I've noticed a trend where restaurants are now reserving all their best parking for Uber Eats and other drivers who are picking up food for people who don't want to leave their house. Add to this the fact that at any given time, 95% of restaurant staff in many places are focused on serving drive thru customers and you have to wonder if dine-out only restaurants are on the horizon. In fact, a local Chinese restaurant the wife and I like to grab a bite has done just that. And when you consider how pick up orders are becoming more popular with grocery stores and Walmart, the same argument might be made with those markets.

Is this where society is really headed?

Yes it is. I'm glad those services exist for people who need them, but 90% are just lazy.

"Dine-out only on the horizon".

Where have you been since Covid/2020? Chicken Express in Lubbock had their lobbies closed for nearly three years. Taco Bell in Sweetwater just built a brand new building, only to be drive-thru only for the first 6 months. Many places are already (or have been) effectively dine-out for quite some time.

Also, Dominos was dine out for the first 30-35 years of their existence, and many locations (Little Caesars, too) are still dine-out only.

We've been headed here for a LONG time; technology has only made it easier.

We do not go out to eat unless it's on a trip.

Eating out has become expensive and having to sit next to the great unwashed masses is not our idea of fun when dining.

Might as well. When they do go out, they wear sweat pants and spend the entire time on their phone.

Haha, that's the truth!

Looking at this from the standpoint of a restaurant owner, I can see how it is beneficial. No wait staff to have to try to retain, and not paying the nonexistent wait staff helps the bottom line. You're still producing a product and people are still buying it, and you lowered your expenses.

Yes, these specialty restaurants have been offering take-out orders for years. But what we're seeing now are more of the restaurants with full menus, places like Chili's, Outback, and others who are expanding their focus on those who prefer to stay near their couch. It just seems bass ackwards to send a message to your customers that those sitting at home are more important than the ones who actually visit and spend time in your place of business.

^^^Nailed it ^^^

I wonder if some of the shift is the fact that the traditional "fast-food" restaurant's have gotten so expensive, you can now order take-out from normal sit down restaurant's for just about the same price. So why settle for McDonalds or Whataburger when you can get Outback, Texas Road House, iHop or Chinese for a couple of bucks more. I know when we travel for kids sports, all of the various restaurant's are roughly the same price when you order from Uber Eats. If anything, the normal fast-food places are even more expensive.

But you're willing to have some member of the unwashed masses pick up your food, put it in the filthy seat of their filthy car, then carry it with no one watching before delivering it your door?

No thanks. It's expensive enough going to the grocery store.

never could understand how someone would trust anyone to deliver their food unmolested. Just cannot do it!

The bags are sealed at the vendor before the delivery person picks them up. If the seal is broken, you raise cane with all parties.

You've never had pizza delivered? Same fear there. Also, ever eaten out? Server could easily spit in your mashed taters and stir it in.

But you do trust everyone at the grocery store and the hundreds or thousands of people who handled foods before you bought them there?

We do a lot more take-out since covid for sure. While we do cook most nights, we also have a few regular places in town to grab and go that used to be nights we'd dine out instead. I generally don't like sitting in loud and crowded restaurants anyway, so the move in this direction doesn't bother me much. In fact, places offering take-out service more than they used to works better for me. Wouldn't bother me in the least if all these national chains went to take out only. The market will sort itself out.

A friends restaurant lost some sales but the profit went up. Didn't want to open the seating. Alot fewer headaches.

We do not order food to go nor do we order food to be delivered.

We eat a lot more home cooked meals now. A little more work for me because I’m the cook, but it taste better and saves a lot of money.

I try to keep the odds as low as I can.
No, never eatin delivered pizza

Like I replied before, I try to keep the odds down.

Food delivery gal banged on our door this evening, looking for 712 address. Our # is 704, it’s big numbers on the mailbox.

Why ae you surpised?

I noticed yesterday while having lunch with my hunting partner that Gringo's has all their pick-up order parking some distance from the restaurant, leaving all the closest parking for their dine-in customers.

As it should be.