McDonald's drive thru lanes will have not one but two windows next year the Associated Press reported Thursday.
"It enables customers to pull forward to receive orders at a third window when their order is not yet ready," Lisa McComb, McDonalds spokeswoman told The Columbus Post-Dispatch in an e-mail. "It "will enable us to better serve more customers quickly."
Customers will now be able to retrieve ordered items from two pickup windows rather than just one in modern and renovated McDonald's locations.
One owner, Bob Jedele who has seven McDonald's restaurants, installed a third window to one of his location's in Greencastle, Ind., and saw an improvement with quickness through the line. He hopes to build another window at another restaurant next year.
"The slowest function is delivering the food," Jedele told The Dispatch. "With the third window, we've been able to more quickly take care of our guests."
According to a study from QSR Magazine, customers currently go through McDonald's drive thru lines in 189 seconds, a decrease from last year. This is 31 seconds slower than Taco Bell at 158 seconds. Wendy's comes in third at 134 seconds.
"We knew going into this year's Study that speed-of-service times seemed to have plateaued over the last few years, but we did not really expect to see the nearly across-the-board increases in service times that were apparent," Brian Baker, president of Insula Research told QSR Magazine. "One explanation for longer service times could be a more complex menu for operators to deal with, as many restaurants have introduced more healthy options that in some cases could take longer to prepare."
Thursday's news is the latest development since McDonald's added Mighty Wings to its menu with nine different sauces.
"The more items you have on the menu, the more challenging it is to get everything served on time and at the right temperature," Sara Senatore, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein told The Dispatch.
