Earlier this week, Megan and I decided that we were going to pick up lunch from a local Chinese restaurant on Thursday (today). We don’t always plan ahead for restaurant meals, but it aligned with another errand. We even picked what we’re going to order a few days in advance.
Here’s my question: Wouldn’t the restaurant benefit from a heads up that we planned to order from them today?
As I wrote in a recent related post, “There’s one particular element of restaurants that has amazed me ever since I worked as a server years ago: How do they know the quantity of ingredients to order from suppliers so they’re not wasting tremendous amounts of food every week?” I went on to mention that 30-40% of the US food supply is wasted.
If a restaurant knew in advance from some customers that they were planning to order on a certain day, it could potentially impact their ingredient ordering practices. That information could also impact staffing and food prep procedures.
Yes, some restaurants accept reservations, and that already may be part of the solution for some restaurants. I don’t know about you, though, but most of the restaurants I go to–even before the pandemic–are not reservation-style restaurants.
So here’s my proposal: An app on which you can give a restaurant a heads up that you’re planning to order from them at a certain day/time (and even what you’re thinking about ordering). It isn’t a commitment; it’s just a heads up.
In fact, this could be integrated into any of the existing food-ordering apps like Toast, especially since they already maintain restaurant menus. Just add a “heads up” option on the apps. I’m sure it’s way more complicated than that, but I figure restaurants would rather see new features on apps they already integrate with rather than needing to add a new app on top of it.
But maybe my restaurant-ordering practices are a rarity. Are yours similar? Do you generally have a rough idea a few days in advance if you’re going to order food and where you’re going to order from, or is it always a spontaneous decision?
Quite an interesting thought! Some food-ordering apps we use in Europe do allow you to book your order for pickup for the next day(s), but it’s so unusual that restaurants don’t usually handle it very well yet.
On the other hand, I can think of a few places here in Spain where they’ll ask you for your central choice beforehand when making the reservation. That is especially the case when ordering very fresh/seasonal products they need to get from their distributors on the same day you’ll be eating them.
Also, something I’ve noticed in the last few years is how popular 0-waste apps (e.g. Too Good To Go) are starting to get in here. I can find more and more restaurants/shops offering their products in these, and I think that’s a great mindset switch. How is it back in the US in this respect?
That’s neat that some restaurants ask you to start thinking about your order (and sharing it with them) in advance–I like that.
We do have those apps here in the US, but only in the biggest cities so far. That was the topic I wrote about recently here: https://jameystegmaier.com/2021/05/can-this-app-solve-the-restaurant-food-waste-problem/