While many restaurants are doing everything in their power to boost their digital sales, some are staying out of the digital race altogether.
By the Numbers
The 2022 edition of PYMNTS’ Restaurant Readiness Index, created in collaboration with Paytronix, drew from a survey of more than 500 managers of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and full-service restaurants (FSRs) across the country. It found that 21% of restaurants generate 0% of their sales through digital channels.
Read more: More Than Half of Restaurants Depend on Digital Sales, Despite Uptick in On-Premises Orders
The Data in Action
Some restaurants find that, when on-premise demand is high enough, digital can be more of a distraction than an advantage. For instance, in an interview with PYMNTS, Jarred Drown, owner and general manager at Lake Michigan’s Terrace Bay Hotel, said that the hotel’s restaurant, Freshwater Tavern, decided to “completely ditch the to-go stuff” to satisfy dine-in demand when its on-premise business returned.
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He recalled that, where in pre-pandemic times the restaurant may have had 10 off-premise meals to prepare, that demand increased in recent years to “sometimes 50, 70 meals.”
“Meanwhile you have 150 to 200 people trying to sit down at your restaurant, and you’re giving mediocre service to them,” he said. “You’ve got to know who you are and who you want to be.”
