Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Twin Cities Suburbs
Mdcastle
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby Mdcastle » February 19th, 2021, 7:04 pm

Drive Thru and Take-Out only Taco Bell proposed at 90th and Zane

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https://www.brooklynpark.org/wp-content ... Packet.pdf

COVID seems to be accelerating a trend that's started already in quick serve restaurants, even more away from dining rooms and towards drive-thrus than has been done already. Taco Bell does more of it's business indoors than other QSRs, and unlike others they've opened their dining room when allowed. But still they're proposing a new design with no dining room at all, a kitchen on top of a quadruple drive through, with one lane for conventional ordering and payment and three lanes for app pickups. You'll pull into the parking lot and park, check in, and then be directed to drive to one of three lanes. Unlike the Mankato Dunkin', there will be a very small lobby and counter for walk up orders.

Drive thrus and grocery pickup / delivery are already probably by far the safest methods of getting food in a pandemic, and here the app lanes will apparently deliver food down to the vehicle level via dumbwaiter, completely eliminating dangerous person to person contact. I used to go to Chipotle fairly regularly, but now there's no way I can get a burrito without taking a physical risk by entering the store (they don't deliver to my address), so I don't. Newer locations are building "Chipotlane" drive-thrus for app pickups, the company announced that going forward 70% of new locations would have them.

The pandemic will end sometime, but it's woken QSRs up to how expendable their dining room is relative to the space it takes, the work to keep it clean, and creating a hazard making their employees sick whether COVID or the flu or something else. They're probably thinking their could be another pandemic during the life of the structure, and that people may not immediately or never revert to old habits. I've gone to online grocery pickup rather than risk my life entering a grocery store, and I'm never going back to in-person grocery shopping again.

DanPatchToget
Wells Fargo Center
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Joined: March 30th, 2016, 1:26 pm

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby DanPatchToget » February 19th, 2021, 7:41 pm

1) The pandemic won't be forever.

2) All people need to do is wear a mask, social distance, and try to go to places at off-peak times. Do that and it's less likely for the virus to spread.

3) Not everyone has the money to get food delivered, and for some people (like me) it's just simpler to order food to an actual human rather than dealing with apps. And this is coming from a millennial.

4) We shouldn't be encouraging people to drive more. At least this will have a lobby for walk-up orders, but it's still catering more to cars.

5) Some people prefer eating inside rather than driving/walking/biking back home or where ever before eating. If I'm with friends we eat at the place we're getting food from, not sitting in our cars and then eating.

Seems like people will be using the pandemic as an excuse to cater to motorists even more than we already do, and this Taco Bell is a case in point.

Mdcastle
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1209
Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 8:28 am
Location: Bloomington, MN

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby Mdcastle » February 19th, 2021, 9:51 pm

No, the pandemic won't last forever, and I noted as such in my post. But companies don't want to be caught unprepared with buildings that have no provisions for contactless pickup in case we have another one. And as I noted a lot of people are going to stick with habits they learned.

"Less likely for the virus to spread" is a lot different from "effectively impossible for the virus to spread" like is the case with contactless or contract light options. Obviously some people are willing engage in risky behavior, but personally I'm not going into a public building until I'm vaccinated or have a N95 grade mask.

Point taken about some people like to eat inside, but probably not all Taco Bells will be diningroom-less; Burger King has two new prototypes and one maintains a small dining room. And I was under the impression places like Panera and Chipotle are a lot more fun to eat in at nowadays than fast food.

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Tiller
Foshay Tower
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Joined: January 17th, 2015, 11:58 am

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby Tiller » February 25th, 2021, 2:24 pm

From what I've seen, busy Chipotles have very little social distancing. The buildings just aren't built for it. It's worse for the workers stuck next to eachother in an assembly line, though it's not the best all-around.

uptownbro
Rice Park
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Joined: February 10th, 2020, 11:00 pm

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby uptownbro » February 25th, 2021, 2:36 pm

I think people will like it and will even be nice for family's on a road trip to pre order there as well as others who really like contactless. Look at even prior to 2020 how popular targets curb side pick up was.
Risky behavior is truly up to ones own views. Some view walking around a lake without a mask as very risky where others have no worries going to a gym with a mask on.
I truly dont think we will expect to see every business change to this but rather a few all over as an option like this, especially along the major highways

Mdcastle
Wells Fargo Center
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Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 8:28 am
Location: Bloomington, MN

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby Mdcastle » June 11th, 2022, 7:45 am

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So yeah, a Taco Bell opening made national news. I was there at 2:00 on a Tuesday, and it was still busy with people outside directing traffic. I have a feeling there's a lot of people just coming down to check it out once, but for now I saw a leaked document on Reddit and the business this place is doing is insane, they were filling an order every 30 seconds for several hours around the lunch and dinner rushes. Reading the articles, the franchisee is happy enough that they want to build a second one, probably to replace one of the existing locations, and the percentage of customers using the drive through went up from 65% to 90% during the pandemic, and shows no signs of going down much.

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Tiller
Foshay Tower
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Joined: January 17th, 2015, 11:58 am

Re: Brooklyn Park - General Topics

Postby Tiller » June 12th, 2022, 4:04 am

Any locations built like this that stay open late will get crazy business. It's crazy how few restaurants and fast food stay open late now after covid19 reduced hours everywhere. Those places that do get completely swamped by cars, and super long lines. Even as early as 11pm lines appear that don't dissapate.

You'd think more places would take advantage of those potential customers. But they probably can't find enough workers to put up with the shit show at the pay they're offering.


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