| More and more restaurants are relying on alternative | | | | served in the restaurant. |
| sources of income to help them weather the current | | | | But when you factor in all the costs most consumers |
| economic storm. Many sit-down restaurants are turning | | | | encounter just to get to your front door, it starts to |
| to delivery as a way to boost their sales. If you had | | | | make sense. Between gas, baby or dog sitting, and |
| told any restaurateur 10 years ago that they would be | | | | parking, consumers are starting to realize that paying a |
| relying on the delivery of casual and fine dining entrees | | | | little more at their front door is actually a deal. |
| to grow sales, you would probably have been laughed | | | | Another important factor has made working out the |
| at. | | | | logistics of delivering food for a traditional sit-down |
| Oh, how quickly things change. A December 2008 | | | | restaurant much, much easier: the internet. Already |
| National Restaurant Association survey revealed that | | | | two websites, and GrubHub, will take and process |
| 50% of consumers would patronize a restaurant more | | | | orders as well as pick up and deliver the food, making |
| frequently if it had delivery and/or take out options. 4 | | | | it easy for operators to add service without having to |
| out of 10 casual dining restaurants and a full third of | | | | hire or train staff. |
| fine dining establishments think delivery is going to | | | | Online ordering is a seemingly inevitable trend in the |
| become a huge trend in their niche. Those are some | | | | food service industry. As consumer expectations trend |
| pretty impressive numbers. | | | | towards food service that doesn't necessarily involve |
| Consumers have embraced the prospect of a | | | | your dining room, restaurants are going to be forced to |
| delivered meal from their favorite restaurant for | | | | develop new ways to deliver their menu. The good |
| several reasons. Most importantly it saves them the | | | | news is that these new trends shouldn't require lots of |
| two things they are short on: time and money. The | | | | new investment from restaurants. Whether you decide |
| time factor is obvious, but what may not be as | | | | to use a third party or simply hire and train your staff |
| apparent is how restaurants can be perceived as | | | | to handle outside orders and delivery, this is a trend |
| offering a deal on entrees delivered to the door. | | | | that will help you diversify sales revenue without |
| There's no way it's arriving for a better price than | | | | having to spend a lot of money. |