The Idea That Could Bring Montanans the Food They Crave

Okay, this idea may be ridiculous, but it just might be crazy enough to work.

When you live in Montana, you sometimes find yourself wishing for the chain restaurants that other states have. Almost as often, you might find yourself wishing for the chain restaurants that are only in certain Montana cities.

For example, if you don't live in Billings, have you made sure to stop by Olive Garden when you found yourself there for your kid's sports game? What about grabbing Sonic when you're in Great Falls?

We daydream about the day when our cities will get some of our favorite fast-food chains, but what if there was a (ridiculous) way to get it sooner?

Here's my ridiculous idea: Montana needs Doordash or UberEats (or whatever)...between cities.

You live in Ronan, but you really want Krispy Kreme. You put in an order with DoorDash and the driver in Kalispell (61 miles) or Missoula (56 miles) picks up your order and brings it to Ronan.

Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash

So many smaller towns and rural areas in Montana don't have food delivery services like DoorDash or UberEats, or don't have the same restaurants that are available in larger cities.

The idea might not be that ridiculous: A friend told me that he had a friend who brought him In N Out from Utah. The friend brought him a burger that was "disassembled." All the parts of the burger were there but then he put it together when it arrived in Montana and heated it up.

Some people are saying on Reddit that In N Out won't do this anymore but this leads to what would be the second part of the ridiculous idea: use vans to pick up/deliver the food.

Photo by Kevin Lanceplaine on Unsplash

The vans could be tricked out with heating and cooling units, basically like food trucks, so they could haul food for long distances.

Case Study: This isn't the first time that Montanans have eaten food that has traveled hundreds of miles. Piroshky Piroshky Bakery from Seattle has had pop-ups in Missoula. They're next one is scheduled for November 16 from 5 - 7 pm at Imagine Nation Brewing Co.

The orders could also be in bulk. If there's a critical number of "Sonic" orders for Missoula, for example, then one driver could bring all the orders on one day and other drivers could do the individual deliveries.

I admit, it's a lot of wishful thinking, but who knows, maybe it could work.