafes that would not only serve beverages but also quick eats and they would start by tying up with fuel outlets to save on Capex and to an extent some run costs too. Sadly, this did not take off and it shall remain a dream. So, the vision was there but then things didn't really take off.

As for me, I have McD's used drive-in services, especially the one at Kolhapur on my way to Pune/Mumbai from Bangalore on many occasions. It is a huge time saver compared to parking your car and ordering at the counter. My bio breaks would normally be at COCO Fuel outlets.

At the same time, our country's driving/touring populace is different. They would prefer to still take breaks the traditional way by parking their vehicles and spend ample time at that dine-in. The concept would work only if both Dine-in and Drive-in coexist and are heavily advertised.

Now that we have an all the more stronger reason to have such places, especially due to the pandemic, we may have more takers but I would also like to share something that I have witnessed in few months since mid of last year. While opening of roads and interstate travel suddenly saw a splurge in usage of private vehicles for intercity and interstate travel, we also witnessed how most of the travelers started to bring their own food and settled under that large tree or an unused bus-stop for a break. This was a scene for 2 months and then it was all back to normal and we saw regular rush at all restaurants on the highways. This was last Sunday afternoon:

In the next 2-3 hours the number of vehicles parked would almost triple and this was the scene at most of the restaurants!!

It only meant that people cared less for the pandemic and were complacent to visit dine-in restaurants. We obviously never visit such crowded places, especially when it comes to food breaks.

In the end, I hope these drive-in restaurants become an immense success to cater to whatever limited crowd that we have today in our country who prefer to take that quick (and safe) break. For the rest, you always have the dine-ins.

[Miyata]

I have used the drive-through at McDonalds and Taco Bell - both in the US. Although I do find them very convenient, I am rather ambivalent about them:

1) Indian roads are bad enough that taking drinks in their not-so-good-quality cups is a risk I do not favor. Most of the lids on the cups have been poor fitting.

2) I prefer to stretch my legs a bit. Let the car rest a while; tyre temperatures relax a little...as I walk around the parking lot and into the restaurant.

3) I think our immunity improves with mild exposure to pathogens around. A walkabout in a not so crowded place 'might' assist that without a pathogen overload.

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by rahulananda

Having said that given the infrastructure and crazy number of cars out on the roads, whichever chain brings a drive through should properly plan and invest big time on real estate to avoid congestion at the entrance and exit of a drive through. If planned poorly, then we may have a toll plaza like situation with deadlocks and constant honking and drive through resto road rage

Exactly, the reason some solutions doesn't work in India when brought from outside is the sheer density of people and the attitude. We need a desified or a jugaad to fix this solution to address over congestion in the drive throughs. And these fast food chains are not as efficient as before in order preparation time (again due to over load). This might need a bit more planning. May be a solution already exists in few places, like order via some app/kiosk while waiting in the car queue and pick up.

Originally Posted by EightSix

On our road trips, we start early and drive non-stop for hours. So everyone needs a place to stop, use the restroom, stretch their legs around breakfast time.

With the number of cars on our highways, drive-through restaurants would be congested. If not planned properly, it would be a waste of time, a cause of pollution and wastage of your car's fuel.

People can still take a break and choose to dine in, even if there is a drive through option. And for the idli, dosa issue, it will be a compromise and there are few restaurants that deliver in non-spill form (sambar idli which looks like some sort of idli in semi solid paste). If I want to eat idli or dosa then better to stop at a proper place or adjust for a while (only due to covid) go home and sate my cravings.

[srishiva]

Never been so busy to use the drive throughs. I dont like making the car interiors smell with food. Also, walking into the restaurant gives a good break to the journey, use of restrooms and can be combined with fueling up. Makes me feel fresh. Also, south Indian dishes need one to sit down and eat
Even in US, I never used it unless I had to carry food home (no food deliveries then).

[NPV]

Drive through restaurants were a boon while I was in the US. All those all night drives mostly during weekends and holidays wouldn't have been possible without them! Advantages were that we'd save up on time spent during a break, also a safer option at some places. Drive-throughs also help when the outlet's dine-in space is crowded. The next closest option was to stop at a gas station and grab a coffee and maybe something to bite. Also, I think when driving solo, other than grabbing a drink like a coffee or some juice, this may not be very useful (not easy to manage eating on the go while driving solo). But when you have one or more co-passengers, it does help save on time.

Coming to the Indian context, firstly I wouldn't prefer to do long, all night drives except maybe on a few highways/expressways and definitely having drive-through restaurant options on those roads would help.

Also, culturally we need to learn and get adjusted to using drive-throughs (driving close to the kiosk/mic, not getting out of the car, etc) as well as our F&B industry needs to scale up to provide hassle-free services including security like cordoning off the path to ensure only vehicle users enter, technology, maybe even the type of food that's made available so that we can reduce spills and packaging complexity, etc). This will also be a great option in these Covid times.

*Oh, and yes, I hate messing up the car interiors with liquid and food spills, so good packaging is an absolute must, none of those flimsy cups and bad lids!

[paragsachania]

Again, I see that there is this obvious and oblivious assumption that those preferring such drive-in or drive-throughs do not take proper breaks to stretch their legs and move around. Sorry but that is not the case.

I would never Drive-in for my lunch or dinner. It is mostly for quick eats and beverages only.

When it comes to keeping the interiors clean, well, It totally depends on what you have ordered and common sense says better to stick to dry snacks for quick eats and properly packed beverage containers, including that coffee mug of your own that you carry.

It may also be the case that many would prefer to collect their packed food from the drive-in counter and then settle elsewhere below that tree or an unused shopping complex or even a fuel station. Those who want to eat will eat anyway and those wanting to stretch their legs will walk around to the rest room or wash basin of the fuel station to properly wash their hands and return back to car. I would use this as an opportunity to fetch water and clean my windscreen, head and tail lights peacefully(see I have stretched my hands too ) that would aid me for the rest of the journey too.

In the end, it is all about how efficiently one managed the entire trip and drive-ins do not invariably mean being locked up inside the car during the entire course of your trip!

[asit.kulkarni93]

The McDonalds close to my office has a drive thru setup and during the peak Covid times, it was pure bliss. I am really fond of “Drive Through” restaurants especially during highway trips. I had tried curb side pick up offered by Dominos during a Delhi-Pune solo trip and it was just about decent. I personally feel authentic chai shops should be drive through.

[Kosfactor]

I have used McD drive through a few times but being a frequent traveler I prefer to switch places, explore cuisine , sit comfortably and eat nicely.

We travel several hundred kms just to eat

I do make sure everyone keeps a tab on time, I do not like to waste time while traveling and since I'm the only one to keep the vehicle clean, the last thing I want is someone eating in the vehicle.

Back in April, May, Covid maybe a deterrent to visiting restaurants, but that's almost a year ago.

[ariesonu]

In a lighter vein;
For the poor lot like me the DRIVE-IN restaurants have existed even before McD came to India. The paranthas (cooked over kerosene stoves on footpaths) at IT chowk of Delhi & opposite to Chandigarh Bus Stand (Now called ISBT) were our go to places.
Ironically they only functioned in late hours and offered food spread IN the car or OVER the bonnet or truck at dirt cheap prices.

I believe even Bademiya at Colaba can also fall in same category.

I also loved that Kalamboli McD till they made its access through service road, for which you have to take left after coming down the Kamothe flyover & before Kalamboli bridge & due to traffic density, If you miss entering the service lane you better say goodbye to McD or take U turn & again come back after passing below the Kamothe FO.

Regards.

[GTO]

Shared this link with a buddy of mine and he says = If you want to pick up something quickly from a restaurant and it doesn't have a drive-through or parking (e.g busy street), simply Swiggy it to your parking spot nearby . You can do this after reaching the holding spot (10 - 12 minute wait tops) or order 10 minutes in advance before you reach the spot. He's done it several times.

Man, this is Indian Jugaad at its best !

[TrackDay]

I have used drive throughs the most whenever I am working abroad. Usually a busy day means, me having to visit clients and sites with very few time to spare. This comes as a boon in such a situation where I can save time and continue my phone calls in the car (parked) while I grab a quick bite or coffee. Also it is not rare to see a cop car in the US with officers having coffee and donuts. I do hope however drive throughs don't come up in the heart of our cities as the line could simply spill from the restaurant onto the main road.

I guess why drive throughs are not that relevant in India could be due to the lack of car penetration within the masses & I cant imagine two wheelers patiently waiting in a line. Covid times abroad saw restaurant opening only with Drive thru and folks who didn't have a car over there had to resort to some really funny measures.

However I have till date never tried drive through in India, Partially because I am never in a hurry. Second the restaurant could be the only reasonable place with a good restroom. Overall I would not advocate the whole drive through culture as it is unhealthy and unhygienic eating in a car, but sometimes due to the nature of one's work or the pandemic, drive throughs comes as a boon.