QSR March 2023

®

®

The Fast-Food Dining Room Lives On / B Y D A N N Y K L E I N QSR FSR

In 2015, a time that now feels like a digital Stone Age for restaurants, CAVA CEO Brett Schulman recognized a potential hazard. Mobile devices and digital ordering systems were turning food procurement into an Amazon-esque experience. The ability to build and customize meals for pickup had the potential to further bifurcate the sector. While the divide between convenience and experience was nothing novel to full- and quick-service operators, the idea this dichotomy could exist within the latter was something new. ¶ Even in fast food and fast casual, technology was cracking wide a world where guests held the controls more than ever. Nearly every guest in every market now had a drive-thru in the palm of their hands. “Omnichannel” might not have been in the common restaurant vernacular, but it was a concept plenty of operators were building toward without realizing it. ¶ And it was the customer taking them there. Reports of its demise appear greatly exaggerated. But that doesn’tmean it hasn’t evolved.

CAVA / TIM ROBISON

60

INDUSTRY-WIDE ISSUE

MARCH 2023

Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software