Hate Eating Inside Fast Food Restaurants? Research Shows You're Not Alone

I feel like I'm part of a dying breed, because I'm one of the few people who still like the experience of eating inside a fast food restaurant (Fast food does go downhill quick, after all). I've noticed that when I do scoot into a booth, even during the busiest hours of the day, most seats remain unoccupied while customers and third-party delivery drivers pop in for to-go orders. The drive-thru has never seemed more popular, at least in my neighborhood.

Turns out that I haven't been seeing things — trade publication Chain Store Age reported earlier this year that 75% of all restaurant meals are eaten off-premise now. This data came from a National Restaurant Association study focused on 2024's trend toward dining off-site, and the main driver for this was younger generations, like millennials and Gen Z. A lot of these takeout orders are fueled by the ease of mobile ordering, with drive-thru and delivery following as the other most popular ways to get food off-premise. Oh well, more whole booths for me, I guess.

This doesn't come to a surprise to me, only because we've been following this movement for a while at The Takeout. A lot of it has to do with, yes, our overall habit shift during the pandemic, when we all became accustomed to taking our food to go. I'm guessing this shaped the way young people saw routines around food, and, as they grew older, taking it to go solidified into more of a firm preference. The whole digital-heavy lifestyle thing for Gen Z is important, too, as Gen Z regularly interacts with technology to get through daily life.

That being said, it's also tempting to order using mobile apps, especially when they are full of things like discounts, rewards programs, and offers. If you're already conveniently using your phone to order, and your food's wrapped up and ready to go when you stop in to pick it up, then why bother sitting down at the restaurant to eat it? You can always go home, put on your pajamas, and catch up on TV while munching on your fried chicken. Pretty much everyone's doing it — and that's not an exaggeration. There's data to back that up.