The drive-thru has been a major source of traffic at fast-food restaurants for years. And then the pandemic made it a necessity.
After consumers were shut in their homes for weeks on end, they flocked to drive-thrus, often waiting ridiculously long times to get their meal. The result prompted a wave of innovation that had not been seen since the concept was invented.
Double drive-thrus became commonplace. Chains like Taco Bell and Chick-fil-A opened five-lane drive-thrus. Many brands opened drive-thru-only locations and an entire generation of chains grew serving beverages from such locations. Brands began deploying people with iPads to take orders, sometimes in small huts to protect them from bad weather. Electronic menu boards. AI order takers. Conveyor belts. Vertical elevator-like things. The drive-thru of 2025 looks a lot different from the drive-thru of 2019.
And if you’re looking for drive-thru real estate? Good luck with that. It’ll be as expensive as it’s ever been. If you can find any.
But a funny thing has happened on the way to the drive-thruification of America: Traffic through that channel has been falling.
Check out this graphic featuring data from my Technomic colleague Rich Shank:
These are averages across all restaurants, so it includes chains with relatively few drive-thrus (Subway) and those that are all drive-thru (Checkers).
But, in short, the percentage of restaurant traffic that is coming through the drive-thru has fallen by a third over the past four years, while in-store traffic has increased by about a quarter.
According to Revenue Management Solutions, quick-service drive-thru traffic has fallen for five straight years. That includes a decline of 5.5% in June.
To be sure, some of that decrease is a natural comedown from the pandemic. But other off-premises ordering channels have remained steady. So consumers are getting out of their cars and going into restaurants again. But they’ve kept up their use of mobile order and delivery.
None of this is to say that brands made a mistake with their drive-thru experimentation. If anything, the pandemic forced a long-needed rethink of a service option that, outside of a few double drive-thrus, has remained relatively static for decades.
But many brands shifted so dramatically toward takeout that they seemed to neglect that in-store customer, much to their detriment.
In addition, so many companies want drive-thrus now that it’s driven up the cost of such sites, which remain the most expensive restaurant real estate out there. So operators are paying higher prices to ensure they have a service that is diminishing in importance.
As brands have focused their attention on the drive-thru, fast-food chains have installed kiosks inside their restaurants and focused on mobile ordering. But Shank believes that companies may be losing out on opportunities to provide extra customer service that older customers in particular want.
“Service with a smile goes a long way,” Shank said.
This could also help explain at least some of the weak fast-food traffic right now. While Shank noted that there is clear justification for strategies like self-order kiosks, thanks to their higher average check, we don’t know how many customers don’t enjoy the experience and don’t return.
Look at the two strongest-performing fast-food burger chains right now: In-N-Out and Culver’s. Neither use kiosks. Both have a massive focus on hospitality. And they both do gangbusters business.
Then there’s Starbucks. The company removed 30,000 seats from its system coming out of the pandemic, stopped writing on cups and brought the addition of creamers behind the counter. With sales suffering, the brand is reversing much of that, believing that the key to the future is to make life better for those in-store customers, even if they represent a modest proportion of its traffic.
We’re not necessarily saying that companies abandon drive-thrus, particularly for chains like McDonald’s that still get upwards of 80% of their sales through the channel. What we are saying is that it’s a mistake to neglect the service part of the restaurant business, particularly inside. Because that’s apparently where the growth is right now.
Imagine saying that four years ago.