go through the drive-thru
D
rive-through or “drive-thru” is no new concept today. It’s been a few years now since the first drive-thru was established in Sabah. But did you know the first ever drive-thru in the world came in the United States almost 90 years ago? If you’ve been living under a rock, drive-thrus are usually found at restaurants. With them, you won’t need to get out of your car to go order inside. Just drive up to their window counter, order, pay, and you get your food. It just makes things a bit easier especially if you’re all comfy in your car. Before drive-thrus, there were drive-ins. First established in 1921, Kirby’s Pig Stand introduced the first drive-in to the
pop culture
people of California. Customers would park their cars in the lot of the restaurant as the servers, called carhops, come and take their orders. When the food was served, the customers would “dine-in” in their cars, or have it as takeaway. Then in 1931, the carhops were bypassed, hence the drive-thru was born. The most famous restaurant with drive-thrus is McDonalds. There are at least 3 McDonalds drive-thrus in and around Kota Kinabalu itself. Other than McDonalds, there’s also a Starbucks drive-thru in Sandakan, which is the first of its kind in Sabah. There’s even news that it’s coming to Kota Kinabalu soon. Big name restaurants aren’t the only ones implementing drivethrus though. There’s a small cafe in Penampang, called Pit Stop Cafe, that has a “Pau Drive Thru” for people on the go. Our government hospital now has drive-thru pharmacies to allow patients to take their prescriptions without waiting too long at the hospital. That’s just plain convenient if you hate waiting in line at the hospital. Drive-thrus are real life savers now in times when we need to socially distance ourselves. We don’t need to wait in line with people or even sit to dine-in with other restaurant goers. That’s just the F&B sector, who knows how it’ll evolve in the future, maybe we’ll even see drive-thru grocery stores or the reincarnation of the drive-in movie theatre.
by Noel Jinguli Images | Unsplash 27
