Chick-fil-A is opening the first of its totally new restaurant concept that is designed to keep you on your feet

Chick Fil-A is opening its brand new type of restaurant in New York City on Thursday — a concept that will roll out across America if it’s a hit.

Customers can only order sandwiches, fries and drinks using their mobile phone – there are NO cashiers.

And there will be NO seating, as there has always been in Chick-fil-A restaurants until now – instead, it is aimed as a takeaway outlet and for delivery by driver pickup.

The idea is that the customer ‘quickly gets their freshly made order in their hands’.

Without parking, it will be a walk-up store for places with lots of foot traffic.

Chick-fil-A says restaurant at 79. & 2 will cater to busy New Yorkers by focusing exclusively on delivery and mobile app ordering that can be easily and quickly picked up.

It is expected that the concept will be rolled out to other locations in the Big Apple. It will also land in other cities around America.

This new restaurant is one of two digital-focused test concepts that the fast food chain is opening.

The second is the elevated drive-thru concept set to open later this year. See pictures below.

Chick-fil-A first unveiled the new drive-thru concept — featuring a four-lane drive-thru, an overhead kitchen and chutes to deliver food to customers — last year.

The all-new design, which features lanes running through the center of the building, will debut in the company’s home base of Atlanta, Georgia.

A “sophisticated food transportation system,” consisting of an overhead conveyor belt with chutes down the sides, will then deliver the chain’s famous chicken sandwiches to employees stationed at ground level, Chick-fil-A announced.

“Digital orders make up more than half of total sales in some markets — and growing — so we know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” said Khalilah Cooper, executive director of restaurant design.

It’s no surprise that Chick-fil-A wants to increase its drive-thru offerings. The popularity of drive-thrus has increased by 30 percent in the three years to 2022, as customers choose to eat in the comfort of their cars rather than risk coming face-to-face with grumpy staff.

Experts say the boom is thanks to the pandemic, which has seen people socialize less and increasingly avoid personal interactions with strangers.

It’s also not surprising that Chick-fil-A is looking to speed up how quickly it serves customers. It was ranked the SLOWEST drive-thru restaurant with customers forced to wait up to SEVEN minutes. Taco Bell was the fastest.

Customers of the chicken sandwich restaurant wait an average of 436.09 seconds — about seven minutes — to receive their orders, according to a new survey from QRS magazine. But it was ranked highest for good customer service.

Other Chick-fil-A concepts have hit the problem. An attempt to build a ‘mega’ restaurant with a playground and two driving lanes in a small town in Tennessee was blocked by the local council.

The fast-food chain wanted to build a 6,110-square-foot restaurant in the town of Collierville, about 30 minutes outside of Memphis.

The new restaurant would have included a large outdoor seating area, playground, employee meeting room and dual drive-thru lanes with the capacity to handle 43 cars.

Sam’s Club — the Walmart-owned rival to Costco — is using new camera technology that dramatically changes the checkout.

It will allow customers to scan and pay for groceries with an app on their phone and just walk straight out.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods is launching stores for shoppers in a hurry — the new concept is a fraction of the size of its normal stores, and you can pay with the palm of your hand using Amazon technology

And Costco announced plans to open a ‘showroom’-style store for big-ticket items.