Page 84 - Experience Magazine Summer 2023

DRIVE-THRU DREAMS

WHERE CAR CULTURE REIGNS SUPREME

On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford implemented System – it was something Americans had dreamed
the first moving assembly line to mass-produce a of since Detroit began building cars. Fast food was a
vehicle. This revolutionizing concept took vehicle natural business response to the American on-the-go
production from more than 12 hours down to an lifestyle that began to take hold at the time. America
hour and 33 minutes. This led to an assembly-line started driving more, and society began collectively
hunger that began to rage across America. By 1921, rearranging cities based on car travel.
White Castle adopted this model and applied it Having previously run a pit barbecue drive-in restaurant,
to its first restaurant in Wichita, Kansas. The little the McDonald brothers understood how that setup
square hamburgers were prepared quickly in a highly encouraged customers to linger rather than spend their
systematized way with efficiencies built into it that money and be on their way. While McDonald’s did
spoke to the technological fascinations of the era. not invent the drive-thru, they did revolutionize it in
The goal was for the customer’s experience to be the the post-World War II era with a stripped-down menu
same every time they went to White Castle and that and a streamlined cooking process. Every element was
they would always order the same food – it was a engineered for speed above all.
cherished part of the experience.
According to Barrett-Jackson Automobilia Director
As car ownership spread across the United States, Rory Brinkman, McDonald’s is notorious for
drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants became all ensuring that all their signs are destroyed when a
the rage, taking convenience to another level. Despite restaurant is shut down for any reason. “They don’t
the early adaptation of the food assembly line and want anything to tarnish their brand, and they
drive-thrus, fast food didn’t take off until the 1950s require the sign companies hired to take down the
after President Eisenhower signed legislation funding sign to send photos proving the signs having been
the construction of the U.S. Interstate Highway

84 BARRETT-JACKSON EXPERIENCE SUMMER 2023