How the world has changed

All the latest changes in the world - quarantine, self-isolation and the economic crisis will not go unnoticed either for Russia or for the rest of the world. Business, and especially catering, is making every effort to stay afloat and minimize losses from the “coronavirus tsunami.”

And although the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on our industry turned out to be quite significant, for many it was not so destructive, and in some cases even gave impetus to development. In this article, we want to highlight the main positive trends that have emerged in the restaurant environment during the epidemic.

First of all, this concerns the large-scale development of delivery. Places that can offer delivery or pickup options are seeing a significant increase in orders. In the US, UK and Canada, online orders for pickup and delivery of prepared food continue to grow steadily, especially from fast food restaurants. There has been a noticeable surge in interest in do-it-yourself or meal kit delivery services.

Not only have there been more food orders, but the timing of them has also changed. Thus, weekdays account for 12%, with the peak occurring on Tuesday. During self-isolation and predominantly remote work, people have already gotten used to dividing the week into weekends and workdays. Therefore, on Saturday and Sunday there is no longer such a rush for delivery as was observed in the past - consumption has become more uniform.

Changed daily routines have encouraged people to order food from places they did not visit before the coronavirus outbreak. New guests spend 31% more time studying menus before deciding to order. Moreover, the majority of orders (63%) are made not online, but by phone.

Due to the fact that people spend most of their time at home, the demand not only for delivery, but also for home cooking has increased. You can observe spikes in search queries and an increase in website traffic that are comparable to Internet activity during the New Year holidays.

During the stressful period of a pandemic, it is extremely important, no matter how trivial it may sound, not to focus exclusively on negative events. This has been a difficult time for the restaurant industry, but it is during difficult times that the most important and significant changes occur.