Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City

 March 13, 2024

Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City

Chick-fil-A’s first mobile-only restaurant was designed for efficiency.

BY Hunter Schwarz

Chick-fil-A is finally ditching its dining room for a new store concept in New York City.

The fast food chain said it’s opening its first mobile pickup restaurant on March 21 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Orders can be made for delivery or takeout online or through Chick-fil-A’s app, and geofencing will alert the restaurant when guests are en route to ensure their ready meals coincide with customer’s arrival times. Renderings of the new store show there’s no menu or cash registers.

Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City | DeviceDaily.com
[Rendering: Chick-fil-A]

Digital orders make up more than half of of Chick-fil-A’s total sales in some markets, including New York City. The new store concept is designed for efficiency, with designated paths for mobile pickup and delivery orders, and a food prep area made with separate areas for bagging different types of orders, according to the company.

Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City | DeviceDaily.com
[Photo: Chick-fil-A]

The store is one of two new concepts Chick-fil-A has planned for the year since announcing a drive-thru-only restaurant expected to open in the Atlanta area, but the chain is relatively late to the game. Chipotle opened its first “digital kitchen” in 2020, and McDonald’s and Taco Bell followed with their own versions in 2022.

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Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City | DeviceDaily.com
[Photo: Chick-fil-A]

“While digital concepts are becoming more prevalent, it’s important that we evolve in a uniquely Chick-fil-A way—meeting the changing needs of our customers without compromising the signature service and care they’ve grown to know and love,” Chick-fil-A principal design lead Nathaniel Cates, Sr., said in a statement announcing the new store.

Chick-fil-A is opening its first all-mobile restaurant in New York City | DeviceDaily.com
[Photo: Chick-fil-A]

The move to ditch dining rooms is taking hold as consumer habits continue to change since the pandemic. Technomic, a food service research firm, found drive-thru traffic grew 30 percent between 2019 to 2022, and in a report, it said it expects consumers to scale back how much they spend on food delivery in favor of more takeout and drive-thru in 2024.

By pushing customers to download an app, “digital kitchens” also give restaurants access to data and the ability to serve customers with specialized promotions. The Chick-fil-A app, for example, can collect data about purchase history, contact info, and product interaction and link it to users’ identity, according to details about its app privacy.


 

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