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The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

bfi.uchicago.edu

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Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#101

Post by mlsu »

colonial wrote: post #65
alwa wrote: post #36

How much of this is the COVID-correlated normalization of delivery apps [0]? Anecdotally I do sometimes notice people eating quickly or taking out, but what I really notice is the nonstop flurry of app delivery folks darting in and out of the pickup area... Seems consistent with the study's observations, too: > As a result, we think the growth in take-out or delivery is the primary driver of the jump in short visits.…

What I'd like to know are the demographics of the people using the delivery apps. Everyone I know refuses to touch them due to the massive extra costs piled on top, but whenever I swing by somewhere in-person to get takeout, I have the same experience as you - there's always at least a few bags on the "Doordash shelf" or equivalent. Who's burning all this money?!

There is a sizeable and growing group of people who legitimately do not know how to cook a meal for themselves. They actually go a to a restaurant for every meal, kitchen is unused basically.

Eat at corporate cafeteria for lunch, doordash or get takeout for dinner. Premade salads and microwave prep meals is "cooking." Every meal.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#102

Post by csomar »

Productivity here is sales per employee. That's why productivity has "shot up" during the pandemic. "Productivity" remained high because you can look page 20 where people no longer stay at the restaurant and just order food online or food to go.

tl;dr: restaurants are becoming shittier and people are just grabbing food. that makes it possible for the restaurant to maximize his sales/head count. There is no real "productivity" gain here. You removed parts of the usual service, put more load on your employees and still charge high prices.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#103

Post by BrenBarn »

colonial wrote: post #65
alwa wrote: post #36

How much of this is the COVID-correlated normalization of delivery apps [0]? Anecdotally I do sometimes notice people eating quickly or taking out, but what I really notice is the nonstop flurry of app delivery folks darting in and out of the pickup area... Seems consistent with the study's observations, too: > As a result, we think the growth in take-out or delivery is the primary driver of the jump in short visits.…

What I'd like to know are the demographics of the people using the delivery apps. Everyone I know refuses to touch them due to the massive extra costs piled on top, but whenever I swing by somewhere in-person to get takeout, I have the same experience as you - there's always at least a few bags on the "Doordash shelf" or equivalent. Who's burning all this money?!

I think tons of people do it. I have a cousin who moved to my town for a couple years around 2021-2023 and ordered delivery all the time. I have a friend in London who does it multiple times per week. I see a lot of food delivery happening in college-student neighborhoods. I think a sizable segment of the population has just gotten desensitized to the cost of it because they've come to see it as the "normal" cost.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#104

Post by andrepd »

j_timberlake wrote: post #82
6stringmerc wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because drones are noisy and irritating in reality and nobody wants them flying around their neighborhood and they don’t scale and they can potentially scare animals and and and…

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, because it sounds almost exactly like how a horse rider would have described new-fangled automobiles.

Well were their wrong? Car-centric development has been an absolute disaster in dozens of different ways.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#105

Post by lxgr »

harrall wrote: post #86

People got out of their comfort zone during COVID and tried new things. Campgrounds got packed, people got into skateboarding… if you look at statistics, you’ll see a 2020-ish bump for many interests and an associated sudden growth in revenue. But the question is how long it will last… Some outdoor brands that expanded with new stores post-pandemic discovered that many people who tried camping/surfing/etc. only had a…

> Tech companies that hired during the pandemic found out a lot of people who tried online meetings/online work only did it because they had to and stopped as soon as they could and these companies had to lay off staff.

Quite the opposite: Many (US) companies are still figuring out how to get their office employees to actually start coming to physical offices again.

There seem to have been more lasting pandemic-caused changes of habits in the US than in many other countries, which I also find quite surprising. Maybe people were already more tired of dining out and office work there than in the rest of the world, and that's why the changes in behavior are more sticky?

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#106

Post by lxgr »

ekianjo wrote: post #98
khazhoux wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the move away from cash coincided with COVID but was not related much. The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly).

> The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly). Useless? Wait until your digital transactions fail or your bank or your state decides to block your access to your payment system. And believe me, it's not a "if", this is a real threat that will be waged against people. When it's technically possible, it always ends up becoming a reality. And by that time, "going back to cash" may not be an option in ce…

That's arguably already the reality in the US to some extent. Many people I know don't even carry enough cash to pay for a single meal, unless they know they'll be going to a cash only place.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#107

Post by lxgr »

Animats wrote: post #91

"The restaurants’ productivity growth rates are strongly correlated, however, with reductions in the amount of time their customers spend in the establishments, particularly with a rising share of customers spending 10 minutes or less. The frequency of such ‘take-out’ customers rose considerably during COVID, even at fast food restaurants, and never went back down." Well, duh. I feel I'm in the way eating in a restau…

I hate places like that, and I especially hate still being asked to tip 18 (or often 20) to 25 percent when I effectively did everything myself, including picking up my order (often in plastic containers, for my daily dose of microplastics and other funs tuff), getting water, and clearing my table.

Fortunately that's still the exception rather than the norm where I live, but I try to actively avoid such experiences.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#108

Post by lotsofpulp »

brewdad wrote: post #92
tayo42 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating out seems less popular in the the US right now. Everything is more expensive and there's the 18-25% tip that gets applied. Going out to even a basic lunch with my wife is close to 50 usually for the meal. Takeout I can tip the delivery person a little less. And keep left overs a little easier. Take out is only for being lazy, I'd still just cook and meet or beat in quality any restaurant except ones that mignt…

Pre COVID, takeout meant not tipping at all. We should probably shift back towards that world.

Post Covid, takeout also means no tipping. Just because someone programs a prompt doesn’t mean it needs to be answered in the affirmative.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#109

Post by chii »

ekianjo wrote: post #94
6stringmerc wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because drones are noisy and irritating in reality and nobody wants them flying around their neighborhood and they don’t scale and they can potentially scare animals and and and…

I can relate with most of what you said, but "drones don't scale", really? If they can scale in war, I can't see why they would not scale for other uses

in war, they do not need to care about collateral damage.

I sure hope that my neighbour's drone delivery doesn't produce collateral damage if it flew near my property. Otherwise, i will have to shoot down the drone.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#110

Post by chii »

andrepd wrote: post #104
j_timberlake wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, because it sounds almost exactly like how a horse rider would have described new-fangled automobiles.

Well were their wrong? Car-centric development has been an absolute disaster in dozens of different ways.

those disasters were externalities, which i dont disagree is disheartening, but the personal freedoms and transportation capability given by the personal automobile is worth it. Public transport, even good ones, does not provide this level of comfort and freedom.
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