Consumer Perceptions of Restaurant Delivery Fees
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As a substantial number of restaurants have implemented pickup and delivery as a large part of their business, restaurant operators must consider customers’ reactions to the structure of pickup and delivery charges. To assist restaurateurs with this matter, the findings of a survey of 329 U.S. residents who ordered using pickup or delivery are presented here. In general, the respondents were willing to pay delivery charges that they considered fair, notably, flat fees and distance-based fees. Hefty minimum-order requirements were not well received, but respondents were willing to pay higher prices for delivery than for pickup, provided that the lower pickup charges were framed as a discount (rather than seeing delivery as a premium cost). One intriguing outcome was that respondents who were reminded that delivery was expensive for the restaurant were more willing to use the restaurant’s delivery system, rather than have the restaurant use a delivery service provider (with its attendant commission charges).