Restaurant design is evolving. It's moving from communicating fast and cheap to relaying a message of healthy, up-to-date, and customized. Fast food’s new take on restaurant design impacts the general design of the store, production lines, and incorporation of technology into design.
Fast food establishments that have been in business for decades have a dilemma. They have to balance maintaining the brand and the loyalty to the brand with removing the stigmas associated with fast food.
Signs of Foodservice Evolution
Holding on to a brand while creating a look that communicates a healthier, more current experience is like walking a tightrope.
Who’s doing it? KFC is a great example. They use Colonel Sanders and their color scheme to maintain the brand while creating a trendy new look. Their clean, stark design communicates an updated restaurant. Their counter stools and semi-circular booths, and chicken bucket lights are intended to create an experience for diners, encouraging them to stay in the restaurant longer.
Even the kitchen is getting into the game. Instead of having the kitchen out of view, Arby’s has created a new production process, the Delight Line, where customers see Arby’s meats and deli slicers. They watch their order being assembled. This new design communicates the new brand promise of authenticity while at the same time decreasing the footprint of the space and improving workstation efficiency.
Technology & Happy Customers
Technology’s impact on design centers around customizing, entertaining, and moving quickly. Much of the technological impact on design has been around the ordering process. Many restaurants, like Panera and McDonald's, use kiosk-ordering systems to provide fast ways for customers to customize their orders.
Pizza Hut found a way to provide the same benefits of the kiosk without the kiosk by installing touchscreens on their tables. Guests order through their table with no interaction with staff, decreasing the time spent waiting to order and increasing the customization opportunities. In addition, Pizza Hut’s touchscreen tables entertain guests as they can use them to play games while they wait for their food, another way to increase the time the guests spend in the restaurant.
Incorporating new design elements into your remodel or new store design means finding a millwork vendor who has removed “limitations” from their vocabulary. At Randal Retail, when a client asks if we can help, we find a solution for them. It’s our thing. As your remodel, project, or new store design comes to life, be sure the elements you have expressing it come from a millwork vendor who is evolving with the changes in fast food restaurant design.
Randal Retail has the technology, the creativity, and the team to provide the design elements you need.
For over 40 years, Randal Retail Group has helped restaurants find solutions to help increase profits. Click below to request our latest restaurant whitepaper to see how the magic happens.
