This week I am on fall break. That means I get some quality time to rest, relax, and let the irritations of life roll right off my shoulder. Having a completely wide-open schedule I decided to bring lunch from Chick-Fil-A to Jim on a day that was going to be hectic and stressful for him.
There are a few Chick-Fil-A’s near my home, but I decided upon the one that was most on the way to Jim’s office (Chick-Fil-A at Park Meadows Center). Pulling into the parking lot the irritations of life that I had so gratefully left behind at the beginning of break suddenly came pounding at my window. Let’s just say that I have never seen such mass chaos in a fast food parking lot before.
There were so many cars in the drive through that the line, in fact, wrapped itself around the building one and a half times. When I got in line my car was right next to someone else that was waiting in the drive through line and had already wrapped around the building once. People were pouring in and out of the restaurant doors anxious to get in with their kids or slowly sipping their refilled drinks on the way out. Each entrance to the parking lot had a line of cars waiting to get in and don’t even get me started on the situation that was arising when people were trying to back out of their parking spaces.
The moment I drove my car into that lot the first thing that came to mind was “this is going to take forever!” Knowing I had enough time to wait and the Wind in the Willows book on CD to listen to, I got in the atrociously long line and practiced my patience. However, come to find out, my patience wasn’t needed!
Chick-Fil-A had several of their employees outside directing traffic through the entrances and in the parking lot, signaling cars to wait while a group of people entered or exited the building on foot, and directing cars that had just paid at the drive through window and needed to find a gap in the traffic to get out of the parking lot. Not only were employees directing traffic, they were also going from car to car, taking orders ahead of time and using walkie-talkies to call the orders inside. They even had laminated menus for you to look at while you waited. There was no need to actually order at the drive through speaker today!
You might think that all of this would just add to the chaos, but it worked like a well-oiled machine. In eight minutes I was in and out of the longest drive through line I had even been in, payment complete with food and drinks intact. Because of the traffic direction and the employees going from car to car to take orders, what could have been the worst mess in fast-food lunch history turned out to be one of the most efficient and effective systems I have seen in the food business. A round of applause goes out to Chick-Fil-A.
Click here to visit the Chick-Fil-A with the most efficient parking lot!
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