"Pull forward please." What? Why?

Here's the deal, go to a fast food drive through. Order some grub. Pull up to the window. Pay your money, get your drink. Attendant asks you to pull forward, "We'll bring your stuff out."

This happens because they don't want to hold up the people behind you, and they don't want their counters to say somebody was at the window for 5 minutes while your french fries are cooking. I am sometimes happy about this, cause I get some nice hot fries. But lately it has come to my attention that this whole pull forward business is a bit ridiculous.

First off the drive thru is designed and built to be all about speed. If your fries aren't ready then that's a problem with the kitchen. They need to have some fries ready to go. Everything needs to be ready to go, so that all you do is throw it into a bag and wallah. This is the reason they have a counter inside, so that they are accountable for how many cars can get through the line during lunch.

Secondly if there is something slow in the kitchen, odds are the person behind me is going to have to wait too. So what are we solving here by moving somebody forward? So they can get another order in the system so that it can clog up even more?! That sounds ridiculous.

And lastly you're slowing things down even further when your attendants have to run ten orders out to the cars piled up in the lot. They are taking time to do run around, as opposed to simply waiting and handing things out that nice, little, bullet-proof window. Again, drive thru is designed to use that little window.

The point of the counter is to demonstrate to management how efficient their drive thru's are. By making you pull forward they are cheating their timers. They are cheating their jobs, making it look like they had a run of people go though 30 secs a piece when in actuality you had five very irritated people waiting in the parking lot for their food. That is not representing the effieciency of the drive thru at all. It is cheating. Pure out and out cheating, and the customer never knows it is happening.

This whole thing started a few weeks ago in San Diego. We went to Wendy's, three orders of spicy chicken sandwiches. We paid, got our drinks and were asked to pull forward. Pulled thru the drive, and because of the design of the drive thru, no car that was behind me could get out unless I pulled out of the drive thru. So I pulled out and was going to park, only this Wendy's sat in the middle of a huge shopping center. There wasn't a single parking spot, and about 15 cars trying to find one. So I pulled around and parked behind the handicapped spot, cause I figured they would be quick.

The guy who was behind me in the line of cars, came out of the thru shortly after I did, and he had been asked the same thing. So he circled around and parked behind me. At this point I am beginning to think this whole idea of pulling forward is a bit flawed. And the three of us were getting very irate. Then the handicapped people came out of the Wendy's and wanted to leave, so I had to move back, causing the guy behind me to move back as well, causing a traffic jam in the parking lot.

Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, and after the handicapped party had left, our food came out. But I had to signal the attendant as to where I was parked (God forbid they should keep track of me and my order, again, what a drive thru is designed for). She came over and I told her what we ordered and she handed us the sack of Wendy's goodness.

The funny thing is, not a single car came out of the drive thru after the guy behind me did. So what on Earth is the point of this whole thing? Nobody got out of there any earlier than I did, because everybody was waiting for the same thing. So this whole idea of pulling forward to keep the line moving is a bit retarded in my opinion.

And then to top off this whole story, we were again getting food at a Wendy's this past weekend. And you know what, they asked me to pull forward. Here's the hysterical part, there was nobody behind me. And as I pulled forward and waited for them to bring out my food, nobody EVER came in line behind me. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS?!?!?! ARRRGHHH!!!

Maybe it's just Wendy's. Jack in the box does this also, but at least they have parking spots reserved for drive thru. I think next time somebody asks me to pull forward, I will just say "No thanks, I can wait here." I will let their counters get screwed up, because it will accurately show that they are lacking at service.

And if you want it to get any scarier, apparently this an arrestable offense in Florida. An elderly lady refused to pull forward and the cops arrested her. Read it here.

Sphere: Related Content