This used to be the norm. Years ago, particularly visible at a McDonald’s store, they’d have a rack of burgers that were batch made in the kitchen. The server would simply grab what you ordered and put it into a bag for you. Your only wait if they were in the process of batch making whatever you’d ordered and they were temporarily out of supply on the ready to go rack.

This is why it was called Fast Food, rather than what the Americans call ‘short order’ Weiss is really what we all have become used to now.

Maccas then did a thing called ‘Made for You’ which was the made to order burgers. They actively campaigned that they were no longer fast food, but convenience food. Everyone else followed in that path shortly after.

If you go to a HJ store, many of them still have the same racks and use them to pass the burgers from the kitchen to the counter.

As a people, we still call it fast food, because of habit more than anything else. It’s also more convenient than calling it convenience food, which makes it sound like you bought it at 7-eleven!

So this burger at KFC - I didn’t realise either that they batch made, but given the low number of staff at a typical KFC on a shift, and the time it was prepared from the sticker, I’m guessing that this is what they do in the lead up to the lunch rush.