Chick-fil-a

[Zayre88]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/chick-fil-a-opening-toronto-location-in-2019-1.4027034

Nice!  There's only one location in Canada currently, at the Calgary Airport.

[Everything Community]

They opened up the new restaurant at The Plaza at Buckland Hills in Manchester, CT in early December of last year.
https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/chick-fil-a-opens-in-manchester

[TheFugitive]

I got an email from Chick-fil-A the other day informing me that their store in Pleasant Hills, PA
(near the dead Century III Mall) will be closing next week for a remodel that will run through the
end of July.  I have to wonder just what sort of remodel would keep this store offline for an entire
three months?

[TheFugitive]

The Chick-fil-A near the South Hills Village Mall in Pittsburgh is apparently being renovated.  I just drove by there and a big construction fence now surrounds it.  Strangely I did not get an email from them alerting me this time.  They also have a new store currently under construction at the former Taco Bell site in Bridgeville, PA.

[TheFugitive]

The new Chick-fil-A in Bridgeville, PA opened this past weekend with the usual insanely huge crowds.  A drive-thru line stretching a mile long.  Meanwhile the Sonic restaurant right next door was deserted.

Looks like renovations are about done on the other location and it's about to reopen.  From the outside all I can see that has changed is they added a bit to the back of the building and installed two huge canopies around the drive-thru so that for the most part you will now be out of the rain.

[TheFugitive]

The location near my office just reopened.  I stopped by to grab lunch.  The amount of seating inside the restaurant has been drastically reduced.  What used to be the entire left side of the seating area has been walled-off to create the world's biggest drive-thru window service area.  You could fit ten employees in there at least.  They also grabbed some space from the other side of the dining room to expand the kitchen.  The drive-thru is now a full-double lane with both the ordering and pick-up sides now sheltered under long canopies.  They gave up an entire row of parking spaces nearest the building to achieve this.  The drive-thru does seem a whole lot less chaotic, which is a good thing.  Often times walking in there as a pedestrian you were taking your life in your hands with all of the insanity going on in the parking lot.

Clearly the pandemic shifted a big chunk of their business away from dine-in and towards drive-thru and pick-up, and the redesign reflects this.  The very definition of a data-driven decision.