| Sunday, January 20, 2002 |
14:06 - In-N-Out is So Cool
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The people in charge of In-N-Out Burger know from experience that all they have to do, if they want to instantly capture the lunchtime share of hundreds and hundreds of people in a neighborhood on a given day, is to open a store. They don't have to market. They don't have to advertise. They open up a store, and instantly the counter line will be out the door and the drive-thru line will be ten cars deep. And it won't ever dissipate. McDonalds only wishes they could have such a mad cult following.
The new In-N-Out on Capitol Expressway takes into account all the lessons of the previous ones, though. The drive-through lane travels all the way around the property, can fit at least fifteen cars, and they have runners on foot out at the end of the line taking orders on a wireless pad and exchanging money at the front of the line. It's all optimized so that one doesn't spend any more time in line there than in the drive-through for Wendy's or Taco Bell.
Now if only they hadn't built it in a corner shopping plaza where the only exits open onto one-way divided streets-- so it takes two minutes to get there and fifteen to wind my way back through surface streets...
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