With the proliferation of 3PD,
restaurants have faced the reality that
a growing percentage of their
operations is dedicated to carryout.
And if you facilitate carryout in the
same space you facilitate the dine-in
experience, that can create a lot of
friction.
After arriving at the restaurant, one
type of customer simply needs to pick
up and perhaps pay for food that may
already be waiting for them. The
other needs to place their order
before staff can prepare it. Delaying
delivery drivers inhibits the 3PD
customer's experience (and lowers
the quality of their food). And 3PD
drivers' presence in line can
intimidate dine-in customers from
placing orders in the first place—
some will assume the wait will be
longer than it actually is.
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D E D I C A T I N G P H Y S I C A L S P A C E T O 3 P D
Some restaurants are still white-
knuckling it through this tension,
leaving managers or individual
employees to create workarounds
and making peak hours more
challenging. But if there's enough
demand for 3PD, others have begun
dedicating counter space to 3PD
pickups or creating secondary
counters. In some cases, demand for
3PD is high enough to justify
segmented kitchens for separate
dine-in and 3PD fulfillment.
There's a tipping point where a
location's operations may need to
accommodate so much more 3PD
orders that a diner becomes a highly
inefficient location type, with empty
tables and long lines at pickup
counters.
2024 Calculating Carry Out: How Restaurants Are Responding to 3PD
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