Dive Brief:
- Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores has added order-ahead capabilities to all of its more than 130 Carl’s Jr. locations, the company announced on Monday.
- This update to Love’s digital offerings comes less than a month after the company rolled out this service as well as ordering kiosks at 112 Arby’s locations.
- Love’s plans to roll out the order ahead technology to its Hardee’s locations by the end of Q3, with Bojangles and Taco John’s QSRs expected to follow, a spokesperson told C-Store Dive in an email.
Dive Insight:
Love’s has been investing in its QSR technology in a bid to make ordering easier and faster for its increasingly tech-savvy customers. The travel center company partnered with retail tech firm Bite to add the new technology, which lets customers place food orders from the Love’s Connect app and schedule a pickup time up to an hour in advance.
“Customers have been quick to adopt order ahead in Love’s Arby’s and Carl’s Jr. locations, and we will continue to evaluate how this technology can enhance the customer experience across our restaurant offerings,” the spokesperson said. “Love’s is targeting the end of the year to have order ahead available across all the expected Love’s QSR partners.”
To celebrate the new technology, customers can get a free Single Western Bacon cheeseburger when using the app to place an order worth at least $10.
These updates coincide with Love’s ongoing $1 billion investment into remodeling and updating its stores to have a more modern look and feel, a program that the retailer launched over two years ago.
In 2024, the company also tapped restaurant technology company PAR Technology to help manage its foodservice operations. That move streamlined back-office operations and helped unify Love’s foodservice expenses between its in-house food program and its QSR network.
In addition to Carl’s Jr. and Arby’s, Love’s QSR partnerships include Hardee’s, Bojangles, Dairy Queen and Subway.
