Drop your fastest/slowest/craziest drive thru stories in the comments! PS - don't forget to use code REVUE for 10% off your order from Manta Sleep ➡ tinyurl.com/yu8bjnbn
Sam! There's a major variable that you didn't factor in during this experiment which I believe could change the outcome substantially! Weekday VS weekend - at my local drive-thrus I'm able to get through late night lines quickly during weekdays, but during weekends, if often takes 20 minutes or more!
@@oatmealftwdon’t worry - each restaurant had a healthy mix of both. That would only skew the results if, for example, all the Arby’s trips were on a weekend and all the Wendy’s trips were on a weekday 😊
Bro, imagine working at Burger King, seeing a dude pull into a parking spot just as you kill the lights to close, and he just whips out a mattress and says "Don't worry, I'll wait."
He said to her, "I'd like a cheeseburger And I might like a milkshake as well" She said to him, "I can't give you either" And he said, "Isn't this Burger Bell?" She said, "Yes it is, but we're closed now But we open tomorrow at ten" He said, "I am extremely hungry But I guess I can wait until then" 'Cause you're his cheeseburger His yummy cheeseburger He'll wait for you, yeah He'll wait for you
I think he just pretnded to sleep over night at the BK so he could do a commercial for that sleep mask. When he's shown ordering at the BK the next day its during Lunch Time.
@@jemetiuswade1461 so using this as a barometer for the wait time is irrelevant. There's too many variables that rely on location and staff regardless if 300 others did the same.. made no sense
@@chriscurry3289would you say the same for effects of research designs that don’t sample the entire sun population they’re interested in? Fast food times can be highly variable but this still does have some utility in scouting for that overall variance
I definitely think this video need a sequel with a focus on accuracy. With the amount of times fast food places screw up orders or just forget napkins, straws, etc, it would be interesting to see which fast food location gets it right vs wrong the most.
@15:30 Yes there is! At least when I worked at Taco Bell back in college we had to meet a goal of at least 90 seconds or less on average for each car sitting at the window. That timer starts when you pull up to the window to pay and get your food so that's probably why the dude asked you to stay at the menu lol
MOST fast food restaurants do this, in fact! My ex used to manage a BK. If they ask you to wait before pulling up, OR if they ask you to pull out and park (or both) they're really just trying to save their window metrics.
Yeah I do doordash and ubereats for some side cash and often times I will back up in the drivethru late night when I am the only one there to reset their "drive-time". Its a metric at pretty much every fast food restaurant, at least here in LA.
Yep, when I worked at McD's we were timed from order entered to delivered. Dude was probably just sitting there waiting until the last second to hit the button.
@@poor_old_goat The McD's I worked at we were timed from when the car pulled up to the speaker to when they got their order. Internally there was a lot of flubbing to get the times down, though. We'd always serve off orders ASAP at the second window.
@@xXRedTheDragonXx Our manager was very against that. He said if the customer comes up and starts the order, they could take all day figuring out how many pickles they wanted, that's why we went with order completion to delivery. The rest of the time is the customer's fault, not ours.
Man having subscribers take part in videos is always so fun, s/o to all the people who took part in this! Its so wholesome to see all the pictures! And s/o to the editor that put all that together!
@therealsamreid I see, your editing is great brother ! Found your channel recently and I've been enjoying the content. Something about your vids feel so cozy and fun. Keep up the great work and happy Thanksgiving!
In-N-Out is slower than most of sit down restaurants. I usually go in and that takes around 30 minutes but drive thru is typically slower from my observations. I don't know why people choose to do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, I wonder what the data would be if he did a weighted average. Chik-fil-a has roughly 4000 fewer burger kings but report $10 billion more in earnings per year.
your video really scratches the right part of my neurodivergent brain, just random curiosity with well researched data, and your personality is chill, unlike some other channels with fast-paced editing which overwhelms me
Taco bell has sensors at the order kiosk that would ring your head set to let you know someone was there. But the timer wouldn't start till another sensor picked up your car pulling foward and thats when your goal was 2-3 minutes to get a car out of the drive thru and get picked up by another sensor that you had left the window wich would end the timer. But thats when I worked there about 8 years ago.
I used to work at a Jimmy John's with a drive thru and we were internally timed! The timer starts as soon as a car enters the queue and there's different times we count (time they take to order, total time in line, time it takes us to serve them, etc). We had entire leaderboards and quotas to meet, it was incredibly stressful. I've recently had Tacobell start asking me to wait at the kiosk as well and I believe that's why - they're trying to make their times look better to corporate. I know I'm not a Tacobell employee but I did work in a drivethru so I can at least give my opinion on why I think Tacobell is acting that way!
11:55 Baiting the French into commenting that french fries aren't actually from France, the same way you baited the Australians into the bloomin' onion. I predict a France video in the future 😂😂
18:03 I work at a restaurant with 2 drive thru lanes, that happens a lot more than you'd think. I call it the "Follow the Leader" effect where they see a car in one lane and the second lane just becomes invisible to them.
I was just about to mention that a cook out (regional fast food joint) i used to frequent also had a two lane setup with the same problem. Everyone used the one lane, so I would always get ahead of them using the second lane
I was unemployed for a few months over the summer. I found this channel during that time, after watching all of the videos, it has become my favorite RUclips channel. I hope that Sam will continue to grow the channel and hopefully hit 1 million subs!
I can only speak for myself, but I actually only subscribed to this channel because of the data analytics. There’s plenty of fast food channels online, but very few that takes the numbers as seriously as you do and I appreciate that. Hugs from Norway.
I love how much thought you put into these experiments. This isn't my normal type of content at all but something about the way you present all of this, and how much data you involve, is just so satisfying.
I think it feels shocking that Chick Fil A is one of the slowest because when you get there and there are 20 cars ahead of you and it takes 8 minutes to get your food, your brain goes “yeah, that makes sense” whereas when you wait 8 minutes at another restaurant when there is only one car ahead of you, it feels slower. It’s kind of like how 20 minutes in stopped traffic feels a lot longer than 20 minutes in continuously moving traffic. And I gotta shout out my local Taco Bell. Even when they’re slammed, I never wait long for my food and my order is always correct!
I think this is a perfect analogy for this situation. Also, if you took the Chick-fil-A volume and moved that to a Wendy's you would literally never leave. You would just have to start a brand new life in the Wendy's drive thru.
The other thing is consistency for me. You always know about how long Chick Fil A is going to take. They don't usually have crazy outlier times, but I think we've all sat at a random mcdonalds for 25 minutes. I go to Chick Fil A with the expectation that it is going to take me like 5-10 minutes to get through the drive thru. I go to Mcdonalds with the expectation that it is going to take 5 mins and usually it does, but sometimes it take 30 and I give up and drive away.
I spent my entire lunch break trapped in the drive-thru line at McDonald's yesterday.. Then still ended up getting cold food.. The cheese on my Mcdoubles wasn't even melted.. They were room temperature at best, and the fries were cold and soggy.. I don't understand how that's even possible when they were that busy.. Their food is overpriced for what it is, and their service is horrible.. Yesterday was the last straw for me.. I wouldn't go back even if they gave me unlimited free food for life..
The average and median times are so wildly different from what I experience. McDonalds and chick fil a in my area are always quick. Wendy’s, BK, and Taco Bell are always terribly slow. I don’t think I’ve ever spent less than 15 minutes at a Popeyes. Data is so fascinating. I’m always excited to see you post a new video!
It's wild here too. We waited 40 minutes at dairy queen once. And a coworker got stuck in Wendy's for over an hour at lunch break because all but 1 worker left and they called in more people. These drive thrus had no way out.
Interesting thing I learned recently after working for the office of one of these major fast food companies: the restaurants ask you to pull forward past the pickup windows when they're waiting on something else because there are sensors/timers in the drive-thrus that show how long a car has been there for. They ask you to pull forward and wait off of the sensors so they don't mess up their average wait times and make their times look better than they actually are.
Seeing the faces of all the contributors instead of just their names really makes a difference. Love your work, Sam! I really want to be a part of the next community vid.
lol not related to the video topic really but I like how polite you are to the workers regardless of service time etc, it sounds stupid but I feel like even recording themselves for youtube you can kinda tell when people are like, not nice to others by how they treat folks in any kind of food/retail industry.
There is a Chick Fil A in my city that set a record of 198 drive thru orders in one hour on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago 🤯 Super cool video. I love the fast food workers who provide me with my tasty treats! 💗
Idk abt Taco Bell but I used to work at Starbucks and they measure how long you sit at the speaker, how long you’re in the drive thru total (starting when you activate the speaker) and how long you specifically are waiting at the window. If you waited too long, we were encouraged to “make the moment right” however necessary, which could include coupons or free drinks depending on the severity of the wait
Fascinating video, love all the statistical analysis here. In Delaware, I have found Wendy's and Hardee's to be the most reliably consistent in service times. The biggest outliers are usually KFC and Popeyes. Fun video, excited to see more from you as always.
you’ve done it again, Sam. this video was amazing. absolutely top tier entertainment. thank you! and thank you so much for your donations at the end, and the recognition of not only the help of fellow viewers, but also the flip side on climate & community. bravo !!!!
This blows my mind, dude. My taco bell (the one you've been to on Midlo Turnpike) takes FOREVER, but the Chick Fil A down the road hands me my food immediately as I pull up. Crazy man, I would have never believed this.
I don't eat at Taco Bell, but I'm in waynesboro VA and my CFA is always insanely fast, even at busy times. not even just the drive thru but inside as well.
It's pretty funny knowing all of this data is irrelevant if your local chain could give less than zero shits about service. Been that way for my closest Wendys and TB for a good part of the last decade, have to drive +6/+4 minutes respectively to guarantee any form of quality 😂
Lately we've been ordering with the Taco Bell app 10 minutes away, driving there, sitting in the parking lot another 10-15 minutes, with 2-3 cars in the parking lot, and having to then go in and be like "Hey, where's our food..."
I feel like food delivery apps have impacted fast food in a way that isn't really understood by a lot of companies and customers. I wish restaurants would have separate lines or some other process for them. This was a really cool concept for a video, entertaining and fun data!
i don’t normally comment ever, but i just gotta say i subscribed like a week ago and watched majority of your videos, and you’re content truly has been so consistently good for years, i can’t wait for your channel to continue growing !!
I used to be a DoorDash delivery driver during Covid and I think my worst waits were at Arby’s. I didn’t time the waits, but they seemed like forever, especially when some cars would leave before/after ordering. So cool that subscriber got involved in this one, I hope you all had a good experience :)
Getting the order correct is such an important piece of this. I'm willing to wait a little longer to have the order right. There's nothing more frustrating than going to pick up some food for the family, driving home and realizing that part of the order is wrong, necessitating another trip to make it right.
I've worked for Chick-Fil-A, it's faster during the dinner hours even with fewer staff because a) Much fewer cars than the lunch rush, and b) It's easier to pull individual cars ahead waiting for a specific item if we're not completely slammed as we are during lunch time.
I've been here a while but it still blows my mind how little subscribers you have. Your videos are such a joy to watch and I find myself rewatching your videos over and over again.
I don't even eat fast food and found this so interesting! I wonder if you'll do a comparison of drive through to going inside. Take a friend with you who gets out of the car right as you pull into the drive through. S/he goes in, you stay out. Order the same things and time the difference. I'm willing to bet going in is often much faster! Love your channel, Sam. Thanks as always!
i’m a taco bell employee. the timer starts the second you pull up to the order kiosk and then a window timer starts when you get to the window. they probably had you wait there so they wouldn’t keep adding to their car times since it shows the times of all cars in the drive thru.
Yet another unreasonably good video by Sam. For what it's worth, maybe as some post-mortem data, my local BK tends to be somewhat slow, but man, they're solid. Nightside is definitely better than dayside. Their fries are at WORST "not bad", but when on point, they're just a few tiny steps below the freshest McDonald's fries.
You never fail to put out a banger video. ❤️ As a Chick-fil-A employee, I wish our overall times were better. That being said our local locations are super quick. Its part of our "winning heart everyday" Fast and Accurate Service. We take it very seriously where I'm from. Anyway, I hope you continue making videos for a long time to come. I look forward to your videos.
This is the most random yet relatable topic ever....I am beyond impressed by how detailed Sam breaks down everything including the report statistics, no. of locations of each fast food chain, time period in which he went to each drive thru, etc. If this was an assignment I would give full marks no question! Amazing work 👏👏👏
We have ONE ChickfilA in an amazingly large area (I have to drive 20 minutes to get to one). On the other hand, we have two KFCs and a Popeye's 5 minutes away, but you better get there by 7:00PM or chances are there won't be any chicken left. If you try to get breakfast between 7:00AM and 9:00AM it's pretty horrific everywhere. Guess we're not a "eat breakfast at home" area. If I'm going to get fast food, I try to get lunch around 3:00PM and dinner between 8:00-9:00PM. If I want fried chicken though, I will make a concerted effort to go before 6:30PM just to make sure there's still chicken left. BTW, it doesn't matter if you order through the app here. The lines are just as long waiting to get to the window, and they still won't have chicken when you finally get there so then you have to wait for whatever they've got left. SMH.
Sam, kudos for the best content on RUclips... The only downside my brother is there are not enough episodes to whereas I can binge them overnight but other than that I think yours is my favorite channel.
Thank you for posting a top-tier content as always ❤. This is both entertaining and informative. Literally one of the creators in this platform that deserve to have millions of followers 🗣️
I’ve always felt that Sonic wasn’t meant to be -FAST- food. I think that’s part of why they have the stall system. Greasy drive-in vs greasy and fast drive-thru
Sam is the talk show host we NEED in this wild world. He is Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Mark Rober, Joshua Weissman, Mythical Chef Josh and Phillip DeFranco all rolled into one.
I went to Burger King Tuesday and I walked in and ordered regular fries. It took almost 10 minutes for some fries while they were serving meals to other people.
You're a real one Sam, I usually just watch your very funny, thoughtful and well-researched, vids with out commenting (but liking, of course), however, your donation at the end sealed he deal, Happy Thanksgiving homie!
Thank you for letting the community get involved with this! Being a part of this experiment was really fun.(especially since I went to 3 😅)! Both my Taco Bell and McDonalds experiences were MUCH faster than usual (honestly not sure why) and of course, I visited Chick-fil-a on Veterans Day, when they were giving out free meals to Veterans (great thing to do, but man was the drive thru slow 🙃🤷♂️). Awesome video, glad to be a part of it, and keep up the great content!!
You truly spoil us with your top tier videos Sam and i love that you try to make some sort of donation in each of these food videos, which shows you care. You 100% deserve 5 times as many subs as you have.
I analyze data for a living and thoroughly enjoyed this so much!! I wonder what a heat map of the regions who participated in this experiment would look like.
When I worked at Taco Bell we did have a Drive Thru time reporting system, but the time started as soon as they pulled up to the speaker to order. In order to make the times look better we’d occasionally have people pull around to the front of the store when they got to the window.
as a person who works with lots of research and researchers, this is one of the best ways i’ve seen research conducted and statistics used. i love how u even have a limitations section
One time after work I decided to stop at McDonalds for a "quick" bite to eat. I placed my order, and waited for nearly 45 minutes, and when they finally gave me my order, half of it was missing. Needless to say, I was fuming, and I haven't been to that location since.
Its good to know im not to the only one waiting forever when it comes to taco bell. After a while i noticed i get my food a lot quicker if i just do a mobile order compared to ordering in the restaurant or drive thru.
I have no idea if the car stalls are better at Sonic, but they seem more chill than a drive-thru. You aren't rushed getting an order if you just aren't sure what you want right away.
I don't eat fast food anymore, but when I did, the local Taco Bell had some of the longest wait times. Cars would frequently spill out into the street, the line was so long. I usually just parked and went inside, and nearly every time I did, the manager would always apologize to everyone when he handed them their order.
14:52 when I worked at a Wendy's, the time in store was from when you approach the microphone box to when you leave the window. There are magnets that detect the car in both spots. So that's the in-store time
I worked at Taco Bell for 5 years...they have a timer above the drive through that starts as soon as you pull up to the window. They have goals for time averages. Only management got rewarded.
I will say time and time again. I love my local Taco Bell. The management must be top-notch because I never wait more than 5 minutes. 2 Minutes if I place my order ahead of time. They run it like a well-oiled machine.
It was super fun participating in this experiment, I even pulled double duty when extra slots needed to be filled. Thanks for including the photo for each of my two submissions, and I challenge anyone watching to try and spot the repeat!!
Panda Express seems to be painfully slow even if only one or 2 people ahead. Consistently have to wait at menu board for them to be ready to take your order. Also...dig the Mario Party music vibes.
This was such a cool thing to participate in. I love your commitment to your audience, it's what makes you the best in the game. Keep up the amazing work, Love you Sam!
Yes taco bell times are recorded and sent to head office, automatically in fact. Every single day you're told your average time for morning, afternoon and night and are supposed to write it on a whiteboard, and head office will yell at the managers if you get too slow.
We have too many McDonalds, but one of them in our town you can't see how long the lanes are when you're first driving up. You kind of just have to pick one and once in line, it also has little dividers between the two lanes so if you go into one and it's longer, but notice the others shorter you cannot move over to it unless you back up.
My wife and I have been addicted to your channel lately. Your content is really awesome and refreshing. Also Wendy’s being fast at all is surprising because I have the same experience as you at my local one
So glad I could provide you with a very wild time at McDonald’s. The people working the drive thru that day said they’d been slammed for 2 and a half hours straight!
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Drop your fastest/slowest/craziest drive thru stories in the comments! PS - don't forget to use code REVUE for 10% off your order from Manta Sleep ➡ tinyurl.com/yu8bjnbn
47 minutes at a Wendy's in PA for me. Never went back!
Sam! There's a major variable that you didn't factor in during this experiment which I believe could change the outcome substantially! Weekday VS weekend - at my local drive-thrus I'm able to get through late night lines quickly during weekdays, but during weekends, if often takes 20 minutes or more!
@@oatmealftwdon’t worry - each restaurant had a healthy mix of both. That would only skew the results if, for example, all the Arby’s trips were on a weekend and all the Wendy’s trips were on a weekday 😊
@@UserName-ty4nvsheeeeeesh 😮💨
@@therealsamreid Oh, that's awesome to hear that was kept track of! Thank you for the update, it would've killed me not knowing!
Bro, imagine working at Burger King, seeing a dude pull into a parking spot just as you kill the lights to close, and he just whips out a mattress and says "Don't worry, I'll wait."
He said to her, "I'd like a cheeseburger
And I might like a milkshake as well"
She said to him, "I can't give you either"
And he said, "Isn't this Burger Bell?"
She said, "Yes it is, but we're closed now
But we open tomorrow at ten"
He said, "I am extremely hungry
But I guess I can wait until then"
'Cause you're his cheeseburger
His yummy cheeseburger
He'll wait for you, yeah
He'll wait for you
Underated comment 😂😂😂@@Helpful_Corn
@@Helpful_Cornyes, simply yes.
I think he just pretnded to sleep over night at the BK so he could do a commercial for that sleep mask. When he's shown ordering at the BK the next day its during Lunch Time.
Skyrim protagonist energy for sure
This guy coming out swinging with another straight up bonkers concept
His ideas are creative and unique. It's especially interesting for data nerds.
This video relies entirely on the staff working that day. I disregard any timing for this
@@chriscurry3289that's why there where 300 different other people who did it with him. Staff will always vary but this is about average time
@@jemetiuswade1461 so using this as a barometer for the wait time is irrelevant. There's too many variables that rely on location and staff regardless if 300 others did the same.. made no sense
@@chriscurry3289would you say the same for effects of research designs that don’t sample the entire sun population they’re interested in? Fast food times can be highly variable but this still does have some utility in scouting for that overall variance
I definitely think this video need a sequel with a focus on accuracy. With the amount of times fast food places screw up orders or just forget napkins, straws, etc, it would be interesting to see which fast food location gets it right vs wrong the most.
Agreed! The QSR report says around 11% of orders have mistakes 🤔
This would be a perfect part 2
@@therealsamreid That seems low lol
@@therealsamreid Which is exactly why I like to order inside.
@15:30 Yes there is! At least when I worked at Taco Bell back in college we had to meet a goal of at least 90 seconds or less on average for each car sitting at the window. That timer starts when you pull up to the window to pay and get your food so that's probably why the dude asked you to stay at the menu lol
MOST fast food restaurants do this, in fact! My ex used to manage a BK. If they ask you to wait before pulling up, OR if they ask you to pull out and park (or both) they're really just trying to save their window metrics.
Yeah I do doordash and ubereats for some side cash and often times I will back up in the drivethru late night when I am the only one there to reset their "drive-time". Its a metric at pretty much every fast food restaurant, at least here in LA.
Yep, when I worked at McD's we were timed from order entered to delivered. Dude was probably just sitting there waiting until the last second to hit the button.
@@poor_old_goat The McD's I worked at we were timed from when the car pulled up to the speaker to when they got their order. Internally there was a lot of flubbing to get the times down, though. We'd always serve off orders ASAP at the second window.
@@xXRedTheDragonXx Our manager was very against that. He said if the customer comes up and starts the order, they could take all day figuring out how many pickles they wanted, that's why we went with order completion to delivery. The rest of the time is the customer's fault, not ours.
Im not gonna lie, this video is actually so much cooler than I thought it would be given the actual title. I love the community involvement. 😊
Sam will do that haha
It's crazy how you've got like 20 different video projects going on at the same time. Such planning is insane
It was fun to be a part of this video! Thank you for including us. I hadn't had KFC in forever and I wish I cold say it didn't disappoint. But it did.
Ditto!! I went to KFC for this video too and I was like, nope, not coming back again.
Man having subscribers take part in videos is always so fun, s/o to all the people who took part in this! Its so wholesome to see all the pictures! And s/o to the editor that put all that together!
I will let him know! (It’s me I am the editor lol)
@therealsamreid I see, your editing is great brother ! Found your channel recently and I've been enjoying the content. Something about your vids feel so cozy and fun. Keep up the great work and happy Thanksgiving!
Two outliers here are Chik-fil-A and In-n-Out. They are both MUCH MUCH busier than every other fast food place in Colorado.
Even when they are way busier, they are still quicker than most other fast food places, even when those other places are not busy.
Once waited well over an hour for an in-n-out in southern Denver. Waited with a friend of mine and it was one of the most bizarre experiences ever
oh man I swear in n out is the worst its anything but in n out I dont think I have ever spent less than 20 minutes waiting for a burger there...
In-N-Out is slower than most of sit down restaurants. I usually go in and that takes around 30 minutes but drive thru is typically slower from my observations. I don't know why people choose to do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, I wonder what the data would be if he did a weighted average.
Chik-fil-a has roughly 4000 fewer burger kings but report $10 billion more in earnings per year.
your video really scratches the right part of my neurodivergent brain, just random curiosity with well researched data, and your personality is chill, unlike some other channels with fast-paced editing which overwhelms me
Taco bell has sensors at the order kiosk that would ring your head set to let you know someone was there. But the timer wouldn't start till another sensor picked up your car pulling foward and thats when your goal was 2-3 minutes to get a car out of the drive thru and get picked up by another sensor that you had left the window wich would end the timer. But thats when I worked there about 8 years ago.
I used to work at a Jimmy John's with a drive thru and we were internally timed! The timer starts as soon as a car enters the queue and there's different times we count (time they take to order, total time in line, time it takes us to serve them, etc). We had entire leaderboards and quotas to meet, it was incredibly stressful. I've recently had Tacobell start asking me to wait at the kiosk as well and I believe that's why - they're trying to make their times look better to corporate. I know I'm not a Tacobell employee but I did work in a drivethru so I can at least give my opinion on why I think Tacobell is acting that way!
this is how every fast food restaurant works
i've had a few del taco drive-thru's ask me to reverse from the pickup window, was very confused at first but this makes sense
11:55 Baiting the French into commenting that french fries aren't actually from France, the same way you baited the Australians into the bloomin' onion. I predict a France video in the future 😂😂
As soon as he said that, I made my prediction that we are getting a France video.
I'm so here for this channel to be a data analytics channel 😅 I'm honestly impressed by all the statistics methodology for such an unserious topic
18:03 I work at a restaurant with 2 drive thru lanes, that happens a lot more than you'd think. I call it the "Follow the Leader" effect where they see a car in one lane and the second lane just becomes invisible to them.
I was just about to mention that a cook out (regional fast food joint) i used to frequent also had a two lane setup with the same problem. Everyone used the one lane, so I would always get ahead of them using the second lane
I was unemployed for a few months over the summer. I found this channel during that time, after watching all of the videos, it has become my favorite RUclips channel. I hope that Sam will continue to grow the channel and hopefully hit 1 million subs!
I can only speak for myself, but I actually only subscribed to this channel because of the data analytics.
There’s plenty of fast food channels online, but very few that takes the numbers as seriously as you do and I appreciate that.
Hugs from Norway.
Right! I agree lol like I'm not really interested in fast food reviews but the data and numbers are just so enjoyable.
I love how much thought you put into these experiments. This isn't my normal type of content at all but something about the way you present all of this, and how much data you involve, is just so satisfying.
@19:40 HI! -Jessie B
Thanks for letting me be part of this experience Sam! Great content as always!!
I think it feels shocking that Chick Fil A is one of the slowest because when you get there and there are 20 cars ahead of you and it takes 8 minutes to get your food, your brain goes “yeah, that makes sense” whereas when you wait 8 minutes at another restaurant when there is only one car ahead of you, it feels slower. It’s kind of like how 20 minutes in stopped traffic feels a lot longer than 20 minutes in continuously moving traffic.
And I gotta shout out my local Taco Bell. Even when they’re slammed, I never wait long for my food and my order is always correct!
THIS. You articulated this perfectly
I think this is a perfect analogy for this situation. Also, if you took the Chick-fil-A volume and moved that to a Wendy's you would literally never leave. You would just have to start a brand new life in the Wendy's drive thru.
The other thing is consistency for me. You always know about how long Chick Fil A is going to take. They don't usually have crazy outlier times, but I think we've all sat at a random mcdonalds for 25 minutes.
I go to Chick Fil A with the expectation that it is going to take me like 5-10 minutes to get through the drive thru. I go to Mcdonalds with the expectation that it is going to take 5 mins and usually it does, but sometimes it take 30 and I give up and drive away.
@@gregortheoverlander4122 Excellent point!
Chick Fil A is always the fastest in my area and its never close.
Man, if I'm waiting for 30 minutes in a McDonalds drive thru, I'm committing seppuku with a spork.
Gotta use the McFlurry spoon
I spent my entire lunch break trapped in the drive-thru line at McDonald's yesterday.. Then still ended up getting cold food.. The cheese on my Mcdoubles wasn't even melted.. They were room temperature at best, and the fries were cold and soggy.. I don't understand how that's even possible when they were that busy.. Their food is overpriced for what it is, and their service is horrible.. Yesterday was the last straw for me.. I wouldn't go back even if they gave me unlimited free food for life..
Thats average wait time in some of the bigger McDonalds.
try coming to my college town on a gameday weekend you'll be in line an hour minimun
The average and median times are so wildly different from what I experience. McDonalds and chick fil a in my area are always quick. Wendy’s, BK, and Taco Bell are always terribly slow. I don’t think I’ve ever spent less than 15 minutes at a Popeyes. Data is so fascinating. I’m always excited to see you post a new video!
It's wild here too. We waited 40 minutes at dairy queen once. And a coworker got stuck in Wendy's for over an hour at lunch break because all but 1 worker left and they called in more people. These drive thrus had no way out.
Interesting thing I learned recently after working for the office of one of these major fast food companies: the restaurants ask you to pull forward past the pickup windows when they're waiting on something else because there are sensors/timers in the drive-thrus that show how long a car has been there for. They ask you to pull forward and wait off of the sensors so they don't mess up their average wait times and make their times look better than they actually are.
Wow didn’t expect the video out so quick! Awesome to have been a part of this experiment and to see the data, happy thanksgiving!
Love those charitable donations at the end. Slipped in there and needs the recognition. ❤
Seeing the faces of all the contributors instead of just their names really makes a difference. Love your work, Sam! I really want to be a part of the next community vid.
This was fun to be a part of and to see the results! Always enjoy watching your videos!
lol not related to the video topic really but I like how polite you are to the workers regardless of service time etc, it sounds stupid but I feel like even recording themselves for youtube you can kinda tell when people are like, not nice to others by how they treat folks in any kind of food/retail industry.
Lots of smiles at the end! Love to see it. Hope I can help out with a video again in the future!
I'm glad I got to be apart of this video. Shoutout to my fellow Midwesterners.
Shout out to everybody who helped the pictures were so cute ❤
There is a Chick Fil A in my city that set a record of 198 drive thru orders in one hour on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago 🤯
Super cool video. I love the fast food workers who provide me with my tasty treats! 💗
Happy to be able to help with this project, great episode!
As a data analyst and big fan of your channel, I absolutely loved this video 🥰
Idk abt Taco Bell but I used to work at Starbucks and they measure how long you sit at the speaker, how long you’re in the drive thru total (starting when you activate the speaker) and how long you specifically are waiting at the window. If you waited too long, we were encouraged to “make the moment right” however necessary, which could include coupons or free drinks depending on the severity of the wait
Fascinating video, love all the statistical analysis here. In Delaware, I have found Wendy's and Hardee's to be the most reliably consistent in service times. The biggest outliers are usually KFC and Popeyes. Fun video, excited to see more from you as always.
you’ve done it again, Sam. this video was amazing. absolutely top tier entertainment. thank you! and thank you so much for your donations at the end, and the recognition of not only the help of fellow viewers, but also the flip side on climate & community. bravo !!!!
This blows my mind, dude.
My taco bell (the one you've been to on Midlo Turnpike) takes FOREVER, but the Chick Fil A down the road hands me my food immediately as I pull up.
Crazy man, I would have never believed this.
Chick-fil-A is definitely the most consistent location to location
I don't eat at Taco Bell, but I'm in waynesboro VA and my CFA is always insanely fast, even at busy times. not even just the drive thru but inside as well.
It's pretty funny knowing all of this data is irrelevant if your local chain could give less than zero shits about service.
Been that way for my closest Wendys and TB for a good part of the last decade, have to drive +6/+4 minutes respectively to guarantee any form of quality 😂
Glad to have been apart of this Sam! As always another great video and love the analytics, very cool of you to share the data set, thank you!
Lately we've been ordering with the Taco Bell app 10 minutes away, driving there, sitting in the parking lot another 10-15 minutes, with 2-3 cars in the parking lot, and having to then go in and be like "Hey, where's our food..."
I feel like food delivery apps have impacted fast food in a way that isn't really understood by a lot of companies and customers. I wish restaurants would have separate lines or some other process for them. This was a really cool concept for a video, entertaining and fun data!
i don’t normally comment ever, but i just gotta say i subscribed like a week ago and watched majority of your videos, and you’re content truly has been so consistently good for years, i can’t wait for your channel to continue growing !!
I used to be a DoorDash delivery driver during Covid and I think my worst waits were at Arby’s. I didn’t time the waits, but they seemed like forever, especially when some cars would leave before/after ordering.
So cool that subscriber got involved in this one, I hope you all had a good experience :)
Getting the order correct is such an important piece of this. I'm willing to wait a little longer to have the order right. There's nothing more frustrating than going to pick up some food for the family, driving home and realizing that part of the order is wrong, necessitating another trip to make it right.
I've worked for Chick-Fil-A, it's faster during the dinner hours even with fewer staff because a) Much fewer cars than the lunch rush, and b) It's easier to pull individual cars ahead waiting for a specific item if we're not completely slammed as we are during lunch time.
Ahh ok interesting! Wouldn’t have expected lunch to be busier than dinner. Appreciate the insight 🙌🏼
I love the data analysis aspect of your channel! Another great video, Sam.
I've been here a while but it still blows my mind how little subscribers you have. Your videos are such a joy to watch and I find myself rewatching your videos over and over again.
I don't even eat fast food and found this so interesting! I wonder if you'll do a comparison of drive through to going inside. Take a friend with you who gets out of the car right as you pull into the drive through. S/he goes in, you stay out. Order the same things and time the difference. I'm willing to bet going in is often much faster!
Love your channel, Sam. Thanks as always!
i’m a taco bell employee. the timer starts the second you pull up to the order kiosk and then a window timer starts when you get to the window. they probably had you wait there so they wouldn’t keep adding to their car times since it shows the times of all cars in the drive thru.
Coming to us with straight facts! Educational videos and data is the best! Keep doing amazing! 😊
Yet another unreasonably good video by Sam. For what it's worth, maybe as some post-mortem data, my local BK tends to be somewhat slow, but man, they're solid. Nightside is definitely better than dayside. Their fries are at WORST "not bad", but when on point, they're just a few tiny steps below the freshest McDonald's fries.
You never fail to put out a banger video. ❤️ As a Chick-fil-A employee, I wish our overall times were better. That being said our local locations are super quick. Its part of our "winning heart everyday" Fast and Accurate Service. We take it very seriously where I'm from. Anyway, I hope you continue making videos for a long time to come. I look forward to your videos.
This is the most random yet relatable topic ever....I am beyond impressed by how detailed Sam breaks down everything including the report statistics, no. of locations of each fast food chain, time period in which he went to each drive thru, etc.
If this was an assignment I would give full marks no question! Amazing work 👏👏👏
This is so cool, thank you so much for making high quality and scientific youtube videos. I love your video ideas.
We have ONE ChickfilA in an amazingly large area (I have to drive 20 minutes to get to one). On the other hand, we have two KFCs and a Popeye's 5 minutes away, but you better get there by 7:00PM or chances are there won't be any chicken left. If you try to get breakfast between 7:00AM and 9:00AM it's pretty horrific everywhere. Guess we're not a "eat breakfast at home" area. If I'm going to get fast food, I try to get lunch around 3:00PM and dinner between 8:00-9:00PM. If I want fried chicken though, I will make a concerted effort to go before 6:30PM just to make sure there's still chicken left. BTW, it doesn't matter if you order through the app here. The lines are just as long waiting to get to the window, and they still won't have chicken when you finally get there so then you have to wait for whatever they've got left. SMH.
Sam, kudos for the best content on RUclips... The only downside my brother is there are not enough episodes to whereas I can binge them overnight but other than that I think yours is my favorite channel.
Thank you for posting a top-tier content as always ❤. This is both entertaining and informative. Literally one of the creators in this platform that deserve to have millions of followers 🗣️
I’ve always felt that Sonic wasn’t meant to be -FAST- food. I think that’s part of why they have the stall system. Greasy drive-in vs greasy and fast drive-thru
Sam is the talk show host we NEED in this wild world. He is Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Mark Rober, Joshua Weissman, Mythical Chef Josh and Phillip DeFranco all rolled into one.
I went to Burger King Tuesday and I walked in and ordered regular fries. It took almost 10 minutes for some fries while they were serving meals to other people.
Sam is 100% going to France now after that comment about the Burger King fries. 🍟
You're a real one Sam, I usually just watch your very funny, thoughtful and well-researched, vids with out commenting (but liking, of course), however, your donation at the end sealed he deal, Happy Thanksgiving homie!
as an australian, learning about sonic drive in stalls is very wild to me. we don't have anything like that at least commonly as far as i know
Shocking that Dairy Queen did so well. In my experience they are always absurdly slow if you order hot food.
Thank you for letting the community get involved with this! Being a part of this experiment was really fun.(especially since I went to 3 😅)! Both my Taco Bell and McDonalds experiences were MUCH faster than usual (honestly not sure why) and of course, I visited Chick-fil-a on Veterans Day, when they were giving out free meals to Veterans (great thing to do, but man was the drive thru slow 🙃🤷♂️). Awesome video, glad to be a part of it, and keep up the great content!!
You truly spoil us with your top tier videos Sam and i love that you try to make some sort of donation in each of these food videos, which shows you care. You 100% deserve 5 times as many subs as you have.
Dont be sorry for the deep dives 😂 i dont always follow along super well but you talk about it in a simple enough way that i can follow ❤
I analyze data for a living and thoroughly enjoyed this so much!! I wonder what a heat map of the regions who participated in this experiment would look like.
Sam brought many dad jokes and insights to the table today. He’s prepping for next year.
“How do they many them curly?!?”
How in-depth and well done these videos are and the samples and way its conducted is amazing. love these videos.
When I worked at Taco Bell we did have a Drive Thru time reporting system, but the time started as soon as they pulled up to the speaker to order. In order to make the times look better we’d occasionally have people pull around to the front of the store when they got to the window.
as a person who works with lots of research and researchers, this is one of the best ways i’ve seen research conducted and statistics used. i love how u even have a limitations section
One time after work I decided to stop at McDonalds for a "quick" bite to eat. I placed my order, and waited for nearly 45 minutes, and when they finally gave me my order, half of it was missing. Needless to say, I was fuming, and I haven't been to that location since.
Its good to know im not to the only one waiting forever when it comes to taco bell. After a while i noticed i get my food a lot quicker if i just do a mobile order compared to ordering in the restaurant or drive thru.
Love the good cause donations at the end! These videos may seem trivial in content but they bring so many people joy.
I have no idea if the car stalls are better at Sonic, but they seem more chill than a drive-thru. You aren't rushed getting an order if you just aren't sure what you want right away.
I just found your channel today and I’m obsessed. I love how much time and effort you put into all of your videos!! Keep up the amazing work! :)
He wants to be a nighttime show host. So, that's the vibe, he's going for and I love it as well.
I don't eat fast food anymore, but when I did, the local Taco Bell had some of the longest wait times. Cars would frequently spill out into the street, the line was so long. I usually just parked and went inside, and nearly every time I did, the manager would always apologize to everyone when he handed them their order.
14:52 when I worked at a Wendy's, the time in store was from when you approach the microphone box to when you leave the window. There are magnets that detect the car in both spots. So that's the in-store time
Your videos are quickly becoming some of my favorite content on YT. Thanks for all the hard work.
I worked at Taco Bell for 5 years...they have a timer above the drive through that starts as soon as you pull up to the window. They have goals for time averages. Only management got rewarded.
I will say time and time again. I love my local Taco Bell. The management must be top-notch because I never wait more than 5 minutes. 2 Minutes if I place my order ahead of time. They run it like a well-oiled machine.
Drive throughs in Korea are insane. McDonald’s breakfast especially almost always have the whole thing ready the moment you get to the window
I found your channel recently, and I'm so glad I did. Very informative, fun, and wholesome content. Thanks Sam!
Great video as usual, so cool that everyone got to help, hope you do more of these.
Super cool to be involved with a video and such an amazing concept executed to perfection 👌
It was super fun participating in this experiment, I even pulled double duty when extra slots needed to be filled. Thanks for including the photo for each of my two submissions, and I challenge anyone watching to try and spot the repeat!!
i dont know how this dude only has 250k, i swear everyone of his videos takes so much work. Deserves a mil minimum
Panda Express seems to be painfully slow even if only one or 2 people ahead. Consistently have to wait at menu board for them to be ready to take your order.
Also...dig the Mario Party music vibes.
The DJ Khaled of youtube right now. All he does is release "Another one" . Great concept. Love it. Good stuff
This was such a cool thing to participate in. I love your commitment to your audience, it's what makes you the best in the game. Keep up the amazing work, Love you Sam!
Yes taco bell times are recorded and sent to head office, automatically in fact. Every single day you're told your average time for morning, afternoon and night and are supposed to write it on a whiteboard, and head office will yell at the managers if you get too slow.
I'm intrigue even though I'm not even located in the US. Many thanks, Sam Reid :)
Been watching since 9k subs. Nonstop bangers. Can't wait to see what the future holds!
You never miss. Thanks for the vid Sam!
We have too many McDonalds, but one of them in our town you can't see how long the lanes are when you're first driving up. You kind of just have to pick one and once in line, it also has little dividers between the two lanes so if you go into one and it's longer, but notice the others shorter you cannot move over to it unless you back up.
I love concepts like this; I’m so glad I found your channel. Getting your own data, serving up facts!!!
My wife and I have been addicted to your channel lately. Your content is really awesome and refreshing.
Also Wendy’s being fast at all is surprising because I have the same experience as you at my local one
So glad I could provide you with a very wild time at McDonald’s. The people working the drive thru that day said they’d been slammed for 2 and a half hours straight!