Categories: News

Restaurants are adapting their drive-thrus for a post-pandemic future

 In 2019, cities across the country started banning construction of new restaurant drive-thrus. But Covid changed all that. Now, many chains are quickly trying to improve their digital ordering capabilities—and restaurants are changing the drive-thru experience to include multiple lanes, digital app orders, and even artificial intelligence, The New York Times reported. A majority of Chipotle’s stores now have “Chipotlanes” exclusively for digital orders, which are made in a separate kitchen assembly line. Taco Bell is testing out dual lanes while Applebee’s and Shake Shack are opening their first ever drive-thrus. And if the pandemic didn’t already feel dystopian enough, half of Burger King’s drive-thrus are using digital menu boards with artificial intelligence to suggest foods that are popular, according to the area and weather. This year, the home of the Whopper will test out a new feature which will be able to identify customers in their loyalty program and propose items based on previous orders.

Related Post
The Counter and The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter and The Counter

Recent Posts

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

2 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

2 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

2 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

2 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

2 years ago

How some big grocery chains help ensure that food deserts stay barren

Last fall, first-year law student Karissa Kang arrived at Yale University and quickly set out…

2 years ago