We were on the campus of The Ohio State University. My friend Billy was invited to the campus by a recruiter. Several of us, his teammates went along for fun. “Wow, look at that.” said Billy. The heads of five male high school seniors turned to see a vision.

A group of girls, apparently cheerleaders, were practicing some cheers nearby. We bumped into each other as we stopped and gawked. We scattered quickly when the girls looked over at us and laughed.

Fast forward, decades later and I am on campus again and this time I am the one who exclaimed, “Wow look at that.” There were no girls practicing cheers, rather it was something that looked like a cooler with wheels, a flashing light on top and a mini-tv screen. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was one of OSU’s fleet of 100+ food rovers.

The rovers deliver food to students all over campus and became especially popular during the COVID crisis. Since then, their use has become commonplace.  Using Door Dash ordering, it delivers food from early morning until about 10pm most nights.

While the rovers are great for a closed area like a campus, delivering fast food to city and suburban dwellers has more issues. But, where there is a hamburger, a hungry person and space in between, someone will figure out how to beat that challenge. And several have.

FRIES FROM THE SKIES

Many of the top fast food chains are now testing delivery by drone. Yes, drone. Weather permitting, it appears a drone can deliver your order in a six-mile radius in under three minutes! A recent test conducted by Wendy’s in Virginia shows it can work and it has two advantages. It’s faster than car/human delivery and less expensive. At this point, a $4 delivery charge would be needed for drone delivery, where as a the car/human version, with tip, could be three times that amount.

MARKETING ADVANTAGES

Is there any American who hasn’t tasted a Wendy’s, McDonald’s or Burger King hamburger? How about a Taco Bell taco or a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich? If you find someone like that, chances are they’ve been hiding in their basement bomb shelter since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Since everyone knows how food of the big chains taste and everyone has developed their preferences, how can any fast food chain move the needle and increase sales? Delivery.  At first just offering delivery was enough, although I’ve always thought it takes away the two main advantages of fast food. Delivery takes longer and also increases the price, so consuming your fast food  is no longer fast or cheap. But drone delivery can solve those problems.

And once most chains adopt that delivery system how long will it be before the chains will start to compete on how fast their drones are? Will competing drones start trying to shoot each other down?

CHANGE IS CONSTANT

But the bottom line is, marketing advantages change as competition and even consumer appetites change. You have to adapt. It may be robots, it may be drones.

And when you hear, “Wow look at that.” it might be that teenage male Taco Bell drone operator who has his delivery vehicle hovering a little too long over the sunbathing girls at your neighborhood pool. ##