Techier than an Apple store... Taco Bell's newest outpost looks like a server rack, but the chips inside are edible. The Crunchwrap Supreme icon just opened a restaurant concept called "Taco Bell Defy" outside Minneapolis. The table-free location features tablets, QR codes, and “vertical lifts.”
- 2 stories: All the meal prep happens out of sight on the second floor, where employees stick your Gordita Crunch in a “Jetsons”-like glass elevator that delivers it down to you.
- 4 lanes: Three drive-thru lanes are dedicated to delivery drivers and app orders. But even the traditional lane is techified with two-way video for OG ordering.
- 2 minutes: Defy is designed to deliver your grub in 120 seconds or less — among the fastest times in the industry, and less than half the time of an average Bell order.
- Zero gravity?... TB says its contactless delivery system "defies gravity" as food is transported down to ground level. (How that defies gravity defies our understanding of gravity.)
Less fry cook, more Tim Cook... fast-food’s new mantra. Digital orders and drive-thrus surged for chains like Chipotle, McD's, and Starbucks. Taco Bell parent Yum Brands (which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut) saw its digital sales grow 15% last quarter to a record $6B. With Defy, it’ll be able to handle twice the order volume of a typical Taco Bell.
Driver’s seat > booth: Pre-pandemic, less than 70% of fast-food sales came from drive-thrus. Now it’s more than 90%, even though IRL dining is back.
Form follows function... and the function of quick-serve restaurants has shifted. Consumers have changed the way they order food; now restaurants are transforming the way they serve food. Cue: more “Defy” locations getting planned. As chains ditch dining rooms for faster food, vertical lifts and Chipotlanes could be the future.