We are NOT in eating recession

Image via Wikipedia

Just read this article, submitted by Jeffrey Summers via Twitter, that concurs with our own experience on Takeout-Online.com, which in essence indicates that people are still busy, they still need to eat, they still don't have time (or don't want) to cook and therefore ordering takeout is as popular, even though recession is all around.

I'm sure the impact is there and there are restaurants that are hurting and going out of business, but, at least at this point, it's a minority. We haven't had a single restaurant on Takeout Online go out of business in recent past and haven't heard from anyone that they would be, although some have indicated that the business has dropped a bit, for some.

Geographic location and local economies are certainly a big part of this mix as well, but as the article points out - people are ordering takeout, which is still something that every restaurant should offer, with the convenience of online ordering of course :)

Economy Tanking but People ARE Eating Takeout

Looking at the only orders, an interesting development.  Seems like online takeout orders dropped when the whole economic woes news broke out, which was expected and not surprising to see.  However, as time progressed and more and more bad news is coming out, without visible end (at least so far) in sight... and yet the orders have picked up and continue to come in at a decent clip.

Anyone else noticed a similar effect?  No question that some restaurants are going out of business and clearly times are worse, but perhaps the fact that people still need to eat and still want the convenience of online ordering (i.e. don't want to cook, but do want to eat at home) explains it somewhat.

Thoughts anyone?

Automated Gratuity or How I Learned to Eat at Home

No, I'm not giving up on Takeout one bit, but this morning was an interesting and new experience for me. My wife & I wanted to order some crepes for breakfast and in the little town where we reside - there aren't that many places to go for breakfast. So, there's this one place, which is unbelievably popular, although mostly that's due to them being the only prominent place in the entire town and their food is decent, not phenomenal but decent.

One thing about that place is that it's somewhat overpriced, but again, considering their monopoly in town - it's not that surprising. So, I called them to order something to go, figured by the time I get there they should be done with it... you know how that works...

To my surprise the lady on the phone told me that the price would include gratuity of 15%. I agreed, not really thinking about it much and went on my way.

On the way I started analyzing that conversation and got totally turned off by the concept. After all - isn't gratuity suppose to be something you voluntarily provide & is strictly based on the quality of service delivered? Certain there are plenty of better restaurants that inform you right on their menus that they'll charge something automatically for handling larger parties of people, which is totally understandable, although I certainly would call something else rather than what typical tips are for. But to have a place force a gratuity on me, when I placed a phone-based order (yes, these people are obviously not on the ball in the online ordering department either, although they could certainly benefit from one based on what I've seen... just haven't evolved to Takeout Online yet) for 2 people - now driving I thought it was totally outrageous.

So, what did I do once I got to the restaurant... well, I went back to my typical thinking of 'nobody forced me to place that order', so I just paid and left, but I did want to make this entry on it. I hope what The Original House of Pancakes did isn't the norm to come. It's wrong and there's no need to redefine the word 'gratuity', which dictionary.com describes as:

1.	a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop; tip.

2.	something given without claim or demand.

Would I order from them again because of this little situation, which cost me a measly $1.50 extra? In a word - NO!

After slaving at a restaurant for 7 months in my youth - I certainly know and appreciate the concept of tips, but I'm totally opposed to turning it into revenue generator, and I will not give my business to anyone who misuses the concept.

Philosophically speaking, it's rather amazing how such an inconsequential amount of money can cost a customer, permanently no less. But it does and restaurants should consider such moves carefully. In the end I think they'll become losers, not winners, even when they're the only game in town.

P.S. Btw, my father-in-law makes better crepes, so I'll be fine... :)

Would you order takeout from your cell phone?

According to the latest statistics - 29% of takeout orders are being placed via cell phones. Considering how prolific cell phone use is in today's society - it's not that surprising. With more and more phones being connected to the Internet - the question I have - would these same 29% or more place their takeout order using online ordering, instead of calling via voice?

Of course using cell phones for web is cumbersome at best, at least on most of them, including the Jesus phone (sorry, Apple). It's simply impossible to replicate the big screen environment on a dinky screen. People aren't buying bigger and bigger monitors for their computers because they'd like to consume more desk space - they want to see more, in an easier to see size... in other words bigger is better. Clearly there are some that go against the tide, but nobody's ditching their 22" monitors for any kind of cell phone, when it comes to web-based computing.

So, back to cell phones. Now that we've established that scrolling through potentially large menus is painful enough on the big screen - cell phone would make the experience rival torture, to put it mildly. So, in your opinion, what would make it simple enough to use on cell phone for you to use it for ordering takeout?

One possibility would be for you to be able to preserve your online orders and assign them a number. Each order would have a unique number. Then you could text this number to the appropriate destination and presto - your order is magically submitted with all details, payment info etc., just as you did in the past. Would that be simple enough? Would you use it if it was that simple? Other ideas? - Certainly welcome your thoughts on the subject.