Food Theory: Taco Bell Is Killing Amazon!

welcome to taco bell hey i uh i heard you reduced your drive through wait times that we did served by more than 15 seconds how'd you pull that one off i can't tell you that but what i can tell you is that we fulfilled your order five seconds ago no way [Music] hello internet welcome to food theory yokiro notification bell not to go all grandpapad on your theorists but boy howdy has fast food changed why back in my day going to a fast food restaurant meant playing in a bacteria infested ball pit for a while then you would eat your food without bothering to wash your hands and then we would psychologically forge a lifelong brand loyalty to the restaurant by playing with whatever toy they shoved into our meal and we were not only liking it we were loving it now of course these days a trip to the fast food restaurant plays out a wee bit differently heck they probably won't even let you eat in the dining room let alone jump in a ball pit point is there's been a huge shift towards a more contactless fast food experience over the past year due to kovid and it's turned everything on its head for instance mcdonald's is now doing 90 of its us sales at the drive-thru window 90 and digital orders that is orders placed through the restaurants app or through third-party apps like ubereats are spiking as well take chipotle whose q2 digital sales grew 216 year-over-year and yum brands the parent company of kfc taco bell and pizza hut reports that every single one of their brands has had a record-setting year when it comes to digital orders as you might expect quick service restaurants or qsrs as the industry calls them have taken note and are making changes to give their customers the contactless experience that they desire drive through efficiency has been a major area focus and restaurants are pulling out all the stops to shorten the wait times for their drive through customers many qsrs are reducing the number of items offered on the menu or are even turning to digital menu boards that collect data on customer behavior and then use that to predict what you're gonna order no joke and those are just a couple of examples of the small changes that are being implemented many qsrs are investing in permanent structural alterations to their buildings fast casual restaurants like chipotle are scrambling to add drive-through lanes and quick-serve restaurants that already have drive-throughs are expanding them mcdonald's is turning many of its single-lane drive-throughs into two lane drive-throughs as we speak same with kfc whose next generation prototype features a second separate drive-through lane for mobile pickups only but it's taco bell of all restaurants that's really pulling off the galaxy brain moves here first they're opening taco bell go mobile locations which do away with the dining room all together resulting in a building that's 47 smaller than a traditional taco bell restaurant but while that's certainly a new concept for taco bell drive-through only places have always been around what's the big deal no what i really want to discuss in today's episode is the first of its kind restaurant taco bell hopes to build in brooklyn park minnesota the franchisee who submitted building plans to the city earlier this month claims that this experimental taco bell location will be quote so different that it has never been constructed anywhere before and honestly i can't bring myself to disagree theorists look at this thing there's no dining room there are designated curbside pickup spots for mobile orders and it has four count them four drive-through lanes one lane on the end to accommodate oversized vehicles and three lanes passing directly beneath where the kitchen is located up on the second floor orders get lowered down to the customers on dumb waiters gotta admit this building looks an awful lot like a drive-through bank and i was kind of hoping that the orders might get fulfilled via pneumatic tube but i guess dumb waiters are cool too i mean you can't help but admire just how hard taco bell went with this building oh drive-through orders are up boom four lanes people aren't dining in as much boom no more dining room customers want a contact-less experience boom we will serve you with dumb waiters like we're lowering bread to the unwashed masses below so this is obviously a bold move on taco bell's part especially when you consider that i've never been to a taco bell and seen more than two cars in line don't get me wrong i love me some nachos belgrande as much as the next guy but four four lanes that is mighty presumptuous of you taco bell i don't know what's going on up there in minnesota but uh i wouldn't be surprised if toilet sales and plumbing services also needed to expand in recent years you get what i'm saying you get it taco bell causes you to poop or is taco bell playing some other game here you see well it's easy to dismiss this as just some experimental headline grabbing restaurant concept that'll go the way of the dinosaur once the pandemic ends and everything goes back to normal i'm here to tell you that taco bell is playing a much bigger game here this isn't just about loading your bowels with the remnants of a cheesy gordita crunch slightly faster there's something else afoot taco bell via this restaurant is looking to not only change fast food with this design they're looking to change everything about the way we shop and it pains me to say this because i really wanted my son to have that same bacteria infested ball pit experience i had as a child but the fact of the matter is this there's a storm of brewing my friends a perfect storm in which public health economics and technology simultaneously converge to reshape multiple industries at the same time and it's taco bell of all places that is on the cutting edge buckle up theorists because when it comes to the future of food taco bell's two-story four-lane drive-thru monstrosity is only a taste of what's in the forecast so let's take a closer look at the three factors that are contributing to this perfect storm first up fast food isn't ever going back to normal because the restaurants don't want things to go back to normal think about it this way a customer who orders a burger in the drive-through is more valuable to the restaurant than a customer who sticks around and enjoys their hamburger in the dining room it costs money to clean the dining area each day it costs money to lease that extra square footage each month the dining room needs air conditioning and lighting and decor it is a money pit but none of those costs apply to a drive-through customer who leaves with their food without ever stepping foot inside so drive through and take out customers are great to have but getting them is the tricky part or at least it was the tricky part until last year with contactless dining experiences in such high demand fast food customers and the restaurants now find themselves in a curious position they both want the exact same thing less dining in and more take out and drive through so as we watch quick service restaurants bend over backwards to provide more and more drive-through lanes we need to keep in mind that this is as much about giving the customer what they want as it is about enticing customers to drive through even long after the pandemic fades away now to the second factor that's contributing to the storm technology third-party delivery apps are booming which is allowing ghost kitchens to thrive now we've already tackled this topic in a recent video so definitely go watch our mr beast burger ghost kitchen episode if you haven't already but here's the skinny on the spooky ghost kitchens if a restaurant has a staff and commercial kitchen that's being underutilized they can become a ghost kitchen and prepare menu items for other restaurants on the down low the ghost kitchen gets a cut for preparing the meal and the customer gets the delicious professionally cooked meal they wanted even if it's coming from a restaurant that they might not have expected now the rise of ghost kitchens is great news for this wacky new taco bell restaurant because they couldn't possibly have a more ideal building for this kind of setup after all it's designed to fulfill drive-through and curbside pickup orders as efficiently as possible making it the dream scenario for food delivery drivers and by becoming a ghost kitchen or even by sharing their kitchen space with another restaurant the brooklyn park taco bell location could mitigate a lot of its risk think about it like this taco bell's lowest performing time of day is breakfast to hedge against this they could team up with a restaurant that does perform well in the morning like starbucks or krispy kreme that way their second story kitchen and four drive-thru lanes are humming along at full capacity morning noon and night and it's more important than ever for qsrs to operate at max capacity because it's estimated that by 2022 70 of all delivery orders will be placed through third-party apps like ubereats and postmates and this is a bit of a double-edged sword true third-party apps bring more customers to the restaurant but it can come at a steep cost for example last year restaurant consultant giuseppe bedlamenti posted to facebook a grub hub receipt from an anonymous restaurant he works with after fees and commissions that restaurant's 1042 dollars in sales became just 376 dollars not even enough to cover the cost of the food according to battle amenti granted restaurants don't have to sign up with third-party delivery apps but if 70 of customers are ordering through the apps that's a little like sandwell the restaurant doesn't have to stay in business either now some cities have stepped in with regulations that limit third-party delivery app fees typically around 15 or so but there are plenty of areas out there with no such regulations and restaurants don't have the clout to negotiate better terms with the delivery apps in the midst of a pandemic like this which brings us to the third factor in this perfect storm that's going to permanently change fast food for good restaurants need a way to stand up to the delivery apps and joining forces is maybe the best way to do it now possibly my favorite thing about taco bell's brooklyn park concept aside from the fact that it seems to have like parking for 10 000 bicycles out front is how easily the building can scale need to add more kitchen space because you've partnered up with a ton of other restaurants and now your shared kitchen is basically a huge drive-through food court no sweat just extend your kitchen space a bit further oh and guess what that creates more space for yet another drive-through lane underneath which will accommodate the influx of new orders and if enough restaurants start delivering out of one location then delivery costs should get driven way down not only will all the restaurants sharing the kitchens be able to collectively negotiate better terms with the app but theoretically the delivery driver would be able to pick up multiple orders on one trip through the same drive through suddenly rather than five drivers making five deliveries from five different restaurants now a single driver can pick up all five orders at once at the same drive through window plus if this drive through food court grows large enough they might be able to start their own delivery app or even reject third party delivery apps altogether so taco bell was definitely thinking outside the bun with her brooklyn park restaurant concept and ultimately i believe they're over the top or should i say under the bottom drive-through concept will catch on in one way or another after all who doesn't love efficiency other commercial businesses could just as easily put this concept to good use as well because at the end of the day taco bell's designed a contactless distribution center capable of accommodating personal vehicles and that is a huge deal because it's not just fast food customers who want efficient contactless options all sorts of customers want those things that's why grocery stores home improvement centers and the likes of amazon have been dumping outrageous sums of money into solving the logistical nightmare that's called last mile delivery last mile delivery refers to the final step of the delivery process when the product travels from the warehouse to its final destination usually the customer's house or a retail store shelf say for instance you make the wise decision to purchase a theory ware zip hoodie congratulations on your life decisions by the way you're gonna look great in that thing now after the hoodie gets manufactured it begins a long journey to a distribution center despite the fact that it's traveling so far this part of the trip is pretty inexpensive because that hoodie can be shipped in bulk with thousands of other hoodies as well as other incredible theory wear products which surprisingly would all look great in your home come to think of it but when your hoodie reaches the distribution center that's when things get tricky not to mention expensive because those thousand theory ware products must now go their separate ways to get delivered to a thousand different theorists in the area multiple trucks and schedules and routes have to be coordinated which is why a whopping 53 percent of shipping costs go to this so-called last mile even though it represents a mere fraction of the total distance that that hoodie had to travel overall meanwhile drive through sidestep last mile delivery entirely drive-through customers straight up drive themselves to the restaurant aka the distribution center using their own vehicle and their own gas and their own time and they pick up the product themselves forget last mile it now becomes more like last inch why do customers do it because it's really no skin off their back drive-throughs are placed conveniently along routes that they're already traveling meaning that they can get the product at a moment's notice whenever they want to get it it's a win-win for fast food products and with the right kind of building it can be a win-win for all other types of products as well so the drive-thru yes the lowly drive-through could actually be the elegant and inexpensive distribution solution that everyone's been looking for and it's been under our noses the entire time imagine pulling into the nearest taco bell and ordering a chalupa a krispy kreme donut and also everything on your shopping list for the week there's no delivery process to speak of so taco bell is able to offer you all sorts of products that amazon either can't or won't deliver ice cream eggs alcohol when i lived in california amazon even refused to ship light bulbs to the house i can't believe i'm about to utter the sentence but taco bell can fulfill my needs in a way that amazon never could a building that allows customers to pick up their orders for themselves or hire someone else to pick it up for them could alleviate the entire problem until of course drones become a thing and solve last mile delivery for good so in the end i just got to say this for as dumb as taco bell's new design looks on paper it looks really good when it comes to the future of shopping as we know it so that looks good for the future of shopping but do you know what looks good for the future of learning skillshare our sponsor for today's episode skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people whether you're looking to explore new skills or deepen an existing passion skillshare can help you reach that next level they have classes on everything from culinary arts to video production to productivity hear that right theorists they have courses that actually teach you to boost your productivity as a matter of fact i took their class productivity for creatives build a system that brings out your best taught by 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Channel: The Food Theorists

Views: 2,315,568

Rating: 4.9536166 out of 5

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Id: LbuoZYZLipc

Length: 14min 58sec (898 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021