On April 22, the Fishers District welcomed another new business. Shake Shack, a popular fast food burger chain originating in New York, opened its first Indiana location in downtown Fishers, attracting a large crowd on opening day.

     The line to order wrapped around the building and remained for hours as customers waited to order their burgers and shakes. Junior Riley Stuber had eaten at Shake Shack in other states while on vacation, so when Fishers opened it’s very own location, he had to try it.

     “I’ve gotten Shake Shack in a lot of states whenever I travel,” Stuber said. “They have a lot of locations in airports, and states like New York, Texas and Florida.”

     The Fishers location is the first store in the chain to offer its own drive-thru, which is anticipated to help alleviate the high volume of customers that the company anticipates. Curbside pickup is also an option for customers who opt to order ahead and skip the line.

     “I actually ordered online so that I didn’t have to wait in that long line,” said Stuber. “I got my food just a couple of minutes after I ordered, so I would recommend doing it online because you can get your food so much faster.”

     The staff only had a couple of weeks to train and prepare before the store opened. The company sent in a team three days before opening to train employees. Junior Bella Soto was hired in March, just before the location opened.

     “We came in for orientation at the end of March and trained right before we opened,” Soto said. “It was wild when we first opened, there was a line that wrapped around the building for a week.”

     The Fishers location was not originally slated to be the first Shake Shack to open in Indiana. An Indianapolis Airport location was scheduled to open last summer, before the Fishers location, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, construction on both locations was slowed. Last fall, the chain announced plans for opening a location in an apartment building in downtown Indianapolis. The chain has over 300 locations, 100 internationally, and consumers hope for the addition of more locations as the company expands, especially considering the high volume of customers at the Fishers location.

     “I definitely don’t think that it would be worth it to wait in the long line,” Stuber said. “It would be great if they opened more locations so the one we have isn’t so busy.”