Golden Corral is expanding on its buffet model with drive-thrus, alcohol and curbside pickup

Golden Corral is expanding on its buffet model with drive-thrus, alcohol and curbside pickup

Buffet chain Golden Corral is reworking its core business model by adding drive-thrus and alcohol, CEO Lance Trenary told Insider.

Off-premises orders made up less than 3% of all business before the coronavirus pandemic, and the team started thinking about what changes could make business more sustainable when it eventually reopened. To do that, Golden Corral looked at restaurants with multiple access points “” curbside, drive-thru, and delivery were all alternative ways customers could buy food without dining inside.

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Golden Corral started testing its own drive-thrus "out of necessity," but they look different from a McDonald's or Chick-fil-A drive-thru, because Golden Corral restaurants weren't built with drive-thrus in mind. Instead, the chain created two options, Trenary said. The first is similar to carhop service, he told Insider. Customers place orders at a drive-thru screen as they would at any restaurant, then are directed to a parking spot, with a target to deliver food in three minutes.

The other model might more accurately be described as curbside pickup, but Golden Corral calls it a "virtual drive-thru." Customers pull