Burger King Cutting Menu Items to Speed up Drive-Thru Lanes

Burger King is cutting some menu items in order to speed up the process of its drive-thru lanes. Over the last year, Burger King has apparently seen its drive-thru wait times increase to point that the fast-food chain (and its parent company Restaurant Brands International) can no longer ignore. Apparently, Burger King is just one of many fast-food chains now experiencing drive-thru slowdowns; the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted consumer behavior at fast-food restaurants towards an increased drive-thru flow that's too much for the current process. 

"We're working on eliminating SKUs, simplifying processes that have become a bit too complicated and doing a better job in terms of menu design to make it easier for customers at the drive-thru, in particular, to make decisions," said Jose Cil, CEO of RBI said at Morgan Stanley's Global Consumer and Retail conference on Tuesday.

"Given the volume increases in drive-thru, it's a really easy win in terms of driving additional volume in our business," Cil added. "We got too slow, and we need to address that."

So far, the exact list of Burger King menu items that will be removed has not been revealed (or decided?) to the public. Now, Burger King fans will be sweating bullets waiting to see if their favored menu item is getting the chop. 

Burger King hasn't been having the best year. Unlike the gains posted up by both McDonald's and Wendy's in third quarter, Burger King actually saw a loss of 1.6%. in same-store sales. Burger King saw a reported 18.2% rise in second quarter – but was still closing a gap of a 13.4% loss a year prior. In a previous interview with CNBC, Cil let it be known that he's not satisfied with where things stand with Burger King: 

"Our underlying issue has really been focus and pace. We haven't put enough focus in the few priorities that will have the biggest impact," Cil said. "We haven't moved fast enough on these priorities to accelerate the business performance to the level we know we are capable of."

What the restaurant CEO is stating is that Burger King may just need to live up to its name, and focus on the essentials that made it what it is, rather than going off into wider menu options. 

Do you agree? 

Source: CNBC