Operations

Carry-out losing traction thanks to delivery, drive-thru options

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May 13, 2022

More restaurant customers than ever are visiting the drive-thru and using delivery services compared to carrying out food orders.

The big reason, according to The NPD Group, is convenience. Carry-out orders were lagging even before the pandemic and that trend accelerated during the two years of COVID-19, according to a press release on research group's findings.

"Several factors have encouraged consumers to move away from ordering carry out. The convenience of drive-thrus, delivery and mobile ordering, in addition to dining room closures, have influenced consumers' willingness to get out of their car, walk into a restaurant and order to go," David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America, said in the release. "Convenience rules and the more convenient options will win."

From February 2020 through February 2022, digital and non-digital carry-out restaurant orders declined by 2%, while delivery increased by 116%, and drive-thru grew by 20%.

Digital ordering, which grew by 117% in the two years, contributed to the delivery and drive-thru growth. Although digital carry-out orders doubled through the pandemic, these gains were offset by a double-digit decline in non-digital pickup orders that account for the bulk of pickup orders.

In the year ending February 2022, 76% of carry-out were non-digital orders, and these orders declined by 16% compared to the prior year. Non-digital drive-thru orders increased by 20% in the same period, and non-digital delivery, which represents 25% of delivery orders, increased by 25%.