A lot of restaurant owners these days are taking their customers delivery and pick-up orders over the internet. And a handful of our clients are no exception especially the fine folks over at Hecky's Barbecue in Evanston. But what is the attraction to online restaurant ordering? Why is it so beneficial? How does it impact the customers and in return the restaurant owners?

Well, to keep things simple, the answer is people are becoming fatter, lazier and more socially inept due to their addiction to the internet. So much in fact that they are willing to pay MORE money for their dinner if it means they never have to have any interaction with any human what-so-ever. Which comes with one slight benefit*.

The real attraction to ordering food online

Coming from a guy who is openly addicted to the internet, I love to place my restaurant orders online. I feel more secure in knowing when I order a Ceaser Salad with no chicken, I'm going to end up with a Ceaser Salad with no chicken because there is no one to mis-hear anything I say. When I place my order online it is translated into a clearly itemized fax to the restaurant. Sounds genius right? No more mis-heard orders!

*Actually no. I placed an order online for Phillies Best for a Pizza and a Ceaser Salad. Of course when it arrived, the delivery guy handed me my Pizza and a giant sub. It was really massive. I thought to myself, maybe they wrapped the salad up in foil?? Nope! Apparently, when they read "Ceaser Salad" they mistook it for Foot-long Meatball & Marinara Sub Sandwich. So that was that.

Why does online ordering make the customer pay more?

Because fancy, and by fancy I mean slightly sleazy companies like GrubHub and Order Network charge the restaurant a percentage on each order made. In turn, these percentages are passed on to the customer in the form of price hikes which are already on top of normal economic inflation. So you are really getting rammed.

How does GrubHub or Order Network Help Restaurant Owners

They entice restaurant owners to enroll in their services by basically telling them:

1. Customers do not feel rushed, they can place a larger order when they aren't yelling at someone on the phone. (They say on the Order Network website that the average online order is between 15% and 20% larger than the average phone order. (hmmmm...)
2. Fewer order errors (again, hmmmm...)
3. Ability to generate detailed sales reports
4. And more!

What they actually mean

1. Just because you can order online, people are becoming more hungry? Is this true? My theory that people are getting fatter and lazier may not be as tongue in cheek as I meant?
2. Online ordering, where a Ceaser Salad = Foot Long Meatball Sub.
3. Companies like Order Network are actually restaurateurs themselves. Why disclose your private sales records to your competitors?

Another reason why I say these companies are slightly sketchy is that a lot of the times they hire a cheap development team based in India to program their software.

Why go off-shore when there are thousands of Web Developers in Chicago who can do the job for you locally?

The verdict

So all that being said, is online ordering a sign of Laziness or Convenience? To put it cheaply, it's both. The customer won't talk to anyone and the restaurant (in some cases) won't read it correctly.
There seem to be pro's and con's at ever turn (that is unless you hire 3to1 to make your online restaurant ordering system, we can also do your TV commercials for you too).

The real winner in this case

The fax machine.

We thought you were outdated long ago but nabbing the reliance of thousands of restaurants across the country, you win with flying colors.