Food - News
The In-N-Out Invention That Changed Fast Food Forever
By CHASE SHUSTACK
In-N-Out is a culinary mainstay on the West Coast. Known for its steadfast commitment to freshness and a famously "not-so-secret" menu, In-N-Out has entered the history books as a utopia of Double-Double burgers and animal style fries.
What some fans may not realize, however, is that In-N-Out is also the birthplace of the modern-day drive-thru. In Southern California, In-N-Out founder Harry Snyder would step up to meet the demand for even more convenience, creating the two-way speaker box in 1948.
In-N-Out may not have been the first restaurant chain to offer a drive-thru service, but because it (formerly) had no indoor seating, no place to park, and a new speaker ordering system, it was "likely the first to offer the complete drive-thru package," according to History.com.
One would imagine that, upon seeing the success of In-N-Out's speaker system, chains like McDonald's would have quickly rigged up the best communication system money could buy. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case until decades later.