Let’s be real here, the world was NOT prepared for the coronavirus pandemic. Everything we’ve built and developed did not take into account a freaking pandemic rendering everyone pretty much under house arrest and of course, the economy is suffering as a result of that.
One of the industries that has been affected rather badly by the pandemic is the restaurant industry. Given that the “new normal” is likely to stay for at least one more year, restaurants have had to find ways to adapt to a severe dip in traffic. Add to that the decrease in operating hours and people worried about catching the virus and you can understand how difficult it is for restaurants to survive.
That being said, Burger King seems to have the solution to the problem and their concept could potentially pave the way for how restaurants are in a world without a Covid-19 vaccine. The fast food chain has announced plans to have their future restaurants focused on modern technology and cars. That’s right, cars.
As reported by CNBC, the whole idea here is to make their two new restaurants as “touchless” as possible. This includes plans to have food delivered to customers on conveyor belts, parking bays with solar panels where food will be delivered directly to your car as well as multiple drive-thru lanes, including a lane for delivery riders.
In another sign of the times, the restaurants design is expected to include a walk up window and include a lot more outdoor seating as compared to the conventional restaurant. As you’d expect, there will also be a mobile app, which will be central to the ordering process.
On top of that, there are also plans for a mobile pickup locker which will store your food as the app notifies you that its ready. Just scan your QR code to open it up and pick up your order. All in all, the new design for the restaurants actually shrink the amount of space needed by 60% when compared to a traditional Burger King store.
It looks like the old adage “the bigger the better” doesn’t apply for the future of restaurants. The new designs are expected to first open up in Latin America, the Caribbean and Miami next year, so it might be a while before we actually see something like this in Malaysia but should the pandemic not subside, this could very well be the future of restaurants in the country.
