Delivery Is the Hot Topic, but Curbside Is Driving the Sales 

Ever since the pandemic began, the restaurant industry has been in a sustained state of pivot. Many have started offering their menus on third-party delivery websites. Some have white-labeled those same delivery services for integration within their organizations, and others have built out programs for pick up or delivery entirely in house. Delivery, digital ordering and the digital tools associated are at the heart of many discussions in the industry. Looking at the data proves much of what we already know. Yes, dine in numbers are way down (only 27 percent of patrons have dined in since COVID-19 began, per sense360). And yes, delivery is up (54 percent of people have utilized some form of restaurant delivery option). 

However, an important and perhaps somewhat surprising segment of the current restaurant mix is soaring: curbside pickup. 

In fact, almost half of the surveyed customers – 46 and 42 percent respectively – had utilized curbside or carry out during the earlier…