Enhanced fast food restaurant and method of operation
First Claim
1. Fast food restaurant having automated drive through service with flexible order selection, order placement, order payment, order preparation and order delivery times, for customer vehicles containing one or more customers, the restaurant comprising:
- a) vehicle access;
b) order and staging station comprising a plurality of order stalls, each order stall having menu display, automated self-service order selection and placement means, automated payment acceptor and order status reporter;
c) order preparation station;
d) order delivery station;
e) order communicating means for transmitting respective customer orders from each order stall of the order and staging station to the order preparation station and for transmitting order status from the order preparation station to the respective order stall.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A fast food restaurant and method of operating a fast food restaurant, the restaurant having an order and staging station for drive through customers. The order and staging station has a plurality of order stalls for customer vehicles, each order stall having an order panel with a menu display and a touch screen or voice or speech activator for self-service menu item selection and order placement. The order panel also has a payment acceptor and an order status reporter. The customer vehicle remains in the order stall until the customer is notified that the order is ready for pickup at a delivery station.
176 Citations
36 Claims
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1. Fast food restaurant having automated drive through service with flexible order selection, order placement, order payment, order preparation and order delivery times, for customer vehicles containing one or more customers, the restaurant comprising:
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a) vehicle access;
b) order and staging station comprising a plurality of order stalls, each order stall having menu display, automated self-service order selection and placement means, automated payment acceptor and order status reporter;
c) order preparation station;
d) order delivery station;
e) order communicating means for transmitting respective customer orders from each order stall of the order and staging station to the order preparation station and for transmitting order status from the order preparation station to the respective order stall. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. Fast food restaurant having automated drive through service with flexible order selection, order placement, order payment, order preparation and order delivery times, for customer vehicles containing one or more customers, the restaurant comprising:
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a) vehicle access;
b) order and staging station comprising a plurality of order stalls, each order stall having a self-service order panel positioned to be proximal to the driver'"'"'s window of a customer vehicle when the customer vehicle is parked in an order position in the order stall, the order panel comprising a menu display, automated self-service order selection and placement means, automated payment acceptor and order status reporter;
c) order preparation station;
d) order delivery station;
e) order communicating means for transmitting respective customer orders from each order panel of the order and staging station to the order preparation station and for transmitting order status from the order preparation station to the respective order panel. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. Method for operating a fast food restaurant, the restaurant providing drive through service with flexible order selection, order placement, order payment, order preparation and order delivery times, for customer vehicles having one or more customers, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing an order and staging station with a plurality of order stalls;
b) directing each drive through customer vehicle to a respective order stall;
c) providing a visual display at each order stall of a menu of available menu items;
d) providing an automated, self-service order selection and placement device at each order stall and prompting each customer to self-select menu items for an order and to self-place the order by use of the device;
e) providing the customer with an order cost for the order;
f) accepting the customer'"'"'s self payment of the order cost;
g) prompting the customer to maintain the customer vehicle parked in the order stall until being advised that the order is ready for delivery;
h) advising the customer when the order is ready for delivery;
I) directing the customer to relocate the customer vehicle to a delivery station when the order is ready for delivery; and
j) delivering the order to the customer at the delivery station. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification