A new report says cost and convenience influence their decision. PYMNTS surveyed 2,168 U.S. consumers for its new report, Connected Dining: Rising Costs Push Consumers Toward Pickup. The payments industry-focused media company asked respondents about their restaurant dining habits, whether rising costs have changed how frequently they ordered out, and whether they preferred pickup over delivery.

According to the PYMNTS' report, high prices have led most consumers to trade convenience for cost. 

• 80% of consumers choose to pick up their meals.
• 58% of take-out customers say they pick up their meals to save on delivery costs 
• 42% of restaurant customers opt for pickup so they won't have to tip the delivery person
• Just 9.5% opt to have their meals delivered.

There's no denying that two years of high inflation have left consumers struggling with high prices at their favorite restaurants. Prices are up 8% over the past year as restaurant operators tried to offset their own cost increases for wages and food.

The study found that the change from delivery to pickup as a way to cut costs was consistent across all income levels and age groups.

However, these diners also told PYMNTS they would be open to changing their preference if offered the right incentive.

• A 5% discount could convince 50% of consumers to switch from pickup to delivery.

• 55% said they would consider changing to delivery if a restaurant offered a set time for delivery and a discount if their meal was late.

• 49% of consumers said they would be more likely to pick up their meal if they received a gift card they could apply to their next order.

• 37% said they would have their order delivered if offered a gift card with each delivery. 

How are the delivery services reacting to the slowdown?

Last May, a special promotion in New York City offered users ordering through Grubhub a "free lunch," actually a $15 voucher toward their purchase. Two hundred thousand diners downloaded Grubhub's app for the first time. Grubhub also processed over 400,000 orders that day. The promotion resulted in as many as 6,000 orders per minute. The number of orders placed crashed the company's system. 

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