I opened up the Los Angeles Times today and found this story about the In 'n' Out fast food chain causing problems because its drive-through windows are too popular.
The drive-through windows are causing traffic nightmares for adjoining businesses, as well as for traffic control in their local neighborhoods, as cars wait on the streets to enter the parking lot and the drive-through line. Partly to relieve this problem, the corporate office in Irvine is trying to open more restaurants to relieve the overcrowding.
If you're not from greater Los Angeles or Southern California and don't know about In 'n' Out, it's a restaurant chain with burgers, french fries, and milkshakes like McDonald's or Burger King, but they use high-quality ingredients, customize your order, and own all their locations (no franchises). As a result, a lot of people think of their famous Double Double hamburgers not as fast-food but almost as gourmet. I've read that a lot of people in the entertainment industry love In 'n' Out religiously, and I've had a former work colleague from East Asia claim that it was the only really worthwhile restaurant food he had found in Los Angeles.
My wife really loves the hamburgers, so we probably go once a month or so. The restaurants that have drive-through seem to always have lines running around the parking lot, though they have people with walkie-talkies and clipboards to take your order before you get to the window to speed the process.
But because the food is not made in advance, the drive-through option doesn't take much less time than parking your car, going inside, ordering, and getting your food. I can appreciate that patrons with kids sleeping or watching videos in the car, or disabled patrons would rather wait in their vehicles.
But I don't think that accounts for most of the people in the drive-through. As a person who enjoys using public transit whenever possible, I just can't understand why most people aren't willing to walk a few yards and go inside to eat. Maybe it's the car culture of Los Angeles, where people would rather drive three blocks to go to the gym (as long as the parking is convenient) to workout on a treadmill or stair-climbing machine. And don't ever mention to your work colleagues or social group that you took the bus somewhere.
