Drive-Thru Stupidity

I usually go to a Starbucks drive-thru before going to the Ministry, and I find it astounding that people fail to properly navigate it.

The shocking thing is that people often place their order at the intercom, then they don't pull up all the way to the car in front of them. This prevents me (or the next person in line) from pulling directly up to the intercom in order to place an order. Why on earth do people do this?? Certainly they have been subject to the same problem by other people who didn't pull up properly in the past visits, so why aren't they aware of this and correct the error within themselves?

Drive-thrus are built to handle an exact amount of automobiles between the order intercom and the pickup window, so if people consume more space than necessary by leaving a gap in front of them, then all the cars are misaligned after them and it screws everyone up.

I'm not sure if this is specific to my city or area, or perhaps it happens in other parts of the country. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I also find that it particularly happens in the morning at this Starbucks. It doesn't seem to happen at lunch at Taco Bell or other places. And it's not the shape of this particular Starbucks drive-thru that is the problem - yes, there is a curve to it, but just about every drive-thru has a curve somewhere between the order intercom and the pick-up window. Is it because it's the morning?? More than likely it's because people are just plain stupid.

When it happens, I can clearly see that they are not properly pulled up to the car in front of them. I would love to lay on the horn and get them to correct their idiocy, but at this point, the hood of my car is lined up with the intercom, so I know that if I did beep (obnoxiously), it would blow the eardrums out of the poor 16-year old girl on the headset inside. So all I can do is yell out the window, "PULL THE FUCK UP!". This has mixed results.

I would just love to poll these people after they are finished getting their order and ask them what the hell they are thinking. Are they completely ignorant that they screwed everything up for everyone behind them? Are they only interested in placing their order, then they forget the impact that their actions might have on everyone else afterwards? Are they "afraid" of pulling too close to the car in front of them?

I'm telling you, this happens just about every day - the consistency of their failure is infuriating, and I'm getting sick of all the resulting paperwork that I need to file first thing in the morning when I get to the Ministry. I have your license plate numbers, people.