…According to Fast Company, all of those late-night Postmates orders and hungover Grubhub deliveries add up to a $13-billion-dollar industry, one that is projected to become a $365 billion business within the next decade. Restaurants that want their own menus to become options on even one of those apps are currently trying to figure out how to make that work. And, in some cases, all that requires is trading a few tables and chairs for a shelving unit or two.
The problem that a lot of restaurants—from global chains to local faves—currently have is that neither their kitchens nor their lobbies are designed to accommodate couriers who are waiting beside customers, or they don’t have the space to stack more than a couple of to-go orders at a time. The result can be exactly what Taylor is afraid of: tepid deliveries and disappointed customers, who may opt out of both eating in and ordering takeout in the future.
But these joints are trying to adapt to an increase in delivery app-orders on the fly—and one of the simplest solutions is proving to be one of the most useful. Chipotle tested a set of wooden shelves in one New York location, which meant that take-out customers and couriers could just walk in, grab their food, and walk out. Everyone loved not having to wait in line, and it shaved valuable minutes from its delivery times. As a result, Fast Company explains, within six months of that test, some 1,000 of Chipotle’s US locations were given their own set of wooden shelves.