Shake Shack Kiosks Important Component in 2023

Last Updated on August 10, 2025 by Craig Allen Keefner

Shake Shack Kiosks 2023 Strategy

Table of Contents

From Yahoo Finance Jan 2023

Tagline – Shake Shack’s outlook for 2023: more locations, more sales—and drive-thrus

Looking for a $10 burger? Most chains cannot stop themselves from uttering the phrase “AI” or “robotics” for that matter. Interesting areas here are the relentless focus on drive-thru, kiosks improving margins (albeit cashless) and using kiosks to backfill in the kitchen. Not sure what that is.

Technically the “kiosks” are customer-facing order tablets (iPads) fixed on a counter. A lot like Panera (see below for some posts on Panera)

Excerpt

Click for full size – ipad kiosk shake shack

At the ICR conference, a three-day event run by ICR partners, the company announced plans to open 65 to 70 domestic and international locations in 2023, 40 of which will be company operated and nearly 30 owned by franchisers. One key development in the works: more drive thru locations, which tend to boost sales

Currently the company operates 11 drive-thru locations, 9 of which opened last year. Each location should generate, the company said, more than $4 million in annual sales. That’s compared to $3.8 million at traditional company-owned stores. Operating profit margins should be on par or better than the company average.

A drive-thru in Orlando, Florida, opened last year and produced an average weekly sales of $86,000. It is on track to earn $4.5 million and “headed towards $5 million,” said Garutti. Operating profits were 20%, higher than the approximately 19% for stores in preliminary Q4 results.

Shake Shack uses tablet ordering terminals (pictured in the Yahoo Finance article.

Other Coverage

NRN article Feb 16th – trading down
NRN Sales and Margins — In terms of technology, most locations now have ordering kiosks, which improve margins and help reduce labor costs. He said most of the remaining 60 or so restaurants without kiosks will have them by the end of the year.
MSN — nice thing about kiosks is the automatic tipping push. Customers though are beginning to tire of the automatic add-on cost.
Yahoo and CEO talk—Now, if we take a closer look at some key areas of focus, CEO Randy Garutti outlined four in the earnings call. Labor is one of them, as the fast-food burger chain looks to focus on recruitment, retention, and training efforts. They’re also considering adding kiosks to help utilize labor in different ways, perhaps backfilling in the kitchen. However, they admitted that they have not been immune to staffing challenges.

Shake Shack Kiosks Drive Thrus 2023

Shake Shack Kiosks 2023 Strategy

Tagline – Shake Shack’s outlook for 2023: more locations, more sales—and drive-thrus

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