Braum's

[Easy180]

You would be amazed at the lengths people will go to not have to leave their cars

Would have around 2 or 3 people in the lobby and 10 cars deep in 3 drive thru lanes

[Patrick]

Midtowner posted this a few years ago. I couldn't resist posting it again:

[SoonerDave]

You can't seriously "hate" this decision, I am sure that you are being sarcastic.

No, I was quite serious. I agree that it probably exceeds the bounds of reasonable expectation for fresh produce, eg veggies and things like that, but for milk? A frozen pie? Half-gallon of ice cream? C'mon...That's not unreasonable.

-soonerdave

[BaconCheeseburgerDeluxe]

I have always thought it was a great idea to stop selling groceries through the drive through.

It speeds up the drive thru process and it exposes customers to new products that some customers may not know exists.

I love the Braums on Memorial and Macarthur. It has become my quickstop store. In a way they have become a picnic and bbq stop. You can buy soda,chips, buns, patties, veggies condiments and ice in almost all there stores now.

The Braums burger patties are awesome. They make them in a honeycomb cut, so that when they shrink during cooking it does not turn into a hockey puck. Like other store bought patties always do.

[Keith]

Midtowner posted this a few years ago. I couldn't resist posting it again:

Hey Patrick, did you ever think of going on a diet? LOL

[MadMonk]

I don't think they should be providing this service for any grocery items. You don't see Wal-Mart and grocery stores selling their items at drive thru windows. Braums should be no different.

Well, if they provide a service that customers want, what's wrong with that? I'm not saying you should be able to order your full grocery list. Just limit it to milk sales only (I imagine it was a very popular item). Perhaps even state that policy on the menu board where you order. It's a very nice service they provided that didn't take very long. Most of the time you would be waiting on the burger to cook anyway.

[Easy180]

So do they pay an extra person to go out to the milk cooler or do they make the cashier step away and get it madmonk?...Using the cashier slows up the line and paying an extra person is a waste of Braum's money

All about seconds in drive thrus...Some people will drive on if they see 4 or 5 cars in a line...I know cause I do it myself

[Patrick]

All about seconds in drive thrus...Some people will drive on if they see 4 or 5 cars in a line...I know cause I do it myself

Me too.

[MadMonk]

So do they pay an extra person to go out to the milk cooler or do they make the cashier step away and get it madmonk?...Using the cashier slows up the line and paying an extra person is a waste of Braum's money

All about seconds in drive thrus...Some people will drive on if they see 4 or 5 cars in a line...I know cause I do it myself

Please see my post mentioning having a small cooler nearby for the milk. Besides, when a customer is sitting there waiting for his/her order, a quick trip to get the milk is not something that would extend the wait.

[MadMonk]

So do they pay an extra person to go out to the milk cooler or do they make the cashier step away and get it madmonk?...Using the cashier slows up the line and paying an extra person is a waste of Braum's money

All about seconds in drive thrus...Some people will drive on if they see 4 or 5 cars in a line...I know cause I do it myself

Please see my post mentioning having a small cooler nearby for the milk. Even if they don't have something like that, when a customer is sitting there waiting for his/her order, a quick trip to get the milk is not something that would extend the wait any more than they already wait for them to put together the burger and fries.

Even barring all that, I'd still wait a few seconds longer for the convenience of getting the milk at the drive through. If you won't, then nobody's stopping you from going elsewhere. My guess is that more people liked the convenience than hated the extra wait.

[dismayed]

A huge part of a fast food restaurant's profitability is based on drive through wait time. I could definitely see why they would want to do this.

Plus, I get frustrated enough as it is when a mini-van is in front of me buying burgers for the entire soccer team. I couldn't imagine waiting for someone to rattle off their shopping list too.

[mranderson]

A huge part of a fast food restaurant's profitability is based on drive through wait time. I could definitely see why they would want to do this.

Plus, I get frustrated enough as it is when a mini-van is in front of me buying burgers for the entire soccer team. I couldn't imagine waiting for someone to rattle off their shopping list too.

I HATE fast food drive thru's. They are very slow and cost fuel with the car ideling so much. If I can not go in, even for my take out order, I will not eat there.

How can the drive thru be based on profit? It makes no sense to me.

[Karried]

I remember a few months back.. I was inside Braums on Memorial and a customer and his passenger were in the drive through.. I can't remember exactly what was said to the girl taking his order but she attacked him.... he was being pretty mellow and she was saying.. ' I know you didn't just grab those napkins out of my hand'! He was saying' What, what? No, I didn't grab the napkins' Something like that... I was shocked! I couldn't help but think...wth? This is customer service?

Knowing my temper, I would have reached through that window and grabbed something else, like her throat.

[jbrown84]

I always just go inside, even when I'm taking it to go.

Do the same thing at the bank.

[Patrick]

I always just go inside, even when I'm taking it to go.

Do the same thing at the bank.

You usually get better customer service that way.

[OkieKAS]

People with disAbilities can not always go inside
If I ask for my milk at the window....I get my milk at the window.


*Once, at McDonald's/Chickasha I requested Iced tea w/fresh Lemon, (appx 10:00 pm)......it was delivered to me w/o fresh lemon, asked again for the fresh lemon.....deliverer retrieved it, returned it back, shortly, w/o fresh lemon.....returned it again, retrieved it back again via no lemon......but this time the deliverer (a young teen girl) handed me an actual WHOLE lemon saying that she did not know how to "cut it up". I handed her another 50 cents and left..........::::true story::::

*At a KFC/El Reno, I asked for chicken breast strips and instead received a whole piece of chicken breast......driving back thru the drive - thru, I explained that I did get my correct order.....a young teen male said "I am so sorry, if I was smart, I wouldn't be working here". (I tipped him a $1) :::::true story:::::::

[dismayed]

How can the drive thru be based on profit? It makes no sense to me.

It's funny, I do the same thing a lot of times. I've found that so many people just use the drive though by default that you can usually walk right in, order, and get out long before the car you would have been behind even makes it to the window.

I have a friend in the restaurant management business and asked him about this. It turns out that almost all fast food places use some formula where they calculate the time from which you place your order at the speaker and the time you arrive at the window to get your order, and based on the average order price they calculate out how much they make in that window of time and are always trying to increase its speed.

I think perhaps the fatal flaw in that formula is that they start the clock when you place the order, not when you queue up into the line.

[Karried]

How can the drive thru be based on profit? It makes no sense to me.

I think in the long run they get more orders by not having people park and walk in.

Maybe they only have to hire one person taking the orders through the drive through and hire more to handle the walk in customers. I don't know about profitability.. more like an added convenience for customers.

With gas prices so high... I'm not wanting to sit idling in the line. I'll just walk in...

[okclee]

This is why Sonic is one of the fastest growing fast-food chains in the world. People love to stay in their car and order fast crappy food.

Come on Okies let's stay the fattest and unhealthy city in the U.S., we can do it if we all try.

[kevinpate]

While I'm very unlikely to ever be confused for a healthy eater, some of my family are regular consumers of healthy fare. They find it very possible to eat healthy at many of the fast food locations.

[PUGalicious]

How can the drive thru be based on profit? It makes no sense to me.

Seems to work for McDonald's. But, then again, I'm sure their business experience scarcely compares to your own.

[SoonerDave]

This is why Sonic is one of the fastest growing fast-food chains in the world. People love to stay in their car and order fast crappy food.

Come on Okies let's stay the fattest and unhealthy city in the U.S., we can do it if we all try.

Thank you for your condescending, superior, judgmental, holier-than-thou observation on everyone else!

I guess we can rest assured nothing as lowly as a "crappy" hamburger has ever deigned to cross your lips.

The point isn't about being "lazy" in a drive through, it's about customer service. The Braum's situation is merely one more benchmark in our American retail culture that promotes the notion that a customer is an inconvenience, not the source of a retailer's livelihood.

I'm reminded of a sign I saw in one small restaurant some time ago that had words to the effect of "Customers are NOT an inconvenience. Customers are NOT a hassle. Customers are the reason we have a paycheck, the reason our doors are open, and the reason you have a job."

This isn't a carte blanche license for customers to treat foodservice employees like garbage, but a reminder to keep the cart before the horse. Serve the customer. If you don't remember and honor your customers, you end up like the General Motors corporation, twenty years too late asking the question, "Where did all the customers go?"

-soonerdave

[MadMonk]

Thank you for your condescending, superior, judgmental, holier-than-thou observation on everyone else!

I guess we can rest assured nothing as lowly as a "crappy" hamburger has ever deigned to cross your lips.

The point isn't about being "lazy" in a drive through, it's about customer service. The Braum's situation is merely one more benchmark in our American retail culture that promotes the notion that a customer is an inconvenience, not the source of a retailer's livelihood.

I'm reminded of a sign I saw in one small restaurant some time ago that had words to the effect of "Customers are NOT an inconvenience. Customers are NOT a hassle. Customers are the reason we have a paycheck, the reason our doors are open, and the reason you have a job."

This isn't a carte blanche license for customers to treat foodservice employees like garbage, but a reminder to keep the cart before the horse. Serve the customer. If you don't remember and honor your customers, you end up like the General Motors corporation, twenty years too late asking the question, "Where did all the customers go?"

-soonerdave

[GrandMaMa]

Actually, Braum's is not national. Their operating rules dictate that they have to be able to deliver fresh milk within a certain driving radius of their Tuttle plant (which is open for public tours, by the way, which is a lot of fun). That necessarily restricts them to core region in the central/southern Midwest, eg Oklahoma, North Texas, perhaps into southern Kansas (?), and they (per the last tour I took) have no desire to open any other/broader regional farms/dairies.

One of the great stories they'll tell you is that they had one of their milk transport trucks designed *specifically* and *only* for transport within the confines of the Tuttle dairy. It's too big to run on regular roads; they use it exclusively to ship the fresh milk to the processing plant. Depending on their schedule, if you time it just right, it's possible to get milk from a Braum's store that was produced less than 24 hours previously.

During the tour, the tour guides tell you how the original Mr. Braum was an absolute obsessive about running an efficient and clean operation, and after touring their plant, I think the family has done a great job of upholding that tradition. The place is impeccable, and it's evident the processes are refined to the nth degree. You leave the tour just itching to go buy some Braum's milk and ice cream!!

No, I do not work for Braum's, just a big fan. Best milk anywhere, IMHO, and NO BGH (bovine growth hormone).

They also have one of the most sophisticated (and expensive) water extraction systems in the world, and they use it to decrease the water content of their reduced-fat milks. It's why those products taste so much better/richer than the counterparts from other dairy companies.

-soonerdave

By saying "All over the country" I didn't mean to imply Nationally, but I supposed it sounded that way...thanks for the clarification...

[BailJumper]

This is why Sonic is one of the fastest growing fast-food chains in the world. People love to stay in their car and order fast crappy food.

Hmmmmm, no. They make a pretty damn good hamburger and coney for a great price. Especially considering how little meat is actually on one of their burgers.

Personally, i hate to eat in a car. We usually order ours to go.