Chick-fil-A is ready to introduce an progressive restaurant design at its Atlanta and Latest York City locations in the approaching 12 months that features a four-lane drive-thru positioned beneath the kitchen, a move geared toward enhancing efficiency in response to the chain’s already bustling drive-thru order lanes.
“By constructing the kitchen above the drive-thru lanes, meals are expedited to the Team Member who delivers the order on to the shopper in an area protected by the upper level, so hospitality won’t be sacrificed for speed of service,” a Chick-fil-A news release on July 27 reads.
“No matter how you select to order your meal, the restaurant design is made to raise and speed up the experience but keep the human interaction at its core.”
The four-lane drive-thru concept has the capability to accommodate as much as 75 vehicles, the corporate said.
The elevated structure also offers the advantage of a kitchen with double the capability of typical outlets.
Patrons can conveniently place orders prematurely using the mobile app or go for the normal approach of ordering from an worker upon approaching the drive-thru lane.
“Digital orders make up greater than half of total sales in some markets — and growing — so we all know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” Khalilah Cooper, executive director, restaurant design, said within the news release.
With an estimated 200,000 drive-thrus dotting the country, congestion from long drive-thru lines cause more traffic in highly populated cities, like in Latest York and Atlanta.
Dedicated mobile lanes for walk-up service only can be rolled out to funnel foot traffic on the Latest York location first.
The locations will use a sophisticated food delivery system involving an elevated conveyor belt equipped with channels on its sides.
This setup will transport their renowned chicken sandwiches on to staff members positioned at the bottom level.
“We would like to leverage technology to raise the human touch points in our restaurants,” Cooper said. “These recent digital formats make the shopper and Team Member experience more seamless, and due to this fact more memorable, and provides back precious time to attach with one another.”