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Comment by raiflip | Hacker News Reader

It's crazy efficient. When you walk in someone with a tablet takes your order, and by the time you get to the cash register your food is ready. Works so well because the employees are able to catch customers at the end of the line.

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Here's "Line busting" the drive thru 68+ cars deep. It's astonishing the WiFi goes out that far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIQWyYQ0EYg

FWIW, also an edge approach, with Prometheus etc.

Slightly off-topic, but what's the reason that Americans all tend to line-up at the drive thru? I was in LA, there was a huge line at the drive thru, so we parked, went inside and got our orders really quickly.

The comfort of still being in your own space. For example, listening to your own music, no excursion for your kids to belabor, precisely don't have to park and get out.

Yeah, I think I would rather wait 10 minutes in my car than 5 minutes in line. I'm sure other people may feel differently. And something about the drive-thru still "feels" faster, even if it's not. I think it's just the idea that you get to pull out and be on your way after you've gotten your food.

At McDonald's at least the drive through is prioritised over walk ins. That said if the queue is still long it might be quicker to walk in. But inside if orders come at the same time they do the drive through order first.

I guess it also stops people from leaving. Since once you made an order you're more invested to stay and pay for it. But if you were in a long line you might get fed up and go somewhere else (or get a phonecall to do something etc).

True, but I've generally found the line moves fast even when the line is out the door. The main bottleneck in most fast food places are putting your order in at the cash register so if that's removed it speeds things up a lot.

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