Iowans Shocked By Fastest Reported Drive-Thru

What do you think the fastest and slowest drive-thrus are?

CBS News came out with a study claiming to have found the "fast-food restaurant with the slowest drive-thru." Even though they have numbers backing up their claim, I disagree with this list a bit.

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The Findings

While I don't think the list is wrong (I mean they have the numbers to back it up.) I do think it could be misleading, these numbers are the averages of your wait time...

But semantics aside, the concept was straightforward at creation—provide a counter to the carhop service consumers were familiar with. And it was billed as more convenient for guests and restaurants alike. Guests responded.

The Slowest Drive-Thru

This is just the slowest of the drive-thurs they put on record. I have some issues with this list... the numbers point to Chick-fil-A as the slowest in Iowa. I guess it makes sense since they are so popular, but they move people through so quickly. Still, you wait there the longest. According to industry publication QSR magazine's Drive-thru Report,

Chick-fil-A has the slowest drive-thru time of 10 popular restaurants, at 325 seconds, or about 5 1/2 minutes, on average. Wendy's, whose founder Dave Thomas is credited with pioneering the drive-thru concept, was also among the slowest of the restaurants surveyed at 275 seconds, or almost 5 minutes.

The Fastest Drive-Thru

Taco Bell takes the number one spot when it comes to speed. You only spend 222 seconds in the line. Personally, I think this measurement is very flawed, and anyone who has sat in a Taco Bell drive-thru Between 12 and 2 AM knows what I mean. Taco Bell isn't "super fast" they just have fewer cars. Chick-fil-A notoriously always has a constant line, but that is because they just have more people showing up. They even admit it right here,

One reason the drive-thru line at Chick-fil-A's is slower is that the restaurant tends to have a higher volume of cars in drive-thru than other fast-food chains.

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