Some drive-through business ideas are clever. Others are questionable. And some are just plain terrifying.
It's not uncommon to pick up your lunch, order a $5 cup of caffeinated calories, or have your car washed without ever moving from behind the wheel. But why stop there?
How would you like to pick up your dry cleaning, return and check out DVDs, do your banking, and pick up your groceries and prescriptions -- all at the same place, all at the same time, and all without getting out of the comfort of your bucket seat?
AutoCart, a "drive-through super center," plans to open its first 130,000-square-foot store in Las Cruces, N.M., this spring.
In California, it is not all that unusual to see drive-through pharmacies, or even drive-through dairies for that unforeseen milk emergency. But when was the last time you went to a drive-through when you were in need of a quick spiritual fix? In Los Angeles, the Rev. Don Rayl, a pastor at Main Place Christian Fellowship Church, has transformed a former strip mall photo stand into a drive-up prayer stand. The reverend and 15 volunteers rotate prayer duty for any passer-by who requests it. No genuflecting required.
Girls, don't spend your youth dreaming of a wedding day filled with bothersome florists, photographers, caterers and relatives. Why not skip all the fuss, spend $40 and have a drive-through wedding on the Las Vegas strip? And if you think something's missing, you can always spend an extra $60, which gets you the "Drive-Thru Bikers Special'' -- you can say "I do'' on a Harley. In Mississippi and Tennessee, when it comes time to say that final goodbye to your loved one, you can do it from the front seat of your car at a drive-through funeral home. Viewing windows are set up so you can pay your respects to your loved one as you cruise by. (Somehow the phrase "pay your respects" doesn't quite seem to fit.) In Alexandria, Pa., a "gentlemen's club" claims to be the first, and apparently the only, drive-through strip club. Patrons pull up next to a tiny window to look at the goings-on inside -- giving the expression "peeping Tom" a special new meaning.
Perhaps the most disturbing drive-through concept, however, comes out of Louisiana. At any time of the day or night, you can drive through and pick up an ice cold daiquiri at one of several drive-through daiquiri shops. Without the pesky confines of open container laws as we have here in California, the shop has the freedom to offer 16 flavors for you to sip while you drive, from White Russians to Bloody Smurfs.
Just in case you were wondering: Louisiana has the fourth-highest alcohol-related fatality crash rate in the nation.
I confess that I am not immune to the lure of drive-through convenience. It's possible employees at more than one drive-through fast-food restaurant near my home know me on a first-name basis.
Now, if only someone could only come up with a drive-through exercise class
Michelle Groh-Gordy is the owner of InterActive! Traffic School Online at www.trafficinteractive.com, and writes a syndicated weekly column on driving for the publications of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
