The intercom and menus at a British McDonald's restaurant. The types of signage used is usually illuminated so the 'open' message can be changed to a 'closed' message when the lane is not available. or 'drive-through bank'.ĭrive-throughs typically have signs over the drive-through lanes to show customers which lanes are open for business. Sometimes, a store with a drive-through is referred to as a 'drive-through', or the term is attached to the service, such as, 'drive-through restaurant'. This results in a perceived relationship between the two service models.ĭrive-throughs have generally replaced drive-ins in popular culture, and are now found in the vast majority of modern American fast-food chains. However, during peak periods, to keep the queue down and avoid traffic flow problems, drive-throughs occasionally switch to an 'order at the window, then park in a designated space' model where the customer will receive their food from an attendant when it is ready to be served. A drive-through is different from a drive-in in several ways - the cars create a line and move in one direction in drive-throughs, and normally do not park, whereas drive-ins allow cars to park next to each other, the food is generally brought to the window by a server, called a carhop, and the customer can remain in the parked car to eat. Orders are generally placed using a microphone and picked up in person at the window. The drive-up teller allowed only deposits at that time. The second recorded use of a bank using a drive-up window teller was the Grand National Bank of St. It was a George Dahl designed building, constructed in the 1920s, across from SMU. Hillcrest State Bank, Dallas, Texas, installed the first drive-through banking system in America. The format was pioneered in the United States in the 1930s by Jordan Martin, and has since spread to other countries. Drive-through mailboxes in Los Altos, California, United States.Ī drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word through), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars.

Drive thru