Chipotle Opening Drive-thru Restaurants

[Alpha8472]

They are opening several in the Northern California area including the San Francisco Bay Area.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Chi ... 390348.php

[jamcool]

Isn’t the format of Crapotle picking what you want in your burrito or bowl? (And regretting it later). Will the drive thru have free Imodium tablets in each bag? (like Sonic gives free peppermints with a purchase)

[lake52]

It should be noted that you cannot order through the Chipotlane, only pickup online orders.

[Bagels]

Last year, a former Carl's Jr. in Irvine re-opened as a Chipotle and retained the drive through. As mentioned, it's for mobile order pick-ups only. The free car chargers were removed, though...

[babs]

They opened one of these before the pandemic near Beaverton, OR.

[storewanderer]

There is one of these in Reno, NV at 5th and Keystone, perhaps it is a year old now. The drive through allows order pick up but also takes orders (it took orders a few months ago at least, maybe something changed). I noticed the order taking process was very very slow, basically they had to have one employee who was just taking orders through the speaker and it was a very tedious process. Then they needed an employee to handle the people at the window or fill drinks, take payment, etc. Then there is a separate prep line for drive through and there was a third person running that prep line. There was a real bottleneck in the order taking. The other thing I was noticing the screen above the prep bar, orders kept moving around, as online orders were being commingled with drive through orders on the prep bar's prep screen and the employee multiple times got mixed up as the order they were trying to follow moved around, or disappeared (as they had too many orders to fit on the screen). I was not impressed with what I saw of this concept.

This is in addition to the normal "inside" prep line with customers lining up and picking their items.

Making the drive through for order pick up only is a great idea. Drive through for their core concept, similar to drive through for Subway, just isn't really an efficient concept. Even for concepts like KFC, Popeyes, etc., Drive Through is a bit of a pain...

[Bagels]

There is one of these in Reno, NV at 5th and Keystone, perhaps it is a year old now. The drive through allows order pick up but also takes orders (it took orders a few months ago at least, maybe something changed). I noticed the order taking process was very very slow, basically they had to have one employee who was just taking orders through the speaker and it was a very tedious process. Then they needed an employee to handle the people at the window or fill drinks, take payment, etc. Then there is a separate prep line for drive through and there was a third person running that prep line. There was a real bottleneck in the order taking. The other thing I was noticing the screen above the prep bar, orders kept moving around, as online orders were being commingled with drive through orders on the prep bar's prep screen and the employee multiple times got mixed up as the order they were trying to follow moved around, or disappeared (as they had too many orders to fit on the screen). I was not impressed with what I saw of this concept.

This is in addition to the normal "inside" prep line with customers lining up and picking their items.

Making the drive through for order pick up only is a great idea. Drive through for their core concept, similar to drive through for Subway, just isn't really an efficient concept. Even for concepts like KFC, Popeyes, etc., Drive Through is a bit of a pain...

The JITB nearest me often averages 10+ minutes per car. A local Wendy's was once open until 2AM, but if you dared go past 10PM or so, it'd take at least 20-30 minutes before they took your order, and another 30+ before you had your food. I course, both of these are likely due to lazy workers, but still, I suspect Chipotle could make a drive through work if they'd like. I've been through a few Subway drive throughs over the year and they went reasonably quickly.

That said, given the demographics of the average Chipotle customer -- white, young (under 35), childless, large discretionary income -- app ordering & waiting makes more sense.

[storewanderer]

The JITB nearest me often averages 10+ minutes per car. A local Wendy's was once open until 2AM, but if you dared go past 10PM or so, it'd take at least 20-30 minutes before they took your order, and another 30+ before you had your food. I course, both of these are likely due to lazy workers, but still, I suspect Chipotle could make a drive through work if they'd like. I've been through a few Subway drive throughs over the year and they went reasonably quickly.

That said, given the demographics of the average Chipotle customer -- white, young (under 35), childless, large discretionary income -- app ordering & waiting makes more sense.

How is it profitable for locations to operate with such slow service times? You would think the franchisee would review the sales and service times and realize either to fix the employees, or not stay open that late.

There are some McDonalds in Reno/Sparks that like to be open late and there are similar horror stories on Yelp/Google Maps about their service times at night, among other things at night.

I've used Wendys late at night and it is always very fast around Reno, as in, your food is bagged up before they finish processing your payment (and lukewarm at best). Food has definitely been sitting around for a long time. In N Out is the best bet late at night, and you can go inside for a to go order until very late (at least Midnight).

[Bagels]

How is it profitable for locations to operate with such slow service times? You would think the franchisee would review the sales and service times and realize either to fix the employees, or not stay open that late.

There are some McDonalds in Reno/Sparks that like to be open late and there are similar horror stories on Yelp/Google Maps about their service times at night, among other things at night.

I've used Wendys late at night and it is always very fast around Reno, as in, your food is bagged up before they finish processing your payment (and lukewarm at best). Food has definitely been sitting around for a long time. In N Out is the best bet late at night, and you can go inside for a to go order until very late (at least Midnight).

It's not profitable. The Wendy's use to close at 2AM, but began closing at 8PM -- and this was in 2017 (pre-pandemic). Owner probably didn't realize what was going on. Just super lazy employees IMO.

You can dine-in at In & Out until it closes at 1/1:30. Same with Raising Cane's, even at the ones that close at 4AM. In Irvine, the Carl's Jr. and McDonald's near UCI use to allow you to dine in 24 hours pre-pandemic. Been a few months since I went to that Carl's Jr., but its dining room was "closed due to COVID." Sad.