We hear that In-N-Out is a very popular burger-slinging establishment. We’ll take its fans at their word, because we don’t believe in leaving the East Coast. What we do know is that the combination of tasty burgers and car culture leads to such long drive-thru lines that you can see them from space. [More]
drive thru
Starbucks Pay-It-Forward Chain Continues For 1,468 Customers
By 12.30.13
We were impressed when we learned that 450 Starbucks customers in Connecticut paid for the order of the next person in line in a multiple-day chain of generosity. Today, we learned that the chain ultimately continued for a thousand more drive-thru customers, spanning a few days after Christmas. [More]
450 Starbucks Drive-Thru Patrons Pay For The Next Customer’s Order
By 12.26.13
At a Starbucks in Connecticut, almost 450 drive-thru customers set off a chain reaction of caffeine and generosity over Christmas. A mysterious customer started the chain early on Tuesday, and it kept going until this morning. The store opened with $45 in the pay-it-forward fund this morning. [More]
McDonald’s Customers Order Breakfast, Get Sack Of Cash Instead
By 12.4.13
After all those times you’ve gotten home and realized that you got the wrong or incomplete order from the fast food drive-thru, it’s always a minor triumph when you find out you accidentally received an extra order of fries, or even an additional dipping sauce or two. But what if that happy accident wasn’t extra food, but thousands of dollars in cash? [More]
McDonald’s Adding A Third Window To Drive-Thru To Push Orders Through Faster
By 11.15.13
McDonald’s reputation as the slow, lumbering fast food dinosaur who’s nowhere near the lead in the drive-thru race is apparently bothering it enough to redesign its ordering system. Instead of the usual two windows — one for ordering, one for pick-up — there will now be a third window to send cars to if their orders are clogging up the works. [More]
Drive-Thru Prank Proves Skeletons Can Still Make Adults Shriek Like Scared Little Kids
By 10.2.13 — Updated: 8.4.15
The drive-thru lane is no stranger to pranks — from Batman stealing customers’ grub to pranksters hacking into the system to scream obscenities at customers — but this particular brand of joke is pretty darn good. Mostly because it makes grown adults disintegrate into shrieking, terrified little children. [More]
Man Asleep In McDonald’s Drive-Thru Lane Probably Just Didn’t Want To Miss Breakfast
By 8.15.13
Any night owl knows what a challenge it can be staying up late doing this that and the other thing, only to awaken at 10:27 the next morning craving McDonald’s breakfast. It’s a mad dash to the drive-thru at that point, a hectic ordeal we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy. Maybe that’s why a guy was found slumbering sweetly in the Mickey D’s drive-thru lane — perhaps he was just getting in line for breakfast so as not to miss it? [More]
Don’t Block The McDonald’s Drive-Thru Just Because You Can’t Get Free Breakfast
By 7.16.13
We understand that it can be annoying when you have a craving for a certain fast food item, only to realize it isn’t available because of time constraints. But police say an intoxicated woman took that a few steps too far by blocking the McDonald’s drive-thru early Sunday morning in her quest for Big Macs, or at least, a free breakfast. [More]
Have We Reached A Saturation Point On Drive-Thrus?
By 8.16.12
Depending on where you live, you can get anything from food to cash to drugs (prescription) to liquor and porn via a drive-thru window. But is it possible that we may be experiencing diminishing returns on these supposedly convenient services? [More]
Escaped Cow Visits McDonald's Drive-Thru, Ponders Circle Of Life
By 5.7.12
If you’re an attentive reader of this site, you know that people are always bringing inappropriate things to fast-food drive-thrus, hoping to get served. Mobility scooters. Snakes. Even pedestrians have tried and failed to acquire food. But when Darcy wandered up to the drive-thru window at a Colorado McDonald’s on foot, employees didn’t just wearily tell her to go inside the restaurant to order like all of the other pedestrians. That’s because Darcy is a dairy cow. [More]
How Can The Fast Food Drive-Thru Be Improved?
By 10.20.11
From busted speakers to hard-to-read menus, the fast-food drive-thru lane has long been a staple of both comedy and consumer complaints. But now in the age of mobile payments and LED signage, some eateries are trying to improve that image. [More]
The Drive-Thru Flu Shot
By 9.30.11
In a continuing trend, health care professionals are once again this year offering drive-thru flu vaccines. Oh, you hadn’t heard? Yep, you can drive right up, stick out your arm, and get a flu shot, all without ever having to leave your car. [More]
Are Drive-Thru Adult Stores The Wave Of The Future?
By 12.30.10
Like it or not, adult videos and sexual aids are a multi-billion dollar business. And while many who purchase these items are more than happy to do so over the internet, some still like the immediate satisfaction of picking up their x-rated goods at the local adult emporium. One such store in Alabama has found a way to make those customers happy without them ever having to leave their cars. [More]
Burger King Tells Me To Pull Into Handicapped Parking Spot So It Can Cheat Drive-Thru Timer
By 9.13.10
You’re at a drive-thru, you’ve already paid and are stuck in line waiting for your food. You’re at the mercy of an employee who may ask you to pull off to the side so the restaurant can cheat the timer so Corporate continues to think service is quick. But what do you do when the employee tells you to pull into a handicapped spot? [More]
Why Does My Starbucks No Longer Advertise 'Tall' Coffees?
By 9.1.10
For those who haven’t been schooled in the Starbucks lexicon, a “Tall” coffee is actually a small, with “Grande” and “Venti” signifying medium and large respectively. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can deal with the Starbucks in Durham, NC, which apparently still sells Tall beverages — though you wouldn’t know that from its drive-thru menu. [More]
"Open 23 Hours, 39 Minutes" Doesn't Make A Very Catchy McDonald's Sign
By 8.18.10
Gregory writes that he made a trip to a 24-hour McDonald’s after 4 AM because, well, it was a 24-hour McDonald’s and would ostensibly be open. This particular McDonald’s apparently shut down between 4:00 and 4:30, simultaneously ignoring the concepts of “open 24 hours” and “fast food.” [More]
Burger King Drive-Thru Guys Make Us Pull Off To The Side To Cheat Timer
By 7.20.10
Jenn patronizes what is possibly one of the fastest Burger King drive-thrus on record. That doesn’t mean the fast food joint serves customers food quickly. She says its workers game the drive-thru timer system by asking people to pull off to the side after they order and wait to be served. [More]
Man Robs McDonald's Drive-Thru With Beer Bottle
By 3.15.10
As the world grows more and more technologically savvy, thieves continue to have success with old-fashioned methods. First there was the guy who robbed a Walmart with their own crowbar and now comes report of a man who not only managed to burgle a McDonald’s through the drive-thru window, but who did it with a broken beer bottle. [More]
