How Restaurants with Delivery and Drive-Thru Options are Pulling Ahead in Revenue During COVID-19

Managing Director of CapitalSpring’s Strategic Operations Group, Jim Balis, spoke with CNBC.com to discuss how restaurants offering delivery and drive-thru options are managing to stay ahead despite dining room closures.

“What we are seeing here is a clear migration from customers dining in restaurants to customers primarily using off-premise service,” Balis told the publication. “We’re seeing more people using drive-thrus and ordering delivery, so businesses that have those available as revenue channels are performing a little bit better than those that only have dine-in.”

Balis does not foresee the United States shutting down restaurant services. “We don’t believe the government is going to completely shut down restaurant business,” he said. “In some ways, restaurant food is safer than what customers make at home because we take so many precautions around safety and sanitation.”

According to Balis, casual dining restaurants are positioned to suffer the most unless they can migrate to more off-premise business.