Are fast food places becoming quasi members-only clubs?

[fzxdoc]

We use the Chick-Fil-A app because the regular drive-thru lines are usually long(ish) and the app line is always the shortest. My husband loves their spicy chicken sandwiches so much that he always has me take a photo of him eating one to send to his (also CFA-loving) buddy in the neighborhood who will most likely not be having Chick-Fil-A that day. The closet CFA to us is 1 hour away.

Kathryn

[Steve R.]

If my CFA had an app lane I might not have stopped going there for breakfast sandwiches. Well, that and I realized their sausage, egg and cheese biscuit has 1,510 mg of sodium. 💀

[Carolyn]

CFA chicken biscuits. 😋

[Uncle Bob]

This is a subject worthy of a lengthy and multi-faceted explanation/analysis...which has probably been done by business management firms galore. I'll just focus on one of a wide spectrum of factors.

One of the more valuable objectives of any business is obtaining customers. One of the age old tools has been advertising; TV ads, yellow pages (or the internet equivalent now), mailers, newspaper ads, and on and on. The old metric was "the more eyes on your ad the more potential customers it will generate". A crude and questionable metric with no tracking for effectiveness. As an example, last night the bride and I were headed down I-35 and saw a billboard. At 75 mph all we were able to discern was the picture of two women hugging each other, the 8-9 word message along side of that pic which was their pitch was completely lost on us because it was too many words and too small to grasp at the speed we were driving. Thousands of people potentially see that sign and it does absolutely no good for whoever is paying for it.

Getting someone to join and load an app effectively locks in a customer to some degree depending on how they view and use the app. If you're an old goat like me you learned buying habits in a different time with different methods. A twenty something today grew up in an internet driven lifestyle and for the most part doesn't know any different way to engage a business and make buying decisions. If you (not unlike me) don't care to use those engagement systems you're not the target market. If as a business I can gain a loyal customer through an app and have them on the hook for potentially the next 40 or so years they are more valuable than the old goat who'll probably die in the next 10 years. Such is progress (?)....

[SheilaAnn]

Interesting perspective! I am having a similar conversation…..

[SheilaAnn]

The only food/bev related app I have is for coffee bean and tea leaf.

and I do belong to the Petco club because I spend enough that the rewards are worth it.

[jfmorris]

The only apps I have ever used to order food are the Domino's and Papa John's apps, as those places rarely answer their phone anymore, based on watching them while I am waiting to pickup a pizza I ordered through the app. Both are 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the house, and I can order a pizza or three, see when it hits the oven, and know that it is time to hop in the truck and run around the corner for the pizza after a couple of minutes in the oven.

I did it the other night after the daughter and grandson were swimming with me, and I had promised my grandson pizza. Boom! 15 minutes later we had a meatlovers and a deluxe pizza.

I am seriously NOT going to use an app to order for a place that has a drive through window, or for a place where I can walk up to the counter and order. So for me, pizza is the exception.

Plus it takes a few minutes when I have all the kids and grandkids over to figure out what everyone wants, and I can build the order on the app.

[bbqLuv]

The bean counters call it a step Profit-Forward.

I get a senior discount when available

[LA Pork Butt]

It is all about efficiency and profits. My father-in-law refused to take the grocery carts to the cart coral, because he didn’t want to take someone’s job. The app order and the kiosk ultimately eliminates someone’s job and increases profits. I rarely use self checkout at stores, because I am with my father-in-law on this one, I am helping a cashier keep their job.

[surfdog]

Yeah, unless I’m in a mad rush and have one or two items, I rarely use the self checkout.
Besides, I feel like I should get an employee discount if I’m the one doing all of the work.

[Purc]

My youngest son and his family all use apps for everything. I remember my oldest granddaughter, 11 at the time, came in with her iPad asking if I wanted anything from Starbucks, she was placing the family order for pickup on the way to school. They order take out food delivery weekly. With 3 kids very involved in sports, I understand the need and usage of restaurant apps in their busy lives.

[surfdog]

I don’t use store/fast food apps. I haven’t seen the need. I DO have the Starbucks app but that’s because it makes it easier to manage the number of gift cards that I seem to acquire every year. That said, its location data is set to “Only When Using the App.’” They don’t need ANY more information than that. The ONLY payment method on the app is the gift cards.

I find little use for the other apps. I try to eat fast food as little as possible. So saving 50 cents or a dollar here & there isn’t worth the cost in data. Besides, I don’t trust their security enough to have a card linked to their app.

And other places, like everyone’s favourite place to shop, have robust web pages…so again, no need. FWIW, I’ve used the app on my SO’s tablet…and, quite frankly, it was Tourette’s inducing. It’s easy to open up a couple pages on the web to compare things…not so much when stuck in one app. (But that’s probably to THEIR benefit.) Even comparing things on the app was problematic.

[Lynn Dollar]

I got this problem solved ............... I don't do fast food.