Our drive thru is NOT a walk up!

[kpzra]

I've done walk-up, but only because the ambulance wouldn't fit and it was 0300ish.

[redleg]

i've always wondered. does a bicycle count as a walk up or a drive up?

[notlovinit]

i've always wondered. does a bicycle count as a walk up or a drive up?

In our case, it's not heavy enough to trip our sensor so it would be a walkup and we can't take their order. The smallest vehicle we can take is a motorcycle. I know we can sit here and argue that it's basically the same thing, but that's our policy and it is what it is.
I don't know many fast food restaurants that will accept walkups in the drive thru. It's pretty much against all coporations policy. I know some managers will do it anyway, but I won't. I seem to have the bad luck where I would get the one transaction where the walkup decides to rob us or actually gets hit by a car or whatever and then I will have to deal with that.
That's our policy and I'm sticking with it. I hate all the sucky people that think I HAVE to take their order. No, I really don't. I can refuse to serve you, even if you're in a car, because this is private property and I can decide who I want on it.

Edit: I'd also like to mention that I do not think that people who attempt walk-up are sucky. The ones that throw a huge fit because I will not do it are the sucky ones.

[caitsith2]

Actually, I have had experience with Walk-Ups, and Bicycles. True that a bicycle standing up isn't big enough to trip the sensor. However, laying that bike down will trip it, and if the bike is laid down throughout the order, as to keep the speaker system active, then yeah, the order can be taken there.

Also the same thing with sensor based traffic lights. Takes laying a bicycle down to trip that sensor.

[telecom_goddess]

I have always wondered about that. I know drive-ups can be open 24 hours but the lobby closes at 11:30pm. And that the drive-up can't take walk-ups (for safety reasons, if none else.) But isn't this practice a little discriminatory towards non-drivers?

Just wonderin'....

Yes it is...I don't own a car and I don't think it's fair I have NO option to get food if I needed it late at night for some reason. This used to bug the hell out of me when I was coming home on a graveyard shift. EVERYTHING is geared towards drivers those that don't drive get no options.

[PatchO'Black]

Remembering back to my days in fast food, I recall having similar rules in place regarding the Drive-Thru. No law against taking walk-ups, but usually it was a case of what the insurance covered. Basic rule of thumb was that if it was human-powered, then we couldn't have it come through drive-thru. As for it being unfair, well, getting food from a restaurant at all is a privilege, not a right, and they don't have to have a drive-thru at all.

This reminds me that, at my first real fast food job, since my hometown was semi-rural, we would occasionally have horse-riders come through the drive-thru. We figured that, well, they were heavy enough to trigger the alert and speaker system, and weren't human-powered, so...

[tollbaby]

First off, I don't know any drive-thrus around here that will take walk-ups. I do recall some of my classmates doing that at a DQ once, during the day, on a field trip in high school. Second, tollbaby, exactly how does one get abandoned in such a place, just out of curiosity? Wow!

I had come to New York (via Newark Airport) for a special meeting (at the insistence of the guy running the meeting). I was supposed to be staying with him, but when he came to pick me up at the airport, his wife called him on his cell to say, "You're not bringing THAT WOMAN to my house!"... no clue what that was about, as neither he, nor his wife, had ever met me face-to-face, and there certainly wasn't ANYTHING between her husband and I... anyway, he got me a hotel in Newark and said he'd come pick me up in the morning, in time for the meeting. Next morning, he calls half an hour AFTER he said he'd pick me up, to say, "Meet me at the train station!"

Walking through downtown Newark at 7am is quite the eye-opener for a Canadian girl... fast forward a few hours, we've had our meeting, and we're on our way out to lunch with some friends and associates. I feel inside my coat pocket... wtf??? NO MONEY!!! My pocket got picked on the subway :/ grrr. So here I am in Manhattan with no money. Kev and I take the subway back to Newark so I can catch my flight home except... Kevin, who had lived in Newark for FIVE FREAKING YEARS, didn't know that the subway didn't go all the way out the airport. Cue missed flight and frantic rescheduling.

Flight is rescheduled for 10am the next morning. We still have the problem of Kev's wife being totally psychotic about having me over, so he goes over the hotel boards at the airport trying to find somewhere cheap. He found a place where rooms were $59.95, gave me $60 and put me on the shuttle -- to Union, NJ.

I get to the hotel around 9pm, and lo and behold, Kevin forgot to give me enough money to cover the TAXES on the room. He's also turned his cellphone off, so I can't reach him. I call around to our other friends, and they're all staying in places considerably north of NYC (thus very far from me) and none of them have cars at their disposal... The hotel owner gets all pissy when I ask him if I can just take the shuttle back to the airport so I can sleep there, and says "Shuttle for paying customers ONLY. You walk."

Um... wha????

I had to spend an hour frantically phoning my boyfriend and my ex-husband back and forth to try to get some money transferred to my own account so I could pay the tax on the room and get something to eat (skipped lunch, remember? My pocket got picked). I had scoped out the KFC/Taco Bell across the street and figured I could get something cheap there. Finally, transfer goes through, I get the key to my room, and creepy hotel guy (the owner's son, whom I've referred to for SEVEN YEARS now as Creepy Hotel Guy) shows me to my room, messes around with the heater, and tries to get me to allow him to hug me / give me a massage because he knew I was "upset".... I politely declined and headed out for food.

By the time I got to the KFC, they had JUST closed the lobby like five minutes before. UGH. GOt my food (through the story previously told), went back to my room, and I was just getting ready to crash when someone knocked on the door. I very quietly tiptoed over, and saw CHG through the peephole. I oh-so-quietly engaged the privacy lock and hid in the bathroom. Sure enough, thirty seconds later, he tried his key in the door (and these were metal keys, not plastic cards). UGH. I also engaged the bar lock on the patio door and closed the curtains and turned off all the lights. Good thing, too, because he tried to get in that way as well. BLECH. I finally fell asleep, got up the next morning, took the shuttle back to Newark Airport and flew to Detroit where I encountered a whole different set of problems I won't recount here.

And that's how I ended up stranded in Union, NJ.

Suffice to say I never let ANYONE make my travel arrangements and always research an escape for myself wherever I go now.

[rose_metal_nz]

Wow tollbaby that's horrible I'm so glad nothing [worse] happened to you!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I have always wondered about that. I know drive-ups can be open 24 hours but the lobby closes at 11:30pm. And that the drive-up can't take walk-ups (for safety reasons, if none else.) But isn't this practice a little discriminatory towards non-drivers?

Just wonderin'....

Yes it is...I don't own a car and I don't think it's fair I have NO option to get food if I needed it late at night for some reason. This used to bug the hell out of me when I was coming home on a graveyard shift. EVERYTHING is geared towards drivers those that don't drive get no options.

I agree it is discrimination.

So what? People without cars are not protected by any non-discrimination laws.

If it is really so important to you to be able to order to order food after hours with no car, I guess you could petition the restaurant owner to keep the dining room open longer, or to install a separate menu board and pickup window that you can access without stepping off the sidewalk. In most places, that market isn't going to be big enough to justify the investment or the insurance risk.

[Andara Bledin]

If I found myself out and about during the wee hours but had no car with which to make drive through purchases often enough, I think I'd look into getting a cheap moped or the like. Low power enough that I wouldn't have to have a license, but "motorized" enough that it would count for taking through the drive through lane.

As for discrimination, it's the same to refuse service to those without shirts; it's not a protected status, so you're better off getting the item you lack than railing against the people with the rules.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

Now personally i wouldn't mind seeing walk-up windows as a separate option - but that does exist for some establishments, like Sonic, where you can sit at the outdoor table and push the button to order...

What I'm wondering about is this however...

Her: I don't think I should walk that far. I have a car, but I'm drunk right now.

If it's too far to walk across the street... how did she get to Taco Bell in the first place?
O yes, her car was there. ... obviously she was driving drunk already, unless there's a bar within walking distance of the TB.

[Amina516]

I was just getting ready to crash when someone knocked on the door. I very quietly tiptoed over, and saw CHG through the peephole. I oh-so-quietly engaged the privacy lock and hid in the bathroom. Sure enough, thirty seconds later, he tried his key in the door (and these were metal keys, not plastic cards). UGH. I also engaged the bar lock on the patio door and closed the curtains and turned off all the lights. Good thing, too, because he tried to get in that way as well..

Wow. Thats just wrong and icky.

[notlovinit]

If it's too far to walk across the street... how did she get to Taco Bell in the first place?
O yes, her car was there. ... obviously she was driving drunk already, unless there's a bar within walking distance of the TB.

This was actually at McD's.. I just brought up the TB because it's lobby was open at the time. Yeah, I wondered this too, but I figured she took the bus, because there is a bus stop right next to my work. There IS a bar within walking distance, but it's still quite far for a drunk person to walk and certainly farther away than the BK was from us. Oh, or the bar semi-close to us actually has a shuttle service for their patrons. It's kind of cool. They will drive these drunk people wherever they want to go. I fully support the program, but HATE when they drop off these drunk people at my work.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I remember the early McDonald's that only had walk-up window service.

[Andara Bledin]

Fast food establishments that have walk up windows are almost always the ones built without lobbies. The local Rally's and Der Wienerschnitzel are both that way. No lobbies, so they have a walk up window so they can serve those not in cars, and a few tables out front.

^-.-^