What Banning Drive Through Windows will Cost Consumers and Business Owners

Close the Window and Close the Doors

Terry (Ter) Scott, 

Business Consultant and Small Business Resource Advisor

Businesses and the owners who operate them seem to always be attacked at the local, state and federal levels by government overreach. Perhaps if your legislators were ever in business at any time for themselves prior to holding office they may have some sense, concern, and understanding for your business and you as a business owner. Sadly, over and over this seems to not be the case, as business owners in Minneapolis now have to endure another profit gouging affliction with a recent ban against drive-through windows, put in place by the Minneapolis City Council.

Technology is slowly changing the way banking is done but it is my feeling that owners of businesses, including banks, should be the ones making the decision to "close the windows"; not legislators. 

Don’t look to find any thinking or reasoning behind this because sadly again, it seems that those who make these laws and force them on business owners (who are simply fighting to keep their doors (and drive through open by offering a better way to serve customers) are unable to think, reason or consider the consequences. The thought behind this (and I use the word “thought” very gingerly here) is that their “hope” is that this will “cut down on vehicle noise and idling, and make sidewalks safer”; this per Minnesota Public Radio. It definitely will do all of that as it will also cut down on the number of customers using the drive-through for a quick coffee during the day or a breakfast on the way to work, or a mom on her way to daycare in a van full of hungry children dreads getting out of her car on a miserable, cold wintry Minnesota day, seeks the comfort and convenience with this modern-day, sensible service made available to the general public tested in 1931 with the Texas Pig Chain, and later created and put in use by Sheldon “Red” Chaney’s, Red Giant in Springfield, Missouri in 1947. After all this time, the City of Minneapolis now has a better idea; on its way to implement more and more of the Green New Deal’s agenda.

With the looming proposal for the minimum wage hike, where simple economics shows that owners of fast-food restaurants will be forced to fire more and hire less (or raise the price of cheeseburgers to $20) were counting on using the drive-through as it’s one option to hopefully make enough profit to stay open, as they cut inside staff to handle business properly. Yep, the wise “pooling of ignorance” by those who think they know better than business owners will surely and drastically cut down on all the greenhouse gases with all those cars idling in line burning up all those recycled dinosaur bones, waiting for their dollars and “happy” toys but they probably won’t be “happy campers”. Why didn’t the council of foresight keep the drive-through open, but only for those on bikes? And where were and where are the fast food, banking associations and all the rest who represent drive-through window employment types on this issue?

Let’s all do something for a moment, which must have escaped the minds of these lawmakers of lost profit; think.  

As a consumer, think about how will this add more time to your busy day.  How will have to get out of your car (and off your bicycle) to go in and stand in line to make a deposit or withdrawal, get a cup of coffee, pizza or breakfast or any of the many things we all do by using a drive-up window? As the business owner, think how now you will NOT have a way to serve your customers better; having your customer get out of their car (or off their bicycle) to come in and stand in (a long) line to make a deposit or withdrawal, to get a cup of coffee, a pizza or breakfast or any of the many added conveniences your customers have when using your drive-up window.

Isn’t it time as a business owner that we all say, 

“This is it, I’ve had enough!”?

The reality is that business owners have a business to run which should have to include adding special staff or department to handle the endless nonsensible edicts by local, state and federal dominions of business. Business owners should get up each morning concerned about serving the customer in the best way possible, making payroll and making a profit at the end of the day; not having to continually deal with the assault of ridiculous regulations.  

Photo from Sheila's World, check it out; it's a great site. 

Most owners I interview explain how they are not aware of issues like this ban on drive-through windows until they are passed, at which point they have absolutely no recourse and have to comply. This makes sense, business owners get in business to offer a service or product, to hire people and add to the local and state economies and the overall gross national product; not to be pushed down by the thumbtack of a city council made up of those who either never owned a lemonade stand or at least a successful one. And by the way, does this new ordinance include not idling your engine as you stop at a roadside to buy a glass of your favorite name brand of colored sweetened water or lemonade?

You can say, “This is it, I’ve had enough!”?, but please don't

close your business. Do what you can to become involved

and push back on crazy legislation which hurts your business,

the local economy and the consumers you serve. 

Speaking of another issue already on the minds of business owners, many have told me that for them, if the minimum wage hike goes into law, they will not only close the drive-through window, but they will close the door and put a “for sale” sign on the building; adding to the vacancy rate of their neighboring shells of yesterday’s commerce. Will the closing of the drive-through window start the closing of business doors just like Arlo’s song when the freight trains “still ain't heard the news and had the disappearing railroad blues? Good mornin’ America; wake up.

Terry Scott is a Business Consultant and Small Business Resource Advisor

Read about how one restaurant owner says he'll have to raise the price of his cheeseburgers to $20 if the minimum wage hike passes. 

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