Food delivery apps have changed the way many people interact with restaurants.

Dave Faries here, pointing out that the dollar figures related to the food delivery market are staggering.

There are a lot of numbers. How about $90 billion, an estimate on the global spending on third-party delivery from restaurants by the year 2030. Measure that against $150 billion, the rounded value of food and drink deliveries back in 2021, when the service had already expanded to include groceries, alcohol and other items.

I must admit that I have not contributed to this phenomenon. Personal time is at a premium. And by that I mean moments not only without demands from work, but also without electronic interference. Scrolling, triggering a few tabs, picking up a bag dropped at the door and dining with further distraction just seems to add to the pressured pace.

So I prefer to go out, sit at a restaurant table. It’s far more relaxed—and less expensive, for that matter.

As I learned while reporting for this week’s cover story, however, I am becoming part of a minority. People are willing to pay for the convenience of ordering food and other items through a third-party app. And this impersonal practice is changing the way people interact with restaurants, as well as the way dining establishments operate.

There are pros and cons to this transition, which you can read about here. 

While the cover story touches on how restaurant owners respond to this new dining world, it was an incident witnessed by the Weekly’s photographer, Daniel Dreifuss, that first drew our interest. As he waited for his sandwich order at Togo’s in Seaside, a driver came in and picked up a delivery order. After he left, another driver appeared at the counter, looking for the same order.

Someone—the first driver would be a good assumption—was treated to a free lunch.

My only experience with third-party food delivery was not a positive one. The order looked as if it had been under a heat lamp for quite some time then tossed around carelessly. Even the potato skins had been rendered inedible.

How can anyone destroy potato skins?

I will note that I neither placed nor paid for the order. And so I find a growing number of people heading off in one direction while I remain—left behind to throw an hour or two in a restaurant dining room, taking my time.

And I’m fine with that.