Super Deluxe will be out of business in 5-10 years, here's why.
I recently went to the Super Deluxe Burger on Powell blvd in Portland with my family. I have been to this particular location 2 other times, and I have not visited the other location that they have.
My thesis: Super Deluxe Burger will be out of business within 5-10 years (unless they make some serious changes).
My experience: As stated above, I've been there 3 times now. My primary concerns with the business (in order) are: Speed of service, dull customer service experience, and price.
Speed of Service:
I have waited between 25-35 minutes (in the drive thru!) every time I've been there. My calculation was that they were servicing one car every 6 minutes or so, which is not acceptable for a fast food joint. They require you to do time-wasting things like sign receipts on $20 CC transactions. They are using a weird payment processing system that is slow and clumsy. They have one gal doing all of the payments and also walking an obscene distance back into the kitchen to get my order and bringing it back. Obviously their kitchen set up is not successfully optimized. Portland hipsters might be able to blow 8% of their workday waiting in line for a cheeseburger, but for most normal people -- as someone famously stated "'aint nobody got time for that".
Customer Experience:
From the interaction at the ordering speaker to receiving my food (which was delicious) I didn't hear or see anyone smile the entire time. I was literally cringing in my car as I interacted with the poor sullen girl who processed my payment. She almost dropped the payment processing device on the ground while handing it to me out in my car -- and again, not a single smile from any employee the entire time. The pick-up window was covered with a mix of stickers from Super Deluxe, local pot shops, indie bands, and Bernie Sanders campaigns. The stickers wouldn't have mattered if the person taking my payment had smiled and made eye contact, but they instead increased my dislike of the company - it looked trashy, and unprofessional, just like the employees did. It did not look like a brand that is going to be able to scale and succeed long-term.
After I paid, I waited for about 4 minutes to receive my order. While waiting I watched multiple employees go up to the soda machine with half empty cups of soda (their own cups of soda) and refill them. And the entire time I was sitting there thinking "you've got to be kidding me" - that kid has the time to refill his own drink when there are 20 people waiting in line for 30 minutes for their food. The blue haired girl (also frowning the entire time) was a nice touch.
Super Deluxe Burger, if you are going to hire weird people at least make sure that they are going to be nice to your customers!
Cost:
The price was not terrible, but when I have to pay $26 for 3 "fast" food burgers and then wait in line for 30 minutes I start feeling like I'm getting ripped off. Had the service been top-notch I wouldn't have thought twice about the price. But since the service was bottom-notch, the price suddenly became an issue in my mind.
Conclusion:
The food is good, the price is okay, the customer service is very poor, and the wait is far too long.
But no problem, I'll just go to Chik-Fil-A instead - they take my order out front on iPads, and they smile, make eye contact and say my name.