Last Friday, my wife and I traveled up to Valparaiso for the weekend and stopped for a bite at a popular fast food place on Hwy 41 near I-64. We did not order combo meals and had no special requests, just two sandwiches and a couple of drinks. After waiting several minutes we heard those dreaded words, "please pull forward and we'll bring it out to you when ready". Really? That's 15 minutes we'll never get back. According to a new study, the average drive-thru wait time at the top fast food restaurants has increased almost eight seconds from 2012 and isn't getting any better.

The study looked at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Chick-Fil-A and Taco John's and the results from fastest to slowest are:

  1. Wendy's - 133.63 seconds
  2. Taco Bell - 158.03 seconds
  3. Taco John's - 181.19
  4. McDonald's - 189.49 seconds
  5. Burger King - 198.48 seconds
  6. Chick-Fil-A - 203.88 seconds


I don't know about you, but I would rather wait a minute or two longer and get an order that is right as opposed to great speed with a totally messed up order. What is really frustrating is when they ask if everything on the screen is correct, make you pull forward out of the way because it is going to take even longer and the order is STILL wrong...that's the worst and there is no excuse for that.

While Chick-Fil-A's service is slower, their accuracy rate leads the industry at 91.6% accurate. I guess that means 'good' is worth waiting for and Chick-Fil-A is good.
