To Fast Food Dine, or Not to Fast Food Dine?

Time for my third blog! As I begun thinking about this assignment, I wanted to capture an experience I thought was very creative, yet an experience we all seem to think very simple and take advantage for. Sometimes the experience we are surrounded by on a day-to-day basis, what we perceive to be ordinary is the most innovative and unique experience. The experience I am specifically referring to is the infamous “fast food dining” experience.
A few factors drew my attention to this specific experience. In fact, after brainstorming all the attention-getters, I was drawn suddenly to better understand the ultimate consumer experience with various fast food joints. That said I am considering using this as my topic of interest for our individual research paper assignment for the class. As I was saying, the diversity of several fast food restaurants contributed to one of the few factors that captured my curiosity about this unique consume dining experience. Thanks to our research & development and marketing team, these individuals have created an experience from going through a “drive-thru” to parking one’s car and enjoying a fast snack in the car. A few examples I wanted to touch on were McDonalds, Sonic, and Pizza Hut. These three examples provide a very individual and unique experience from one another. They provide the consumer with a different feeling and opinion through their own methods.
To begin with, McDonalds’ presents a straightforward “drive-thru” experience. This method is broken down into three main segments. Segment one, the consumer drives through a small road, entering this ultimately time-savor experience. When they first enter, the individual encounters a full menu of the restaurant, where a speaker box lays allowing the consumer to communicate (however, not always effectively) their order to the restaurant employee. From there they proceed to the second window, where they pay for their order. Finally, in the third window they receive their meal and request any other condiments or drinks. This whole process typically occurs within 5-10 min max. Hence, the beauty of this creative model. As civilians, we tend to perform actions that are most efficient, but allow us to save a generous amount of time (allocating the free time to other projects). To be able to receive a full-filling main meal, dessert, and a beverage all within 5 minutes is a phenomenal concept to me. On the other hand, to cook a well three-course dinner at home will take individuals over an hour to prepare and make, costing them a fortune as well.
Furthermore, Sonic’s drive-thru experience differs slightly from McDonalds. Sonic creates a stationary experience, allowing the individual to park their car and order from one of many several stationary speaker boxes. Once ordered, a restaurant employee comes out (occasionally in roller-blades) and personally delivers the person’s meal. This experience delivers similar results to McDonalds. The consumer is able to save their time and money.
Lastly, Pizza Hut offers yet another unique “fast-food dining” experience. This type of experience allows consumers to enjoy the whole experience right from their own home, never leaving the couch (except of course to receive the pizza from the deliver and pay for it). There are steps, the first being ordering the meal over the phone and the final step is to receive the meal at one’s door while paying for the meal.
All three experiences are very different from one another and provide the consumer with a unique experience; however, they all provide similar benefits: time efficiency, money saver and a full-stomach. I believe research analysts took advantage of one important element-technology. As discussed in the article “The New, Faster Face of Innovation,” technology has been improving significantly every decade. Given the ever-changing technology, researchers developed a concept that would also allow companies to mass-produce and to become used daily in our lives all over the globe. This idea ultimately revolutionized a consumer’s lifestyle, pushing more people to focus on their career and delay starting a family. This creative idea has now become a necessity and part of our daily lives; we seem to take advantage of how creative and innovative this concept really is.
I believe the concept and opportunity to order a meal all within 10 minutes and taking another 5 minutes to gobble it down mesmerizes me.