Shake Shack Solutions?

On Thursday we were planning on meeting one of our pals in Gramercy for lunch, so we suggested Shake Shack. Quick as lightning came his response: "You are totally nuts if you think we can get done with Shake Shack in less than 1 1/2 hours :)" That seemed strange to us, so we did a little research, and surprisingly, his estimate seems correct-- average weekday waiting times for a burger in Madison Square Park are approaching one hour-- when you throw in the time it takes to order and receive the food, and then actually eat it, you are looking at a 90 minute experience. Yikes! This being New York, a bunch of people have come up with solutions to the waiting time problem. Take for instance this idea, by David:

Congestion Pricing. Charge different prices based on how long the line is. Each person can judge whether it's in their best interests to jump in line or go find something else. People who are willing to spend more money will go whenever they like. People who wish to spend less money will go at less convenient times, or when it's raining. Although usually mentioned for targeting traffic jams during rush hour, I think it could help inside Madison Square park as well.

That's clever, but not likely to happen any time soon. Here are some simpler ideas we came up with:

1. Homeless people in Madison Square Park should get on line with signs saying "I'll order for you for $10". Five people could just ride the line all afternoon, and people who wanted to pay more for speed could do so. This would also work with unemployed post-college students! Win-win!

2. Internet ticketing: you could order your burger at like 9am, and pick it up at a special "Will Call" window. This would allow Shake Shack to more smoothly predict the demand each day, and they could prepare your burger in advance and keep it warm for you.

3. Line monitoring: you should be able to check the length of the line over the internet-- ShakeWatchers is a good start, but we need a live web-cam trained on the line at all times. Gothamist will pay $200 to the first person to setup a dedicated webcam and hosts in at Gothamist-- any takers?

Okay, that's the best we can do. Let's see you come up with a better idea!

Image from WhatISee.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jake Dobkin in Food on April 17, 2006 10:14 AM

Comments [rss]

guest

the owners of this famed shack are playing the Ian & steve rubel old studio 54"game on the same new yorkers that gave them this fame don't be a slave to the game they need marketing help

outbacksucks

Outback sucks, it's not even a real burger it's a burger pattie that is never even moist. The shack is amazing and I can usually afford to waste 2-3 hours for lunch (high level I.T.). Jackson hole also makes a huge mound of meat that tastes decent if you go when it's not crowded

sam

Outback? Outback is Foul. I've never had a truly outstanding burger in New York, either.

jer

mmmm....double shack burger. i'll wait 30 minutes, no more.

MH

I have not had to wait more than ten min.at the Shake Shack. The longest ever was for five minutes. I remember that I had to catch my express bus. The burger was good, but not as good as OutBack Steak House. I would wait for OutBack burgers. That is only because they are good and I get to sit while I wait. No other burger would have me wait more than 15min. and that's tops. I guess it depends on the time of year and time of day that you frequent the Shake Shack. In New York City, unless your company provides lunch or you bring your lunch, you can expect to stand in a long line and wait, especially if the buz is out on the new establishment. However, if Shake Shack wanted to speed up the time, my first suggestion would be to make a rotiserred burger. That way the burgers would "be up" everyhour on the hour and they would be able to serve as many as fifty at a time. And/Or they would have to allow people to dress their own buns and burger on a assembly line type set up that continuously moves. Or give all topings to go, including lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese. Then they could use a well done line, medium line, and rare line. One price which includes fries and drink. Last resort, higher the man power.

me

The shack rocks. Don't be hatin.

mickster

Actually the solution is to take the Long Island Railroad to the Huntington Station, go to Conte's Burger Haven and come back to midtown. Total travel time: 2:30 and you get to spend a lot of time safely using your laptop on the train, catching up on reading or sleeping.

Conte's used to have the best burgers-not as good as they once were but definitely on par or better than Shake Shack, In-N-Out;

Alternate option: All-American Burger in Massapequa (aka MatzohPizza-where you can drive by the former location of Hal Seinfeld's (Jerry's Dad) Sign Shop "Seinfeld's Signs" and also visit the high school where Jerry and brothers Alec, Stephen, William (Billy) & Daniel Baldwin attended and their dad was a social studies teacher, and also the football coach).

The burgers are worth the trip: total travel time: 1 hour each way (2 Hours) plus about 25 minutes to get your food and get back on another train (otherwise it's another 25 minutes until the next one-assuming you take the 11AM from Penn Station).

Andrew J. Lederer

or you can take the 7 minute walk to the "Burger Joint" on the east side of 3rd avenue and 20th street and get some delicious sirloin burgers for a $1.25 and then carry them back to the park.

they are sliders and three of them should do the trick.

*********************************

Burget Joint is great.

However, there is some inconsistency arising from the varying skill levels of the griddle-tenders. (Good name for a new fast food product -- "Griddle Tenders".)

Alliterator

I guess Gothamist thinks that those useless "solutions" are "witty" so we can skip the whole illogical part.

Best thing Shake Shack can do is either move to a bigger place or open another location.

With the money that flows in there everyday, they can afford it.

mmmmm

or the half pound burger at Eisenberg's on Fifth across the street

Think twice

Step 1: On your way to the Shake Shack line make a detour to Wendy's across the stree

Step 2: Take a seat on the second floor of Wendy's with a view of the park and the line.

Step 3: Enjoy your satisfying $1 salad and $1 yogurt with crunchies and gloat at the suffering posers on line.

JESUS CHRIST

american Burger at 31st and broadway is pretty good too. Too many mexicans eat there though. so if you are racist against latinos stay away.

California Love

In N out is incredible. Anyone who sincerely disagrees with that has serious problems with admitting NY can't make a good burger. You can make a good pizza, but the burgers leave something to be desired.

idonothingallday

or you can take the 7 minute walk to the "Burger Joint" on the east side of 3rd avenue and 20th street and get some delicious sirloin burgers for a $1.25 and then carry them back to the park.

they are sliders and three of them should do the trick.

pugsley

best solution would be to bulldoze the shake shack and have a frosty across the street at wendys.

JESUS CHRIST

the new premium chicken classics from mcdonald's taste almost as good as a shack burger! I can't believe it!

ch

Sometimes, when a line is too long, I will go somewhere else, with a smaller line.

La Leone

Yeah, it IS only a fucking hamburger.

I guess people must think that waiting in this line fortifies their foodie persona. Like they're SO dedicated to 'the perfect hamburger' that they'll wait an hour & 1/2 to get it.

And when you think about the long term effects of meat & cholesteral - it's like a 50/50 heart attack chance. No thanks.

joe

http://www.shackwatchers.com/ - as reported on Eater.

Jesus Christ

All your solutions suck monkey dung. they have so many fallacies. The best thing would for Shake shack to expand or for some knockoff to use almost the same ingredients and open up nearby. An hour and a half waiting with ugly hideous new yorkers is too much.