[Pic from BusinessWeek, December 5, 2005, via Brand Autopsy]
Turn off: Guys who make an illegal left in their SUVs into a Taco Bell drive-thru.
Soo wrong on so many levels. But what I’m wondering is — What makes drive-thrus so attractive to people?
It’s not just the junk food — It’s Starbucks, too. According to the AP, the mermaid opened its first drive-thrus in 1994 — in SoCal. Now we have 1,065 Starbucks drive-thrus in the US, in every state except Vermont and Wyoming. (via Starbucks Gossip)
Thinking about drive-thrus makes me sad. Not just cuz of the car exhaust and minimum wage jobs and urban blight and loss of walkable neighborhoods and the worsening “obesity epidemic” and the death of mom-n-pop shops. All important issues, but I’ll leave those for another day.
Drive-thrus make me sad cuz I think the people going thru drive-thrus are sad. In LA, many of us lead isolated lives, our spontaneous interactions limited to honking at each other in traffic jams. We get stuck in this drive-work-drive-thru-TV routine, eating alone at our desks and in our cars. We wake up depressed, and wonder how our lives became the way they are — with no idea how to break the cycle.
I’m speculating, of course. Perhaps people at the drive-thrus are as happy as the ones on McDonald’s commercials. I kinda doubt it though.
I once dated a guy who, after a bad day at the office, got chili cheese fries at some fave fast food joint. “I needed comfort food,” he said, poutily. Which I could sort of understand, but also found terribly depressing.
I dunno… I live the way I do because I don’t want to wake up at 40 and realize I hate my life. And I hope this blog’s helpful to others also trying to escape that fate in the next year –
Happy new year, everyone –
Update, 2/3/07: McDonald’s coffee wins out on a taste test against Starbucks.
I can remember the last time I used a drive-thru, years ago now. I found myself waiting in a line of cars a dozen long and noticed that the restaurant itself was nearly vacant. I got out, ordered my food inside, and was on my way before the line outside had budged. And I had the bonus of talking to a human being. It wasn’t even a question of convenience versus quality of life. It was a question of obstinate stupidity versus a little common sense.
The newest Starbucks within walking distance of my house is barely more than a drive thru itself. The interior is just a long unaccommodating corridor with a few tables crammed haphazardly along the edges, and I can never read in the outdoor area because of the distracting noise from the drive-thru speaker. I choose not to use the drive thru because I figure I could use the human interaction, but it defeats the purpose when the person I talk to is speaking out the other side of his mouth into the drive-thru mic headset.
I find it depressing. I used to like Starbucks, I really did. The two of us were inseparable. These days, though, I find the local donut shop more atmospheric. Certainly less soul-destroying …
Comment by Brian — December 31, 2005 @ 6:18 pm
I actually think that drive-thrus can be a real blessing. I, at one time, worked for Victor Allens Coffee in Madison, Wisconsin. They built, what I believe to be, the first coffee drive-thru in the nation. When it’s 40 below and you need your coffee, it’s good to be in a warm car.
As a parent of a small monkey, it is very connvenient to order in a drive thru situation without having to remove him from the car, get out the stroller, make sure his Rottweiler sister has enough air, etc, etc.
One comment on Starbucks. I think they do a fine job on a grand scale. I just wish they wouldn’t use those crappy automatic espresso machines. We went there this morning, just to take a break from our own coffee, and my latte tasted like dishwater… And Howard, back off the Allanis Morrisette CD’s!
Happy New Year!
Comment by Monkey — January 2, 2006 @ 8:38 am
Well, yeah. Drive-thrus are convenient in a car culture world. As are instant coffees, junk food, and automatic espresso machines. I just think we also lose a lot with the convenience…
And ya know — in SoCal, where the Starbucks drive-thrus started out, it’s rarely goes below 40, let alone 40 below… ;) I never missed drive-thru coffee while living in Indiana during winter. But then again, I’m baby-free!
Comment by Siel — January 2, 2006 @ 9:41 am
Siel,
You probably know that the whole drive-thru phenom began in SoCal, but if you’re interested in learning more about how it occurred, Fast Food Nation is a fantastic read. Another great read is the Great Good Place, by Ray Oldenburg, which is about how to create the opposite of fast food culture.
But speaking of drive-thrus, I hope you will permit me to recount a personal fast food experience. I was fresh out of high school and traveling the country with no money and a beat up Mercury Lynx. I picked up hitch hikers for company and to help fund the gas I needed to keep moving. I ended up with a band of hippies who were traveling to a Rainbow Gathering. I spent a few days with them in the Rocky Mountains as this event was getting set up. I got pretty turned off by the whole thing – lots of self-righteous attitudes, drug-induced stupidity, and fake nature spiritality. Just as the gathering was officially starting and hordes of people were arriving, I coldn’t take it any more. So I got in my car and headed for the nearest city, which was Denver, and without awareness of the irony, went straight to a Burger King drive thru and ordered a bacon double chesseburger. At the time, I had been vegetarian for about three years. I suppose it was an unconscious need to purge myself of the phoniness of the Rainbow Gathering by indulging in something that was at least honest about itself – fast food. It was perhaps the only time in my life that I found a quite appropriate moment to avail myself of a drive thru.
Happy New Year,
Chris
Comment by Chris O'Brien — January 2, 2006 @ 3:00 pm
I heart Fast Food Nation. Of course, that got many of my food phobias started… Still, a valuable read –
Hmm… Nothing like LSD’ers to drive you to bacon cheeseburgers — I’ll chalk this experience up to one of those naive, high school experiences — How old were those hippies? ;)
Comment by Siel — January 2, 2006 @ 10:25 pm