Takeout saves money
The trend is towards restaurants in your own four walls
By Jannik Tillar
November 18, 2023, 2:31 p.m
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More and more people want takeaway food. This is good for restaurant operators and good for customers. Some save space and personnel costs – while prices remain constant. The others benefit from the cheaper VAT on to-go meals.
Many customers of McDonald’s, Burger King & Co. may have noticed a change recently: more and more cash registers have disappeared from the branches and more and more digital ordering terminals have been introduced. More and more seats have given way to larger waiting areas. And all of this for one reason: people’s ordering behavior has changed significantly – not just in Germany, but almost everywhere in the world.
More and more people are no longer eating their orders in the restaurant itself, but rather on the go, at home or in the office. The trend is also supported by exclusive data from market researchers at Circana, which is available to “Capital”. Circana regularly surveys 800 representative customers about what they have bought for immediate consumption. According to this, only 35 percent of visitors now eat their fast food in fast food restaurants, whereas before Corona it was 40 percent. A distinction must be made between fast-food restaurants such as kebab shops, Asian snack bars or bakeries and classic fast-food chains such as McDonald’s or Burger King – these often have large seating areas and ensure that 45 percent of customers still eat in the local branches.
Not a new trend
While the trend itself is not new, the data underlines how much Corona has accelerated the development. “Socially, a lot of things have shifted to the home,” explains Circana market researcher Jochen Pinsker. Here Germany even differs somewhat from the USA, where the trend is even more noticeable overall. While Americans are increasingly eating in their own cars or in the office, in Germany people are clearly eating within their own four walls. Consumption in the car has never been a big issue in Germany and working from home has changed ordering behavior more here than in the USA. “The office as a place of consumption has not benefited from Corona,” says Pinsker. Instead, the trend is towards one’s own four walls – also because high inflation leads to austerity measures. In restaurants there are tips and other costs for drinks that are not available at home.
This is not a disadvantage for restaurant operators – many even expressly welcome the development. Because customers eat out, they can save space and staff while at the same time keeping prices constant. In addition, only seven percent VAT is charged on to-go meals – whereas on-site meals are (normally) 19 percent if this rate were not currently reduced.
The operators are gradually reacting to the development. The first obvious changes are digital ordering terminals in stores. These shot up especially during the Corona period, back then primarily for hygiene reasons. But Pinsker believes the terminals would probably have come even without a pandemic. For one simple reason: “People love digital ordering, especially because they can do it at their own pace.” No pressure from other customers behind you, no impatient cashiers – payment is also easier and the perceived waiting time is shorter. The digital terminals have proven their worth. And if they weren’t so expensive, they would probably be found everywhere.
Burger King seems to be reacting to the changes a little more decisively than McDonald’s. In response to a query from Capital, a Burger King spokesman explained that 200 branches were currently being redesigned – primarily with a focus on “ordering and pickup processes”. This means that the ordering area is spatially separated from the pick-up area, which optimizes the processes. For new buildings, Burger King is checking whether two drive-in lanes could be implemented.
Restaurant remains important
McDonald’s is also moving in a similar direction, although the company itself is not aware of some of the trends described. At McDonald’s, two drive-in lanes are also being installed more and more often, the delivery service is gradually being expanded and so-called pick-up zones are being set up for take-away, it is said. The interior of a branch is updated about every ten years – and is currently, above all, digitized. Nevertheless, the restaurant and the respective eating area would retain their importance, explains a spokeswoman. “We cannot confirm, for example, that we are reducing the size of the dining area overall.” Burger King also reports something similar. People there are now noticing “an adjustment in usage behavior to the pre-Corona era,” which is why the restaurant remains important.
Pinsker doesn’t want to contradict that, but points out the special position of the two large fast food chains. Compared to the larger group of fast-food restaurants – such as stand-up snack bars or kebab stalls – there is more seating here, which attracts a different clientele. But that doesn’t change the basic findings: “In principle, older customers eat more often on site. Young people, on the other hand, use Burger King or McDonald’s as a place to stay.” He is now observing that “the age group in between is eating less and less at McDonald’s or Burger King.” These are mainly young people between 18 and 40 years old.
Large megatrends are responsible for this – for example, that society has become more mobile. The fact that more women are working also plays a role – this means that more and more women have to eat on the go throughout the day. And last but not least, there is the increase in single households: the fewer people live in a household, the more often the residents eat out. These developments seem to be continuing – which is why Pinsker doesn’t see an end to the to-go hype for the time being.
The article first appeared at Capital.de