Some fast food restaurants have not opened dine in (Huntsville: how much, wages)

[MisterEd51]

A couple of the fast food restaurants I go to (Burger King and KFC) have not opened their dine in areas. They are drive-through only. This particular KFC last year allowed counter pickup but now that is not allowed. Is this very common in Huntsville and Madison? Is it caused by a of labor shortage?

Note I realize that this may not be a corporate wide practice but only true for the particular franchises I frequent.

I read that nationwide some fast food operations because of a labor shortage and high wages are rethinking dine in altogether and are considering drive-through as a norm because it is more profitable. What do people here think about that?

[tn_native]

My mind goes to the $ spent idling in the drive through line. Depending on your vehicle and the wait time, you just spent $3 in gas to get food from the drive through.

[dwhisent]

I know not long ago Chik-Fil-A in Madison had to close it's indoor dining because they could not get enough workers. They have since reopened it. But I rarely go into a fast food place. Yeah, I know I use gas, but I'm lazy. If it is moving too slow I'll turn off the engine (a lot of cars do that automatically).

[GreggT]

Generally speaking, having a drive through only pretty much means "labor shortage". A lot of money was spent to provide dine in services just to go to waste so obviously dining services were meant to be.
My experience is Drive though services only now, is limited to certain Franchise owners who seem to have issues attracting and keeping employees. Others seem to be doing pretty well offering full service and you pretty much see the same faces every time you go.
If I was the company granting the franchise, I would make it mandatory in order to keep the franchise, you must stay open. What I have seen is A fast food place that has trouble staffing, has other issues in terms of quality of both food and service. Places like this give a company a bad name and after a bad experience at one location it bleeds off into others.

[dijkstra]

I rarely ever go to fast food places anymore. I do know one of the KFC locations was drive through only because they did not have enough help to run the dining room from what I was told. It appears to be mostly isolated to particular franchise owners now though so it pretty much tells you which ones aren't good at managing and retaining employees. There are workers out there but they have options and if you are a bad employer, they will move on.

I get that drive thru's are more profitable and easier to manage for fast food restaurants but I have never used them much. I typically go in, order my food and use the restroom while my food is being prepared. More or less utilizing my time efficiently and also not burning gas in a drive thru. I have often wondered with all the environmental, global warming talk going on, why they haven't banned drive thru's. Can you imagine how much gasoline is burned every day by cars idling in drive thru's?

[Southern man]

Originally Posted by dwhisent

I know not long ago Chik-Fil-A in Madison had to close it's indoor dining because they could not get enough workers. They have since reopened it. But I rarely go into a fast food place. Yeah, I know I use gas, but I'm lazy. If it is moving too slow I'll turn off the engine (a lot of cars do that automatically).

I toured the CFA headquarters 5 years ago in Atlanta and they did a presentation on their business model. I was surprised when the host said 60% of their business was drive thru and they were constantly working to improve that number. During the height of the covid shutdown their drive thru business was 100%. I really didn’t think they would reopen the dining rooms.

[MisterEd51]

Back in 2019 I thought it strange when I first read about Chik-Fil-A opening a drive-through only franchise on Governors Drive. It was good luck that they opened it in April 2020 just when COVID-19 was forcing other fast food restaurants to operate the same way. It is not unusual for the opening date of a new restaurant to slip. I bet Chik-Fil-A pushed the grand opening of the Governors Drive franchise to open as scheduled to take advantage of the situation.