Restaurants and Uber Eats (or similar) observation

Took my son to a local place last night. Wasn’t full, but was busy enough. 10-12 tops, seating for 40. Typical strip mall establishment.

My seat had a view of the counter at the hostess station.

Ratio of meal pickups by people driving meals to butts in seats was 2:1.

I asked the server if carryout was normally this busy. The answer was yes and it’s the bulk of their volume.

Is this common? If it is, why not simply do just that? No chairs, liquor license, open space to heat cool or rent. Fewer staff etc.?

Anyone know of a business model specific to providing their offerings specifically via delivery? I can see a big kitchen serving up all types of food under different names and styles/genres.

We have a local salad place that is by delivery only. I haven’t tried them yet. I think it’s difficult to start up and get name recognition. But I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this business model soon.
https://badasssalads.menufy.com/

We looked at Uber eats for the first time ever last night. Came to the conclusion we were better than that and grilled a steak.

George

David Chang tried it in nyc(Ando). It didn’t last. I ordered it a few times, it was too David Chang-y (ie so salty and heavy) so was bad for office lunch.

There are a number of places in Chicago. Many have been around for a while. mostly Asian that I’ve seen. I understand there are a couple more commissary kitchens planned, where they will prepare meals for a number of different “restaurants”.

David. Commissary is the way my mind was working

Same firm can own 7 brands. American, TexMex, Pizza,Italian, Chinese, etc

I think the power of an UE or Grubhub etc will likely see this happen.

I’m using UE more simply because I can. Offerings expand daily it seems. And the brand or names tend to be unfamiliar to me as they are located in areas I don’t pass or near stores I don’t frequent. I think brand matters, but I wonder if there is more exposure this way than by visual awareness?

Chuck E. Cheese canned Uber Eats participation, because parents would have no opportunity to meet up for the trademark drunken brawls.

Chris. What part of restaurant delivery business model are you interested?

Saul, if a restaurant can survive by not actually paying for seats and rely on delivery I guess I’d be interested in owning a facility capable of putting out multiple food types (genres if you will).

catering? Blue Apron and similar . . .

I live in a university town and food delivery is very, very popular and I am sure accounts for a significant amount of business here. There are many choices as far as cuisine and a couple of different delivery companies.

JD

I’ll never understand take out, unless it’s Chinese of course. I don’t like cold food and reheating is never the same. Just cooks it more. There’s quite a social disconnect these days. People living their lives through their cell phones don’t have face to face communication skills. It’s unhealthy.

Agreed. I sell carry-out, but am utterly loathe to eat it.

Are you posting via phone or computer?

A bit of a stretch here ? Due to time constraints not so easy to always cook during the week. Not sure of the correlation between bringing home some take-out (and agree some things don’t transport well) and cell phone usage (calling in an order or placing an order online ?) Bringing in dinner (besides saving on cost vs eating in a restaurant) allows for more face to face time at home and conversation vs time spent preparing, cooking, cleaning , etc.

Send some business my way.

I don’t think it’s a stretch. 2/3 of the dining population (as far as this restaurant is concerned) too busy to stop and eat? You have to stop and eat at home, after reheating the food and then you have to clean the dishes as well. Not much of a time saving maneuver if you ask me. My wife and I both work but we have home cooked meals every evening. If I’m going to pay someone else to cook for me they’re doing my dishes too.

I wasn’t clear . I was referring to the social/phone issue . Don’t see the correlation regarding takeout.

And we don’t ever have to reheat the food before eating it (we live in a highly dense suburb of NYC so food places are close by) We have 2 kids, and our commute is minimum of 45 minutes . We’re ok bringing in food a couple of times a week. And cooking too. To each, their own.

When one lives on social media they have no time to do anything for themselves. Like cook, shop, meet new people… oh, there’s an app for that.