Drive-Thru Nation

If I was to pick a word that aptly described our nation, it might very well be convenience. America is all about convenience. We want everything fast, now, according to our schedule and timetable, and to require the least amount of effort for us. We’re regimented in our routines, determine how are days should play out in our heads, and then don’t handle it very well when they don’t. But can you blame us? I feel like I hear in the news that we work more now than ever and spend less time doing the things that America has provided us with the freedom to do. I think this has a clear impact on how we spend our free time.

I was in the drive-thru line at the bank yesterday morning to get cash out of the ATM. Unfortunately for me, the ATM line doubles as a normal drive-thru teller line. Unbeknownst to me, I was behind a problem customer who took way longer than she should have. And I caught myself thinking: Why doesn’t she just go inside? It’s a lot easier to get help face to face with a human being. But then I realized, why was I not inside? Why were the six other cars in line not inside?

A similar scene unfolds at one of my favorite fast food restaurants, Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A is heaven in a red and white bag. Unfortunately, this is common knowledge! I have rarely been to a Chick-Fil-A when there has not been a horrendous line at the drive-thru. For that reason, I almost always go inside, where surprisingly, there is little to no wait and a wall of cashiers waiting with smiling faces to help me. The Chick-Fil-A nearest my house is a busy one. Probably busier than the typical Chick-Fil-A. It has two drive-thru lanes, and not only that, but employees actually walk to your car to take your order! So let me get this straight: 1) there are two drive-thru lanes and 2) someone else has to walk to my car to take my order because it makes the line go quicker, because there are so many people in their cars who are too lazy to get out and go inside. Got it?

Other common drive-thru establishments include coffee shops, dry cleaners, liquor stores, pharmacies, mail boxes, and probably many others that I can’t remember right now. Heck, I think Vegas even has drive-thru wedding chapels.

I can only guess that the drive-thru establishment was created because there was an unmet need. Otherwise, they would not have been successful. But who created this need? Who decided that driving through someplace, never having to get out of your car, would be good for society? Convenience. It’s kind of a bad word. For one, it encourages laziness, which America has enough of a problem with. But more disturbing to me is the fact that we lose the human element of so many aspects of our daily lives. Instead of walking inside somewhere, quite possibly interacting with a number of people, we talk to a speaker, have a brief exchange with someone wearing a headset, or we punch numbers into a machine and get what we need.

Does this bother anyone else? Why is it that we have programmed ourselves to think its ok to avoid dealing with people? Isn’t that really what makes us human? One of the things that separates us from animals is our interaction with each other, our intelligence, emotions, the ability to feel and make conscious choices, moral or immoral. I’m not saying drive-thrus are immoral, I’m just saying that this country has chosen to take such a vital part of our existence, the human element, out of our lives.

When I lived in Australia, there were very few drive-thru establishments. Perhaps a few McDonalds and some local fast food chains, and that’s about it. No drive-thru banks, no drive-up ATMs, certainly no drive-thru dry cleaners or liquor stores (“bottle shops”). And guess what? The Australians are the most lovely people I have ever met. They are friendly, they are cheerful, and they interact so well with each other. I’m certainly not suggesting that drive-thrus in America have caused us to be such a bitter nation (I can think of a million other reasons for that), but I do think that the expectation of having to actually deal with a human being, in general, puts Americans in a bad mood. The Aussies don’t have a choice, so they embrace the human interaction. When this interaction happens, you hear stories about people, get involved in conversations that you can’t carry out through a speaker, and perhaps meet people who may be a part of your life forever!

At my dry cleaner, every time I go in to drop off or pick up my clothes, I have a conversation with the owner or the clerk who happens to be working. They both know me and I know them. I ask how their kids are, how their weekend was, what their plans are for the summer, and they ask similar questions of me. That can’t happen in a drive-thru. Well, I guess it typically can, but you’d be irritating the heck out of the people waiting in line behind you.

And there is something that I love about walking into a Starbucks or similar coffee shop: the buzz of the place, the smell of it, and the endless options of yummy treats and ever-changing drinks up for grabs. You see, I don’t think that coffee shops were ever intended to have drive-thru windows. A drive-thru window cannot replace the conversation with a good friend that happens over coffee and a scone, or the chance for you to relax and chill out while hearing the easy listening vibes playing over the speakers. Heck, if you go inside, you get to make your coffee exactly how you want it! What a novel idea! Instead, most people today take the chance to have someone else with a headset try to make their coffee just right, and that conversation over coffee and a scone? Well, it happens over text message now.

I fully understand that there are some times and places where drive-thrus are really justifiable. Take for instance a mother or father with three young kids in the car who is just quickly picking something up to take home. Rather than drag three young kids out of the car for a quick errand, perhaps a drive-thru makes sense. And honestly, if I’m the person in line inside, I probably think that the drive-thru makes sense for that parent too :-)

Or if it’s raining in Houston and you just have to have something from Chick-Fil-A, then a drive-thru window makes perfect sense. You can stay dry and get your little piece of heaven in a red and white bag! BUT, I’m sad that America has defaulted to this as the norm. I’m sad for everyone who embarks on daily journeys through endless drive-thru windows.

I, for one, rarely go through a drive-thru. I do use the ATM option (generally because that’s all the banks have to offer if you’re there after hours), and I will continue to do that. For me, it’s not really a high and mighty conscious decision to do this. It boils down to: a) I burn more calories getting out of my car and walking in, b) generally the line is shorter inside, c) you don’t have to deal with annoying impatient people and the technical difficulties that they are experiencing with the machine, and d) I actually LIKE the human interaction that I get from going inside. Call me crazy.

America thrives on convenience. And I love convenience, or at least the fact that it is available to me in almost everything that I do. But I wish that America would thrive a little less on convenience and a little more on human interaction; that element that makes us who we are as creatures of God. If we learned to deal with people throughout our lives on a daily basis, I think we would all get along better and value each other a little bit more then we currently do. I encourage you as you make your next round of errands or a trip for food, to consider going inside and partaking in some human interaction. Maybe slowly, we can whittle away at the idea of convenience and get back to how it used to be, before we were a drive-thru nation.