Just "cash flow" through the drive-thru registers. Even better, sell sugar
and caffeine to motorists.
This is a screen-grab from Not Just Bikes latest video on trains in Switzerland. He was reveling in how civilized this scene it compared to people traveling in the US and Canada and being stuck in traffic in their individual cars. I've not been to Switzerland, but had a similar experience to the scene above on trains in the UK, even a short train ride from a suburb outside London into the city. In the US, this wouldn't happen except perhaps on a much longer Amtrak route. Drive-thrus are the way people receive refreshments in a car-centric culture. Perhaps when the cars are driven by means other than the occupants, we might see people reading and enjoying coffee or tea whilst underway.
US culture isn't car-centric in vain though. First of all, cars represent the aspirations of many people. Young people aspiring to a higher status attain the appearance of achieving that with a better car. Older people often collect the cars they coveted when they were younger but weren't able to obtain and are now classics. Pretty sure people do that with bicycles too, but cars signify one's station in life far more distinctly than a bicycle. US car culture isn't just about status and the symbols of it though. Car culture is inextricably linked with suburbia as a whole and suburbia creates opportunities for home ownership. If home ownership weren't the aspirations of most Americans as part of the "American Dream," home ownership has also been encouraged by government subsidized mortgages, tax breaks, bailouts, and monetary policy. The kind of homes Americans want to own have a yard, with big lawns for the kids to play on, RV parking, and at least a three-car garage with a space for the boat to take to the lake on the weekends. Besides cars and boats, they want motorcycles, ATV's, side-by-sides, snowmobiles, jet-skis and more. How about just paddleboards and kayaks? Not going to take those on the bus or train. All this just doesn't fit-in with European-style cities or any urban-core environment. This is why Americans invented the mountain bike -- the bike that's driven by car or truck to the trail, ridden, and then returned home by automobile.