How long should I wait at a drive-thru?

It’s a catch 22, it should never take more than a few minutes or so because as previously mentioned: it’s fast food. If you have to wait excessively long it’s unacceptable. Mistakes happen, yes this is true, but still the general consensus is that the drive thru should be minutes, not an hour.

What is the average wait time for fast-food?

The study found drive-thru customers waited an average of six minutes, 22 seconds. Last year, it was five minutes, 57 seconds. The research involved nearly 1,500 drive-thru visits between July and August 2021 to 10 major fast-food brands including McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A and Dunkin’.

How long is the average wait time for Chick-Fil-A?

Chick-fil-A’s drive-thru wait times are getting longer. In 2019, the average speed was 322.98 seconds, just over five minutes, and in 2020 the wait was 488.8 seconds, about eight minutes.

How long does it take to get through a mcdonalds drive through?

McDonald’s drive-thru times average about 284 seconds, but its vehicles in line are among the highest, second to Chick-fil-A. About 9\% of McDonald’s drive-thrus have six or more cars, and over one third have three to five.

Why do people wait in drive-thrus?

They are undermining their drive-thru time. The drive-thru time averages the amount of time it takes each car to go through their drive-thru. They are pressured to keep it under a certain time, which makes them stay alert and make sure items are stocked and ready.

Why is fast food getting slower?

Waits have steadily increased over the last few years, from 234 seconds in 2018, to 327 seconds in 2019 and 356.8 in 2020, resulting in this year’s relatively long waits. One possible explanation for growing waits is the labor shortage crushing the entire retail industry .

How fast is mcdonalds?

The 2018 Drive-Thru Study: Speed of Service

chain	average time in seconds
KFC	218.95
McDonald’s	273.29
Taco Bell	236.50
Wendy’s	226.07

Who has the slowest fast food drive-thru?

Chick-fil-A
The 2020 SeeLevel HX Annual Drive-Thru Study has Chick-fil-A in first place among 10 popular fast-food chains. It received a first-place ranking in accuracy, customer service, and taste. Of the 10, however, Chick-fil-A had the slowest drive-thru, with an average time of 488.8 seconds, or just over eight minutes.

What is the slowest fast food?

Still, Chick-fil-A remains by far the slowest. The next slowest drive-thru, Arby’s, is over a minute and a half quicker, and the quickest, KFC, is almost twice as fast.

What time is Chick-fil-A least busy?

In fact, noon to 1 p.m. is the most popular hour of the day for nearly every Chick-fil-A restaurant. For anyone wondering, dinner, which falls between 5 and 7 p.m., is the second busiest time of day in every part of the country except the South, where Chick-fil-A customers prefer breakfast during the morning rush hour.

Is it faster to go through the drive-thru?

During quiet hours, we have strong evidence suggesting the drive thru is faster. We can also make the conclusion from our observational study that drive through and walking in times are not significantly different during busy hours.

Why does Mcdonalds drive-thru take so long?

There are a couple of reasons the ones you go to are slow. They don’t have enough employees. This happens often due to managers messing up scheduling. It’s hard to get a line moving when you only have 2 people in front, one in drive thru and 2 in kitchen.

What is the average wait time for a drive thru?

Last year’s study indicated that the average drive-thru wait time hit 181 seconds, up from 173 seconds the year before. According to the new study—an expanded version that incorporated 23 quick-serve restaurant brands, up from just seven in 2013—the average wait time reached a record high of 203 seconds.

What’s the best time of day to go to the drive-thru?

Overall, the optimal time of day to hit the drive-thru is the mid-afternoon “snack” period, when wait times average 173 seconds—and when, per the QSR survey, 33\% of customers rate the service as “very friendly,” the highest percentage of any order time. The first drive-thru opened in 1947 (and it wasn’t a McDonald’s).

Are You spending more time waiting at fast food drive-thrus?

It’s not your imagination: You are spending more time waiting at fast food drive-thrus. Customers spent 20 seconds more time on average waiting for food in a drive-thru line in 2019, according to a performance study from restaurant trade publication QSR Magazine .

Which fast food chain has the longest drive-thru wait time?

Chick-fil-A had the longest wait time at 323 seconds because the restaurant is so busy, he says. To make service more efficient, Chick-fil-A sends employees out into the parking lot with tablets to take orders and payments while customers wait in their cars, he says. Major fast food chains see about 70\% of business in the drive-thru, he says.