Fast-casual burger joint Shake Shack chose McKinney as the first North Texas city to boast a drive-thru location.
According to Community Impact, the new drive-thru opened on June 28 at 1727 N. Central Expy, and the North Texas Food Bank received $1 for every sandwich the location pulled in that day.
The move comes at a time when the region is enjoying a jump in businesses and future Texans moving to the burgeoning area — save for Dallas, which has been losing residents and businesses — likely in part due to the city’s high crime, burdensome business regulations, slow permitting department, and homelessness and vagrancy crisis.
Speaking about the success Shake Shack was gleaning from its new drive-thru feature more broadly, Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said at an industry conference earlier in 2023, Local Profile reported:
“We’re getting $8.5 million of Shack burger sales in less than one mile. We think there are a lot of places around this country and around this world that we can do this. This is why you’re going to see different formats coming out of Shake Shack. And this drive-thru will allow us to capture different areas we may not have gone before.”
Shake Shack has been coming off some disappointing sales in recent months, but Garutti still felt optimistic.
“All of the momentum’s in the right direction. Some of the return to travel, work, events, things like this, are all the right things for Shake Shack’s momentum,” said Garutti, reported Nation’s Restaurant News.
Just shy of a dozen drive-thru Shake Shack locations are currently open, but they reportedly generate better sales on average.
“We still feel like we are learning at a massive clip, day in and day out. … We think that this will be a critical part of our growth moving forward,” Garutti said.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, McKinney residents have been feeling pretty optimistic about their town. Residents recently rated their town favorably in a survey.
“Overall quality of life was given positive ratings by 92% of residents, 91% of folks would recommend living in McKinney. And again, right around that 90% of folks had a positive outlook towards the image of McKinney,” explained Joe Dell’Olio, senior survey associate with Polco/National Research Center, according to McKinney Courier-Gazette.
