During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans’ eating habits changed dramatically. Fewer people were able to go out to restaurants, more people cooked at home and went to grocery stores and there were certainly more of us ordering takeout or delivery. What habits from that time have stuck, and are they with us for good?

To answer those questions, we spoke with Jean Chick, a principal at Deloitte and U.S. restaurant and food service leader for the consulting firm, which is out with a new “Future of Restaurants” report. Chick spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour about the findings and the following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: On the one hand, there was this rush back to restaurants. But on the other hand, inflation has made it a lot more expensive to eat out. So how does all that net out? Has restaurant dining returned to pre-pandemic levels?

Jean Chick: Fifty-five percent of our survey respondents reported that they dine in restaurants with either equal or greater frequency than they did before the pandemic, and more than two-thirds of the consumers that order food for takeout or delivery, they’re doing that at the same rate, or more frequently, than pre-pandemic.

Ben-Achour: Speaking of how we order our food, what do you think is the most enduring change in the technology of how we eat?

Chick: I think the most enduring change is the digital customer experience. What we’re seeing more is that consumers are really preferring to order through the restaurants’ app or websites. We saw 40% of our survey respondents wanted to order directly from the restaurant’s app, and only 13% of customers who use third-party apps would prefer to use third-party apps. So we’re seeing a push back to being connected to the brand or the restaurant.

Ben-Achour: You also note in the report that there’s a preference among a lot of consumers for automation. What kind of automation are we talking about here?

Chick: Where I’ve seen it the most, and across the industry, is really the automated beverage stations, automated fryer, some sort of automated, cashless cashier kiosk system. But really what’s going to happen in the next 10 years of automation is figuring out how to prepare more food solving the labor shortage with more robotics. More automation of actually cooking the main part of the meal, as opposed to beverages and french fries, for example.

Ben-Achour: So back during the pandemic, when we had people wanting to order from restaurants, but restaurants didn’t have a physical place to have them come eat there, we got “ghost kitchens,” these sort of restaurants that have no place for consumers to go or eat. They just make the stuff to deliver. Is that still a thing? Are we seeing more of that?

Chick: We’re definitely seeing more of that. We’ve seen more than half of consumers indicate that they would order from ghost kitchen. And so ghost kitchens are cheaper for the restauranteur. They can also share that space with another restaurant brand. So we’re seeing an increase in ghost kitchens, and an increase in acceptability across the consumer base in ghost kitchens. They just want the food, they want it at a high quality, at a cheaper price. And if those restaurants can pass on value to those consumers, they’re all for ghost kitchens.

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