Do you always use the drive-thru and can you remember a time before businesses had pick-up windows?
(My sister suggested this Question Of The Week after she had spent a day in her car going from her drive-up pharmacy window to her dry cleaner's window, to the bank's drive-thru and finally the fast food place. She managed to run all her errands without getting out of her car. She loves drive-thru and can't imagine what she would do without it. On the other hand, Ron and I rarely get in a drive-thru line and usually park and go inside. However, we are retired with lots of time and my sister still manages a home and office workload)
The above picture is of a drive-up library in Arlington, IL. What is the most unusual drive-thru you have ever found?
Oh this is something new to me...mostly it is just fastfood here in Singapore
ReplyDeleteWe don't have drive-thru in the UK at all, but when we are in the States sometimes we use them for the bank and Starbucks, but usually we like to get out to stretch our legs and burn off a few calories.
ReplyDeleteDear Annie ~~ We do not have all those drive-ins here in Australia as far as I know, but they are increasing.I can't imagine librariesas I would want to browse. So I have only been through fast foods also.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you enjoyed my story "The Rain" and especially glad that you and your husband are not likely to forget who you are.
I get a lot of jokes sent to me and can't post them all, just choose a few. Take care, dear friend. Love, Merle.
I am not very tall and always have a hard time reaching for "whatever" at a drive thru window so I avoid them unless I look really, really gross - like after a long workout. Never do fast food but have gone to pharmacy and appreciated driving by since I was sick and didn't want to go in.
ReplyDeleteI think they are a great invention and only wish Starbucks would add one!
ReplyDeleteThe funniest drive thru place is near my sister's vacation home in the western North Carolina mountains. There is no garbage pick-up, so you have to take your garbage to a collection place.
ReplyDeleteYou drive up to a window and tell them how many bags of garbage and how much recycling stuff and they give you a price. It's never more than $3. Then they stick a long pole out the window that has a net on the end. You put your money in it and drive to the next station for throwing the garbage out or piling in the recycling. :)
I always wonder why they just didn't position that little shack so the attendant could be closer to the car windows, but love the charm of the net at the end of the pole.
I am a fast food drive thru person but not often. I don't really use any others. I don't use dry cleaning and our bank is a credit union with no drive up window. I thought the drive thru library was kind of neat. We don't have any of those, but you can order books from the library online and they will send them through the mail to your house. So you don't even have to leave your house to get a good book, lol.
ReplyDeleteIs that Arlington Heights, Il - I used to live there.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a fast paced world - ever notice how all the foods are getting to be fast - even at the grocery store?
Amazing.
sandie
The most unusual drive-in I have ever heard of is in..... Where else? California. Los Angeles to be exact.
ReplyDeleteIt is a drive-in funeral home.
I saw it on You Tube a few years ago.
You drive up to a window a little like a bank but instead of a teller there is a big glass window and the deceased is in his casket at an angle so he can be seen from a car. There is a slot where you place your Sympathy Card so the family knows you have been there.
This arrangement hasn't hit yet where I live on the East Coast and I hope the custom takes awhile to get here like Medical Marijuana,
Right Turn on Red, XXX Rated Movies and all the other charming things they have sent our way over the years.
Hubby and I don't eat much fast food, so we don't use drive-thrus much. When we go to the bank, he likes to go inside and get his free cup of coffee! I have heard of drive-thru flu shots. That's strange enough for me!
ReplyDeleteI've seen drive thru package stores, mostly in the midwest. However, for personal use, I have a tendency to avoid drive thrus unless I don't have the time to go inside.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do remember when drive thrus didn't exist and as a matter of fact, for the longest time there was a Burger King one town over from me that didn't have a drive thru, and the service was super quick.
Seems that having a drive thru though, sometimes makes service inside a little bit slow.
When I lived in Texas, they had drive-through liquor stores. I never went to one, but I thought it was bizarre.
ReplyDeleteShionge – Before we had drive-in windows our hamburger places had walk-up windows. We walked almost everywhere in those days and could stop there for a cold drink or for an ice cream cone in the summer.
ReplyDeleteLL Cool Joe – We’re going to have to tell my friend Monica from “Changes in the wind” that they DO have drive-thru Starbucks in AZ.
Merle – I guess library browsing these days consists of looking for what you want on the internet then ordering it at your local library and driving by to pick it up. I too would miss handling the books and the book smell of a library. It has such a comforting feeling to browse there.
Marla and Steve@ -- Are you short enough that people don’t think anyone is driving the car? And, oh yes I do love drive-thru for those days when I’ve had to head to town after taking care of the chickens and goats. No one wants me in their stores then. LOL
Changes in the wind – Our friend LL Cool Joe is from the UK but has a second home in Arizona and says they do have drive-thru Starbucks. Looks like it might be coming to you town soon:)
Lynn – I love this so much. Drive-thru garbage collection. What is this world coming to. LOL The attendant doesn’t stay close to the vehicles so he or she won’t have to smell all the garbage.
Bonnie – I am very interested in the library books via mail. We don’t have a library in any of the towns near us and I’m going to check around with the larger cities near us to see if they might mail books. Now that’s a good idea. They would have to charge something for this service wouldn’t they? At least the postage right?
Chatty Crone – Yes, Arlington, Illinois. Do you recognize the lady in the photo? You caused me to remember a grocery store in Tulsa, OK that had a drive-up window for your groceries. I don’t remember if it lasted and I never used the service but you could call and order your groceries and when you arrived to pick them up you would drive to their pick up window and your groceries would start toward you on a conveyer belt for you to grap and place in your car.
Nancy – Only you would come up with a drive-in funeral home. Well, why no? Who wants to get all dressed up to go view a deceased person? Like they are going to care what you are wearing right?
Susan Adcox – I don’t want a flu shot through a drive-in window and for that matter I don’t want my flu shot at WalMart or Walgreens. We had our flu shots yesterday in, of all places, the doctor’s office!
G – I totally agree that drive-thru has slowed down the inside service. Some places are so consumed by their window service that they look at a walk in customers as some kind of anomalies.
This is an interesting question. Some of the comments on my facebook include drive-thru churches, drive-up devotional machines and drive-up beer stores. Judy and Jamie Dawn knew about those. Can you guess who know about the drive-in churches and who knew about the beer stores? Just sayin'...LOL
ReplyDeleteI simply cannot imagine a world without a drive through. There has been many a time I've seen those lights in the far distance, a calling to me for this or that and as I've driven closer and realized that they don't have a drive through I've kept driving on by. I often wonder how much business is LOST due to lack of a drive through. I know business isn't lost BECAUSE of having a drive through.
ReplyDeleteI'll actually drive out of my way for a drive through starbucks when the non drive through is closer....
I learnt the importance of the drive through when I had my daughter...there are just some things that are simple NOT WORTH stopping for when you have a sleeping baby in tow!!!
I honestly miss drive in movies the most...we have to drive 2hrs to our closest one...I think I'd pay double the price of the regular movie if I could see it at a drive through and yet they're usually less than half the price.
ReplyDeleteI'm in your sister's shoes... I have a household and a business to run so any time I can save during the day is welcome. Just look at how much time is saved when one doesn't have to dress up to go out in public. The drive-thru is a time saver.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question about the library charging to mail the books...at this time they do not. However they would like the padded envelope they use to be sent back with the books so they can reuse it. Our library also has a bookmobile that travels to the less populated areas where it is difficult for people to get to the library. And all the cities in our county are on the same system, so you can go to any library in our county to take out books without having to get more than one library card.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had kids I did, especially the pharmacy when sick. But now I don't use drive-thrus unless there's no other choice.
ReplyDeleteI don't like to sit n idle, it wastes fuel... There's always a wait n a line.
Having worked a fast-food window in the past, I can attest that line gets priority, n often is on a tracking timer... You get graded on performance of speed there. really!
Brown English Muffin – I will admit that there are times I would drive far to find a drive-in when I’m not dressed correctly to appear in public. Drive-in movies were wonderful when my children were small. We could go to the show and the kids would usually fall asleep while we watched the movie in peace. Those were the days!
ReplyDeletecube – I forgot to add that my sister also stopped at her local Starbucks that day. Peraps the caffeine also helped keep her going. I can see when the events of a long list of errands can be handled better with lots of drive-thrus.
Bonnie – My library card is for Tulsa,OK and it does not appear that they will mail books They will allow downloads for Kindle’s free. Only problem…I don’t own a Kindle.
Snaggle Tooth – There it is! I have been waiting for someone to mention getting stuck in a drive-thru and it ends up taking longer. It has been our experience more often than not to get in a line and get pinned in without being able to escape and we’re stuck with the long wait. Often that wait happens because the clerk knows the driver in front of us and they are having “old home week” at our expense.
Your comment made me laugh. No, I'm not that short (5'3") but my MIL is. She's only 4'10" and what she lacks in height she makes up for in her, umm, "spirt." :)
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