The line between fast food and “casual dining” continues to blur and may not exist for a long time. To compete with fast food chains, Applebee’s has announced the addition of drive-through windows in at least 15 locations by the end of the year. If it sounds like the secret of death to Appleby’s reputation as a seated restaurant, it’s probably because.
As with many other changes in the dietary world over the last three years, plans to install more drive-throughs are, of course, the result of a pandemic. As CNN Business reports, Applebee has seen a significant increase in take-out and delivery orders (up 27%) over the past two years, even after restaurants that have temporarily closed their dining room are allowed to reopen. .. The company will start with a limited test run of these 15 stores, and if profitability is proven, all over 1,600 restaurants in the chain could be drive-through. However, in particular, this is more like a pickup window than a traditional drive-through. Regular customers must pre-order via the Applebee website or smartphone app.
Even if it makes the future of Applebee look darker than ever, it’s an honestly sensible move. Only a few years ago, economists reached out to industries where millennials were “killing.” People in my age group have been blamed for the end of everything from cable TV to golf to chain restaurants. The main argument for the hip millennial generation, who didn’t want to step into Applebee’s, was very simple. The food was terrible. No matter how many $ 1 long island iced teas you drank, the fact remains that Appleby’s menu and how to cook foods that often use the microwave were clearly stalled in the past.
From his short tenure as a chain hostess to 15 years, Applebee’s cuisine hasn’t changed significantly. It’s true that there was a small shift on the menu, but there’s definitely an oriental chicken salad with an unpleasant name, just like the same old Fiesta Lime chicken that was scarfed between shifts. This is not the type of food designed to be portable in a drive-through. Also, leaving it under a heat lamp (or a takeaway container) for a long time will not work. By adding drive-throughs and getting closer to the fast food experience, we hope Diner doesn’t care too much about the fact that whiskey bacon burger bread is bought in stores and out of date. In fact, they would expect it.
But whether someone actually chooses Applebee’s drive-through over other fast-food chains is a completely different matter. The price of Applebee’s is high and the food doesn’t look significantly better than winning double-double, for example in-N-Out. Countless other facilities have been selling chicken tenders, burgers, and even salads through drive-through windows for years. There is no reason to think that Applebee’s is better than Popeyes or McDonald’s, whose menus are carefully designed. You can eat it for takeaway. Brands like Taco Bell also avoid the death curse of millennials by creating unique cultural cachets. Applebee’s hasn’t yet announced an NFT collaboration with the guy who wrote the horrifying song about a date night on the chain, but it seems like the mood Applebee’s wants to take advantage of.
The chain makes big bets on the assumption that it can reproduce some of the success of fast food, but it seems strange to think that it is a sure bet. Perhaps this idea makes more sense where dietary options are limited and Applebee’s is legally part of the weekly dietary rotation. But in most cases, it seems to admit Appleby’s defeat to the unparalleled power of millennial food snobs, and ultimately admit that it’s now just a fast food chain.
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