The goal of modern fast food restaurants is to eliminate dining rooms. They're moving towards walk-up windows and drive thru only where I live.
Having a dining room attracts "undesirable" people who hang out inside and use your bathroom. By killing dining rooms businesses will eliminate one of few remaining third spaces and reliable public washrooms.
The fast food places near me closed all their dining rooms when indoor dining was banned during the pandemic. They converted their front doors into Doordash-only pickup. I was expecting that change to be permanent for fast food joints, but no, they've all reopened their indoor dining areas.
They have reopened them in most (but not all) places. But you also see more new builds designed with no seating, or extremely minimal, uncomfortable seating (e.g. a single high ‘bar’ with a few metal stools against a wall or window. Or even that minus the stools - stand and eat at that bar). The seating is now designed to be more for waiting for a to-go order than for enjoying a meal.
Compare to a 1990s model that might be much larger and have 10-12 booths around the outside of a big square room, with 10-15 more tables in the center. The game plan is clear from where I sit. The act of dining in at fast food is already not popular among anyone outside of high schoolers and homeless, and that’s the exact same set of diners that makes the most work for them. So, they’d like to just cut it out entirely.
Having a dining room attracts "undesirable" people who hang out inside and use your bathroom. By killing dining rooms businesses will eliminate one of few remaining third spaces and reliable public washrooms.