Drive-Through or Drive-Moo?


Drive-throughs are perennial whipping boys for my ire (along with escalators). Today I walked Leora to school and decided to stop at Tim Horton's for a coffee. Being "time delighted" (as opposed to time obsessed), I ran some tests. I Spotted 13 droids in total. 3 on till, 5 on coffee/sandwiches, 1 on tables/cleaning, 2 in kitchen, 1 passing out advertising for a new product, 1 manager. The manager told me that Friday and Saturday are busier and the staff may be as many as 15!

Time trials: indoor line-up vs drive-through with the time penalty for driving displayed at the right.

The most bearded James... Ever!*
3:30-6:04   -2:34
3:52-8:44   -4:52
0:50-6:32   -5:42
2:55-7:10   -4:15
4:55-8:31   -3:36
6:10-5:50* +0:20
7:12-6:51* +0:21
2:00-6:51   -4:51
1:30-6:15   -4:45
0:38-5:31   -4:53
1:01-7:44   -6:45

Notes:

Trials run 8:45-10am Wednesday, Nov. 2nd

Location: Cumberland and 8th. They have just widened the drive-through to 2 lanes (wish I had timed before and after the construction).

There were several 5 min. Stretches where you could walk in and get immediate service (between 9:30 and 10am).

There were never less than 8 cars in the drive-through.

In a bitter turn of events, my 2nd coffee was one of the 2 timed events in which a car beat a person :( My coffee droid apologized profusely for getting my order wrong and serving the people after me in line 1st! I told her she could pay me back by taking a deep breath and trying to relax. I've never seen anyone scramble so fast to get a new pot of coffee on. Well maybe a Quester on his 70th hour of a final exam study blitz :)

*For the record, James was not there. It's an old photo. I wanted to have some picture at Tim's and I neglected to take any this morning. Nor did I have that chocolate doughnut a mere 2 days after Halloween. What do you take me for?
Location: 1215-1217 Cumberland Ave S, Saskatoon, SK S7H 2L7, Canada

Comments

rainswept said…
Drive-through coffee is the bane of the city, whether it's terrific Tim's or shameful Starbucks.

At least McDonald's has some clue about how much space a Drive-thru requires to avoid messing up street traffic.

And your analysis now proves it isn't just a nuisance... it's also flypaper that catches fools :)
4:51 pm
and then the_doctor said…
Interesting, I often suspected that staff prioritized drive through traffic. Drive-past costumers don't mess up tables or floors or bathrooms so the profit margin is higher on that segment hence: I assumed they made that a prefered vector.

And now I know different.
ps since the photographic record of this experiment is fake, I'm left wondering about the claim of most bearded James ever. Doubt consumes me!
2:26 pm
captainorange said…
Well, I think drive through is prioritized as much as they can. There was one drive through pay window and two inside tills. If you factor that, it is more efficient from the business perspective, just not from the consumer end.
2:28 pm
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