World’s first ‘Drive-Thru-Only’ KFC opens in Newcastle

Welcome to the future of fast food.

KFC has officially opened the world’s first ‘Drive-Thru-Only’ outlet in Newcastle, and it could be a game changer.

Forget about pulling up in your car, unloading the family and heading indoors to order your Variety Feast or 3-Piece Feed.

Commercial Insights: Subscribe to receive the latest news and updates

And gone are the days of queueing in your car at a traditional single-lane drive-thru and ordering your meal through a giant speaker.

Know you’ll be craving mashed potato and gravy at 5pm, but it’s only nine in the morning? At the Broadmeadow outlet, you can place your order and pay via an app at any time of the day.

An artist’s impression of the new facility, which opened this week in Newcastle.

When patrons are ready to eat, they simply pull up behind a boom gate in one of the three drive-thru bays and punch in a code that’s been sent to their phone, which relates directly to their order. The order is immediately sent to the kitchen in a separate building a short distance away.

When the food’s ready, the boom gate rises and you can swing by a window to pick it up.

The concept is aimed at significantly reducing wait times for drive-thru customers, who haven’t been forgotten at the new concept store, with two additional drive-through lanes dedicated to traditional drive-thru ordering.

Will the ‘drive-thru-only’ model be successful enough to see it rolled out across Australia?

Grab a drumstick and watch this space.