The Wichita drive-through lane that will add minutes to your life, not suck them away
Few things in life are more frustrating than a fast food drive-through line that Just. Doesn’t. Move.
You’re hungry. You’re in a hurry, obviously, or you would have just walked inside. But something’s wrong several cars ahead, and things are at a standstill. You couldn’t escape even if you wanted to because you’re pinned by cars ahead of and behind you, and the driver of the one behind you is already angry because she and her middle finger believe you cut her off in the confusing “double drive thru” set up.
It’s hours and hours and hours of your life you will never get back.
But recently, I’ve become intrigued by a drive-through in Wichita that proves things just don’t have to be that way.
My teen daughter has become a tad obsessed with Chick-fil-A and craves it ferociously and frequently. She often persuades me to take her through the drive-through, especially when she’s overcome by after-school hunger pangs. And I’m frequently mortified by how long the drive-through line appears to be and how little time I have to get through it.
But I’m just as frequently shocked by how quickly that drive-through moves. Sometimes, it almost feels like we sail right through it without even stopping.
How do they do it? I checked in with Jason Lansdown, the owner of the Wichita Chick-fil-A stores at Maple and Ridge (the one we frequent) and at 21st and Maize.
He utilizes Chick-fil-A’s signature “face-to-face ordering” system, a revolutionary invention that seems to operate like a finely choreographed ballet performance and is also utilized at the Chick-fil-A at Central and Rock.
Here’s how it works:
The restaurant schedules between five and seven people to work outside during the restaurants’ peak hours. In my experience, it’s usually a crew of fast-moving, friendly teens.
At least two are holding iPad-like tablets and are assigned to the two lanes of the double drive-through. Each of the tablets has a simplified Chick-fil-A menu attached where the customer can see it.
These two hustle through the line of cars, taking orders in person right at the car windows. They can punch up the orders on their tablets and even accept payment right there. Once the order is processed, the worker tells you which car to follow as you move toward the window. Then they hustle on to the next car. Sometimes, they can get pretty deep into a pretty long line.
As you get closer to the pick-up window, you’ll find another set of outside workers. These are hustling bags of food back to the cars in the line, and they’re usually full-out running. When the system works just right, they have orders delivered to the first several cars in the line so that everyone just files out of the drive-through and doesn’t even stop at the window. It’s a thing of beauty!
Of course, it doesn’t always work just right. Sometimes, there’s a delay on an order five cars in front of you, so even though you and the second, third and fourth cars at the front of the line already have your food, you’re stuck waiting for the car in the front to be taken care of.
But often, you’ll find yourself sliding out like magic, wondering why every fast food restaurant doesn’t employ this revolutionary system.
Lansdown said his restaurants don’t use the system all the time — usually just at their peak hours. Otherwise, the drive-throughs operate like any other, using a speaker system.
He also doesn’t use face-to-face ordering when the weather is nasty. If the heat index or windchill are too extreme, he’ll bring people inside, and many of Chick-fil-A’s drive-throughs, including his, are built with air-conditioned canopies and provide military-spec cooling vests and moisture-wicking uniforms for summer and thermal clothing for winter.
The face-to-face system was invented by franchisees and then refined at Chick-fil-A corporate, and the whole process and philosophy is explained in detail on the restaurant’s website.
Each Chick-fil-A is individually owned and operated, Lansdown said, so it’s up to the individual owner whether to use face-to-face ordering. All three of Wichita’s do, though Central and Rock and 21st and Maize, both of which opened in 2012, were retrofitted with the canopies after they opened. Only Maple and Ridge, which opened in August 2018, was built with one.
Lansdown said his customers seem to love the system, and so does he.
“We believe it allows us to personally connect face-to-face with our drive-through guests and also creates a more streamlined experience,” he said.
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 5:01 AM.
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