This week saw thousands of takeaway food delivery drivers take industrial action on one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants with a Valentine's Day strike over pay and working conditions.
Such action wouldn't be making national headlines were food delivery services not such big business within Britain's the food and hospitality sector.
Today, GB TGI data shows that almost a third of all adults (16.7 million people) claim to order fast food for delivery once a month or more. Meanwhile, four million people (8% of all adults) are getting food delivered at least once a week.
During the peak of the pandemic, with restaurants closed, usage of fast food delivery services spiked. Although this has since dropped post-Covid it is notable that the figure remains higher than before.
These more frequent fast food delivery service users – those ordering once a week or more – are also particularly likely to spend big on their order. 20% of them claim to typically spend at least £20 per person on a takeaway, compared to 17% of those who use such services once a month or more.
Regular usage of fast food delivery services is more entrenched in Britain than in other western European markets. In France and Spain, for example, just 1-2% adults claim to use these services weekly.
In Britain, Just Eat is the most popular claimed fast food delivery service, with two-thirds of those who order food for delivery once a week or more saying they use it for delivery, followed by Uber Eats (50%) and Deliveroo (36%).
When it comes to efficiently engaging these regular fast food delivery service users, TGI reveals they are particularly likely to engage with gaming compared to the average user of takeaway and fast food services, as well as social media and cinema.
Indeed, TGI shows that this group are over three times more likely than the average takeaway/fast food service user to claim they order food whilst gaming – 9% of them (380,000) claim to do so. In addition, 5% of them claim to shop online whilst gaming and 4% claim to watch others play games e.g. Twitch, whilst gaming.
