BL Companies Executive Director of Land Development and Principal Michelle Carlson drew on her expertise to provide the blueprint for selecting optimal drive-thru sites for QSR Magazine. Quick service restaurants depend on a lot more than the food and drinks they serve to attract and retain customers. Much of the success of a drive-thru comes down to building design and location.
Headlined “Getting Drive-Thru Site Selection Right,” Michelle’s article touches on how to identify sites that will support long-term growth. Traffic patterns, circulation and community context shape the customer experience as much as the fries and shakes. Here is an excerpt:
A parcel can look ideal based on acreage, visibility, and access, yet become unworkable once peak-hour flow is mapped. Innovative operators have maximized the number of customers they can serve in a day, but no amount of operational efficiency can compensate for a site that isn’t physically capable of holding a queue.
The central test is whether all vehicles can be contained on site without spilling into public roads or shared drive aisles. That depends on the orientation of the building, the length and shape of the queue lane, how cars enter and circulate, and how local traffic behaves during peak periods. Two half-acre parcels may perform entirely differently depending on whether they sit on a sleepy rural corridor or a high-pressure suburban arterial.
Traffic context is as influential as geometry and failing to plan for queuing is the fastest way for a seemingly viable site to fall apart. It’s also the most common reason QSRs abandon parcels late in due diligence.
Read the full article here.