This restaurant model was designed in response to Taco Bell’s operational challenges, Mezvinsky said.
At the brand’s traditional stores, customers and delivery drivers generally pick up orders in the dining room when it is open, except during the late-night daypart, when such orders are picked up in the drive- thru, he said.
Growing volumes of delivery orders at night, when Taco Bell closes its dining rooms for safety reasons, shunted delivery drivers into the drive-thru lane, creating delays for drivers and headaches for workers who had to manage those orders alongside regular drive-thru orders.
