Garnering a whopping $4 billion in sales in 2015, Sonic Drive may soon overtake McDonald's and Burger King as the largest fast food chain in the U.S. To date, it has 3,500 drive-in locations and it is enjoying 3 million customers in a single day! Should McDonald's and Burger King, including Wendy's be threatened?
According to Yahoo, although these are the real statistics behind Sonic Drive, what makes this fast food chain a true success is its unique fast food model. Yep, it isn't like the usual walk-in and drive-thru model that are found in every McDonald's; Sonic Drive makes use of a drive-in model that might soon pave the way to its earning the title as the largest fast food chain in the U.S.
Explaining why the drive-in model was adopted by Sonic, John Budd, chief development and strategy officer of the fast food chain, said, "A lot of times if you pull up to a drive-thru and you're trying to contemplate the menu, we find that consumers feel stressed out by a line building up behind them."
He went on saying to Business Insider that, "There's probably a psychological term for that that I'm not aware of. [At Sonic], you can come in and take your time."
The Sonic Drive model works this way. You go to any Sonic Drive branch, pull-up and park there at the drive-in. You can listen to music or chat with your loved one and while doing something other than look at the line of cars or people before you. Then, a carhop will deliver your food either on roller skates or just on foot. Don't worry as there are also branches that offer drive-thru options, as well as sit-downs.
Talking about Sonic Drive's menu, Budd said, "The Sonic brand has always been about personalization and customization." He added that, "Given the breadth of our menu and the five dayparts we serve, we definitely feel like we have something to everybody."
With the growing market that Sonic Drive is reaching, it can indeed become a real threat to McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, and earn for itself the title as the largest fast food chain in the U.S. Sonic's unique fast food model, and its drive to personalize and customize menu, give it an undue advantage that the three other fast food chains may not have.
