Do you recall the first time you heard of a drive-thru restaurant? Did you think it would catch on? Slate has the history and an update:
It's not clear who built the first drive-through restaurant (although In-N-Out trumpets that it used the first speaker system in 1948). But the drive-through's central place in mainstream culture is actually rather new: McDonald's didn't open its first drive-through window until 1975, in Sierra Vista, Ariz., home to a nearby Army base. (One bit of lore alleges the drive-through was created so soldiers could order food without being seen in their fatigues.) Now, however, drive-throughs account for some 65 percent of McDonald's U.S. sales—a stunning demonstration of the radical shift in traffic culture, and increase in driving, since the early 1970s. The window has become so crucial that McDonald's actually demolished an outpost that was slated for renovation in San Luis Obispo, Calif., after the city upheld its ban on drive-throughs. (A company spokesman said, "We can't build a million-dollar McDonald's and not have a drive thru. We just can't do it.")
2 comments:
The key to success with drive-thru food is two-fold:
=>One hand can hold it while the other one drives and
=>No drips and crumbs messing up your clothes.
Of course prices, quality, temperature and all that are important, but if it takes both hands to eat or stains your clean shirt, nothing else matters.
And one of the most dangerous food treatments is that damn little piece of tape they sometimes put on the donut box. I almost had a wreck one time trying to open the box to get a fresh donut with one hand while driving with the other. (After that I learned to open the box before leaving the lot.)
And people think cell phones are dangerous!
John,
That piece of tape on the donut box story would be priceless in court!
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