Waiting in a drive-thru line can be a frustrating experience, and customers of Chick-fil-A have reason to be annoyed. The average total drive-thru time for the chain last year was just over 9 minutes. That can seem like an excruciatingly long wait when your kids are yelling for their chicken nuggets in the back seat.
But one post on the subreddit r/ChickFilA from a self-described "disgruntled employee" — no word on why they're disgruntled — offers a tip on how to make your trip to the chicken chain much faster for you and everyone in line behind you: Know what you want, or order online ahead of time.
That may not seem like rocket science, but anyone who's been stuck behind a car placing a huge order or asking a million questions about the menu understands the reasoning. "Drive-thru is for people who want to get their food quickly," says u/Kool_McKool in their Reddit PSA. "If you have to drive up to the menu boards, or require a menu to order, you're only slowing yourself and others down."
If you take that one step further and order on the Chick-fil-A website or app ahead of time, your time in the drive-thru could be as short as the 30 seconds it takes you to tell the employee you're there to pickup an order. It's "so much more efficient, and you get your order faster, and possibly more correct than if you had gone through me."
Commenters on the thread agree that online ordering is the fastest and most efficient way to get Chick-fil-A, whether they're customers or employees.
The drive-thru might get even faster for customers who order ahead of time because Chick-fil-A is currently testing a dedicated drive-thru line for mobile orders, something that chains like Chipotle already have implemented in some locations. Right now, the drive-thru express lane is available at 60 locations across the U.S., and will potentially roll out to more locations next year if all goes well.
